I’m finally starting the process of getting into the Data Generals and seeing what exactly I’m going to have to do to refurbish them. This was the beginning of what will be a long journey of working on the Micro Nova computer!
You can see my notes from this here: https://caps.wiki/wiki/User:Akbkuku/projects/DataGenerals/MicroNova
Here are some ways to help me make more videos!
Buy some Merch:
Merch: https://tech-tangents.creator-spring.com/
Leave a one time tip:
Paypal one-time: https://paypal.me/AkBKukU
Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/techtangents
Amazon Wishlist for Production Gear:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2PC7JPEH76Q3W
Become a monthly supporter:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AkBKukU
Youtube Membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCerEIdrEW-IqwvlH8lTQUJQ/join
Paypal Monthly: https://techtangents.net/support/
Other Links
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/AkBKukU
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/techtangents
Github: https://github.com/AkBKukU
Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/AkBKukU
Discord: https://discord.gg/E6xgGs6
source
This was an experimental video for me, I needed a bit more time for the next main video and decided to try editing a live stream down to a normal video. This has some rough edges a lot of which are because this was my first attempt at this. I have a few things I'll do in the future if I try this again and I think I will because I can see this working well with some changes. I was recording the cameras individually on the streaming computer but the quality ended up being very poor so I had to use the main live feed here. In the future I'll need to record in each camera separately. I think I may try to get a second good camera to replace the gopro on the arm as well since it was the active camera the majority of the time. And if I can plan a little better to explain things and give it a better intro and outro it will feel a lot smoother. So consider this more of a proof of concept than a final product, I will be refining this more in the future.
I'll be shocked if this machine works.
The multi pin plug for the power supply input voltage. Will be wired to select 120volt or 220 volt input. As this is a standard linear PSU. The big transformer. Can be wired for 120 volt or 220 operation.
Crudtacular
This is the stuff I’m looking for, man! Loving it!
Having that chat on the screen is distracting.
as soon as you wore that ground bracelet, i knew you had the faustian spirit
Thank you for editing the steam down. I like watching your progress, but can’t watch the stream.
I like these edited videos, as much as I like the main videos and the quality you usually put into them, content from you in general is great to see!
On the plus side, all this dust might of protected the connectors from oxidation and corrosion over the years of storage. Just getting all the dust out now is gonna suck.. but better then fixing corroded traces..
We just have to hope the disk drives are ok now..
You need to get this thing going just good enough for Druaga1 to add an SSD and Windows 98!
Whelp, now I gotta follow you on Twitch!
Maybe I can replace those with Noctuas.
What a loser. 🤣
I'm not the only one with shit ideas.
follow up on my comment on the other video from the 18th (iirc) – Fans- yes once you power up the squirrel cage and devices in one rack you will need hearing protection! Those fans are LOUD. There is a connection between the fans and the caps though that you wouldn't expect. We had Eclipse C330s and we did a lot of board swaps etc. The C330 was a much bigger chassis, about 4u for the main chassis and an expansion chassis was bolted to the bottom making the entire assembly about 8u high and probably about 100-150lbs with the boards removed. The power supplies were in a space between the board slots (that opened to the side requiring the chassis to be slid out of the rack to remove any of the 15 inch boards) and the rear outer wall of the chassis. The rear wall of the chassis had six of those 'boxer' fans on it. When working on the very expensive 1meg (word I think) boards when we did an upgrade we would pull the unit out on the rails, and pull the memory boards to swap them. We blew two in a week and had to call in the service people to see why.
They explained that our process was faulty because even with ground straps we were shocking the boards because of the capacitors. There were about eight capacitors in two rows under the card slots and above the expansion board. Each was literally about the size of a soda can! The ones you are saying are huge would be their babies. Anyway, we weren't letting the caps discharge enough before removing and inserting a new board. The solution was in the fans. Powering down the machine would cut power to the fans but they would slowly spin down. We would watch until all six fans stopped and then pull the card.
BTW the procedure to change the fans when they died was as follows- 1- power the chassis down, and remove all cables from the back, 2- slide the chassis out and remove all cards from both chassis. 3- get four strong men to unlatch the rails and slide the chassis off, carry it to the table and put it down. 4- unscrew the top and back panels 5- tilt the power supply components away from the fans and unbolt and remove the bad fan 6- replace fan and reassemble power supply, then reverse steps 1-4.
This obviously took time on a weekend so when we lost a fan we would cable-tie a boxer to the rear of the chassis on the grill and power it with a direct plug to the rack power until we could schedule the change.
I helped with that at least four times over five years!
The Data General operating system was known as RDOS – for Real Time Disk Operating System. This appears to be a more recent multi-user computer.
The Nova 1200 and Eclipse computers I worked on were foreground/background only.
I'm sure they had support for Fortran, but we programmed in assembly language only.
The o/s prompt on an interactive terminal was "R" for Ready.
This machine is so interesting, what a fab thing! It's amazing, and is obviously the ancestor of the desktop PC, even the case is a similar size. Power supply, system cards and cooling fans. Just missing the modern I/O ports. Never seen anything like it before and I am absolutely confident that you will get it to function. 👍
Thanks for posting an edited down version of the live stream highlights. I used to follow some other channels which stopped uploading edited videos and moved almost entirely to live streams. I didn't have time to watch them so I lost interest and unsubscribed. Live streams are great if you're there when they're live but they really don't work well when you're watching after the fact.
This is the best April Fool's joke ever!
No but seriously, this is really fascinating, thanks for uploading.
Interesting subject, but I wish you'd lose the nervous giggles intersperse throughout.
maybe if you can get 240 will be more safe because you need lees amperage
Another way to label those two pins that take battery power into the CPU card, would be to get something with the same connector (eg: PC front panel wiring or cheap breadboard/Arduino jumper cable sets), cut the wire to a short stub, and shove it onto the same pins.
The dust in that computer is so bad, I started sneezing at about the six minute mark. … And at 19 minutes I'm still sneezing.
This is very interesting. Those caps. Wholly moley.
Not even the slightest urge to at least blast some compressed air all over it or brush some of that dust/dirt away??!
From the looks of it, you could disconnect those caps and feed the PSU board and all it's cables out in one piece.
As usual, live chat offers nothing constructive.
Those sealed AGM batteries are actually very stable, there would have to be physical damage to make one of those batteries leak, extreme overcharging or physical shock etc
Love how this is coming along! Wish I had the room for a mini computer right now, maybe I should turn my attic into my room for one! LOL
Boop
Back then they weren't 120mm fans. They were 5 INCH fans. It was American tech, built in the USA. Ram chips made overseas were a crap shoot, so we tried to keep it all good ole American made.
I'm not telling you what to do, but there's no way I would use the original power supply, even if it were fully recapped. I'd rather figure out what each wire is and adapt them to a modern switching power supply. Either an ATX one or an industrial one (from say Mean Well or similar brand). I would also replace all that wiring because the insulation is probably getting brittle by now. This is obviously a task that would take some research to be able to accomplish, though.
I guess you voided the warranty on that thing?
AT 24:13 what type of programmable keyboard is that?
This is going to be an interesting series. Contact Bruce Ray at Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc. He may be able to send you PDFs of the documentation that you are missing, maybe even schematics.
Man, this is fun to watch along on your learning journey as you dive into a Nova for the first time. These things are built so very different from other vintage computers, and there is alot to figure out. You've off to a great start.
Anyone else sit through the printing to find your name (or names if you are a member and patreon)
Would a part washer with an electronics safe solvent be feasible?