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News from the barn (many pictures)

gnupublic

gnupublic

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2019
Messages
329
Location
Germany, Berlin
Some times ago I talked about my PDP-12 projekt. The machine I found in this barn.

This thread here

Meanwhile I got in contact with others who were in this barn before, also some people here in this forum. I'm in contact with Hasso, who is the owner of this barn. He had a computer business back in those days and stored old computers that came from customers in this barn, beginning end of 1970's. We are now getting things out of the barn and selling them or finding a new home, because it's necessary. Hasso allowed me to tell this story, maybe it's interesting for you.

The little barn looks quite unobtrusive:
1748767075344.jpeg

But inside it' a bit different:

1748767112316.jpeg

1748767158147.jpeg

1748767186220.jpeg

So there are lots of computers and even much more parts, flipchips and cards. Even some documentation. We have not found all treasures yet, because you need to come near to it, to find out what it is. There are not much paths to move there. We worked hard to make it possible to reach the PDP-8/I, to take all out of the rack. Also the RF08, RS08, TC08 and so on.

Now I was able to reach the three PDP-10 racks to see what is in. And what did I found, having the first look into this king's chamber?
There where two further PDP-8/I in it (without PSU), two TU-55, PC-05,.....

Some pictures of thinks from this barn:

1748767911792.jpeg

1748767939698.jpeg

1748767956918.jpeg

One more car full im my Mini Lab Lindow:

1748767987532.jpeg

More things waiting to get awake from slumber:

1748768125544.jpeg 1748768154913.jpeg

1748768182934.jpeg

1748768215115.jpeg

And last but not least, my favorite so far:

1748768277588.jpeg 1748768352371.jpeg

1748768310482.jpeg

If somebody is interested in this awesome AD-Converter, please let me know.

There will be more "News from the barn" with the time, stay tuned...
Have fun gnupublic
 
Wow, an Aladdin’s cave (barn)! Of PDP and Vax equipment. Amazing to see all this in one location. I hope it all finds its way to caring homes for folks to restore and enjoy!
 
Nice. I've seen a few interesting parts, but Berlin is a bit too far.
 
That is quite a nice collection and while the barn doesn't look like much on the outside, it is clear that the equipment was protected from the elements.

I've never seen an RM 503 with white lettering on a black painted faceplate. It is usually black lettering on brushed metal.

I look forward to hearing more about this find!
 
Last weekend we met at the barn with a couple of people to get some things out. This was also the case with the Nuclear Data computers. I forgot to take some pictures, but found this old one:

PXL_20230107_105803484_markiert.jpg
 
In the red circle there are two Nuclear Data ND812 Computers and one Extension. Thats the only foto I have from it in the barn.

HERE
are some questions from the new owner who also will post some fotos later on.
 
Today we had a session at the barn again. Maybe the last time for me. We got out a lot of things, but the best is, we managed to get out the VAX 8600!

1768678493172.jpeg

Together with the starter rack and a lot of other small things it filled the car.

1768678567685.jpeg

But there were some more things we found. For me it was a complete set of cards for a 11/40, great as spare for my PDP. Also I found a TU55 I did not expect to find there anymore.
The things still in the barn are more ore less in very bad conditions, it does not really make sense to save more. The barn will be sold in maybe short future and other people want it to have space to put cars in. Well, first they will have to clean something.

So this is the last picture you can compare to the second in this thread. On first sight no big difference....

1768678924432.jpeg

Greetings,
Volker
 
Last edited:
Wow, such a great place to be in. I see there are still a lot of things worth saving there, like BA11 chassis, backplanes, DECservers, or RK05s drives/parts. I think it would be a huge pity if anything like that ended in scrap.

Mikołaj
 
gnupublic said:
Some times ago I talked about my PDP-12 projekt. The machine I found in this barn.

This thread here

Meanwhile I got in contact with others who were in this barn before, also some people here in this forum. I'm in contact with Hasso, who is the owner of this barn. He had a computer business back in those days and stored old computers that came from customers in this barn, beginning end of 1970's. We are now getting things out of the barn and selling them or finding a new home, because it's necessary. Hasso allowed me to tell this story, maybe it's interesting for you.

The little barn looks quite unobtrusive:
View attachment 1301896

But inside it' a bit different:

View attachment 1301897

View attachment 1301898

View attachment 1301899

So there are lots of computers and even much more parts, flipchips and cards. Even some documentation. We have not found all treasures yet, because you need to come near to it, to find out what it is. There are not much paths to move there. We worked hard to make it possible to reach the PDP-8/I, to take all out of the rack. Also the RF08, RS08, TC08 and so on.

Now I was able to reach the three PDP-10 racks to see what is in. And what did I found, having the first look into this king's chamber?
There where two further PDP-8/I in it (without PSU), two TU-55, PC-05,.....

Some pictures of thinks from this barn:

View attachment 1301900

View attachment 1301901

View attachment 1301902

One more car full im my Mini Lab Lindow:

View attachment 1301903

More things waiting to get awake from slumber:

View attachment 1301904 View attachment 1301905

View attachment 1301906

View attachment 1301907

And last but not least, my favorite so far:

View attachment 1301908 View attachment 1301910

View attachment 1301909

If somebody is interested in this awesome AD-Converter, please let me know.

There will be more "News from the barn" with the time, stay tuned...
Have fun gnupublic
Click to expand...
Wow! Treasure trove over here!
 
gnupublic said:
Today we had a session at the barn again. Maybe the last time for me. We got out a lot of things, but the best is, we managed to get out the VAX 8600!

View attachment 1314756

Together with the starter rack and a lot of other small things it filled the car.
Click to expand...
Sorry if I'm Captain Obvious here, but a word of caution is that IIRC the RL-02 drive in what you call the starter rack is set for 110V and thus obviously runs from a transformer (as the full 8600 setup in Europe runs on 220/380V (or today 230/400V) AC).

Might be worth remembering for whenever you might want to pull out the drive and do any bench testing/service/whatnot.

IIRC it uses a US style combined breaker and power switch. IIRC it's possible to tie a wire through the handle on that type of breaker/switch. Maybe write "110V" on both sides of a piece of thick paper, put a hole in the middle of the paper and tie it to the power switch of the drive, to save it from future mistakes.

(I'm mentioning the drive specifically as IIRC that's the only part of an 8600 setup that makes any sense to remove and run/test/service separately; everything else is IIRC things that you wouldn't generally remove and power using a regular mains power cord).
 
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