[rescue] The Soul of that old Machine

[Dave McGuire]

On 11/24/21 10:39 AM, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> I built my PiDP-11 kit a week ago, but (ignorantly) soldered the switches
> upside down (having never worked a 'real' PDP-11 I just assumed the
> address/data switches toggled 'down' not 'up'), now I'm trying to figure out
> proper desoldering tools to fix the switches..

   There's a new(ish) manual desoldering pump on the market called 
"Engineer SS-02" that's available via Amazon.  For decades I've hated 
spring-action desoldering pumps mainly because it's very easy to destroy 
boards with them, but this model fixes everything I've disliked about 
them.  For a quick job when I don't want to wait for the powered 
desoldering system to come up to temperature, this little hand pump does 
the trick.

> PiDP-8: https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-8
> PiDP-11: https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11

   These are really very nice.  I have one of Oscar's early PiDP-8/i 
prototypes running at my desk.

> To get back on-topic, I don't think DG had anywhere near the 'fanatic'
> following PDP-8 and PDP-11 systems had, maybe they lacked the blinkenlights?

   The earlier DG processors had full front panels just like PDP-8s and 
PDP-11s, and they went to plain panels sans lights/switches at about the 
same time.

   One of DEC's big strengths has always been excellent documentation 
and gigantic piles of software for just about any application you can 
think of.  Next, DEC had major penetration into academia, which churned 
out tons of grads who were familiar with DEC hardware.  These attributes 
combine to make DEC stuff some of the more popular in vintage computing 
circles.

             -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA