>Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2000 14:02:58 GMT
>From: pete_at_dunnington.u-net.com (Pete Turnbull)
>Subject: VT78 - lots of questions
>
>Is there anything in particular I should watch out for when I power it up?
>
This is an area of discussion. The full treatment is to inspect, reform big
electrolytic capacitors (put a current limited voltage on them for a while),
then separately test the power supply, then attempt to power up the cards.
The other is to visually inspect, apply power for a short while, and
if nothing bad happened apply power longer and try to run it.
>I don't have the RX01 drives that originally came with it, but I do have
>the connecting cable with a D-37 connector at the VT78 end and a DB-25 at
>the other end (only 18 pins fitted). I also have a set of RX02s in the
>adjacent rack, and I have the RX02 print set and manuals somewhere. I
>assume I can set the RX02 (M7044) switches appropriately, and use that with
>an appropriate adapter cable? Anyone know the relevant VT78 pinout?
>
My VT78 is running off of RX02's set to RX8E mode. They also have the
DB25 plug on the back which will connect directly to the VT78 cable. If
yours don't I should be able to dig up the pinout if you don't run across
it in one of the manuals.
>Documentation: all I can find that's even vaguely relevant is the DECscope
>User's manual, RX8/RX11 Floppy Disk System User's Manual, RX8/RX11 Floppy
>Disk System Maintenance Manual, the OS/8 Software Support Manual, and a
>FOCAL-GT/RT User's Manual. I have borrowed copies of the Small Computer
>Handbook (that's the one for 8/e, 8/f and 8/m) and the PDP8/a Minicomputer
>Handbook. I should have the RX02 User Manual somewhere too. What else am
>I going to need, that's downloadable from the net?
>
I have WPS, RX02 and OS/78, and COS manuals online. I have a complete VT78
printset but I have not scanned it yet.
http://www.pdp8.net/query_docs/query.shtml
What is FOCAL-GT/RT?
>I should have some 8" floppies, though I'm not sure what's on them because
>I've not actually found them yet :-) Is there anything I should try
>downloading from the net?
>
I have OS/78, COS and WPS images online, poke around in
ftp://pdp8.net/images/
If you have a OS/8 variant on the floppy that may be able to use my disk
image dump and restore programs, dumprest.zip in
ftp://pdp8.net/software/
I have never actually tried to use it on the VT78, I write the images
from the 8/E.
If you find you don't have any bootable floppies I can make you one.
My VT78 has gotten a little finicky, it sometimes needs a couple of power
cycles before it runs right. Yet another thing for the todo list.
David Gesswein
http://www.pdp8.net/ -- Old computers with blinkenlights
Received on Sat Dec 23 2000 - 13:18:47 GMT