PDP-15 is running... but has 8 lives left!

From: John B <dylanb_at_sympatico.ca>
Date: Mon Nov 15 13:51:07 1999

I thought cats only had 9 lives....

When I picked up this mini I was told it ran on 220 volts.. It has 3 twist
in 220Volt plugs on it....

Well, I was just about to hook it up to 220 when I thought *maybe* I should
double check the PSU jumpers.

Well,,, contrary to what everyone thought.... the thing was configured for
110 Volts... 1 PDP saved!


I wired it all up (I have NEVER used an 18 bit mini)... applied power and no
lights... (one little breaker was on off.. talk about scarey and I was
smelling around for smoke).

I flipped the breaker and..... one happy PDP-15

Selected "MO", read some core, wrote some back... then went for the ultimate
test.......

Grabbed a paper tape (MAINDEC) hit STOP,RESET,READIN... the paper tape read
in, and talk about "blinky lights" (I think I'll just wheel this mini to my
living room window and run a looping test tape every day til XMAS)....

The MAINDEC program ran.. The PDP-15 was Plug and Play. [no fun..not even a
bad chip/solder contact to find :-( ]

I don't know how to load FOCAL or even if it can be run from paper tape
(stand alone). I do have a drum memory unit and mag tape but don't want to
hook them up as I barely know how to operate what I have right now... (Took
20 minutes to go through some manuals to tell me how to load in the
MAINDEC...).

This is one weird mini.

I have "Disk Monitor" and pile of other software, FOCAL, BASIC, FORTRAN,
8-TRAN, MACRO, etc...

I don't know how to load any of these and there are just too many manuals to
go through right now.

If anyone here knows:

A) Can FOCAL be run stand alone on the PDP-15.. if so how? and how do I load
it?
B) What atre these "Paper Tape System" tapes for?


I have a teletype hooked up to it so I am hoping someone here can save me a
lot of reading....

john
Received on Mon Nov 15 1999 - 13:51:07 GMT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:32:29 BST