Wow! Excellent write up and photos! Thank you!
* ste...@malikoff.com <ste...@malikoff.com> [160302 17:51]: > Well, it started with 'Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU'... > A few weeks ago you saw some poor quality photos Jay posted from someone who > had found a PDP-11 of some sort. > It seems no-one could identify it or the ancillary equipment at the time. As > it happened to be located here > in Oz, and only in the next state, I thought it was worth a gamble on going > to rescue it even though it was > hundreds of kays/miles away and would mean a few days driving. > > So I took last Thursday and Friday off work to drive down in my ute from > Brisbane to the gear's location. I drove > the inland highway and just camped along the way each evening. The weather > was very warm and pleasant. During the > evenings the mozzies were out in force, biting. > > Arriving at the location first thing Saturday morning (as I had camped the > second night nearby) I was shown the > horse stables where the gear was stored. It was near an entrance and the top > of the rack was covered with a tarp. > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_01.jpg > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_02.jpg > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_03.jpg > > The rack was sitting directly on the dirt floor. The stables hadn't been used > for decades as such and there was a > lot of mouse and other animal droppings on everything. The front of the rack > was against some horse tying-up posts > so we got to work levering it away from them to get to the front, for which I > had brought gloves. > > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_04.jpg > > At this point I realised what I was looking at. It was a Foxboro Fox 2 > computer, essentially a rebadged PDP-11/20. > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_05.jpg > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_06.jpg > > A while ago I had by chance downloaded and looked at the very same brochure > for this machine, I think perhaps > because it had been mentioned here. So I was able to identify it immediately. > This is that brochure: > http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Foxboro/Foxboro.Fox2-30.1972.102646170.pdf > > The cabinet was about two and a half 19" rack-widths wide, painted lime green > and with custom industrial control > equipment to the left and the computer, paper tape reader and expansion box > in the right. The half width section > contained a series of power supplies. almost all cables had Winchester MRAC > connectors on them (visible in the > original photos, and I happened to have a need for some for my Diablos). > > There were no peripherals of any sort apart from the paper tape reader and > the custom A-D I/O. No disc drives nor > the fabulous drum shown in the brochure. > > At the bottom of the computer rack section there was a very sad PDP-11/05, > missing its console, and full of mud. > Being at the bottom it had been flooded over the years and was silted up. It > had a cable to the BA-11 expansion > cabinet. > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_07.jpg > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_08.jpg > > I started by removing the 11/05, as there was a (very very) slim chance I > might be able to use it for some spares, > and I had a need for the BC-5 Power Control Unit in the chassis anyway. This > machine was not on rack slides but > just lying on the bottom on the dirt. Surprisingly the paper label on the top > panel was still partly legible, > considering the immersion. > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_12.jpg > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_13.jpg > > Next I worked on removing the BA-11. It was pretty much empty with only a > small Unibus backplane. > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_14.jpg > After that I attended to the Fox 2, and before long after a lot of sweating > we had the machine out and ready to > load onto my ute. > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_09.jpg > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_10.jpg > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_11.jpg > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_15.jpg > > Finally I removed the Foxboro paper tape reader. The tape holders each side > slide up to reveal the rack mounting > screws. Onto the ute it went. > > There were some other racks of gear, but all custom idustrial control > equipment. One rack had a DEC A-D Converter > in it with some serious cables connected to some backplanes of the smaller > Flip Chip modules. I grabbed the A-D > and Flip Chips. > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_16.jpg > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_17.jpg > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_18.jpg > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_19.jpg > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_20.jpg > > There is an identical DEC A-D on eBay at the moment which shows you what it's > like: > http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-DEC-A-D-Converter-/141324598814 > > The I/O for the machine was (I believe) an ASR-35 the bigger brother to the > ASR-33. I couldn't take it, it was > wedged in behind the other racks and I had only a limited amount of time to > load the equipment before I had to > head back interstate to home. I did not see any sign of the optional I/O > Selectrics shown in the brochure, as I > would definately have liked to have found those if I could have! I don't > think this machine had them, only the > ASR-35, as no printout I found appeared to be done by a Selectric. > > There was a smallish dumb terminal under some junk, this didn't have any > brand or logo on it. Can anyone identify > it perhaps? > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_21.jpg > > Loaded the gear and the unmanaged mass of paper tape on, sort it out later! > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_22.jpg > > There were removalists boxes of documentation, so many I had no chance to go > through more than half a dozen. In > the ones I went through, I found manuals for the Fox 2, DEC printsets, > printset for the 11/05, PDP-9 manuals, > Honeywell 716 and Westinghouse manuals. I found a CDC disc pack that seems to > be suitable for an RM03. Once again > no PDP-9 (that I could identify as such!), peripherals or any other piece of > hardware that these manuals were > for was evident anywhere (I looked!!). No sign of any early DEC units such as > RP01 02 03 or the like, nor PC04 or > anything. > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_23.jpg > > After looking at the Foxboro documentation it seems the Fox 2 ran an > application called 'FOXY' which controlled > the coking oxygenation plant at Port Kembla steelworks from about 1972 to the > mid-late 1970s. Documents indicated > the PDP-9 controlled the steelworks plate rolling mill. I have no idea (yet) > what the Honeywell and Westinghouse > machines did. > > One curious thing was, I was allowed to take the machines, documentation and > so on, but not the rack slides nor > any part of them. They were to stay with the cabinets. Yes I did mention they > were specific to the equipment and > probably no use for any newer equipment. So it's going to be another long > process of making or adapting rack > slides as I have already been doing for my other gear. > > As soon as I had finished loading I left gor home. After an overnight rest > stop near a nice lake, I was back home > in Brisbane on Sunday arvo. Here is the haul before I started unloading: > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_24.jpg > http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/4173/gear_recovery_25.jpg > > I've contacted others about the need to recover the rest of the gear and > especially the boxes, so I'll see what > happens in that respect. I must thank Jay for putting me in touch with the > relevant people. All in all it was I > think a worthwhile 1651km (1025 mile) round trip! > > Steve. > > (Top posting my reply here - yes I don't normally do it nor condone it, but > it in this case suited my lengthy post) > > ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- > Subject: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU > From: "Jay West" <jw...@classiccmp.org> > Date: Fri, January 29, 2016 6:11 am > To: cctalk@classiccmp.org > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > DEC Gear available. Unlike most dec gear, I must admit that I can't identify > > exactly what this is. Several racks, I was guessing AFT or Instrumentation > > Testing. Looks like one or more cpu or expansion cabinets in some of the > > racks, and some DEC AD/DA interface stuff. I was left with the impression > > that there may be one or more racks that are not shown in the pictures > > provided. I was told that racks are in "several different buildings on the > > estate" (residential). The first rack looks to be in very bad shape (perhaps > > a power supply), but the other racks don't look so bad. > > > > I am not sure that I can get more pictures from the owner, but will try. I > > think that in order to get pictures of the fronts (what we all probably want > > to see), the owner would have to move stuff (and them) and would rather not. > > The equipment is located in NSW, Australia. It sound like they just want it > > to go to a good home. > > > > If someone is local to NSW Australia and wants to spearhead going onsite to > > take a closer look for others and/or pick up the gear themselves, let me > > know offlist and I'll give you the contact info. > > >