Unibus Fun and Games!

[Qbus]

Unibus is nothing like Qbus, So I am building out my 11/34 and need to install a DL11-w card to use for the con. According to the book I can use any of the SPC locations and I have several open that I want to use. The question I have is that will the card fit into slots C, D, E and F or do I use slots A, B, C and D? for some strange reason want to think slots A and B are for modified Unibus only and my SPC junk would be in the slots past A and B kind of like the KY11-LB card. The system so far has a M-7266 in slot 1, M-7265 in slot 2, M-9301 in A and B and a KY-11 control interface in C, D, E and F in slot 3, a grant card in D on slot 4, memory in slot 5 and I have this DL11 and a RL controller card that I need to install in the system. There are also the grant cards in the unused slots and a M9302 terminator installed in A and B in slot 9. Figure the RL controller won’t be an issue being it uses all the card slots but then there is the question on if it needs to have something special with the wire wrap underneath? Looking at the bottom of the frame I can see that there is a lot of wire wrap installed on some of the SPC locations and have to wonder if with unibus systems the location of each SPC card was determined at the factory.
Also anyone got any tips on building up the serial cable from the forty pin connector on the DL11-W? thinking of just getting an old IDE cable, cutting off one end and finding the relevant wires and soldering them to a DB-25 but did not know if there was any trick to this.

 

[AK6DN]

SPC UNIBUS cards (any quad size card for UNIBUS) ONLY go in slots CDEF. Hex UNIBUS cards go in slots ABCDEF (obviously). Special dual size UNIBUS terminator cards (M9302, M9312, M9313, etc) only go in a non-MUD UNIBUS AB slot. There are some special UNIBUS cards that only go in MUDs as well (M7850 parity module, not common any more).

Remember bitsavers is your friend: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1134/ has most all the info you need to know about using and configuring 11/34 boxes. You want to look at chapter 4 in particular of the 11/34 user manual.

Don

 

[Qbus]

Ok, got my DL11-W chugging along at 9600 baud, 8 bit with the clock running also. Thing is I am use to working on Qbus stuff and on all the q systems I have if you exit the “boot” program you can use the con to examine and change memory locations. Looking at the 11/34 book it looks like my M9301 YA should allow me to dump out of the boot program and use the con the same way. Think you push the control and interrupt keys at the same time but if I do this my con port stops working. No matter what I do I can not get the con to change or modify anything, wont even echo. If I start running the boot program the con to do anything. Once I halt the system can use the front keypad to do all the normal junk, can enter addresses, change contents, step thru locations and run simple programs. Never having used a Unibus system is this normal for an 11/34 with the M7859 and keypad or dose my M9301 have a stupid ROM or is there something else I am missing? Would be nice to change and modify stuff via the con but maybe that’s just how Unibus systems are? Next step will be stuffing a M7762 up the frame and seeing if I can boot from a RL just hate to have to strip cables from the 11/23 to try to get the 34 up.

 

[AK6DN]

For the M9301 you select which 'program' (console emulator, specific device bootstraps) you want to execute by setting the dip switches correctly. Refer to sec 4.3.3 of the 11/34 User's Guide on Bitsaver's:

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1134/1134_UsersManual.pdf

If you have not downloaded this manual from bitsavers.org and read it from front to back do it tonite. There will be a pop quiz on Monday.

Don

 

[Qbus]

I read the book, also got the M9301 Bootstrap Terminator manual and read that but no matter what I do can not get that stupid rom board to do anything but give me a Boot prompt and when I go into signal step the CON goes away!!! Worst yet I installed the RL controller and have not been able to get the system to boot from the drive. The drive and disk all work well on the Qbus system so know they are ok. Going to have to read more and try to do things from the front panel keypad. I HATE COMPUTERS
A picture of the offending hardware.

 

[RSX11M+]

I read the book, also got the M9301 Bootstrap Terminator manual and read that but no matter what I do can not get that stupid rom board to do anything but give me a Boot prompt and when I go into signal step the CON goes away!!! Worst yet I installed the RL controller and have not been able to get the system to boot from the drive. The drive and disk all work well on the Qbus system so know they are ok. Going to have to read more and try to do things from the front panel keypad. I HATE COMPUTERS
A picture of the offending hardware.View attachment 9885

Have you tried the RL "Toggle in boot"?

I mean the one that's about 3 [two actually] instructions.


EDIT:

Took me a few mins to locate. [I'm ashamed to admit - I couldn't recall it any more ] It's on the RL01-RL02 Pocket Service Guide [EK-RL012-PG] and one some of the older PDP-11 Programming cards.

Transcribed:

6.1 RL11/RLV11 BOOTSTRAP

Ensure that the heads are over cylinder 0 and head 0 is selected by releasing the LOAD switch, waiting for the LOAD indicator to light, then depressing the LOAD switch.
After the drive is READY, initialize the controller with a system INITIALIZE. Perform a bit status clear. Load the following program into memory.

LOC      Contents       Comments
10000    012737         Load CSR
10002    000014
10004    174400
10006    000001         Wait

Start the program at 10000 and allow it to run for a few seconds. Halt the program and restart at 00000.

As I recall the drive READY "blinks" once when that program is run, and indicates block 0 was read into memory.

If it boots this way, you'll know the RL is correctly operable on your system as configured, plus pick up some very much needed mental health points.

 

[AK6DN]

I read the book, also got the M9301 Bootstrap Terminator manual and read that but no matter what I do can not get that stupid rom board to do anything but give me a Boot prompt and when I go into signal step the CON goes away ...

Have you checked that the DIP switches on the M9301 are functional? Close all the switches, and verify the resistance is low (should be a few ohms or less). Open all the switches and verify the resistance goes to a much higher value.

I have worked on many old DEC boards, and I have replaced more than just a few DIP switch packs, where the switches were stuck in one position or another. I found many switches where the internal switching mechanism was just plain stuck due to contamination.

I think the only other part I have replaced more of is the 7474 dual D flip flop from TI. For some reason it had a fairly high failure rate after 30+ years...

Don