> From: Ben Sinclair
> A while back I was talking to someone else who suggested using a ribbon
> cable from the controller to directly inside the drive.
I've heard that suggestion too...
> That technically will fit if I remove the ribbon inside the drive that
> goes to the external connectors, but then I won't have a terminator
> installed. I do have a terminator though!
The cable from the CPU would have to have two connectors on the RL02 end;
one would plug into the drive's logic board, and the other to the outbound
connector, where you can plug in the terminator.
AFAIK that cable is purely a bus (i.e. no radial per-drive wires), so you
should just be able to run it to the second connector, no issue. However,
I'm too lazy to check to make sure that's absolutely 100% accurate. :-)
> I think what I really need, since I don't have a cab kit or anything,
> is a bc80m, which I believe is a ribbon with a ground lug on the
> controller side, and whatever type of connector the drive uses on the
> other end.
I think you mean a Berg connector which will plug directly into the RLV11,
not "ground lug", right? Yes, if you don't have a cab kit, that's the cable
you need. It's not a ribbon cable, but a round cable (the connectors the
drives use only come in regular cable form, not ribbon cable - AFAIK).
> Not that I can even find a cable like that anywhere currently...
RLOx cables of _any_ kind are very hard to find. There are discussions under
way about making new ones; there is a supply (used) of the wierd-ass
connector that plugs into the back of the drive which could be used.
> I unfortunately don't have an extender card...
Others have pointed you at Douglas; here's the page for all their
extender cards:
http://www.douglas.com/index.php/off-the-shelf-solutions/bread-boards-by-function/board-extender.html
which includes a hex, but those aren't any use (that I can think of) to
people with QBUS machines.
(Useful things to have it you're trying to maintain a vintage PDP-11; one is,
perforce, forced to become one's own Field Circus person - unless you're lucky
and happen to live close to a PDP-11 hardware expert who's willing to come
salve one's machine.)
> From: Johnny Billquist
> Well, not important. We're now beyond that point. The boards are
> working well enough that we can address them...
Well, but he might still have a problem on them. Although fixing such would
be a challenge...
Noel
