Received H11-a shipping mess!
All — I got a hold of a Heathkit H11, which arrived today and the person I got it from did everything wrong when shipping it. First, the good…it actually has more boards than I thought it did. It has the M7270 CPU, an H11-5 serial board, and two WHA-11-16 16kw x 16bit memory boards. Now, the bad…there was inadequate packaging so it got bounced around by UPS. The CPU board was dislodged and the other three were shoved down one notch in the cage so that a board was plugged into row 1 but it sat in row 2’s card edge guide. It must have been dropped or thrown because the side panel threaded inserts cracked the case. Looks like I need some epoxy to as to re-anchor the threaded screw inserts. The chassis has serial #00744 but no other serial number stickers. No console cable was provided but I have the manual for the serial board, so I’ll make one up (looks like 3-wire plus two for a paper tape). There is a massive Sprague capacitor on the PS, so I removed all boards and disconnected the PS from the backplane. I’m going to put it on a variac with lightbulb current limiter and bring it up over a few hours — maybe 15v/hour or something like that. It’s a two-switch front panel with a 3rd toggle switch connected to two posts on the power supply board — function unknown since I don’t have the manual. The front panel was painted with flat black paint, but it’s chipping in spots so I might be able to get it off (would need recommendations for non-damaging paint remover). The CPU has 5 40-pin chips (two purple ceramic and three PDIP). Supposedly the H11 has a monitor PROM or something like it, but I don’t see anything like a PROM on the board. Guess I have to wait until I get it running! Is there anything else I should know about the H11 while bringing it up? Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32
It’s a two-switch front panel with a 3rd toggle switch connected to two posts on the power supply board
If it's like a LSI system, it's probably for the Line Time Clock (LTC).
The CPU has 5 40-pin chips (two purple ceramic and three PDIP). Supposedly the H11 has a monitor PROM or something like it, but I don’t see anything like a PROM on the board. Guess I have to wait until I get it running!
Sounds like the LSI-11 chipset (based on the WD16 multi-package CPU). If so, it's got ODT microcoded right into the processor. You'll still need some working RAM and a SLU at the typical address for it, though. Do you know if it's just a rebranded DEC board?
Is there anything else I should know about the H11 while bringing it up?
From what I know about the H11, I believe some of their cards are just DEC boards (CPU, possibly some of the RAM options). Can you post pictures of your boards for us to identify?
Thanks, Jonathan
Jonathan — The M7270 LSI-11 is DEC-branded (forgot to write down the revision number). The SLU and RAM are Heathkit branded. I have the LSI-11 and SLU manuals but no manual for the RAM. That’s easy though — it has simple jumpers for the bank enable (0-3 on board #1 and 4-6 on board #2; bank #7 disabled). The third toggle switch is a 7/16” threaded toggle drilled into the front panel. It’s a simple SPST connected to the power supply board with a two conductor cable and nowhere else. Without a schematic I don’t know what it’s connecting to. There is no additional cable to the backplane or any other board. I’ll try to post a few pictures this weekend. I’m really disappointed at the poor packing job. There’s a lot of fixing to do. I might even consider making cherry or walnut side panels as a replacement for the plastic composite. Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32 On 2/10/16, 8:59 PM, "vcf-midatlantic on behalf of Systems Glitch via vcf-midatlantic" <vcf-midatlantic-bounces@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org on behalf of vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
It’s a two-switch front panel with a 3rd toggle switch connected to two posts on the power supply board
If it's like a LSI system, it's probably for the Line Time Clock (LTC).
The CPU has 5 40-pin chips (two purple ceramic and three PDIP). Supposedly the H11 has a monitor PROM or something like it, but I don’t see anything like a PROM on the board. Guess I have to wait until I get it running!
Sounds like the LSI-11 chipset (based on the WD16 multi-package CPU). If so, it's got ODT microcoded right into the processor. You'll still need some working RAM and a SLU at the typical address for it, though. Do you know if it's just a rebranded DEC board?
Is there anything else I should know about the H11 while bringing it up?
From what I know about the H11, I believe some of their cards are just DEC boards (CPU, possibly some of the RAM options). Can you post pictures of your boards for us to identify?
Thanks, Jonathan
Project update — Good news is that the power supply appears to be OK and stable. Initial readings of the 5v was 4.65v (a tad low) and 12v was 12.12v. A minor tweak to the adjustment pots brought them right back in-line. Yea! I need to work on the side panels, reanchoring the threaded inserts that broke loose. I’d also really like to remove the flat black paint that was smeared on the front sheet metal. I still need to figure out what the extra front panel switch is for. Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32 From: Richard A Cini <rich.cini@verizon.net> Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2016 at 8:46 PM To: VCF-Midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> Subject: Received H11-a shipping mess! All — I got a hold of a Heathkit H11, which arrived today and the person I got it from did everything wrong when shipping it. First, the good…it actually has more boards than I thought it did. It has the M7270 CPU, an H11-5 serial board, and two WHA-11-16 16kw x 16bit memory boards. Now, the bad…there was inadequate packaging so it got bounced around by UPS. The CPU board was dislodged and the other three were shoved down one notch in the cage so that a board was plugged into row 1 but it sat in row 2’s card edge guide. It must have been dropped or thrown because the side panel threaded inserts cracked the case. Looks like I need some epoxy to as to re-anchor the threaded screw inserts. The chassis has serial #00744 but no other serial number stickers. No console cable was provided but I have the manual for the serial board, so I’ll make one up (looks like 3-wire plus two for a paper tape). There is a massive Sprague capacitor on the PS, so I removed all boards and disconnected the PS from the backplane. I’m going to put it on a variac with lightbulb current limiter and bring it up over a few hours — maybe 15v/hour or something like that. It’s a two-switch front panel with a 3rd toggle switch connected to two posts on the power supply board — function unknown since I don’t have the manual. The front panel was painted with flat black paint, but it’s chipping in spots so I might be able to get it off (would need recommendations for non-damaging paint remover). The CPU has 5 40-pin chips (two purple ceramic and three PDIP). Supposedly the H11 has a monitor PROM or something like it, but I don’t see anything like a PROM on the board. Guess I have to wait until I get it running! Is there anything else I should know about the H11 while bringing it up? Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32
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Richard Cini -
Systems Glitch