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My MicroVAX 3300 lives...

J

Jack.

Experienced Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
221
Location
Northern Italy
Thanks to Retro.BBK, i've got an awesome MicroVAX 3300.

It actually got to me with two HDs (one dead), a tape in the drive (dead) and some cards.
I haven't opened it up yet, so i don't know the internal state of the machine. I just know it works.

The seller told me i had to build myself a cable if i didn't have a DEC VT, so i got some pinouts and designed my cable. It's very cheap as it uses the most common things in italy: RJ11 telephone cables.
Connector_mmjm.jpg
To put one of those as an MMJ plug just rip off the plastic pin. You may notice that they do only have four cables, but, according to my schematic that is not a problem, since the cable uses only TX+, RX+, TX- and RX-. DTR and DSR are not vital, but if you want to use them, get an RJ12 cable instead.
mmj_pin_name.png
It got me a bit to solder up a cable since i had never soldered anything before.
This was the result:
20140202_111232.jpg
It was later fixed as i swapped yellow and black cables.

I plugged the cable in my Portable 2210 Computer/Terminal and...
20140209_115049.jpg
The MicroVAX lives.

It's awesome to work with a micro which is 10 years older than me! :D
Now i've just got to figure out how to unjam the tape and if i can connect an external drive to install OpenVMS on it.
Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Jack.
 
What board do you have in the system? Should be a M7624 KA640 CPU, which gives you a base of 4MB, plus Ethernet and DSSI interfaces, and probably at least one or more M7621 or M7622 for an additional 8MB or 16MB. Plus a M7546 TQK50 or M7559 TQK70 controller for the tape drive. That would take up half of the 6 slots in the BA215 chassis.
 
M7624 KA460, with MMJ and double networking, yes!
I have the M7546 TQK50 installed and a M3119 CXY08 board with two strange connectors, they do look like parallel/serial, but i'm not documented in this...
One of the disks is broken, but the seller is giving me another HDD to replace the faulty one.
There also seems to be an SCSI (?) connector near the drives, right up the visible black-covered cables.

I need to unjam the tape, though. It came with VMS 5.2 BIN Binary 1/2 tape into the TK50 and it looks like it's gone mad. How can i get it out without breaking the drive?

Thanks,
Jack
 
The CXY08 is an 8-line async multiplexer. It is software compatible with the DHV11 or DHU11. One BC19N-12 cable connects to each of the two connectors on the CXY08, and each BC19N-12 breaks out to four DB25 connectors.

A CXY08 manual is online here:
http://manx.classiccmp.org/collections/antonio/dec/MDS-1997-10/cd1/VOL001/0448.PDF

I have never had much luck trying to restore TK50 tape drives and distribution tapes to functional condition so I can't offer you any real advice on doing that. I just install VMS from CD-ROM drives.

If you were in the US you could pick up an M5976 KZQSA SCSI adapter for around $60 which you could use to install VMS from a SCSI CD-ROM drive. It is not supported to use an M5976 KZQSA SCSI adapter with a hard drive as a boot drive. No idea what it would cost to get someone to ship an M5976 KZQSA SCSI adapter to your location.
 
Nice to know that, thanks.

Looks like i'm gonna have trouble. Shipping US > ITA and vice versa is always a no-go, trust me.
 
Ok, i unjammed and cleaned the tape drive, but unfortunately the mechanics looks to be dead. :(
I'm trying to boot form the HDD right now, but i don't know what will come out...

BINGO

VMS 4.5 is on the disk...
I'm going to have fun :D
 
Jack - you sound like a kid who just found a candy store in his basement.

Enjoy!
 
Well, it's not like i am a grown-up man :p

Whatever yes, i was very happy.

Then...
Username:
Password:
...

I shouted.
 
Hi All;
I have (somewhere) an Old tape drive that takes those kind of Cartridges, and Tapes for Some kind of (If I remember Correctly) Sun Unix.. The Tape Cartridge and the tapes may not have come from the same systems.. At this point I don't even know what Interface the Tape Drive has..
THANK YOU marty
 
Hm, are you sure it reads DLT tapes?
I've never heard of Sun using DLT, but i may be wrong...

Is it Sun Unix or SunOS?
If they have Sun Unix on them, then you've got a damn nice treasure there.

I'm actually seeking SunOS tapes, even non-working ones, just for display. I love the look of these!
SunOS_4.1.1_P1270750.jpg
 
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