Jack.
Experienced Member
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.
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.
It got me a bit to solder up a cable since i had never soldered anything before.
This was the result:
It was later fixed as i swapped yellow and black cables.
I plugged the cable in my Portable 2210 Computer/Terminal and...
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.
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.
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.
It got me a bit to solder up a cable since i had never soldered anything before.
This was the result:
It was later fixed as i swapped yellow and black cables.
I plugged the cable in my Portable 2210 Computer/Terminal and...
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.