Re: VAX-11/780 Board Set on eBait

[devin davison]

Well I am still holding out hope to find a vax 780 and get it running. I
did not think i would ever be able to find a pdp 11 , but one crossed my
path and i managed to pick it up. Perhaps one will still show up around
here somewhere. In the meantime ive been trying to stockpile parts for the
one day i do manage to find one and it need a board.
On Jun 10, 2016 6:03 AM, "Noel Chiappa"  wrote:

> > From: Devin Davison
>
> > It looked like a good batch of boards and i was holding out on
> finding
> > a machine.
>
> I hope that "a machine" wasn't 'an empty machine to plug them into' -
> because
> AFAICT the chances are that happening are basically zero. (People seem to
> save either i) complete machines, or ii) just the boards - apparently not
> realizing that without the backplane, etc, the boards are only useful as
> spares.)
>
> > Any good place to get a 11/780 aside from watching the local scrap
> > centers with my fingers crossed one will be there?
>
> For some reasons, /780's seem to be pretty rare. I suspect it's a case of
> 'they were mostly all scrapped long ago in favour of later models which
> were
> faster and smaller' (we see the same thing in other lines).
>
>
> Don't get me wrong, I truly do fervently hope that you do find one somehow,
> but one has to be realistic, I think. (I'd love to have an RF11, but I'm
> pretty sure they almost all went to the big scrap-heap in the sky many
> moons
> ago; so I'm not holding on, waiting for one to appear - rather, I'm getting
> on with the stuff that _is_ still here.) Sorry to be such a downer... :-(
>
> Noel
>

Re: VAX-11/780 Board Set on eBait

[Noel Chiappa]

> From: Devin Davison

> It looked like a good batch of boards and i was holding out on finding
> a machine.

I hope that "a machine" wasn't 'an empty machine to plug them into' - because
AFAICT the chances are that happening are basically zero. (People seem to
save either i) complete machines, or ii) just the boards - apparently not
realizing that without the backplane, etc, the boards are only useful as
spares.)

> Any good place to get a 11/780 aside from watching the local scrap
> centers with my fingers crossed one will be there?

For some reasons, /780's seem to be pretty rare. I suspect it's a case of
'they were mostly all scrapped long ago in favour of later models which were
faster and smaller' (we see the same thing in other lines).


Don't get me wrong, I truly do fervently hope that you do find one somehow,
but one has to be realistic, I think. (I'd love to have an RF11, but I'm
pretty sure they almost all went to the big scrap-heap in the sky many moons
ago; so I'm not holding on, waiting for one to appear - rather, I'm getting
on with the stuff that _is_ still here.) Sorry to be such a downer... :-(

Noel

Re: VAX-11/780 Board Set on eBait

[devin davison]

It looked like a good batch of boards and i was holding out on finding a
machine. Any good place to get a 11/780 aside from watching the local scrap
centers with my fingers crossed one will be there?

On Thu, Jun 9, 2016 at 4:24 PM, Mike Ross  wrote:

> On Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 6:01 AM, Josh Dersch  wrote:
> > On Thu, Jun 9, 2016 at 3:48 AM, Noel Chiappa 
> > wrote:
> >
> >> > From: Devin Davison
> >>
> >> > well there goes my plan of trying to keep it under the radar.
> >>
> >> Sorry, I didn't mean to upset your plan (and you); I just didn't know if
> >> anyone was watching for VAX-11/780 parts, they come by so rarely.
> >>
> >
> > If anyone is desperate for VAX-11/780 parts, let me know -- a friend of
> > mine recently came into a load of them.  If it can help someone bring a
> > /780 back to life, he'd be up for working something out...
>
> I'm going to start that with my 780 soon. I'll probably snag the eBay
> parts if the price stays reasonable and I'll let you know how things
> go.
>
> BTW you mentioned you had had problems with your 730 main breaker too?
> How exactly was it misbehaving? Did it sometimes refuse to power
> machine even when it was in the ON position?
>
> Mike
>
> http://www.corestore.org
> 'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother.
> Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame.
> For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'
>

Re: VAX-11/780 Board Set on eBait

[Mike Ross]

On Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 6:01 AM, Josh Dersch  wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 9, 2016 at 3:48 AM, Noel Chiappa 
> wrote:
>
>> > From: Devin Davison
>>
>> > well there goes my plan of trying to keep it under the radar.
>>
>> Sorry, I didn't mean to upset your plan (and you); I just didn't know if
>> anyone was watching for VAX-11/780 parts, they come by so rarely.
>>
>
> If anyone is desperate for VAX-11/780 parts, let me know -- a friend of
> mine recently came into a load of them.  If it can help someone bring a
> /780 back to life, he'd be up for working something out...

I'm going to start that with my 780 soon. I'll probably snag the eBay
parts if the price stays reasonable and I'll let you know how things
go.

BTW you mentioned you had had problems with your 730 main breaker too?
How exactly was it misbehaving? Did it sometimes refuse to power
machine even when it was in the ON position?

Mike

http://www.corestore.org
'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother.
Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame.
For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'

Re: VAX-11/780 Board Set on eBait

[Josh Dersch]

On Thu, Jun 9, 2016 at 3:48 AM, Noel Chiappa 
wrote:

> > From: Devin Davison
>
> > well there goes my plan of trying to keep it under the radar.
>
> Sorry, I didn't mean to upset your plan (and you); I just didn't know if
> anyone was watching for VAX-11/780 parts, they come by so rarely.
>

If anyone is desperate for VAX-11/780 parts, let me know -- a friend of
mine recently came into a load of them.  If it can help someone bring a
/780 back to life, he'd be up for working something out...

- Josh



>
> We have discussed this topic before, but let me recapitulate one point
> about
> pricing and valuations: if we want to stop this stuff being scrapped, we
> need
> to make sure the prices realized are well above scrap. This will have
> several
> consequences:
>
> i) If people only get low (scrap-region) prices, why go to all the
> bother/hassle of listing things on auction sites; just proceeed directly to
> 'Go'. ii) Hopefully, if values are non-trivial, the word will get around,
> and
> people who have this stuff will go to the effort to list it, instead of
> leaving it to moulder, etc.
>
> Yes, I understand that will make this a more expensive hobby, but
> TANSTAAFL.
> YMMV.
>
> Noel
>

Re: VAX-11/780 Board Set on eBait

[Noel Chiappa]

> From: Devin Davison

> well there goes my plan of trying to keep it under the radar.

Sorry, I didn't mean to upset your plan (and you); I just didn't know if
anyone was watching for VAX-11/780 parts, they come by so rarely.

We have discussed this topic before, but let me recapitulate one point about
pricing and valuations: if we want to stop this stuff being scrapped, we need
to make sure the prices realized are well above scrap. This will have several
consequences:

i) If people only get low (scrap-region) prices, why go to all the
bother/hassle of listing things on auction sites; just proceeed directly to
'Go'. ii) Hopefully, if values are non-trivial, the word will get around, and
people who have this stuff will go to the effort to list it, instead of
leaving it to moulder, etc.

Yes, I understand that will make this a more expensive hobby, but TANSTAAFL.
YMMV.

Noel

RE: VAX-11/780 Board Set on eBait

[Jay West]

Devin wrote...
>well there goes my plan of trying to keep it under the radar.

There's no such thing anymore of seeing a classiccmp-related item on ebay 
"under the radar". Everyone looks.
Think of that radar lower limit like the head/media gap... around 25 microns ;)

J

Re: VAX-11/780 Board Set on eBait

[jwsmobile]

On 6/7/2016 11:47 AM, devin davison wrote:

well there goes my plan of trying to keep it under the radar.
you can go for the belt buckle.  Actually, wonder if it is an estate 
find, or if they scrapped or plan to scrap the rest of the machine. That 
is always concerning in these cases.


I bought the recent 6120 sparetime one from Doc Shipley which was for 
sale recently, had the same problem but on the STG yahoo group.


thanks
Jim

Re: VAX-11/780 Board Set on eBait

[devin davison]

well there goes my plan of trying to keep it under the radar.

On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 1:46 PM, Noel Chiappa 
wrote:

> Here:
>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/282059544477
>
> Low starting price.
>
> Noel
>

VAX-11/780 Board Set on eBait

[Noel Chiappa]

Here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/282059544477

Low starting price.

Noel