On 6/26/2022 8:46 PM, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
Been working on fixing an old 11/03 system in a BA11-N chassis with an
18 bit 9273 backplane. The power supply was working at first with no
issues, but when I left it on for a bit and came back it had blown the
power supply fuse. Replacing fuse causes another blow, so something
was most definitely wrong.
First place to check was the primary side of the system. Fairly
simple: Rectify AC to DC, then pass through a pair of BUY69A NPN
transistors, then into a second transformer which goes to the various
regulators. The main rectifier was not shorted and the transistors
looked fine as well. Took the caps off to check them, no issues there
either...
So I found a copy of the H786 power supply schematics (used in the
BA11-N series of pdp11 Q bus boxes). It's on page 290 in a big PDF
scan of a bunch of MINC-11 documents that also include the RXV21,
11/03 CPU, and the like. File is
MP00652MNC11SchematicsJul78.2761676314.pdf if you need to find it.
Anyway, it also showed me another place where there could be a line AC
short: There is of course a big rectifier that takes the 120v and
turns it into big DC for the main switching transistors, but there is
*also* a second little tiny rectifier buried in there that sources
power for a "yes, 12v is there, start turning on the second stage
regulator supplies". Sure enough it was shorted, ordered a
replacement, put it in, and the power supply is working properly again.
The other issue was that the power fail lines were being asserted.
That's a sidecar board, removing it allowed everything to work
properly. Which means a problem with one of the LM339 OP amp chips. So
I pulled and replaced both and now that works as well.
It's a fairly common unit, and now that these things are coming up on
40 years old the silicon in them is starting to go bad. That's not
good, but they can be fixed...
Fixing these things is never dull. Now on to fixing the MSV11-D memory
board (2 bad 16k RAM chips) then the MiniMinc (which is basically a
PDT11/150 with a different lid.) Not sure what that was used for, any
ideas or thoughts?
C
CZ
I have an identical BA-11N setup and it still works (fingers crossed).
Your post is extremely helpful should something go wrong with the power
supply. The date code on the box is 1970-something.
Doug
