Never Mind: MicroVAX 3

From: Jerome Fine <jhfine_at_idirect.com>
Date: Fri Sep 10 23:21:49 1999

>CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com wrote:

> >ALSO, I am about to try out (if I can get a degausser) some TK50 tapes
> >in a TK70. But I want to be able to have both the TK50 and a TK70
> >tape drive on line.
> You certainly can!

Jerome Fine replies:

I mentioned the problem to a friend of mine and hopefully will be able
to borrow the degausser within a few days. I did not doubt that
both the TK50 and the TK70 can be on line at the same time -
the only questions was how to set the CSR on the controller
board - a bit of a waste having to have one controller for each
tape drive. But I now have the cable to connect TWO BA23
boxes so that will be all that I could ever need. Has anyone ever
tried to connect THREE BA23 boxes? I rarely use RD5x drives
any more since the supply of RD53 drives are all just about dead
and I don't have many RD54 drives. Plus I do have a bunch of
600 MByte ESDI drives, so why would I bother with the RD5x
drives any more?

In addition, I just acquired about 500 * TK50 tapes which were already
in the dumpster - well, about 100 feet away and in a pile of garbage
already designated for the final resting place. Most of it was old
documentation (company private which I did not even touch), but
mixed in was about half a grey wall for V5.4 - a bit sad for you
VMS fellows which I can understand. There were also some
RC25 cartridges and there may be a broken RC25 available
at the end of the month along with a couple of RL02 drives
and the cabinets. Anyone interested? Please reply immediately
since the end of the month is the deadline and I may be able to
make the drives and cabinets available - local pickup in Toronto
ONLY - sometime next week would be the window of opportunity
to arrange anything - along with some RL02 packs.

> > I have done a SYSGEN and the MUX.SYS device driver
> >allows two devices, (MU0: and MU1:), but I don't have the dip switch
> >settings for alternate CSR values. Can anyone help? PLEASE?
> On both the TQK50 and TQK70, the CSR is set by jumpers, not by DIPswitches.
> (the DIPswitches on a TK50 actually set the rev level reported by TMSCP
> inquiry commands, which changed more often than the CSR's at one point!)
> The default CSR is 774500. The CSR must be a multiple of 4, so the low two
> bits are always zero, and the CSR must be in the I/O page, so the high
> 5 bits are always on. The in-between bits are set with the jumpers near
> the edge connectors. Seen with the edge connectors to the bottom, the
> default looks like:

Thanks for the hint about where to look for how the CSR is set. I located
the location on the TK50 and there were 11 jumpers set as follows for
the CSR at 774500: IIOOIOIOOOO where I=in/O=out
I presume that the CSR which I SYSGENed at 774510 would require
the jumpers to be: IIOOIOIOOIO
I was a bit confused over the method you used to describe the jumpers,
so I tried this representation. It seems correct and I will try it the next
time I power up the system. For the moment, I swapped the TK50 for
the TK70 so that I can test the TK50 tapes after they are "fixed". At that
point I will have both a TK70 and a TK50. Anyone have a spare TK70
they are willing to part with for little more than postage. I will want to
have a backup drive if I start to use the TK70 and depend on the TK70
media for storage backup.

Plus, I have not yet had time to get the modified UNMAC files into a
form ready to send. Maybe just an RX33 would be best - I can get all
the source on an RX50, but I need to include the OBJ files and I also
like to include the SAV files as well. Plus I need to upgrade my comments
a bit as well. Is there a deadline to have it included on the CD-ROM and
how is that project going?

Sincerely yours,

Jerome Fine
Received on Fri Sep 10 1999 - 23:21:49 BST

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