The recent build of 10 emulators appear to be working well. It passes the MAINDEC-08-DHRKB-D-D_RK8E_Drive_Control_Test when attached to an RK8-E, functions properly in a system with two emulators attached, and when connected to the RK05 tester has run for over 2,000,000 sector random read/write operations with zero errors. Thanks much to
@thunter0512 for many hours of debugging and testing with his real RK8-E. Also thanks to
@m_thompson for testing a prototype in his PDP-8/e
Much of the documentation has been uploaded to
https://github.com/G-Wiley/RK05_Emulator_Tester_System but I still need to upload the RPi software and FPGA source code and programming instructions.
The emulator hardware will also function as a drive tester with different RPi software and FPGA firmware. However, not all of the tester functions have been implemented yet. All of the core test functions are working but the ability to save drive contents to microSD and copy from microSD to a drive still needs to be debugged. I’m really hoping that this will get some good amount of use as a tester so we can save more real RK05 drives to prevent them from becoming scrap.
There are four remaining RK05 emulator kits if anyone is interested to purchase one. PM me if you want one or email if you know me. There are also accessories helpful to connect the emulator to a system. The details regarding cost of the emulator and each accessory is in the BOM spreadsheet in github, this link
https://github.com/G-Wiley/RK05_Emu... bill of materials v1 BOM inventory v09a.xlsx and then click “Download raw file”. I can put a summary in the VCF “Vintage Computer Items For Sale or Trade”. The costs are what I paid for parts rounded up to the next whole dollar amount (Excel function =CEILING(<exact_cost>,1). So, this is definitely not a for-profit thing.
I’d like to get feedback regarding the build and use experience, so I’d prefer one emulator per person, for now. Would prefer that it gets built and used soon. More emulators will be built in a second and maybe larger build, build size depending on the demand.
A brief description of the emulator and accessories is attached, and github has more info.