> From: Alexandre Souza
> Easily done if I had the original part on hand
We have plenty of the original bezels, from which it would be easy to cast molds
(the same part is used on the 11/45 and 11/70, unlike the rest of the front
console).
The real issue in any front panel recreation is going to be the switches (not
the plastic toggles, the actual electrical device). Both the /45 and /70 used
the now-apparently-unobtainium version with the intergral metal plate to hold
the switch in place in a metal holder plate. So a recreation front panel is
going to have to have some new mechanical design, to allow use of standard
micro-switches - and that's probably going to mean a re-design of the plastic
toggles, as those attached to side-plates on the original toggle switches.
(That's all a bit difficult to describe in words; a picture will make it
obvious, if anyone wants to know more.)
I wonder how big an order of switches would be required before some
switch-making firm could be convinced to do a run? Maybe whoever made the
'back in the day' still has the tooling to do so gathering dust in an old
room....
> From: David C. Jenner
> How about making a version for a REAL PDP-11/70 front panel, and one
> for a REAL PDP-11/45 front panel, for those of us who have such stashed
> away waiting for the right simulator to come along...
To do that is going to require exactly emulating the interface to the CPU,
which is not going to be entirely trivial. Physically, the signals all come
over flat ribbon cables to standard Berg connectors, so that won't be hard,
but I doubt the interface is documented, someone will have to puzzle it out
by reading prints - and probably looking at a working one with a logic
analyzer.
Also, powering the front console requires an unusual AMP connector shell,
although that may still be available? And of course one could always bodge
the power connection...
Noel
