28 Jan
2016
28 Jan
'16
12:11 p.m.
DEC Gear available. Unlike most dec gear, I must admit that I can't identify
exactly what this is. Several racks, I was guessing AFT or Instrumentation
Testing. Looks like one or more cpu or expansion cabinets in some of the
racks, and some DEC AD/DA interface stuff. I was left with the impression
that there may be one or more racks that are not shown in the pictures
provided. I was told that racks are in "several different buildings on the
estate" (residential). The first rack looks to be in very bad shape (perhaps
a power supply), but the other racks don't look so bad.
I am not sure that I can get more pictures from the owner, but will try. I
think that in order to get pictures of the fronts (what we all probably want
to see), the owner would have to move stuff (and them) and would rather not.
The equipment is located in NSW, Australia. It sound like they just want it
to go to a good home.
If someone is local to NSW Australia and wants to spearhead going onsite to
take a closer look for others and/or pick up the gear themselves, let me
know offlist and I'll give you the contact info.
To those on the list that aren't down under - any ideas what this is?
Pics are temporarily at http://www.ezwind.net/nsw-au
Best,
J
31 Jan
31 Jan
6:48 p.m.
Very surprised no one took any guesses at what PDP-11 boxes were in those
pictures.
But in any case, a listmember has stepped forward to go investigate onsite
and perhaps claim them.
J
11:47 p.m.
On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 08:48:57PM -0600, Jay West wrote:
Very surprised no one took any guesses at what PDP-11 boxes were in those
pictures.
:-) I was about to, but realised that I had very little to add.
Just that the green color indicates "lab" equipment, which would mean
A/D converters and possibly custom made equipment.
But in any case, a listmember has stepped forward to go investigate onsite
and perhaps claim them.
I hope (s)he reports back.
/P
6:55 p.m.
I'm in NZ and would definitely take an interest; one pic showed cables that
somewhat resemble RP02 type...?
Mike
On Jan 29, 2016 9:11 AM, "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> wrote:
DEC Gear available. Unlike most dec gear, I must admit
that I can't
identify
exactly what this is. Several racks, I was guessing AFT or Instrumentation
Testing. Looks like one or more cpu or expansion cabinets in some of the
racks, and some DEC AD/DA interface stuff. I was left with the impression
that there may be one or more racks that are not shown in the pictures
provided. I was told that racks are in "several different buildings on the
estate" (residential). The first rack looks to be in very bad shape
(perhaps
a power supply), but the other racks don't look so bad.
I am not sure that I can get more pictures from the owner, but will try. I
think that in order to get pictures of the fronts (what we all probably
want
to see), the owner would have to move stuff (and them) and would rather
not.
The equipment is located in NSW, Australia. It sound like they just want it
to go to a good home.
If someone is local to NSW Australia and wants to spearhead going onsite to
take a closer look for others and/or pick up the gear themselves, let me
know offlist and I'll give you the contact info.
To those on the list that aren't down under - any ideas what this is?
Pics are temporarily at http://www.ezwind.net/nsw-au
Best,
J
1 Feb
1 Feb
12:55 a.m.
I recognized a few things when you posted the pics, bet can't remember what
they are. I will look at some reference material this week.
I do know they aren't DEC racks.
Should be great!
Paul
On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 2:11 PM, Jay West <jwest at classiccmp.org> wrote:
DEC Gear available. Unlike most dec gear, I must admit
that I can't
identify
exactly what this is. Several racks, I was guessing AFT or Instrumentation
Testing. Looks like one or more cpu or expansion cabinets in some of the
racks, and some DEC AD/DA interface stuff. I was left with the impression
that there may be one or more racks that are not shown in the pictures
provided. I was told that racks are in "several different buildings on the
estate" (residential). The first rack looks to be in very bad shape
(perhaps
a power supply), but the other racks don't look so bad.
I am not sure that I can get more pictures from the owner, but will try. I
think that in order to get pictures of the fronts (what we all probably
want
to see), the owner would have to move stuff (and them) and would rather
not.
The equipment is located in NSW, Australia. It sound like they just want it
to go to a good home.
If someone is local to NSW Australia and wants to spearhead going onsite to
take a closer look for others and/or pick up the gear themselves, let me
know offlist and I'll give you the contact info.
To those on the list that aren't down under - any ideas what this is?
Pics are temporarily at http://www.ezwind.net/nsw-au
Best,
J
2 Mar
2 Mar
2:50 p.m.
New subject: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
Well, it started with 'Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU'...
A few weeks ago you saw some poor quality photos Jay posted from someone who had found a
PDP-11 of some sort.
It seems no-one could identify it or the ancillary equipment at the time. As it happened
to be located here
in Oz, and only in the next state, I thought it was worth a gamble on going to rescue it
even though it was
hundreds of kays/miles away and would mean a few days driving.
So I took last Thursday and Friday off work to drive down in my ute from Brisbane to the
gear's location. I drove
the inland highway and just camped along the way each evening. The weather was very warm
and pleasant. During the
evenings the mozzies were out in force, biting.
Arriving at the location first thing Saturday morning (as I had camped the second night
nearby) I was shown the
horse stables where the gear was stored. It was near an entrance and the top of the rack
was covered with a tarp.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_01.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_02.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_03.jpg
The rack was sitting directly on the dirt floor. The stables hadn't been used for
decades as such and there was a
lot of mouse and other animal droppings on everything. The front of the rack was against
some horse tying-up posts
so we got to work levering it away from them to get to the front, for which I had brought
gloves.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_04.jpg
At this point I realised what I was looking at. It was a Foxboro Fox 2 computer,
essentially a rebadged PDP-11/20.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_05.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_06.jpg
A while ago I had by chance downloaded and looked at the very same brochure for this
machine, I think perhaps
because it had been mentioned here. So I was able to identify it immediately. This is that
brochure:
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Foxboro/Foxboro.Fox2-30.1…
The cabinet was about two and a half 19" rack-widths wide, painted lime green and
with custom industrial control
equipment to the left and the computer, paper tape reader and expansion box in the right.
The half width section
contained a series of power supplies. almost all cables had Winchester MRAC connectors on
them (visible in the
original photos, and I happened to have a need for some for my Diablos).
There were no peripherals of any sort apart from the paper tape reader and the custom A-D
I/O. No disc drives nor
the fabulous drum shown in the brochure.
At the bottom of the computer rack section there was a very sad PDP-11/05, missing its
console, and full of mud.
Being at the bottom it had been flooded over the years and was silted up. It had a cable
to the BA-11 expansion
cabinet.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_07.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_08.jpg
I started by removing the 11/05, as there was a (very very) slim chance I might be able to
use it for some spares,
and I had a need for the BC-5 Power Control Unit in the chassis anyway. This machine was
not on rack slides but
just lying on the bottom on the dirt. Surprisingly the paper label on the top panel was
still partly legible,
considering the immersion.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_12.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_13.jpg
Next I worked on removing the BA-11. It was pretty much empty with only a small Unibus
backplane.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_14.jpg
After that I attended to the Fox 2, and before long after a lot of sweating we had the
machine out and ready to
load onto my ute.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_09.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_10.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_11.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_15.jpg
Finally I removed the Foxboro paper tape reader. The tape holders each side slide up to
reveal the rack mounting
screws. Onto the ute it went.
There were some other racks of gear, but all custom idustrial control equipment. One rack
had a DEC A-D Converter
in it with some serious cables connected to some backplanes of the smaller Flip Chip
modules. I grabbed the A-D
and Flip Chips.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_16.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_17.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_18.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_19.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_20.jpg
There is an identical DEC A-D on eBay at the moment which shows you what it's like:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-DEC-A-D-Converter-/141324598814
The I/O for the machine was (I believe) an ASR-35 the bigger brother to the ASR-33. I
couldn't take it, it was
wedged in behind the other racks and I had only a limited amount of time to load the
equipment before I had to
head back interstate to home. I did not see any sign of the optional I/O Selectrics shown
in the brochure, as I
would definately have liked to have found those if I could have! I don't think this
machine had them, only the
ASR-35, as no printout I found appeared to be done by a Selectric.
There was a smallish dumb terminal under some junk, this didn't have any brand or logo
on it. Can anyone identify
it perhaps?
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_21.jpg
Loaded the gear and the unmanaged mass of paper tape on, sort it out later!
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_22.jpg
There were removalists boxes of documentation, so many I had no chance to go through more
than half a dozen. In
the ones I went through, I found manuals for the Fox 2, DEC printsets, printset for the
11/05, PDP-9 manuals,
Honeywell 716 and Westinghouse manuals. I found a CDC disc pack that seems to be suitable
for an RM03. Once again
no PDP-9 (that I could identify as such!), peripherals or any other piece of hardware that
these manuals were
for was evident anywhere (I looked!!). No sign of any early DEC units such as RP01 02 03
or the like, nor PC04 or
anything.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_23.jpg
After looking at the Foxboro documentation it seems the Fox 2 ran an application called
'FOXY' which controlled
the coking oxygenation plant at Port Kembla steelworks from about 1972 to the mid-late
1970s. Documents indicated
the PDP-9 controlled the steelworks plate rolling mill. I have no idea (yet) what the
Honeywell and Westinghouse
machines did.
One curious thing was, I was allowed to take the machines, documentation and so on, but
not the rack slides nor
any part of them. They were to stay with the cabinets. Yes I did mention they were
specific to the equipment and
probably no use for any newer equipment. So it's going to be another long process of
making or adapting rack
slides as I have already been doing for my other gear.
As soon as I had finished loading I left gor home. After an overnight rest stop near a
nice lake, I was back home
in Brisbane on Sunday arvo. Here is the haul before I started unloading:
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_24.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_25.jpg
I've contacted others about the need to recover the rest of the gear and especially
the boxes, so I'll see what
happens in that respect. I must thank Jay for putting me in touch with the relevant
people. All in all it was I
think a worthwhile 1651km (1025 mile) round trip!
Steve.
(Top posting my reply here - yes I don't normally do it nor condone it, but it in this
case suited my lengthy post)
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org>
Date: Fri, January 29, 2016 6:11 am
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEC Gear available. Unlike most dec gear, I must admit
that I can't identify
exactly what this is. Several racks, I was guessing AFT or Instrumentation
Testing. Looks like one or more cpu or expansion cabinets in some of the
racks, and some DEC AD/DA interface stuff. I was left with the impression
that there may be one or more racks that are not shown in the pictures
provided. I was told that racks are in "several different buildings on the
estate" (residential). The first rack looks to be in very bad shape (perhaps
a power supply), but the other racks don't look so bad.
I am not sure that I can get more pictures from the owner, but will try. I
think that in order to get pictures of the fronts (what we all probably want
to see), the owner would have to move stuff (and them) and would rather not.
The equipment is located in NSW, Australia. It sound like they just want it
to go to a good home.
If someone is local to NSW Australia and wants to spearhead going onsite to
take a closer look for others and/or pick up the gear themselves, let me
know offlist and I'll give you the contact info.
3:49 p.m.
New subject: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
On 2 March 2016 at 17:50, <steven at malikoff.com> wrote:
The I/O for the machine was (I believe) an ASR-35 the
bigger brother to the ASR-33. I couldn't take it, it was
wedged in behind the other racks and I had only a limited amount of time to load the
equipment before I had to
head back interstate to home. I did not see any sign of the optional I/O Selectrics shown
in the brochure, as I
would definately have liked to have found those if I could have! I don't think this
machine had them, only the
ASR-35, as no printout I found appeared to be done by a Selectric.
You definitely want that 35ASR. They're absolute tanks, and you could
probably bring it back up with a bit of oil and grease from its
current state (I exaggerate somewhat).
The Model 35 series of Teletypes just isn't as common as the Model 33
machines (though I think the "rarest" 35 right now is either the 35KSR
or 35RO; with the 35ASR being more common). They are definitely
worthwhile to have, since their mechanism is more robust and sturdy
than the mechanism of the Model 33, since the Model 35 is based on the
older (5-bit) Model 28 mechanisms (extended to 8-bit).
Cheers,
Christian
--
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.
6:08 p.m.
New subject: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
If you (or anyone here) has never worked on a teleprinter (Teletype or
other make) please please please ask someone experienced. If not one can
and many time has happened is all plastic parts of which there are many in
a 32/33 and few in a 28/35/37 can be destroyed.
Having said that, if you end up with a 35, join the mailing list called
"greenkeys". Greenkeys is slang for teleprinter 'nuts' and the name
comes from the color of the keycaps in later Teletype machines.. And some
on the list can give good advice, some not so much. There are members who's
job was to service these beasts. I have had machines brought to me that
were basically destroyed and would have
been easy fixes if left alone before hand.
Please never turn one on unless they have been checked out.
Sorry to butt-in but hate to see them get messed up.
-pete
On Wed, Mar 2, 2016 at 3:49 PM, Christian Gauger-Cosgrove <
captainkirk359 at gmail.com> wrote:
On 2 March 2016 at 17:50, <steven at
malikoff.com> wrote:
The I/O for the machine was (I believe) an ASR-35
the bigger brother to
the ASR-33. I couldn't take it, it was
wedged in behind the other racks and I had only a
limited amount of time
to load the equipment before I had to
head back interstate to home. I did not see any
sign of the optional I/O
Selectrics shown in the brochure, as I
would definately have liked to have found those
if I could have! I don't
think this machine had them, only the
ASR-35, as no printout I found appeared to be
done by a Selectric.
You definitely want that 35ASR. They're absolute tanks, and you could
probably bring it back up with a bit of oil and grease from its
current state (I exaggerate somewhat).
The Model 35 series of Teletypes just isn't as common as the Model 33
machines (though I think the "rarest" 35 right now is either the 35KSR
or 35RO; with the 35ASR being more common). They are definitely
worthwhile to have, since their mechanism is more robust and sturdy
than the mechanism of the Model 33, since the Model 35 is based on the
older (5-bit) Model 28 mechanisms (extended to 8-bit).
Cheers,
Christian
--
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.
10:10 p.m.
New subject: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
Nice photos!
2016-03-02 23:08 GMT-03:00 Pete Lancashire <pete at petelancashire.com>:
If you (or anyone here) has never worked on a
teleprinter (Teletype or
other make) please please please ask someone experienced. If not one can
and many time has happened is all plastic parts of which there are many in
a 32/33 and few in a 28/35/37 can be destroyed.
Having said that, if you end up with a 35, join the mailing list called
"greenkeys". Greenkeys is slang for teleprinter 'nuts' and the name
comes from the color of the keycaps in later Teletype machines.. And some
on the list can give good advice, some not so much. There are members who's
job was to service these beasts. I have had machines brought to me that
were basically destroyed and would have
been easy fixes if left alone before hand.
Please never turn one on unless they have been checked out.
Sorry to butt-in but hate to see them get messed up.
-pete
On Wed, Mar 2, 2016 at 3:49 PM, Christian Gauger-Cosgrove <
captainkirk359 at gmail.com> wrote:
On 2 March 2016 at 17:50, <steven at
malikoff.com> wrote:
time
The I/O for the machine was (I believe) an ASR-35
the bigger brother to
the ASR-33. I couldn't take it, it was
> wedged in behind the other racks and I had only a limited amount of to load the equipment before I had to
> head back interstate to home. I did not see any sign of the optional
I/O
Selectrics shown in the brochure, as I
> would definately have liked to have found those if I could have! I
don't
think this machine had them, only the
ASR-35, as no printout I found appeared to be
done by a Selectric.
You definitely want that 35ASR. They're absolute tanks, and you could
probably bring it back up with a bit of oil and grease from its
current state (I exaggerate somewhat).
The Model 35 series of Teletypes just isn't as common as the Model 33
machines (though I think the "rarest" 35 right now is either the 35KSR
or 35RO; with the 35ASR being more common). They are definitely
worthwhile to have, since their mechanism is more robust and sturdy
than the mechanism of the Model 33, since the Model 35 is based on the
older (5-bit) Model 28 mechanisms (extended to 8-bit).
Cheers,
Christian
--
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.
11:47 p.m.
New subject: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
On 2016-Mar-02, at 2:50 PM, steven at malikoff.com wrote:
At this point I realised what I was looking at. It was
a Foxboro Fox 2 computer, essentially a rebadged PDP-11/20.
Remarkable find that - a Fox-2-badged 11 - amazing to come across.
Great rescue, although too bad the racks weren't included as that's part of the
Foxboro packaging.
If you've seen the CHM brochure of the Fox-1 previously, just ran across a great pic
of a Fox-1 system with a great view of the X-shaped CPU:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/64900616 at N04/23796530491
On 2016-Mar-02, at 6:08 PM, Pete Lancashire wrote:
Having said that, if you end up with a 35, join the
mailing list called
"greenkeys". Greenkeys is slang for teleprinter 'nuts' and the name
comes from the color of the keycaps in later Teletype machines..
.. I suspect you meant earlier machines there - the 15,19,26 and so on of the 1920-40s
were the machines with the green keys.
I've worked on a 33 and a couple of 28s to get them going but can't claim to be an
expert.
Have a 15, two 14s (tape-printers), a Lorenz (19 knockoff), military TT-4A, and a 26 that
need restoration - someday when I have opportunity.
Indeed it would be sad to see the 35 scrapped. The oil does help protect them when stored
in a poor environment so the mech may well be OK or restorable.
3 Mar
3 Mar
5:52 a.m.
New subject: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
Pete wrote...
-----
If you (or anyone here) has never worked on a teleprinter (Teletype or other make) please
please please ask someone experienced. If not one can and many time has happened is all
plastic parts of which there are many in a 32/33 and few in a 28/35/37 can be destroyed.
Having said that, if you end up with a 35, join the mailing list called
"greenkeys".
-----
I have a very good condition ASR35, but it hasn't been on for 20 years at the least,
probably much more than that. I know zero about it (or any tty for that matter). You can
bet once I get to that point I'll be asking the tty wizards here for help :)
Same goes for a couple ASR33's I have that are actually in marginal condition.
For whatever reason, I really want my tty's to run at some point, but they are not
super high on the list given limited time. I will get to them some day though!
J
11:46 a.m.
New subject: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Jay West
Sent: 03 March 2016 13:52
To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: RE: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-
AU
Pete wrote...
-----
If you (or anyone here) has never worked on a teleprinter (Teletype or other
make) please please please ask someone experienced. If not one can and
many time has happened is all plastic parts of which there are many in a
32/33 and few in a 28/35/37 can be destroyed.
Having said that, if you end up with a 35, join the mailing list called
"greenkeys".
-----
I have a very good condition ASR35, but it hasn't been on for 20 years at the
least, probably much more than that. I know zero about it (or any tty for that
matter). You can bet once I get to that point I'll be asking the tty wizards here
for help :)
Same goes for a couple ASR33's I have that are actually in marginal condition.
For whatever reason, I really want my tty's to run at some point, but they are
not super high on the list given limited time. I will get to them some day
though!
J
I can only add my voice to the plea to save the Model 35. Also, as someone else pointed
out, Greenkeys is the place to go for advice on restoring Teletypes, the list if very
friendly and exceedingly helpful.
Thanks for the interesting account and pictures. I hope it cleans up well!
Regards
Rob
12:36 a.m.
New subject: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
Finally I removed the Foxboro paper tape reader. The tape holders each
side slide up to reveal the rack mounting
screws. Onto the ute it went.
There were some other racks of gear, but all custom idustrial control
equipment. One rack had a DEC A-D Converter
in it with some serious cables connected to some backplanes of the smaller
Flip Chip modules. I grabbed the A-D
and Flip Chips.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_16.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_17.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_18.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_19.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_20.jpg
What is in picture 18? There is something very familiar with it. To me it
looks like the backplane of a PDP-9. The core memory stack in the top.
Compare with the RICM PDP-9:
http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-9/PDP-9_Processor_Fr…
I would be very interesting to see more pictures of the cabinet in picture
18.
I also would guess that the the cabinet with the A/D converter (AF01A) in
the top also hold a D/A converter (AA01A). It looks very much similar to
the one we have with our PDP-9.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/96935524/Datormusuem/Exhibhall-8l-8e-rk…
(the cabinet next to the RK07)
/Mattis
12:54 a.m.
New subject: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
On Thu, Mar 03, 2016 at 09:36:07AM +0100, Mattis Lind wrote:
It has to be, the layout of the flipchips and colors all match!
The white strips are probably foam, I've seen the same in a LINC-8.
/P
Finally I removed the Foxboro paper tape reader. The tape holders each
side slide up to reveal the rack mounting
screws. Onto the ute it went.
There were some other racks of gear, but all custom idustrial control
equipment. One rack had a DEC A-D Converter
in it with some serious cables connected to some backplanes of the smaller
Flip Chip modules. I grabbed the A-D
and Flip Chips.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_16.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_17.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_18.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_19.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_20.jpg
What is in picture 18? There is something very familiar with it. To me it
looks like the backplane of a PDP-9. The core memory stack in the top.
1:27 a.m.
New subject: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
2016-03-03 9:36 GMT+01:00 Mattis Lind <mattislind at gmail.com>:
Just checked the list of 18 bits installations that Bob Supnik made
available:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/96935524/Datormusuem/18bitServiceList19…
There is a PDP-9, s/n 209 delivered to Australia Iron & Steel.
It had a AF01B (A/D converter) s/n 195 and a AA05B (I am not sure how it
differs from AA01) s/n 101. It is also supposed have an extra memory
cabinet since it had two memory stacks.
There are also two items which I would guess is non standard options: "76
05404" and "76 05426".
Check the AF01 you got is matching the serial number.
It was delivered in 1969.
There are a few flexiprint cables dangling in the foreground. I think those
are the ones that are supposed to connect with the front panel. So someone
has probably taken the frontpanel. Maybe that is way it is not recognised
as a PDP-9.
/Mattis
Finally I removed the Foxboro paper tape reader. The tape holders each
side slide up to reveal the rack mounting
screws. Onto the ute it went.
There were some other racks of gear, but all custom idustrial control
equipment. One rack had a DEC A-D Converter
in it with some serious cables connected to some backplanes of the
smaller Flip Chip modules. I grabbed the A-D
and Flip Chips.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_16.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_17.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_18.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_19.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_20.jpg
What is in picture 18? There is something very familiar with it. To me it
looks like the backplane of a PDP-9. The core memory stack in the top.
Compare with the RICM PDP-9:
http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-9/PDP-9_Processor_Fr…
I would be very interesting to see more pictures of the cabinet in picture
18.
I also would guess that the the cabinet with the A/D converter (AF01A) in
the top also hold a D/A converter (AA01A). It looks very much similar to
the one we have with our PDP-9.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/96935524/Datormusuem/Exhibhall-8l-8e-rk…
(the cabinet next to the RK07)
/Mattis
5:49 a.m.
New subject: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
Steven;
So glad it was a productive trip. While some of that gear was obviously pretty severely
damaged... the Fox 2 would have been worth the trip for me anyways :)
A return trip should be scheduled by you or the folks you were in contact/working with,
for the boxes of documentation and for that 35 tty!
I do have that exact same paper tape reader, but mine is on a data general S120. On that
system, whoever implemented it left off the two tape bins. I got the bins with the system,
but there was no mounting spot for them. I guess they figured letting the tape cascade
onto the floor was good enough :) Haven't figured out how they fed it though.
Best,
J
6:01 a.m.
New subject: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
Wow! Excellent write up and photos!
Thank you!
* steven at malikoff.com <steven at malikoff.com> [160302 17:51]:
Well, it started with 'Unidentified DEC gear
available, NSW-AU'...
A few weeks ago you saw some poor quality photos Jay posted from someone who had found a
PDP-11 of some sort.
It seems no-one could identify it or the ancillary equipment at the time. As it happened
to be located here
in Oz, and only in the next state, I thought it was worth a gamble on going to rescue it
even though it was
hundreds of kays/miles away and would mean a few days driving.
So I took last Thursday and Friday off work to drive down in my ute from Brisbane to the
gear's location. I drove
the inland highway and just camped along the way each evening. The weather was very warm
and pleasant. During the
evenings the mozzies were out in force, biting.
Arriving at the location first thing Saturday morning (as I had camped the second night
nearby) I was shown the
horse stables where the gear was stored. It was near an entrance and the top of the rack
was covered with a tarp.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_01.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_02.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_03.jpg
The rack was sitting directly on the dirt floor. The stables hadn't been used for
decades as such and there was a
lot of mouse and other animal droppings on everything. The front of the rack was against
some horse tying-up posts
so we got to work levering it away from them to get to the front, for which I had brought
gloves.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_04.jpg
At this point I realised what I was looking at. It was a Foxboro Fox 2 computer,
essentially a rebadged PDP-11/20.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_05.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_06.jpg
A while ago I had by chance downloaded and looked at the very same brochure for this
machine, I think perhaps
because it had been mentioned here. So I was able to identify it immediately. This is
that brochure:
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Foxboro/Foxboro.Fox2-30.1…
The cabinet was about two and a half 19" rack-widths wide, painted lime green and
with custom industrial control
equipment to the left and the computer, paper tape reader and expansion box in the right.
The half width section
contained a series of power supplies. almost all cables had Winchester MRAC connectors on
them (visible in the
original photos, and I happened to have a need for some for my Diablos).
There were no peripherals of any sort apart from the paper tape reader and the custom A-D
I/O. No disc drives nor
the fabulous drum shown in the brochure.
At the bottom of the computer rack section there was a very sad PDP-11/05, missing its
console, and full of mud.
Being at the bottom it had been flooded over the years and was silted up. It had a cable
to the BA-11 expansion
cabinet.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_07.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_08.jpg
I started by removing the 11/05, as there was a (very very) slim chance I might be able
to use it for some spares,
and I had a need for the BC-5 Power Control Unit in the chassis anyway. This machine was
not on rack slides but
just lying on the bottom on the dirt. Surprisingly the paper label on the top panel was
still partly legible,
considering the immersion.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_12.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_13.jpg
Next I worked on removing the BA-11. It was pretty much empty with only a small Unibus
backplane.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_14.jpg
After that I attended to the Fox 2, and before long after a lot of sweating we had the
machine out and ready to
load onto my ute.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_09.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_10.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_11.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_15.jpg
Finally I removed the Foxboro paper tape reader. The tape holders each side slide up to
reveal the rack mounting
screws. Onto the ute it went.
There were some other racks of gear, but all custom idustrial control equipment. One
rack had a DEC A-D Converter
in it with some serious cables connected to some backplanes of the smaller Flip Chip
modules. I grabbed the A-D
and Flip Chips.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_16.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_17.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_18.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_19.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_20.jpg
There is an identical DEC A-D on eBay at the moment which shows you what it's like:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-DEC-A-D-Converter-/141324598814
The I/O for the machine was (I believe) an ASR-35 the bigger brother to the ASR-33. I
couldn't take it, it was
wedged in behind the other racks and I had only a limited amount of time to load the
equipment before I had to
head back interstate to home. I did not see any sign of the optional I/O Selectrics shown
in the brochure, as I
would definately have liked to have found those if I could have! I don't think this
machine had them, only the
ASR-35, as no printout I found appeared to be done by a Selectric.
There was a smallish dumb terminal under some junk, this didn't have any brand or
logo on it. Can anyone identify
it perhaps?
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_21.jpg
Loaded the gear and the unmanaged mass of paper tape on, sort it out later!
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_22.jpg
There were removalists boxes of documentation, so many I had no chance to go through more
than half a dozen. In
the ones I went through, I found manuals for the Fox 2, DEC printsets, printset for the
11/05, PDP-9 manuals,
Honeywell 716 and Westinghouse manuals. I found a CDC disc pack that seems to be suitable
for an RM03. Once again
no PDP-9 (that I could identify as such!), peripherals or any other piece of hardware
that these manuals were
for was evident anywhere (I looked!!). No sign of any early DEC units such as RP01 02 03
or the like, nor PC04 or
anything.
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_23.jpg
After looking at the Foxboro documentation it seems the Fox 2 ran an application called
'FOXY' which controlled
the coking oxygenation plant at Port Kembla steelworks from about 1972 to the mid-late
1970s. Documents indicated
the PDP-9 controlled the steelworks plate rolling mill. I have no idea (yet) what the
Honeywell and Westinghouse
machines did.
One curious thing was, I was allowed to take the machines, documentation and so on, but
not the rack slides nor
any part of them. They were to stay with the cabinets. Yes I did mention they were
specific to the equipment and
probably no use for any newer equipment. So it's going to be another long process of
making or adapting rack
slides as I have already been doing for my other gear.
As soon as I had finished loading I left gor home. After an overnight rest stop near a
nice lake, I was back home
in Brisbane on Sunday arvo. Here is the haul before I started unloading:
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_24.jpg
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_25.jpg
I've contacted others about the need to recover the rest of the gear and especially
the boxes, so I'll see what
happens in that respect. I must thank Jay for putting me in touch with the relevant
people. All in all it was I
think a worthwhile 1651km (1025 mile) round trip!
Steve.
(Top posting my reply here - yes I don't normally do it nor condone it, but it in
this case suited my lengthy post)
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU
From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org>
Date: Fri, January 29, 2016 6:11 am
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEC Gear available. Unlike most dec gear, I must
admit that I can't identify
exactly what this is. Several racks, I was guessing AFT or Instrumentation
Testing. Looks like one or more cpu or expansion cabinets in some of the
racks, and some DEC AD/DA interface stuff. I was left with the impression
that there may be one or more racks that are not shown in the pictures
provided. I was told that racks are in "several different buildings on the
estate" (residential). The first rack looks to be in very bad shape (perhaps
a power supply), but the other racks don't look so bad.
I am not sure that I can get more pictures from the owner, but will try. I
think that in order to get pictures of the fronts (what we all probably want
to see), the owner would have to move stuff (and them) and would rather not.
The equipment is located in NSW, Australia. It sound like they just want it
to go to a good home.
If someone is local to NSW Australia and wants to spearhead going onsite to
take a closer look for others and/or pick up the gear themselves, let me
know offlist and I'll give you the contact info.
3533
days inactive
3568
days old
16 comments
12 participants
participants (12)
-
alexandre.tabajara＠gmail.com -
captainkirk359＠gmail.com -
hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca -
jwest＠classiccmp.org -
mattislind＠gmail.com -
pete＠petelancashire.com -
pontus＠Update.UU.SE -
robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com -
steven＠malikoff.com -
tmfdmike＠gmail.com -
tsg＠bonedaddy.net -
useddec＠gmail.com