Subject: Re: Trivial? YOU be the judge

From: [email-masked] (Randall Raemon)
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 1994 18:27:22 GMT

First off, my apologies to the net for quoting the entire article. However,
there is a reason: A DECmate III is part of the PDP-8 family of machines, and
I am cross-posting to alt.sys.pdp8 so the folks there can give their insights
to the machine...

Please note the reply email address at the end. 

Also, I have set follow-up postings to go to alt.sys.pdp8

Good luck...

In article <[email-masked]> (null pointer)@fugue.cc.purdue.edu (Branden 'Crash' Robinson) writes:
>OK, this may be about as effective as spitting into the wind, but I've
>lurked in this newsgroup occasionally, and if you guys don't know the
>answer, no one will.
>
>Scenario: There is an old, old DECmate III sitting in the dumb terminal
>room in Tarkington Hall here at Purdue.  Why is it here?  My best guess
>is that it's left over from bygone days.  Just so y'all don't think Purdue
>is COMPLETELY broke, we *do* have 3 486's, 2 Mac IIci's, and a Sun SPARC
>IPC in the REAL computer room.
>
>Anyway, this computer^H^H^H^H word processor sits here, unused, whiling
>away its lonely hours next to the Zenith dumb terminals.  Does it work?
>Almost.  It boots (it's a loud thing) but instead of giving a menu screen
>like the manuals say it should, it places a cryptic error number in the
>middle of the screen: 16.  A hapless block cursor flashes in the upper
>left-hand corner.  Absolutely NOTHING but the power switch budges it
>from that state...which is all it will do.
>
>At any rate, the docs are here on using the word processor, but the
>infamous "Owner's Manual" is nowhere to be found.  The office doesn't
>have it, and the hall computer guru doesn't know or care what made that
>book vanish in the past 10 years.
>
>To wrap up this sad saga, this machine DOES have communication capability,
>described in some detail in these manuals.  It will support a direct
>serial cable of some sort, and even a modem.  At the very least, it could
>spend its remaining years jacked into the PUCC net instead of gathering
>dust.  Of course, it would be easy to just say, "Let the thing die," but
>I figure, hey, it's lived 10 years as of '94, so why not USE it?
>
>Does anyone else have sympathy for lonely old computers, however limited
>they may be?  What is this mysterious "error 16"?  Can it be fixed by a
>sentimental young engineering major with a screwdriver, duct tape, and
>a wicked glint in the eye?
>
>Email your suggestions for this lost cause to:
>[email-masked]
>
>Heck, post 'em, too.
>
>G. Branden Robinson
>(.sig coming soon to a newsreader near you!)
>

---

From: [email-masked] (Charles Lasner)
Date: 26 Jan 1994 01:30:26 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
>I am cross-posting to alt.sys.pdp8 so the folks there can give their insights

Thanks for the posting to the appropriate place.

>>is that it's left over from bygone days.

With standard software usually provided, it makes an OK dumb terminal 
(VT-220 mostly).  Even today, some of the machines you describe below 
have problems doing the same (such as 132-col mode, reverse video 
changeable on demand with no contents loss, etc.).  Moreover, the DEC 
keyboard is so popular, there's a PC version of it.

>>  Just so y'all don't think Purdue

I'm underwhelmed.

>>from that state...which is all it will do.

You decided that it booted.  In point of fact, it did not; the 16 is an 
error message with appropriate volume.  Had it actually booted, there 
would be a whole lot of disk activity, and eventually the menu, etc.  
This of course assumes you run WPS, since you are decribing a WPS manual, 
not a DECmate requirement.  Unfortunately, while the DECmate family is 
indeed part of the PDP-8 world, DEC's policy for far too many years was 
to obscure that fact, and only make available WPS (and maybe COS) for it, 
not any of the more general PDP-8 stuff now only available because of 
DECUS and other user efforts, etc.  (Such efforts include hand 
disassembly of ROM's on my part, etc.)

>>book vanish in the past 10 years.

There is a semblance of an owner's manual; it's useless.  However, it may 
have given you a clue about the error as I remember it.

>>I figure, hey, it's lived 10 years as of '94, so why not USE it?

As virtually every reader of alt.sys.pdp8 knows, this little machine's 
main problem is lack of a hard disk.  So, things tend to take longer to 
happen, and you my have to flip some floppies, etc.  However, with 
available software (such as my Kermit-12 and OS/278 V2) you can be 
exchanging files with the rest of the world from it directly.

BTW, "old"  is a relative term.  I have a functioning LINC-8 from 1966. 
The DECmate III series was discontinued from production in 1990. 

>>a wicked glint in the eye?

Our group specializes in it, and many of us have DECmate(s).  The III is 
the baby of the line, but can be upgraded to have all of the following:

Instead of mono monitor, it can have a RGB color monitor with 800 lines 
of video and a color graphics board.  How many of those machines you 
rattled off could do 800 line video in 1984?

It can have the APU option board to run CP/M-80 (and might already; they 
were fairly common add-ons).  They were added for the somewhat demented 
reason - the management found it easier to find someone to write Z80 code 
to add foot-note formatting and DECspell than to get the same thing done 
in less disk space (and require less hardware!) using direct PDP-8 code.  
(Note: WPS is a system short on space since it all has to exist on a 
single RX50.  This problem is made deeper because it requires PDP-8 
support code for the Z80 and Z80 instruction loading by PDP-8, etc.)

It also supports an internal version of the DEC "Scholar" modem for 
300/1200.  No great shakes, but normal for 1984.  It is conceivable that 
the modem slot can support a better serial port.  (Note: standard 
equipment also includes a serial port for the printer and a USART 
interface to any external serial device, etc.  These are *not* part of 
this option!)

Now, to answer the basic question:  Try plugging in a DEC keyboard.  The 
thing just wants a functioning keyboard which it interrogates for being 
both present and working.  Clearly this is not the case presently, or 
someone busted the keyboard, etc.  Check to see if the 4 LED's on the 
keyboard start off, then on, then off.  Sometimes, a broken keyboard has 
them all stay on.  Likely one of the internal keyswitches is stuck on 
from a previous fall, etc.

As anyone with a working DECmate II,III, III+ can demonstrate, pulling 
the keyboard causes 16 to appear.  Merely plugging it in makes the error 
go away and advances it to the end of the self-test so it says "DECmate" 
and beeps.  After that, it will then attempt an actual boot to the 
floppy.  Errors at that point cause a giant hack picture of a blinking 
floppy to appear.  But if you leave out a diskette, the "DECmate" message 
just stays there.

cjl