ND-100/CX Compact 3392.1669

A ND-100/CX Compact model 12 that I got from Pontus, a nice Swedish gentleman.

Hardware

Hardware in the machine is described in this section.

Cards

1. 3033 ND100 CPU, Print: S, eco: V. Card switches: ALD: 13, Console: 7 (9600 bps)
2. 3104 ND100 Mem. Man. II, Print: G, eco: N
3. empty
4. empty
5. 3041 ST506 Disk Contr. Print: E, eco: K. Card switches: device number selection: 0 - the first 5.25 inch, 8 inch or 10 MB controller
6. 3112 8" + 5 1/4" fl. + str., Print: B, eco: J
7. 3009C Local I/O Bus, B-interface address 151X
8. empty
9. empty
10. empty
11. empty
12. 3042 ND100 2 Mby RAM, Print: B, eco: C

Devices

• floppy drive : 1.2 Mbytes, 5.25 inch, ND 149-116, Toshiba FDD 5801A0K 01 Rev. A. Serial no: A6412496
• tape streamer : Tandberg TDC 3309 (TDC 3300 Series), ND 106270, ND 150-001442
• hard drive : Micropolis 1325, ST506, 69 / 86 Mbyte

Power Supply

• Philips PE1049

History

2011-10-10

hard drive - I disconnected the cables from the hard drive, and unscrewed the two screws that holds it, then slid out the "cage" that it sits in (good engineering).

serial number: 6082021623A. part number: 900525-01-5L.The drive draws 32W, and runs on +12 VDC and +5 VDC. On top of the drive the "Micropolis media defect table" is printed. Transcribed below:

ST506, 85MB    HDA # 337494
Hd    Cyl    BFIND    Hd    Cyl    BFIND    Hd    Cyl    BFIND    Hd    Cyl    BFIND    Hd    Cyl    BFIND
  0    290    1588 .    0    404    8053.     2    468    9670      4      3    6135      4     38    1878.
  4    740    2591 .    7    396    9868

CRC 0=4a23, 1=0000, 2=2dc3, 3=0000, 4=c15c, 5=0000, 6=0000, 7=30bc

That's all. I unscrewed the drive from its cage (four screws), took it out and examined it. I loosened the two screws that hold the upper circuit board (the other end is hinged) and lifted it up. This drive has part of the engine (flywheel?) outside, which made it easy to test if the drive spins freely - it does. I put the drive back together again, mounted in its cage, mounted the cage in the machine, connected all cables, and fired the machine up again. I noticed one thing: the little red light on the drive itself is on, and seems to be like that the whole time. I don't know what that means. I also tried a 20500& from the console, but it didn't do anything. I measured the voltage at the drive power connector (with the drive attached); +5V was spot on, while +12V was 11.61V (probably ok).

floppy drive, tape drive - I disconnected power and data connectors for the floppy drive, to check if they were corroded, but they looked fine. Still, floppy loading doesn't work. I also checked the connectors for the tape drive, and tape controller card; no corrosion there either. I have no tapes to test with, so it doesn't really matter.

2011-09-28

3112 floppy + streamer controller: I took off the lid of the card cage so I could see the display (3 digits) on the controller. After a MCL, the diisplay shows "000" - which means "selftest passed - ok". If I try to load (1560&) from a floppy with no boostrap (a MS-DOS formatted floppy, for example), the console shows load-error: 50, but the display shows "53". If I try to load from a ND-format floppy (with bootstrap on it) the display shows "E3". The highest error number in the manual is 77. Interesting.

trying to boot from a floppy made from the image image15 on a FreeBSD machine. It behaves the same way as the first image: I enter 1560& on the console, the machine reads from the floppy, the "RUNNING" indicator turns on, and then nothing more.

from the manual ND-11.021.1 EN, page 3: "For "stand-alone" use, a new version of FLO-MON (FLOppy-MONitor-2010F or newer) must be dumped on the diskette."

ALD - the command I12/ from OPCOM tells me that the ALD is set to 20500, which is ST-506 "Winchester" disk controller 1, unit 0 (according to the System Supervisor Manual. SINTRAN disk name: DISC-74MB-1, unit 0.

#I12/020500

That's all.

2011-09-25

trying to boot from a floppy made with dd from the image Testdisk.raw on a FreeBSD machine: I enter 1560& on the console, the machine reads from the floppy, the "RUNNING" indicator turns on, and then nothing more. I wonder if I need to swap bytes while writing the image?

An image created with dd's conv=swab option ends up reading and reading endlessly from the floppy, without going out of OPCOM mode until it times out (seven minutes), and still the machine reads and reads from the floppy. I had to enter OPCOM mode again and press MCL to stop it.

2011-09-23

I set the console at 9600 bps, 7E1. First power up - the machine powers up, the panel starts, and the buttons STOP and START are lit. Pressing either of them gives no evidence that they are working. By holding the rightmost button down, and pressing the STOP button, the panel goes into advanced (OPCOM) mode. Pressing the MCL button gives a "#" on the console. The same does writing "MACL" + ENTER on the console (all caps only!). Pressing the LOAD button does nothing. If I write "&" on the console, nothing happens. If I write 1560& on the console, I get an error message after a while (LOAD-ERROR: 20), which is good since there is no floppy in the floppy drive and the door is open.

The Tandberg TDV 2200/9 terminal is working.

the machine was delivered to me by Pontus and helpers. The total delivery was

• 1 x ND-100/CX Compact machine, with power cable, serial cable (NOT current loop, don't know yet if it is rs-232 / V.24). The top of the front is labeled "DEMO SIM" with red Dymo tape. The key switch on the panel had broken plastic clips, and was delivered separately.
• 1 x unknown cable, which came with the machine
• 1 x display terminal Tandberg TDV 2200/9, serial no: 285727 (TDV 2200/9, Rev. Lev. 11 / 531301) with keyboard, but no power cable
• 1 x binder, containing
  • a cheat card "ND-100 Instant instruction codes"
  • a cheat card "ND100 Operator's Communication Instruction Survey"
  • a document "Test Progran Description for ND-100 / ND-110"
  • two pages containing a documentation index for "C-Dokumentation för F3-528"
  • a Tandberg TDV 2200 Hardware Manual (October 1980, revision no. 0)