• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

QProbe 2023

Matlock said:
There is now an updated QProbe 2023 that adds disk drive activity to the display panel. I
Click to expand...
Guys,
FYI: as Mark told, the new drive LEDs can be driven by both the BA23 panel connector and QBone simultaneously.
The BA23 20pin panel cable is routed throught the QProbe LED panel.
So if you like, you can wire up a BA23-QBone-QProbe combo.

And as Mark is happy now, I declare the endless prototyping phase as completed ;-)

Joerg
 

Attachments

  • panel-base1.jpg
    panel-base1.jpg
    229 KB · Views: 22
  • panel-base2.jpg
    panel-base2.jpg
    174.5 KB · Views: 21
  • panel-base-schematic.pdf
    2.1 MB · Views: 4
  • qprobe1.png
    qprobe1.png
    618.6 KB · Views: 19
  • qprobe-schematic.pdf
    2.1 MB · Views: 3
  • qbone-marked.jpg
    qbone-marked.jpg
    364.2 KB · Views: 22
Joerg,
I am very happy now !!!

Thanks for all the work on the remote display in addition to the QBone and QProbe !!!

Also after seeing at VCF Berlin how you had a system built up on a 4 slot bare backplane with the QBone / QProbe and an ordinary PC power supply, that will be my next project using the earlier prototype version remote display.

Mark
 
Joerg Hoppe said:
Guys,
FYI: as Mark told, the new drive LEDs can be driven by both the BA23 panel connector and QBone simultaneously.
The BA23 20pin panel cable is routed throught the QProbe LED panel.
So if you like, you can wire up a BA23-QBone-QProbe combo.

And as Mark is happy now, I declare the endless prototyping phase as completed ;-)

Joerg
Click to expand...

Since I have 3 of the first QBones, will there be something to tell how to add the drive light capability to the older versions?
 
reinhardtjh said:
Since I have 3 of the first QBones, will there be something to tell how to add the drive light capability to the older versions?
Click to expand...
You need to solder a 2x5 IDC connector to the prototyping area. and connect it with 5 wires to GND and existing LEDs. See J10 in the schematic.
 

Attachments

  • qbone-schematic.pdf
    4.3 MB · Views: 12
I finally finished the build and installation of my QProbe 2023 into my BA23 housed 11/83. Despite thinking I had been careful when installing the reset momentary switch, I managed to install it reversed and had to haul it out again to fix that. To help hold the LED panel sled in position, I drilled a hole in the sled to accept a button (Fillister) head screw to be trapped by the spring clip. It's fun to see the BSD 2.11 idle pattern rolling along the lights.
 
Congrats on your build of the QProbe 2023. I’ve only run RSX11M+ on my 11/83 so that’s the only idle pattern I’ve seen so far, but it’s good to know that BSD 2.11 also dis its idle pattern on QProbe 2023. I‘ll have to boot that from the QBone some time and see it.
 
The information linked in the original post describes the capabilities. You can set a raw monitor mode where the QBus signals are passed through to the LEDs, or attach logic probes to the QProbe board via headers.
 
Nice video. I am curious about your 11/83 system. To see the RSX11M idle pattern on an 11/83 you have to basically disable PMI access to memory by putting the CPU above memory in the backplane. Also, your CPU must have cache. This leaves the idle pattern on the Q22 bus when RSX hits the wait instruction in the idle loop. I wondered if BSD 2.11 behaved differently.

While I was writing this I also got to wondering whether the 11/83 CPU could use a combination of PMI and Q22 memory. In other words what happens when the CPU is between two PMI memory boards? Part of memory is faster and the other part is slower?
 
My 11/83 only has 3 MiB of Qbus memory unfortunately, I had an 11/73 M8192 CPU card in there originally and was lucky to get one of those NOS 11/83 CPU cards a while back and had an 18 MHz capable J11 chip to put into it. Everything I've read suggests it is possible to use both PMI and Qbus memory cards in the same system with the Qbus memory accesses being slower than the PMI ones.
 
Congrats on getting one of those NOS 11/83 cards. That was a good deal on those.

I used a Fortran based Sieve of Eratosthenes to give rough performance indications. Using an 8KB array to force some cache misses with F77 compiled code my 11/83 using QBus memory runs at 0.81 of the speed when the memory is in the PMI mode.

Also, when looking for PMI memory be sure to get MSV11-JD or MSV11-JE which support Block mode DMA correctly. (Read OEM Micronote #28) Bad things happen when MSV11-JB or JC are used on an 11/83 but they do work fine in the 11/84. I know this from personal experience.
 
Found a pair of MSV11-JE boards for a reasonable price and a 11/83 cabinet kit SLU to round things out.
 
Congrats on the PMI memory and the cab kit. The 11/83 system with PMI memory allows the Q22 bus to focus on I/O. The QBone then can really fly. When I run RSX11M’s IOX system exerciser, I’ve seen on the order of 150 disk I/Os a second.
 
I’ve bought a number of things from Mitch at Keyways, even driving there to pick up a larger item (BA123). His prices are on the high side but he tests many items and stands behind what he sells. If you call him directly, identify yourself as a hobbyist, he sometimes will be able to provide better pricing, depending on what it is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top