PiDP Photo Thread: show us your setups!

Since my kit's near enough to being done (just needs some black tape and a hole for the USB ports), I thought I'd post some pics and make a thread for those who follow.

-Tom

After battling a bad trace, I am very happy.

So, mine isn't completed yet, I'm waiting for magnets for the panel mounting and I'm contemplating what holes to cut in the back. I'm thinking I'll put a 5v transformer inside from one of the many usb chargers I have, and have a standard "figure eight" connector on the back.

I'm calling in some favours on the switches because I'm not very happy with them. I'm going to see if I can get some caps printed on my colleague's 3D printer. If that works, I will provide the files and offer switches in three states (rough printed, filled and smoothed, painted and ready to glue on)

The only thing I am a little bit disappointed about with this kit is that there's no space to put the two key switches on the bottom left!

I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with my PiDP yet, it will probably sit in the corner of my project room, and I'll turn it on to let the blinkenlights sooth me occasionally

This is my first non-trivial electronics kit and the first time I've picked up my soldering iron in a number of years. Everything was so easy and just worked. I am wondering if the PiDP will have spoilt me for later projects...

Phil

Here's my kit.  I ended up gluing washers to the wood and magnets to the case.  The magnets aren't mounted symmetrically so I can pull out the PiDP if necessary.  It does a great job holding the panel.  I also left off the black tape on the switches.  I prefer the look as is.  I ended up painting the switches Federal Standard 10091 (#824725).

 

 

 

 

 

Here's my setup. Optional things I did:

• Cleaned off the red dots on switches
• Painted the switches with Krylon spray paint "Brown Boots". I'm happy with the color & durability.
• Painted the brass switch housings flat black with a brush. (Not terribly durable. The paint was probably intended for plastic.)
• Added Bic lighter springs under the momentary switches. I removed the spring from the Stop switch because of its function on startup.
• Used Velcro to hold the faceplate on. I glued it to screws, similar to the original magnet plan. Velcro probably needs more surface area.
• Dremel-tooled the lip of the case to allow more room for the switches and the faceplate.
• Serial terminal connected via USB-serial adapter.

I want that terminal! 

My system calculating pi...

https://youtu.be/-6Y0ZdTESQc

Thanks Oscar!

Wasn't quite sure whether to post here or the modifications thread, but it's photo heavy, so here won out.

This is the current state of my PiDP

Deposit switch flipped, all relevant switches sprung, serial port secured to the back, I'm going to unsolder the switches and replace the white plastic as the 3D printed caps didn't work out (too tall). Power plug (actually aviation microphone plug) attached to the back and 5V transformer from USB power socket glued inside. I'm still waiting on my magnets from the front and I'm toying with the idea of attaching at least one more serial port to the back in case I get the time/motivation to build a paper tape reader. I haven't blacked the switch plates yet because I'm still unsure how they're going to end up. With me taking it apart and working with it, I'm beginning to think whether it would be worth looking into how much it would cost for a replacement front panel... I may have scratched it a little.

Hopefully I will get the serial port wired in in the next few days, I have a bunch of the TTL converters, I just need to desolder one pair of USB ports to fit them...

Enough rambling for tonight, food calls

Phil

I've finally finished my build!

Here's my time-lapse assembly video.

Beautiful!

There is a video of my PiDP8 running with a Dec VT102, running "Hello World" in Simh 4.0 TSS/8 over a USB serial dongle.

How did you connect the DEC terminal?   I can't see the voltage divider restistors required for the RS232 interface?

I ask because I can't get my serial interface to work using P5 and the recomended voltage divider.  I can make the RS232 interface work if I connected it directly to the Pi. I have read the post about the PCB not correctly implementing the voltage divider and have used the fix described in that post.

Bill,

I've brute forced my system, with help from members into SIMH 4.0, which lets you assign usb to serial dongles as input devices.

Nearly done everything that I want to do with my build.

First picture shows the front panel.  I painted my switches with Tamiya acrylic hobby paints, starting with their spray primer which is a nice bright white on all switches.  The brown switches were then hand painted with an approximate 50/50 mix of brown and orange with just a touch of white added.  All switches were finished with a semi-gloss topcoat sprayed on.  I did get a couple dust specs that I should've dealt with, but I can always sand & touchup the switches later.

Second pic shows my back panel, to which I've routed all the Pi ports.  Left to right: 110V AC power (Goes to internal 5V 3A power supply), MicroSD socket, HDMI, AV port, DB-9 Serial port (Goes to internal TTL/RS232 adapter), Ethernet, USB ports.  I still want to add a master power switch next to the power connector.

Last one shows the unit running, connected via HDMI to my monitor for now.

EXCELLENT!

But it makes me ask questions ...

Did you mount the Pi differently? I thought the default mounting placed the USB ports almost right at one end of the box, so that they could be reached with a simple cutout. Did you move the Pi around and use a GPIO extender cable?

I have also just discovered through this that MicroSD extenders exist. Interesting!

Finally, how did you reinforce the ports at the back panel? I'm thinking there must be some reinforcement needed for things like USB, power, and HDMI, which need to resist being pushed in by the cable.

The Pi is mounted in the standard position, to make clearance for the connectors I used my Dremel tool to sand away the inner layer of the case side.  Next, the network plug and USB plugs were cut down shorter.  All told everything just fits in there, the USB plugs are a little awkward to unplug, but they're internal and should hardly ever have to be removed.

All of the rear ports are just mounted in epoxy at this point.  I'll see how durable it is with time, but so far it seems like there shouldn't be any issue.  I roughed up the port housings with some coarse sandpaper, and sanded off the wood printed layer on the back panel to allow for a hopefully better bond.  The power connector isn't currently glued in at all, but has two metal reinforcing pins that are intended to go through a PCB, which I set into two matching holes in the case bottom.  Some of the ports have some little spring contacts that are exposed to the outside of their housings, small bits of tape were applied over these holes before epoxy was applied to prevent gumming up these spots.

To allow the network LED's on the back panel work I built a small pogo pin mount which contacts the network LED pins on the Pi when installed.  This can be seen below, though it wasn't yet actually wired up yet in the photo (The purple to yellow ribbon cable was attached to them after the photo was taken)

On Friday, October 30, 2015 at 8:45:11 PM UTC-6, Chris Smith wrote:

EXCELLENT!

 

Finished up my PiPD-8 a week ago.  Except for soldering on a couple switches I had no issues.  I enjoyed this kit a lot... and am still enjoying it.  Looking forward to learning how to use it better.I painted the switches with Testor's model paint.  Flat military brown and flat white.

/David

This is my PiDP-8.  I actually built it sometime last year, soon after they were shipped, but just getting around to posting.  I took the easy way out and cut a slot on the side to access the ports on the Pi model B, and cut a hole in the top that is big enough to slip a HDMI connector through in case I want to connect directly to a monitor for debugging, updates, etc.  This was easy to do do and is functional.  I have the Pi configured for wireless and most of the time connect to it that way using SSH from my MacBook.  I run Cathode on the Macbook to give the terminal a retro look.  I spray painted the switches.  This was a nice kit and project.  

My 2016 version is done, thanks to help from Oscar and Dylan!

Many thanks to Oscar for a superb kit.  Heres mine.

I hadn’t had the time to seriously undertake my planned “full-size” PIDP-8, so I bought the kit - and then, I realized that it just wasn’t going to satisfy my needs to make a “full-boat” machine capable of running Edusystem-25 or TSS/8. without wires hanging out of the side and then all over the place. So, I put the provided case to the side and built a different case with some more room. My woodworking skills are questionable and my tools are limited, but it came out fairly well anyway.

At first, I tried to use rubber magnets to hold the front panel inside the case. I absolutely did not want to drill holes in the plexiglass, and I was worried that the rare-earth magnets would be TOO strong and possibly pull off the paint from the back.  This did NOT work, for several reasons.

So, I used plan B, industrial Velcro, in VERY small amounts and only in five places. This worked very well and was much more forgiving on positioning. I glued the velcro onto the magnets that I had originally used. By using 1/4” square wooden dowel,  there was still sufficient room for mounting the board. I was paranoid about banging up the faceplate and switches, both irreplaceable, while possibly traveling with it.  Unfortunately, this also made it harder to see the front panel! So, I re-did it, moving it up to a barely “safe” but more pleasing distance.

I used a ribbon cable and male connector on the back of the front panel to mount the Pi on a small, slide-out sub-chassis.  The sub-chassis holds a 7-port hub, the Pi (model A+), and two DC-DC converters, one for the Pi and front panel and one for the hub. The actual AC/DC power supply for the unit is an old laptop supply of about 20 volts at 3.5 amps. You may wonder what I needed all that power for but I intend to build a serial paper tape reader out of a reclaimed mechanism and it will require ~20 volts for the stepper. Thumbscrews hold the sub-chassis board in place so that it will not slide.

The back panel, which slides in after the top is removed, holds:

on/off switch, power input/output (for the paper tape reader)
three USB-based serial ports as DB-9’s. DB-25's would have been more historically accurate but these little modules are easy to work with.
One (presently inop) DB-9 for the front panel based serial port (will mod the front panel and level shift it later for the paper tape reader)
three USB ports
The HDMI port
The fan (in no way does this actually “need” a fan, but I just thought that it might add a little realism!)
The wireless dongle is mounted directly on the hub.

The case has small feet; there are two holes on the bottom of the case for airflow (again, the fan is for show, and “audio”, really.

Although it LOOKS ready to go, I haven't run it yet, because I gave away my only HDMI monitor. I've got several VGA monitors, and I have a converter on order, which should arrive this week. I have setup the Pi to run SIMH from the image, but I'd rather have a monitor hooked up while troubleshooting. So, I wait for the mailman.

Very cool looking! Nice work!

On Sunday, August 2, 2015 at 11:54:35 AM UTC-4, Philipp Geyer wrote:

So, mine isn't completed yet, I'm waiting for magnets for the panel mounting and I'm contemplating what holes to cut in the back. I'm thinking I'll put a 5v transformer inside from one of the many usb chargers I have, and have a standard "figure eight" connector on the back.

I had a very bad experience with putting "sticky stuff" on the back of the front panel, and I'd be concerned about putting a lot of "pull" on the back of it. Although the paint sticks "fairly well", it isn't invulnerable.

The magnets I used were to be spaced 5 on the top, and three on each side. Instead of using "super-strong" rare-earth magnets, I used "rubber" magnets, which are really, I think, just Alnico mixed with rubber. These wound up being extremely weak once I cut them to size. Then, I used the Velcro. I didn't trust the adhesive on the back, but I knew better to use any solvent-based glues. So, I used cyanoacrylate (super-type glue). This was good, BUT...I flexed the front panel and a little paint popped off under a (no longer used) magnet. This left a "dark, but shiny" spot under the magnet visible from the front, that I can't fill in with a marker because I can't get to it. That's why I will hopefully acquire a "spare" front panel or give a local print/sign shop with a 20,000 USD inkjet and router combination a shot to make a panel here. I was working with them on my "full-size" panel.

You are right about trying out "right angle" adapters for the cables. I used a Pi A+ which made a hub basically a requirement, so I didn't try this. But I did get a right-angle HDMI adapter just in case.

I would caution any newbies to use minimal force on ANY of the connectors of the Pi, particularly up or down force. I dislike purely surface mounted connectors (that is, without locating pins that are soldered to the bottom of the board). I've had to touch up more than a few of these with all of the soldering skills that I have when people put too much force on them, levering them off of the board, sometimes taking traces with them :(.

I should mention, that if anyone in the US has screwed up their Pidp8 case, I have mine unused to sell.

Wow! I think that's awesome!! Judging by the focus on the final picture, your woodworking skills may in fact outshine the photography ones, but I love the work you've done. I have quite a bit of gear (not quite that much...) that I am hoping to install inside the standard case. Time will tell...

Well, I'm still trying to figure out a new iPhone. This one does so much it isn't exactly "point and shoot" anymore...

Sorry, really just teasing a little. I am very impressed with your setup! I am hoping to have a single serial port. Also thought about DB-25's, but went for practicality over authenticity. Besides, it goes well with the "scaled down" philosophy of the PiDP :-)

Here's mine, in a laser-cut acrylic case, powered by pi zero

Wow!  That is sexy!!

No, the photo doesn't show it very well, but the case slopes from 10mm at the front to 60mm at the back, leaving enough space to just plug the zero onto the connector on the pcb. I did it this way because it doesn't have enough weight in the upright position to keep it from skidding around when you operate the switches.
Also not obvious is that the zero is running in gadget mode over the single usb cable. This makes it appear to the host as a usb-serial cable plus a usb-ethernet adapter.
I'm planning a version 2 with extra height to enable fitting any of the pi models, but this time in black or brown, since that white makes it look too much like an apple peripheral. If there is any interest I can make the dxf file available, but you may have to do some fiddling with it depending on your laser cutter software.
Roger

The essence of OTG mode is that the cable determines (via the fifth pin) whether the usb interface runs as host or device.
To get gadget mode working I had to use rpi-update to get a 4.4.1 series developement kernel, and that's not classed as stable yet, although it hasn't caused any trouble so far.
I'm still a long way from exploring, let alone understanding, all the ramifications of this OTG stuff, but it's interesting.
Roger

Boy, was I stupid!

Did anyone notice something terribly wrong with my first post on this thread? I didn’t have a male IDC for the ribbon cable, so I used a male in the PiDP PCB. BAD IDEA. Although I have made ribbon cables in the field with nothing but the heel of my shoe and a body shop mallet, that was a long time ago, and I had forgotten that it won’t work, because you wind up with the top and bottom rows flipped. No amount of twisting, turning, and flipping the cable ends from top to bottom will change this. I refused to attempt to de-solder that connector, so in the span of four hours, I layed out, etched, drilled  and stuffed a little PCB with two males on it with traces that “flip” the top and bottom rows of pins. After I did that, I seem to be working. I may have a few LED's dim or out, but I can trace those down. It isn't the flip adapter, because I buzzed it

I fished out a cute 9" monochrome VGA that I just KNEW would be good to have someday - it's very proportional to the PiDP-8 case I had built. I bought a (highly recommended) $14 HDMI to VGA dongle from eBay that requires no external power. I had to do some things with the Pi config.txt to get it working, and I'm not entirely there yet, because this is a monochrome, not color, VGA and it is very old and uses the old pre-EDID "bit id's" for identification, which I certainly don't think that the $14 dongle honors. There must be a way to change this in the config with palettes, but I haven't gotten to that yet. Note that the monochrome setting for composite video will probably have no effect. Any ideas, anyone? The text is readable but my previous experience has been that colors will wash out or disappear when sending color output to a monochrome VGA (for example, I can see only the leaves of the raspberry).

That keyboard has to go.

Well, I've cobbled up a "sort of" MMJ connector to a RJ12 to DB-9 housing adapter(until I can actually CRIMP an MMJ connector, tool coming soon) by careful sanding of an RJ-12 modular connector. So, here is a photo with the computer hooked up to a proper (albeit a bit too new) VT-320. You may wonder why ithe VT320 isn't yellowed. I gave up and disassembled/painted the terminal and keyboard.

Here's mine. I haven't done the black tape - it's pretty enough already. I, too, didn't like the idea of drilling through the front panel, so mine is held on with double-sided tape. Hopefully I will be able to prize it off in future if I need to. I'm using a PI 3 - works fine, and the built-in WiFi means I only needed to drill one hole for power. Great project.

Here is mine, after a bad IC, and then some paint. :) I used a Pi 1 I had around, put a HDMI port in the side, and Velcro for the front plate. Thanks to Oscar for for the replacement IC!

On Sunday, July 19, 2015 at 3:40:20 PM UTC-4, tomjmoss wrote:

Since my kit's near enough to being done (just needs some black tape and a hole for the USB ports), I thought I'd post some pics and make a thread for those who follow.

-Tom

Lovely! How about a dram of the Laphroaig to celebrate!

Thought I would throw the shelf next to it in for fun . :)

The new switches are NIIIIIIIICE

Here's mine with its "terminal". I used tiny screws in the corners of the front panel for mounting.

That is a gorgeous teletype - I love it! (oh, nice PiDP-8, too!)

Tom,

PiDP8 talking by USB-serial to an original VT100

Nice!  An actual VT100 - I'm jealous. :-)  I never much liked the keyboard's feel, but it's still way cool to be using an original.  

Hi all,

I'm mostly done with building my 2016 kit. I thought to share some pictures and this seems to be the thread to do so. So here goes....

I opted to mount the pi to the back of the box instead of the original location. One of the main reasons being I did not want to cut holes in the side and have ugly plugs sticking out of them. But I did want the USB and network ports accessible So I bought two computer USB brackets and mounted USB type A connectors to them. I then used the original bracket as a drilling template. I also found a panel mounted RJ45 couple block so I could cut a network cable to size for internal use. The fourth USB connector is only used for power in combination with a 2 amp phone charger and soldered to the pi. The USB and network connectors have some height to them, but the top spacing in the case leaves enough room for them. Almost like it was meant to be done this way.

I cut up the big wood support to make the proper blocks for on the side. I had to stick something under them as they where not high enough for my box. I do not know about the older kits, but with the new switch bracket and switches having three contact soldered I do not feel further support is needed below the switches. The build is as rigid as it can get in my opinion.

Hope the photo's are helpful to other builders.

Very cool! I have similar ideas -- cables to extend everything outward. Hope I can make mine look as good as yours!

Thank you, glad you like it. However close inspection would show I'm not that good with the dremel and router bit :) Especially where I tried to lower the box edges where the switches hang on to. Luckily the black tape covers that. In the end I just raised the supporting block with the little blue plastic spacers you see on the photo's. Not as nice but far easier.

I finally have the hardware working and I am madly teaching myself PDP8 assembly.  I have been using mine to teach my daughters programming.  They are 8 and 7 and fascinated by a machine doing math.  Good so far.

Well, today it was finally complete, including the drilling of a large hole in the box.

So, here it is next to a bunch of other machines...

Wish it was just a bit wider - but does still look good :-)

Hi!

I would dearly love to, but it would be a pain. In an ideal world it would be right at the bottom, but we have a pair of inertial devices bolted to the deck there, and they cannot move. We could conceivably move the HPC units up and put it under them. If I suddenly find myself with lots of spare time in our upcoming shipyard period, I might move it, but don't hold your breath :-)

So, I wonder how many people here are ready to order the PiDP-11/70 kit? And of those people, how many will be rack mounting - probably small.

So ready for my PiDP-11 kit!

"Me too!"    I can't wait to connect it up to the Cathode app on my Mac, the most awesome vintage terminal emulator you've ever seen.  http://www.secretgeometry.com/apps/cathode/ 

I thoroughly enjoyed building this kit; didn't encounter any problems. Oscar, thank you for your efforts in making this experience available to all! Some enthusiasts probably won't like my configuration but it works for me. I decided to have it lay down on the table to make operating the switches easier to accomplish. The reflection of my blunt fingertips revealed in the glass of the adjacent netbook as I took the picture give a clue as to why I wanted it this way. Two minutes with a file to form the slot for the ribbon cable. No need to make any other holes in the case. The pi is very accessible, I prefer this (can't leave the thing alone, always changing something). Front panel will eventually attach with velcro, if I ever get around to that. For now, friction and gravity serve to hold the panel in nicely. The pi has a case but you could easily miss this if you don't look closely. I had a pi 3 on hand already so it was put to work. Running a recent unmodified Raspbian, it boots to blinky lights on the pidp8 in about 10 seconds. I installed XRDP under Raspbian and use Windows Remote Desktop Client so that the netbook can serve as my terminal (again, the purists may be cringing). Pi and netbook are currently connect indirectly via wifi but a short cable could make that direct/wired.

I haven't done a whole lot with my new toy so far but everything seems to be working as expected.

I date back to the original PDP-8 era (my first computer experience was an IBM 1440 in 1965). Computer technology from that period is familiar to me but I completely missed the DEC family experience. I now have an opportunity to catch up! Again thank you Oscar, Bob Supnick, and all of the others.

Add me to the list of persons eagerly awaiting the PDP-11 version!

- ted agar

Here is mine.

https://cdn.instructables.com/FFI/MMZY/IX6FKRK5/FFIMMZYIX6FKRK5.LARGE.jpg

https://cdn.instructables.com/FR4/DM0A/IX6FKRJX/FR4DM0AIX6FKRJX.LARGE.jpg

Warren,

I like your suggestion regarding the door stops. That would get the thing closer to an ideal position for me.

Oscar,

You gave me the perfect excuse to do nothing further to hold the panel in. If it becomes problematic (unlikely) I'll deploy the tape technique.

ted

Warren- I love your serial port implementation! I've also wanted to do the "real" serial port rather than USB-->Serial. I have that board/connector in my Amazon cart now. A few questions, and hopefully you'll forgive me if I've forgotten some basics of the PiDP. It's been a while since I played with it, but I brought it out for a "show and tell" last week, and that made me want to finish up all the casework I wanted to do on it.

I too preferred not to have my unit horizontal or vertical ... so I mounted it at about 35 degrees !!! This gives me a good stable platform to operate all the switches...........

A few comments:

1. I like using connectors but the expense for the proper tools/crimpers is crazy. I use Chinese Molex clones all the time,by soldering and "crimping" with a pair of needlenose. Never a problem and you can't see the bit of ugliness :)

2. On that subject: My IDC "vise" for ribbon cable is a Harbor Freight machinists' vise. You have to be careful but it works. I haven't screwed one up in a long time if you don't count making them backwards! True story: when I repaired computers in the late 70's and early 80's, I once disassembled a 50-pin IDC and put the connector on properly (our factory made it incorrectly) using a pair of pliers and my shoe as a mallet on a concrete floor. And, I had just spent 15 minutes explaining to the new owners of the computer how delicate the hard disk was. I was 150 miles away from the proper tools. The hard disk worked until the computer was decommissioned!

3. One of these days, I would like to lay out a 25-pin max-232 adapter like the 9-pin Chinese units. Every time I work with classic computers, I feel "wrong" using 9 pin connectors, even though most of the time we wind up using three wires.

4. I did break down and buy an MMJ crimper for my Pidp8 and the VT320's, They are getting harder to find and the connectors are getting tougher also at a reasonable price. I bought the cheapest one I could find on eBay and after a little filing, it worked.

5. I haven't seen a Greenlee DB-25 or DB-9 die set on eBay in a while. They were fairly cheap when they were available :( Those were wonderful for making a chassis or back panel. It is SO time consuming nibbling and filing those out.

First crimp tool I owned offered an MMJ die, but I never personally had need for it. Half regret not having it now, although that would mean I'd need to source all the parts that go with it! :-)

My beloved PiDP-8 has been sitting in a book case for a while now, but it needed a better home.  Here it is inside an unused aluminium box which I cut holes in for a USB outlet, a ~$20 ebay LCD screen for the HDMI output, the micro SD card, and two key pwr switches (one for the Pi, the other for LCD screen)

And finally, racked in all its glory