On Mar 15 2005, 23:01, Ethan Dicks wrote:
> I have never used an RQDX3 except in a BA23 or BA123, but the schemes
> I've seen described in this thread to manufacture a direct
RQDX3->hard
> drive should all work. If you can lay your hands on a BA23, however,
> that would greatly simplify things, as you would have the
distribution
> wiring included, as well as a write protect switch and activity light
> (for one drive, at least... there's an uncommon BA23 front panel that
> _can_ support two hard drives and no floppies, or one can make some
> hardware mods... apologies if this is confusing... ignore it if you
> plan to use only one hard drive, and just know that it will work fine
> in a standard BA23).
It's certainly easier and likely neater to use the real thing, if you
have it. But if you want to "roll your" own, I already published my
distribution board layout and the RQDXn pinout, and later today I'll
put the M9058 RQDX distribution board layout and circuit, and the
circuit diagram for the Write-Protect/Ready switch panel up as well.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
On Mar 15 2005, 16:16, Eric Smith wrote:
> Peter wrote:
> > RT-11 V.5.x will recognise an RQDX controller and
> > drive, but it needs to be V.5.03 or higher for an RQDX3 (earlier
> > version of V5 have a bug that causes it to fail to initialise RQDX3
> > controllers properly -- though I wrote a patch if you need it).
>
> Does the bug affect any other MSCP controllers? I'd be interested in
> looking at the patch to see what the RQDX3 does differently than
other
> MSCP controllers.
It might. Basically the bug is that the driver assumes the SA register
is zero, except during initialisation (when it returns various data in
confirmation of the initialisation process, and one of four flag bits
indicating which step it is performing) or in case of an error (when
bit 15 is set). That's fine for an RQDX1 or RQDX2, but not for an
RQDX3. On an RQDX3, SA will usually be found to contain a copy of the
interrupt vector as well as the above flags/data. The MSCP docs don't
actually say it should be zero other than the flag bits, just what
certain flag bits mean.
At certain points in the code, the SA register is checked to see if bit
15 is set (the error flag). However, the V5.01 code uses BNE, which of
course branches if *any* bit is set, instead of BMI, which checks only
bit 15.
Here's my original (1994) patch, a file called DU.COR to patch DU.MAC:
\
-23
;
; Added (commented) fixes in 4 places, to use with RQDX3.
; Fixes concern use</interpretation of SA register.
-561,563
; BEQ DISPAT ; OK if RQDX1 or RQDX2 running
; BIT #ISTEP4,R5 ; see if doing</done last step in init
seq
; BNE DISPAT ; OK if so - go to function dispatch
bit #104000,R5 ; error ? or (externally-triggered)
reset ?
beq dispat ; dispatch function if not, INIT if
either set
-634,634
; BNE INIT ; old code for RQDX 1 or 2
bit #170000,r5 ; see if in init sequence or error
bne init ; yes if any set
-846,846
; BNE 4$ ; for RQDX3, check error with BMI...
bmi 4$ ; not BNE... could have vector as well
as flag
-852,852
; BNE 4$ ; likewise, I'm sure !
bmi 4$
/
If you want a bit more of the context, look in
http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/RQDX/DUX.TXT
I spent ages working this out. Someone on Compuserve also published a
fix, but it was incomplete and didn't always work.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
If it is SC, then it is a ASCII *nix-based spreadsheet using Curses.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/sc/
p.s. SC is current version 7.x, so perhaps it was at v4.x during 1998?
On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 23:35:17 -0800, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
> Does anyone happen to know what a .SC4 file is. It was written on a
> Linux system in 1998 (most likely Red Hat), and I think it was some
> sort of spreadsheet. Any idea what I can open it with?
>
> Zane
>
> --
> --
> | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
> | healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
> | | Classic Computer Collector |
> +----------------------------------+----------------------------+
> | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
> | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
> | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
>
Do you still have the calculator ? And perhaps a picture of it, as I
really don't know what the ,model designation means. And finally, a manual
of operation ?
My interest is sentimental.
Paul Touchette
Paul E. Touchette, Psychologist
Developmental Disabilities Service
Department of Pediatrics
University of California, Irvine
voice: 714-957-5487
fax: 714-957-5354
petouche at uci.edu
>From: "Eric Smith" <eric at brouhaha.com>
>
>
>Yes. They are laminated with adhesive, just as laser videodiscs were.
>The adhesive leaks O2 even when it's working well, and as it degrades
>it leaks worse.
>
Hi
It sounds like the only way to deal with this is to store
disk in an innert environment. N2 or argon are reasonable
options. Only expose the disk to UV and O2 when actually
used to recover data. They should last for 1000's of years
this way.
Dwight
On Mar 15 2005, 13:31, David Betz wrote:
> I have a PDP-11/23 and would like to add a hard disk. Would the RQDX3
> be the way to go? What do I need besides the board itself and an MFM
> drive? Obviously, I need some sort of cable to connect the two. Is
> there anything else I need? Will RT-11 V5 support an MFM drive on an
> RQDX3?
A SCSI controller might be better, insofar as SCSI drives are easier to
find. Unfortunately they tend to be expensive, and you need to be
aware that some only support tapes, not disks.
An RQDX3 should be fine if you can find a suitable drive. It needn't
be a genuine DEC drive, as the formatter for the RQDX3 can be told what
the drive parameters are. They're a pain to work out from scratch
(I've done it) but the formatter contains tables for several standard
drives, including one or two standard Seagate drives, and if you don't
mind using less than 100% of the theoretical capacity, there's usually
at least one table entry that will do.
Avoid RQDX1 and RQDX2 boards, unless they're free, as they have a
number of limitations. For example, RQDX1 doesn't pass grant signals,
so it has to be the last device on the bus. RQDX1/2 are fussy about
the drives; they have internal tables of drive parameters and play
tricks to see what's connected. They're slower, too.
You want to make sure you get the latest (or next-to-latest) RQDX3
firmware ROMs (not hard, and most have them anyway) and you'll need a
bootable copy of XXDP and the formatter program (ZRQCxx). You also
need either a signal distribution board, which splits out the signals
>from the 50-way connector on the RQDXn to the usual 34+20 ribbon
connectors, and has provision for the front-panel buttons (which
control online/offline and write-protect). I made my own (two
versions), or you could just make up a fancy cable. You want the
button panel, or a homemade substitute (you can get away with some
jumpers and a pullup resistor or two, if necessary).
Once formatted, for which you need XXDP and ZRQCxx, or a MicroVAX with
its diagnostics, RT-11 V.5.x will recognise an RQDX controller and
drive, but it needs to be V.5.03 or higher for an RQDX3 (earlier
version of V5 have a bug that causes it to fail to initialise RQDX3
controllers properly -- though I wrote a patch if you need it).
If you get an RQDX3, it can also control one or two RX33 floppies,
which are rebadged TEAC FD-55-GFR 5.25" floppy drives.
Layouts for my signal distribution board are on my website, along with
a document listing the RQDX3 pinouts, and a bunch of ROM images:
http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/RQDX/http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/PDP-11/XXDP.pdfhttp://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/DECROMs/ROMlisthttp://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/DECROMs/
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
I picked up an older pal/eprom programmed from Advin systems at
Weirdstuff warehouse when I was in Sunnyvale recently, $5. I knew I was
talking a risk, but for $5, who cares? This unit is labeled "SAILOR-PAL".
Anyway, Advin is still around, and their web site has manuals and
software for their programmers -- anything since 1996 or so. This unit
is from 1986.
Does anybody on this list happen to have documents or software for this
programmer and is willing to share? I contacted Advin and their terse
reply was: this system is no longer supported. Searching on google
turned up a few references to this programmer but nothing useful.
My main interest is as an EPROM reader, so even if it isn't perfectly
calibrated, it should be fine for the purpose. If I can't come up with
the software, I guess I'll do what I have done before: used a BASIC
Stamp to drive the address pins and read the data pins. The programmer
would just be more convenient is all.
Thanks.
