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Sun Sparcstation Voyager success and questions

snuci

snuci

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
1,558
Location
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
I just wanted to post my joy in acquiring and getting a Sun Sparcstation Voyager up and running (my first personal Sun). It has a bad NVRAM and came with no hard drive so I put in an Adtron Compact Flash SCSI drive in it and was off to the races. I installed Solaris 2.3 and forgot how to format and partition drives so that was a little rocky but it runs great.

I may have a keyboard issue or a cord issue. The Sun came with the Sun Compact 1 keyboard (that thing is a beauty) but it didn't come with a cord. I used an AppleNet cord that I've read is supposed to be the same but I don't think it works. I used a Sun 5c keyboard and was good to go. Can AppleNet cords be used for Sun keyboard cords?

This machine came with 48K of RAM. I'm assuming it will be impossible to find those special Sun RAM modules?
 
Whoa, that's nice!
I guess you can use a newer version of solaris if you want...

Have you tried looking for the cable pinouts comparison? Actually i don't have a Voyager (still in my wishlist :p), else i could help you more.

About the RAM sticks, probably they differ from contemporary Sun models, so yes.
 
FWIW, I believe that the old Apple Desktop Bus cables have the same pinout as S-Video cables.

Good advice to check the pinouts, just the same.

Can you post any pictures? I've never seen a Sun SparcStation Voyager for real.

smp
 
smp said:
FWIW, I believe that the old Apple Desktop Bus cables have the same pinout as S-Video cables.
Click to expand...

Yes, I've used s-video cables for Apple keyboard cables. No problem.

smp said:
Can you post any pictures? I've never seen a Sun SparcStation Voyager for real.
Click to expand...

I sure will. I'll have to probably do it on the weekend when I have good light. Those low-wattage CFL bulbs really suck for taking pictures.

I've tried again with a second ApleNet cable and it doesn't work. It's odd because they are sold as AppleNet/Sun keyboard cables y some vendors. Maybe it's a problem with the Sun Compact 1 keyboard.

Edit: Here's a couple of quick/bad pics. You can see the difference in the normal Sun 5c keyboard and the Compact. Fits in the Sun laptop bag I got with it also.

IMG_0034.jpgIMG_0033.jpg
 
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I can't believe it!
Awesome machine, really!

Drop me a line if you want to sell it ;)

As for the JavaStation, it's a shame i'm in Italy...

Ciao.
 
snuci said:
I just wanted to post my joy in acquiring and getting a Sun Sparcstation Voyager up and running (my first personal Sun). It has a bad NVRAM and came with no hard drive so I put in an Adtron Compact Flash SCSI drive in it and was off to the races. I installed Solaris 2.3 and forgot how to format and partition drives so that was a little rocky but it runs great.

I may have a keyboard issue or a cord issue. The Sun came with the Sun Compact 1 keyboard (that thing is a beauty) but it didn't come with a cord. I used an AppleNet cord that I've read is supposed to be the same but I don't think it works. I used a Sun 5c keyboard and was good to go. Can AppleNet cords be used for Sun keyboard cords?

This machine came with 48K of RAM. I'm assuming it will be impossible to find those special Sun RAM modules?
Click to expand...

Congrats on restoring your Sun Voyager! ...and Yes, the special SUN credit-card sized RAM modules are more rare than the Voyager machine, it seems.
I just restored my Voyager earlier this year, with some big help, and replacing the dead CMOS time/date chip helped it to boot up flawlessly. (new replacement Dallas CMOS chips are still obtainable from electronics firms, like Digikey, if you look around.)
My system is complete and in great condition with original compact keyboard, mouse, cables and black SUN carrying case like yours and I plan to offer it for sale on Ebay shortly, unless anyone here would like to make me an offer directly.

These are rare units, especially working systems, as anyone that has tried to obtain one knows. I will be asking $650 as a starting point, which I think is fair. There's a working system (with a substitute non-original keyboard) on Ebay now for $800 or offer.
 
I worked for Sun Microsystems, and I had a Voyager prototype for a long time. Even had 2 screens (a b&w and a color one). The machine died a long time ago, and I (stupid) threw it away. I checked if I kept the keyboard, but I can't find it anymore. However, I found 2 Toshiba 2.5 SCSI drives... I know these are hard to find, but didn't know they could be replaced by compact flash SCSI card (is this a regular compact flash + adapter ?)

-Fred
 
The CF adapter I am using is a 2.5" Adtron SCSI adapter. As long as you put in a CF card it can read, it acts completely like a normal 2.5" scsi drive. I don't recall if I use a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter but those can also be used to emulate a 3.5" SCSI hard drive. The OS knows nothing about the adapter because it thinks it's a normal hard drive.

Sad that you got rid of your Voyager. Were the b&w and color screens interchangeable on the same base? If so, was there any hardware changes required? Very cool if it did that. You could then "upgrade" to color if you wanted to later, in that case.
 
Sad that you got rid of your Voyager. Were the b&w and color screens interchangeable on the same base? If so, was there any hardware changes required? Very cool if it did that. You could then "upgrade" to color if you wanted to later, in that case.
Click to expand...

Yes. The screens were interchangeable, but I don't recall if we shipped Voyager with b&w... I was (and still am) in the mid-range and hi-range server business. I also got rid of an Ultra2 prototype, due to lack of space... I still have a few old parts (ram and cpus (before sparc ultra)) if folks are interested, drop me a PM.
 
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