[GreenKeys] Fw: Re: Teletype and electronics........

Thu Apr 11 13:00:42 EDT 2013

we are tying to have one of each model Joe  for the display here and  of  
course  some spare parts to keep things  going.

Our prize is the   first  Table top model  serial # 18  with the plexiglass 
 surrounds  on top see http://www.smecc.org/pdp-8.3.jpg

we even have an extra of this model that is in a  rack mount  
configuration. not as pretty as our #18 but  just as historic.

If anyone has   ANYTHING related to  PDP-8 let  us know  off list.   This 
includes any stories you  want to write up and  share  with us!

Ed Sharpe Archivist for SMECC    _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)   

In a message dated 4/11/2013 9:53:32 A.M. Mountain Standard Time,  
rokumoncat at yahoo.com writes:

Yeah, every now and then, I will be snooping through the e-pay  place, and 
come across PDP-8 boards... and I get this little nostalgic  urge to BIN... 
THen, I hear my grandkids, the dogs, my wife, the old 500  phone ring, etc 
and etc, and tell myself "NO!"... I have enough  playthings, what with 
Teletypes, building an old 50's vintage telephone  CO, and rad science, I do not 
need that special kind of  frustration of having a PDP in the house...

Best,

Joe

--- On Thu, 4/11/13, COURYHOUSE at aol.com  <COURYHOUSE at aol.com> wrote:

From:  COURYHOUSE at aol.com <COURYHOUSE at aol.com>
Subject: Re:  [GreenKeys] Fw: Re: Teletype and  electronics........
To: rokumoncat at yahoo.com,  GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 9:46  AM

ok that would have been a pdp-8 A   actually..    it  would have  either a 
keypad  or  just a  power and boot  switch

the  8m  was like the 8s  except only one omnibuss  plane making it a  
shorter case  and the   front  panel lights  were leds  instead of the   light  
bulbs the 8e  used!

Yes the 8A  was the last  gasp...  and  OS8  supported  hard  drives!

ed#  _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org/)  

In a message dated 4/11/2013 9:42:08 A.M. Mountain Standard Time,  
rokumoncat at yahoo.com writes:

It was a PDP-8 M, if I remember right. It did not  have the individual 
front panel "bit switches" as the PDP-8E  did. It also had the larger boards... 
larger than the "quad"  boards of the PDP-8E.

Joe

--- On Thu, 4/11/13, COURYHOUSE at aol.com  <COURYHOUSE at aol.com> wrote:

From:  COURYHOUSE at aol.com <COURYHOUSE at aol.com>
Subject:  Re: [GreenKeys] Fw: Re: Teletype and  electronics........
To: rokumoncat at yahoo.com,  GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2013,  9:26 AM

YES Drive sequencers!
the old  days!

what model pdp-8?  or  perhaps  a  PDP-11?

In my  young days  our HP 2000 had 2 of the  washing machine drives and the 
heat  just poured  off  them!

see photo of gaint  disc pack and yours  truly

http://www.smecc.org/ed_sharpe/index-2883-1.10.gif

below  is whole system   with  2  hard drives

http://www.smecc.org/hp2000_1.jpg

ed#

In a message dated 4/11/2013 6:16:06 A.M. Mountain  Standard Time, 
rokumoncat at yahoo.com writes:

--- On Thu, 4/11/13,  Rokumon Cat <rokumoncat at yahoo.com>  wrote:

From:  Rokumon Cat  <rokumoncat at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re:  [GreenKeys] Teletype and  electronics........
To:  COURYHOUSE at aol.com
Date: Thursday, April 11,  2013, 6:06 AM

Good lord...

I had a PDP-8 once. Won it in a GSA sealed  bid auction... for five 
dollars. I did not  realize it at the time, but the 5 foot rack that  held the 
PDP-8 and "floppy drives (8 inch) was  not the only thing that I won. Seems the 
GSA in  their generosity failed to advise the bidders  (me) that there were 
ten of these things that  looked like washing machines in size and weight  
came with the PDP-8. They were hard drives...  along with a multi-hundred 
pound box called the  "hard drive starting sequencer" that would start  the 
hard drives one by one, so that the starting  current of the motors would not 
blow the mains.  They (the GSA) advised me that I had 48 hours to  remove 
these treasures or that I would be fined  25 dollars a day for storage.

To make a long story short, I rented a  flatbed truck with a tommy lift, 
got the  (deleted) things home and stashed them in my  basement. I actually 
started several of the hard  drives. Though I never was a line boy at a  
passenger airport, I suspect that the sound of a  747's engines spooling up was 
quite similar to  that of the hard drives both in tone and SPL.  The heat 
that came out of those things was also  similar to the jet's engines.

With my basement stuffed with antiquated  computer junque, I decided that I 
needed to use  this stuff for something. That was in January of  one of the 
coldest winters of the 90's. Then on  one of the coldest nights of that 
cold winter,  my furnace naturally suffered from a burned out  blower motor. 
Fearing the specter of frozen  pipes and catcicles, I turned on three of the  
drives. Kept my basement uncomfortably  hot, and my first floor nice and  
toasty, and the second floor bearable.

That was the only and best use that I ever  came up for the thing. That 
spring, I gave it to  a kid for the hauling it away.

Best,

Joe

...had it hooked to my   PDP-8 

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