DECmate III and Rainbow 100+

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Tue Feb 22 18:40:34 2005

>
>
> I'm trying to get either of these systems running in the hopes that I can
> access what I believe to me a 5.25" disk with an RT-11 filesystem on it.
>
> Both systems have a video port and a COMM port. I tried connecting a
> VT510 to the COMM port on each system but didn't get anything (at either

AFAIK you don't get anything from the serial ports on these machines.
They're designed to work with the built-in video and keyboard interfaces.

> 9600 or 19,200 bps). I can't find my VR201 to check if video is coming
> out either one.

If you're desparate I can find the pinouts of the monitor connector and
you can hook up a composite (RS-170 'NTSC') mono monitor.

However, I don't see what use these machines will be to you. Niether is a
PDP11 -- the 'bow is a somewhat idiosyncratic (?spel) CP/M and MS-DOS box
(certainly not a PC!), the BECmate is a word processor based round a
single-chip PDP8. Either runs RT11 (or can make sense of an RT11
filesystem using standard supplied software). You may have more luck
trying to read the disk on a PC, since I belive software to do that exists.

-tony
Received on Tue Feb 22 2005 - 18:40:34 GMT