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PDP-11 working system? how to use

S

Scrub

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Apr 15, 2023
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This has the following cards: M8189,M8067,M7957 and then at the bottom it has SCO3. So looked it up the cards are pretty self explanatory. The SC03 is apparently a drive controller of some sort for a bunch of massive devices that I am sure i will never be able to find. The green LED is on even though its hard to tell by the picture. I hooked it up to Terraterm and i get the following.
173000
@
So apparently you can type in assembler using octal, I do see there are to Eproms connected anyone have a clue whats on them or how to jump to the code? any help would be appreciated, I attached a picture of CPU board maybe that can give some ideas on how to get a program running on this. Any help would be appreciated, Thanks
 

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Is the SC03 installed when you run this test?

173000 is the standard bootstrap address, and the system is configured to run the bootstrap from the SC03 (J15 jumpered to J10 on the CPU board, which disables the boot/diagnostic capabilities on the CPU board).
 
Welcome to VCFED.

So the character '@' indicates it is running ODT.

Try typing "R0/" and see what you get. You should see the value of register R0. You can modify it by entering a new value (in octal) and pressing <RETURN>.

You can do the same thing with memory e.g. "1000/" opens memory location 1000 (octal) for editing. Enter a new value. Use <RETURN> to terminate and <LINEFEED> to close the current memory location and open the next.

See if these basic ODT commands work.

Dave
 
Steve Toner said:
Is the SC03 installed when you run this test?

173000 is the standard bootstrap address, and the system is configured to run the bootstrap from the SC03 (J15 jumpered to J10 on the CPU board, which disables the boot/diagnostic capabilities on the CPU board).
Click to expand...
yes the SC03 is installed, would you suggest i pull that card since i don't have a drive for it anyway? or can i just remove that wire wrap. The system manual that i have shows that by default there should be no connection. Thanks
 
daver2 said:
Welcome to VCFED.

So the character '@' indicates it is running ODT.

Try typing "R0/" and see what you get. You should see the value of register R0. You can modify it by entering a new value (in octal) and pressing <RETURN>.

You can do the same thing with memory e.g. "1000/" opens memory location 1000 (octal) for editing. Enter a new value. Use <RETURN> to terminate and <LINEFEED> to close the current memory location and open the next.

See if these basic ODT commands work.

Dave
Click to expand...
ODT seems to be working, i can change values and check them. ODT only starts if i have it halted, if i turn it on enabled then it just runs forever and nothing happens.
 
Scrub said:
ODT seems to be working, i can change values and check them. ODT only starts if i have it halted, if i turn it on enabled then it just runs forever and nothing happens.
Click to expand...
That sounds correct. It is probably trying to boot from a non existent device using a bootstrap that doesn't halt when it can't boot.

Dave
 
Thanks guys, this helped a bunch. Removing that jumper j15 to j10 seems to have made some progress, now the machine says:
TESTING MEMORY
0256.KW
START?
if i halt it goes back to ODT, so what would be my next step?
 
I have both cables for one of these. Or at least they appear to be. 60 pin and 26 pin. Anyone needing said cables? I don't know where I got them, but have no use
for them.
 
I realize there is a delay here since this is a new account, but i been playing around with some program named tu58em.exe that i found online and was able to boot up using the 2nd serial port, anyone got any games or programs in one of these tape files, and what do i need to get a real disk for this machine?

TESTING MEMORY
0256.KW
START? dd0

RT-11SJ V05.03

.
 
By real disk, do you mean one that works with your current controller, or will you consider other options? As noted above, your controller is for SMD drives...
And by real disk, do you mean a real disk, or will you consider something that emulates a disk with more modern solid state technology?

I just bought a ZuluSCSI RP2040 Kit, (US$49) which seems to be working fine on my Windows 95 machine. But consider that a QBUS SCSI controller costs probably around US$300 these days. But that's one route.

Another emulator option is an RQDX3 controller (one just sold on ebay for US$81) with an MFM drive emulator...
 
Steve Toner said:
By real disk, do you mean one that works with your current controller, or will you consider other options? As noted above, your controller is for SMD drives...
And by real disk, do you mean a real disk, or will you consider something that emulates a disk with more modern solid state technology?

I just bought a ZuluSCSI RP2040 Kit, (US$49) which seems to be working fine on my Windows 95 machine. But consider that a QBUS SCSI controller costs probably around US$300 these days. But that's one route.

Another emulator option is an RQDX3 controller (one just sold on ebay for US$81) with an MFM drive emulator...
Click to expand...
that one that you bought seems pretty good and i like the fact that it uses and SD card, it would be nice to keep the SMD controller in the system also if possible in case i ever come across an SMD drive. I been looking at a few of the names and the Fujitsu Eagle is the only drive that somewhat rings a bell. Im not particularly nostalgic for some old scsi drive and I think an emulated one would be just as good. For QBUS controllers are there any retailers left or is it what you can find used on ebay?
 
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