Okay, so I made some good progress. By a stroke of luck (or rather,
there's something to be said about being an indiscriminate collector) I
realized I had a DSD A4432-4 controller in another LSI-11 system I have
(the one I worked on previously) and found I have the DSD 440 drive unit
to go with it. Yippee. I managed to scrounge a 26-pin ribbon cable. And
thanks again to Al, I was able to figure out how to configure the board,
or rather, figured out it was already configured as needed. I probably
have the manual buried somewhere around here. Oh well.
I connected everything and then booted the 11/03. When I have the ENABLE
switch on, and then I turn DC power on, the drives go KLUNK. So
apparently the boot PROMs on the interface are taking over. I can also
halt and then try a 137000G and the drives go KLUNK, so that sounds
healthy (somewhat). At least I can be fairly sure the cable is connected
properly (it's not the original and so I didn't have a keyed cable to rely
on to prevent me from plugging it in wrong, but to RTFM has its
advantages).
Unfortunately, the last piece I needed, an RT11 system disk, was nowhere
to be found :( I know I have around here...somewhere.
The drive seems to be mechanically sound so far, though I won't be able to
tell until I can get something that boots. I put in a blank disk to make
sure the drive isn't doing something wacky like scoring the disk surface
or putting holes in it.
Has anyone here used the DSD 440? I'd like to make sure what I'm
observing is what it's supposed to be doing. I'd hoped that the drive
would at least try to seek for a while but all I see happening is the
drive LED go on for a split second and then go off when I start the
system.
If the DSD 440 ends up not being functional (a shame if so) I can always
fall back on the MXV21 since I have a generic dual 8" drive system waiting
in the wings.
Clues appreciated!
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Thu Feb 03 2005 - 05:13:34 GMT