At 21:55 11/19/98 -0500, Christian Fandt wrote:
>At 01:40 11/20/98 +0000, Tony Duell wrote:
> -- snip --
>>
>>If you open up the plug shell on one end of the cable (it clips
>>together), you can see the wiring. If almost all pins have wires (I think
>>one is not connected - it's essentially TERMPWR) then it's an RK07 cable.
>>If about half the pins are wired, it's an RL cable.
>
>Good tip. I'll check that tomorrow.
Indeed is an RK cable.
>
>>
>>> >Just to check for a silly again - pull the 'A' cap and the bulb. Test
>>> >said bulb. We don't want to be searching for nasty faults if all the
time
>>> >it's been working but the disk isn't bootable...
>>>
>>> Hmmm, I'll check that but there is absolutely no disk activity when I
>>
>>OK... Doesn't _sound_ like a dead bulb, then.
>
>I have a bulb extractor somewhere around in one my toolboxes. Could still
>be buried. We recently moved you may recall. I'll try to hunt it up and
>check for sure with an ohm meter.
Pulled the lamp and it's okay.
>
>>
>>If you swing out the RK07 cardcage, there are some LEDs on the edges of
>>some of the boards. There should be a plastic cover over the end the
>>labels them, but if not, I think they're in the user manual. If you can't
>>find anything, then I'll find out for you.
>
>I'll let you know what's up with them.
They lit up in what appears to be a correct manner. Speed OK comes on, Head
Load comes on, RTZ comes on, etc. until the system is apparently satisfied.
All except the 'A' LED on the 'A' board (can't recall M-number now.)
>
>>
>>IIRC, the RK07 spin-up is something like : Motor up to speed, brush cycle
>>(old drives only), positioner unlocks and moves to outer guard band,
>>postioner moves to spindle and back to track 0. Does yours do that?
>
>Seems right recalling the several times I've watched this process on the
>RK. I'll check for sure. Track 0 is at the outer edge I assume?
>
>>
>
>>> enter DM at the console. I had the cover off the back of the RK07 so I can
>>> see any hint of head motion. I would think that at minimum one stroke of
>>> the head actuator would scan for bootable code at this point. Nada.
>>
>>Hmmm.. The positioner would be on track 0 after a spinup, and the
>>standard boot is to read track 0, sector 0 into memory
>>and jump to the start of it. So you might not see any head movement if
>>there's nothing bootable on the pack.
>
>I see. Of course with absolutely no prior knowledge of such details as this
>I am completely oblivious to what should be what. Now is the time to learn.
>
>>
>>Another useful trick is to look at the RK611 registers after the
>>attempted boot. Do they look at all sane? Any errors?
>
>This is the first day ever of me even operating an 11/34A. I'll have to
>figure out from the rather terse instructions in the user's manual how to
>find and examine registers. At least the Programmers Console has a variety
>of good features for this.
>
>I'll also report what the registers say on the CRT console after I enter
>the 'DM' and the '_at_' prompt comes back. Could be something there you folks
>could extrapolate.
Things have improved a bit. In the time I had today I checked the 'A' bulb
on the RK07 and verified that the cable was an RK type. Still didn't
bootup. However . . .
I swapped the cable for another RK cable. Now after I type 'DM' and hit
return the 'A' light comes on along with the LED on the module in the card
cage but there is no further action. The diskpak was labeled 'Bootdisk'. I
think the previous owner did say he was able to startup the machine a
couple days before I picked the equipment up.
He left the diskpak in the drive and the drive rode home with it still in.
At least the heads retract and automatically lock.
Next chance I get at fiddling with this gear I'll try to read some
disk-related registers. There is some discussion of them in the RK07 user's
manual. Incidentally, after this latest attempt to bootup the machine I hit
CNTRL/HALT and then CNTRL/BOOT as usual which prints out the four registers
onscreen. Here's what I consistently see after each attempt now:
R0: 000000 R4: 173020 R6: 000xxx Old PC: 000xxx
Somewhere, SOMEWHERE around this place I have the Printset for the 9312
*and*, as I can decipher from my notes listing the printsets, there exists
the ROM listing for same! I just found this out today when I found a small
piece of paper listing the printsets I got in that haul in July. The house
is a mess as I've been doing remodeling work on it and still hauling over
stuff from the old house. Boxes are piled 5 to 7 deep in the areas of the
house my wife permits me to put the stuff. If I can get to that printset
ROM listing I have a feeling we might find out what that 173020 address
means which might point me in some direction.
Until later, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt_at_netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL:
http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/
Received on Fri Nov 20 1998 - 21:16:33 GMT