[HECnet] Re: VAX 4000/500 & DSSI

On 2025-08-19 05:36, md.benson(a)gmail.com wrote: Those are wonderful systems. You can do an in-box upgrade to a Model 705A and 512MB and you'll have a system faster than a VAX 9000. The battery leaks. It's in the swing-out door covering the CPU and memory. If it got on the door board, you may have to clean it. In addition to the obvious screws, you need to remove the nut on the BNC connector. The power supply is another problem area. The typical symptom is the supply will light up briefly, then shut down. You need a notched (high-current) IEC cable for power. Eventually you can get a right-angle one. I can send you new batteries (otherwise they're unobtainium - I had a few dozen made). Contact me off-list if you need some. If boards have been removed from the Q-bus, you may be missing some peripherals. You can do a "show dev" at the console ">>>" prompt to check. You/they can do a DOD-approved erase (look in the docs for the "set host" command you need to use and the task is "erase"). Be nice to the disks - they're always spun up (and make sounds like an explosion in a popcorn factory). Use the Ready/Run button on the operator control panel to park the heads before powering down. VMS has firmware updates for many drives, including DSSI ones. The update does scary things like turning on the fault light several times, and an update can take up to 15 minutes per drive - the older the drive firmware was, the longer servo calibration takes. The up- dates are in SYS$ETC:, IIRC. You need DSSI terminators (2 on the CPU door and one at the front bottom left of the chassis). These are not SCSI terminators. If all of the disks have been removed, you'll need another control- ler and drives. The KZQSA is relatively inexpensive and gives you slow, narrow single-ended SCSI on a "Centronics" type connector. It Was only "supported (long ago) for tape drives and CD-ROM drives, but VMS doesn't care. Note that you need a terminator on the second connector on the KZQSA. If you don't have a terminated Ethernet, you'll need either a BNC "T" connector with 2 terminators, an AUI to 10-base-T adapter with SQE enabled (you'll need an older one with a SQE switch. Allied Telesyn ones have the switch. You can also use the "Ethercork" which is an AUI loopback with a green LED. If you want to get fancy, you can add DSSI disks - the whole back- plane is pre-wired. When ordering, be sure to say that you need the mounting hardware and operator control panel for a VAX 4000 in a BA440. If you need parts, call Ron at VARx. Feel free to drop my name and mention that the parts are for a hobbyist restoration. There is a switch to select AUI or BNC on the door. It tends to develop bad connections over time. Usually a switch back and forth about 10 times will clear it. On power up the console (baud rate set by switch, funky modular con- nector - you'll need a special cable if it doesn't come with one), both on the outside of the CPU door. The system will count down tests by number - carefully note any com- plete error message (an in-focus picture of the screen is fine). It may give you a scary "?Normal operation not possible", but you can normally get past that and do a "boot <devicename> anyway. Yup. CLUSTER$CONFIG and then "add a node". Then you "BOOT EZA0" (I think that's the right name) and watch the magic happen (as long as you have the Ethernet connection working). Feel free to email me directly if you have more questions. I'm in the hospital now, recovering from spinal surgery. But once I get home, I can send you batteries and the console cable if you need them. I can probably dig up the correct power cable, too. Sorry for some out-of-order parts - I'm typing this on a tablet in my hospital bed.