PDP-11/40 Restoration 2025

10/29/25

We did an initial assessment of the PDP-11/40 cabinet and CPU chassis.

• This chassis is S/N 385 so it has the older AC and DC power distribution design, and the older Programmer's Console. 

• The first power distribution backplane has two burnt connector contacts for the +5V source. The mating  power connector is missing the two +5V contacts, and the housing is burnt where the two contacts go. We don't have any spare power distribution backplanes.

• The power feed harness where it connects to the first power distribution backplane was modified to feed the PDP-11/23 backplane.  Two +5V wires need to be reconnected to the first power distribution backplane connector.

• There are only two +5V power supplies installed. If we install Unibus boards in the back of the chassis we will need to install a third H744 +5V power supply.

11/1/25

• We removed the new design 21" BA11-F expansion chassis from the short DEC cabinet and installed it in a full height cabinet. It was amusing to see a Compaq label on the cabinet. This was actually quite a bit of work to move the chassis because of the large and heavy parts.

• We installed a DEC 861C AC power controller in the bottom front of the cabinet. This controller can be remotely controlled by the key switch in the PDP-11/40 console.

• We used a new design bracket to install the programmer's console on the chassis. I guess this now makes the BA11-F a PDP-11/40 CPU chassis.

• We need to repair the AC power wiring for the fans in the power supply.

11/5/25

• Remove all of the Voltage Regulator Modules from the H742 Power Supply.

• Connect AC power the H742A Power Supply and measure the +5VDC and +15VDC outputs.

  • They were OK.

• Added upper fan tray from one of the unused PDP-11/45 expansion chassis. 

• Verify that all of the fans in the CPU chassis and Power Supply are working.

  • One upper fan and one lower fan are seized and need to be replaced.

• Install the H744 +5VDC regulators in slots A, B, and C one at a time and verify that they work OK.

  • They are OK and were adjusted to +5.0VDC

• Install the -15V regulator in slot D and verify that it works OK.

  • It was adjusted to -15.0VDC

11/8/25

We spent some time Saturday fiddling with fans. One of the upper fans was binding so we took it partially apart and sprayed it with WD40. That made a mess when it spun up, but al least it ran. It would not start after a power cycle and we didn't have tiny snap-ring pliers to take it completely apart. The two unused 21" chassis that we have been using for parts don't have any fans left, so we will need to hunt in the warehouse for another chassis that can donate fans. I know where there is a BA11 chassis...

Backplane Signal Connector Voltage Measurements

Pin Voltage

1. 0

2. 2.27

3. 0

4. 0

5. 0

6. 0

 Backplane Power Connector Voltage Measurements

Pin Voltage

1. +5

2. +15

3. 0.02

4. +4

5. 0

6. 0

7. 0

8. 0

9. 0

10. 0

11. 0

12. 0

13. -15

14. 0.02

15. 0

11/12/25

• We made another try at repairing the top front fan. We disassembled the lubricator, removed small snap ring, cleaned and lubricated shaft, and reassembled everything. It seems to be working OK now. We still need to repair the bottom rear fan.

• We removed the processor boards and processor backplane from the BA11 chassis and installed them in the PDP-11/40 chassis.

• We made a best effort to determine how the console cables connect to the processor boards.

• When we powered on the system the BUS and PROC lights lit, and nothing else. This means that the Processor has control of the Unibus, and the Unibus is active.

• There was no response to any of the switches. We need to adjust the power supply voltages and insure that the AC LO and DC LO signals from the power supply are inactive.

• We replaced the Unibus jumper with an M9312 Boot/Terminator board, but there was no change to the behavior.

11/15/25

• We adjusted the +5V supply to +5.05V at the connector on the power distribution backplane. The specification says +/-5% so we could have adjusted it a little higher.

• We verified that the AC LO and DC LO signals are inactive.

• We installed my two KM11-A debuggers so we could see what the KD11-A processor, KE11-E EIS, KE11-F FIS, and KT11-D MMU microcode is doing. It looks like the processor, EIS, FIS, and MMU execute just two microcode words and then stop. The microcode should always be running, so this is the first thing we will need to debug and repair. There is a microcode listing in the processor schematics, but it is not so easy to read.

• When the processor was first turned on the KM11-A displayed these two sequences. The PUPP is the past microcode address and the BUPP is the current microcode address. The 377 is the correct Power Up Init address, but the next microcode address should be 334, and then 335. 

  • PUPP 337 (TRP17) , BUPP 060 (EXM07)

  • PUPP 036 (CNT00) , BUPP 076 (STA01)

• The museum has another 11/35-11/40 processor board set, and I have a set in my personal collection. Maybe one of the other processor board sets will work and we can use it to test the other boards?

11/19/25

• We repaired AC wiring to the fans in the H742 Power Supply.

• We installed the DD11-DK 9-slot and the VT-11 4-slot backplanes, and installed the memory, I/O, and video boards and readjusted the power supply voltages. We connected the 9-slot backplane to the processor backplane and moved the M9312 Boot/Terminator board to the end of the 9-slot backplane.

• We verified that the cables between the programmer's console and the processor boards was correct. We marked the cables to make servicing easier.

• Turn the MCLK ENAB switch on the KM11 on, cycle MCLK to step through the microcode.

  • It looks like the KM11 with the LEDs has either a driver transistor that does not work or a bad LED. The KM11 with the light bulbs works OK.

  • The PUPP and BUPP addresses cycled through the pattern 070 (DEP07), 071 (DEP08), 072 (DEP09) and back to 070. This is part of the DEPOSIT microcode. The microcode word at 072 should have gone to word 030 instead of 070. Maybe there is a stuck bit in the microcode address generation logic?

11/22/25

• We installed the processor board set from the PDP-11/35. This is just the basic processor, no MMU, EIS, FIS, SLR, or LTC. This board set seems to work mostly OK. We can load an address OK, but when doing a deposit we almost always pick up bit 10. Maybe a problem with the data paths board or a bad connection somewhere. That will likely be the next debug project.

• The microcode board is the only one without soldered in jumpers, so we tried the one from the PDP-11/40 board set and it works OK.

11/29/25

• We installed a TU56-H DECtape drive in the I/O cabinet with the TC11 DECtape controller.

• We installed an RX02 floppy drive below the TU56. That took two tries to get it in the right place.

• We will install two RL02 disk drives below the RX02 floppy.

• We found an RL11 disk controller and I/O cable in an 11/34A in the warehouse. We will use it in the 11/40 for the RL02 disk drives.

• We know that there is a DEUNA in an 11/44 in the warehouse. We would prefer the newer DELUA, but we don't have one. The DEUNA needs LOTS of +5V. Fortunately we have 75A of +5V available in the chassis.

• We did some more debugging to see if we could find a pattern to which switches caused bits to be picked up when depositing data to memory. Swapping the M7232 KD11-A U Word board for a spare did not make any difference. We were able to read the boot ROMs on the M9213 Bootstrap/Terminator. We have ROMs for the RX02, RL02, and high-speed paper tape installed. We need to make a ROM for the TU60 cassette.

• We noticed that when the front panel stopped responding the microcode was looping in the trap microcode. Pressing START would get the microcode back to normal. Maybe one of the Unibus boards was generating an interrupt?

• We removed all of the Unibus I/O boards and replaced them with G7273 continuity cards to simplify debugging. After a few hours of fiddling the CPU would not interact with the Unibus. We think our next step will be to swap the M7231 KD11-A Data Path board for a spare. We will need to change the jumpers on the spare board from a fully optioned 11/40 to a minimal 11/40 CPU on the spare board. We will take pictures of the boards so we know where the jumpers should be.

• Mike found his DEC Universal Hex-Extender board so we can chase signals to individual chips on boards.

• We went looking for an RS-232 serial console cable. We found one in an 11/34A and took the DL11 that it was attached to. We replaced the DL11 in the processor backplane with the one from the 11/34A. It was jumpered for 9600 baud.

• We tried running ODT from the ROM on the M9213 Bootstrap/Terminator, but saw nothing on the VT220 console.

• We tried depositing ASCII characters to the DL11 transmitter buffer at 777566, but saw nothing on the VT220 console.

12/3/25

• Swap the M7231 KD11-A Data Path board for a spare that has been jumpered for a minimal processor.

• We need to check the jumpers to insure that the bus address of the DL11 in the processor backplane is set to the serial console address. When a jumper is installed it is a Zero and not installed is a One. We need to match address bits 10:03 to be 111 111 101 110 XXX. The XXX part of the address selects the register in the DL11. The jumpers for address bits A7 and A3 need to be installed.

RCSR: 777560
RBUF: 777562
XCSR: 777564
XBUF: 777566

• The M9312 Bootstrap/Terminator contains ROMs for ODT (Octal Debugging Technique) and for booting from different storage devices. ROM #23-248F1 contains ODT. We will need ROMs #23-751A9 for the RL02, #23-753A9 for the RX01 (DX) or #811A9 for the RX02 (DY), #23-756A9 for the TU56, and 23-761A9 for the TU60 (CT).

• Starting the processor at 165144 will run ODT without running a diagnostic. Starting the processor at 165020 will run ODT with running a diagnostic. 

12/6/25

• Moved the PDP-11 into the new RICM Lab space. It's still broken.

• Connected the console key to the power controller, and it works!

12/10/25

• LOAD ADRS works, but there is some odd behavior with some of the switches. Bit-4 sometimes will not turn off after it has been turned on. Maybe a bad switch?

• DEP does not deposit to memory. Bits 10 and 4 go on when you press DEP even with all switches off. After the machine was running for a few minutes all DATA bits could be turned on with a DEP.

• EXAM shows the pattern 1775700. Earlier EXAM would show alternating patterns of all zeros and all ones. The ADDRESS increments correctly with each subsequent press. Bit-4 goes off when you press EXAM enough times to cycle through that address.

• The indicators RUN, BUS, PROC, and CONSOLE are all on. Holding START with HALT on will turn the CONSOLE indicator off.

• Pressing START with ENABLE on turns the RUN and CONSOLE indicators off.

• Pressing HALT after pressing START does not change anything. Pressing START again will wake the console up.

• Examining the PSW at 777776 yields all zeros except for bit-10. I think that bit-10 on is related to to the other bit-10 issues.

12/13/25

• LOAD ADRS was consistently showing that bit-4 was always on. The switch output is pulled high, and the switch grounds the signal to make a zero. We replaced the switch with a NOS switch from a DEC field service tool kit. After replacing the switch we can EXAM and DEP the processor registers, but not the Unibus memory. We kept the broken switch in case we get desperate and are forced to repair a switch.

• We tried to toggle in a program in the processor registers, but found that data bit-10 was stuck on. That severely limited the instructions that we could use. We were unsuccessful at getting this to work. We will try again later.

• Bit-10 OK when we do a LOAD ADDR, but is stuck on when we do a DEP. That means that the switch is probably OK. When we do repeated EXAMs we can find memory locations where bit-10 is off. The bit-10 DATA LED is driven by the output of SN74174 E31 which latches the output of the SN74181 ALU on the Data Paths board. We put the Data Paths board on an extender so we could look at bit-10. The metal stiffener on the hex-extender hit the plastic guide rails on the chassis. We had to remove the stiffener to get the extender board fully seated. We looked at pin-6 D4, pin-7 R4(1), and pin-9 K4-2 CLK D H with the Rigol 'scope. We confirmed that E31 was OK by doing repeated EXAMs and finding locations where bit-10 was on and off. We were surprised to see that there was lots of activity on pin-9 each time we pressed EXAM. The activity would come in bursts that would repeat several times and then stop. When the activity on pin-9 stopped the values on the input and output pins of E31 matched. It looks like the problem with bit-10 is upstream of IC E31. We will ask for some help from the PDP-11/40 experts on where to look for the stuck bit-10 problem.

12/17/24

• We should try toggling in these program that we found on Stack Exchange to the registers to see if they will run.

Address            Instruction    Octal

177700(R0)       NOP                000240
177701(R1)       BR.-1*             000777 

Continuously read a memory location
(Start execution at 177702)
177700 (R0) XXXXXX # Address of memory location to read
177701 (R1) # Scratch location
177702 (R2) 011001 # mov (R0),R1
177703 (R3) 000777 # BR .-1

Continuously write a memory location
(Start execution at 177702)
177700 (R0) XXXXXX # Address of memory location to write
177701 (R1) YYYYYY # Value to be written
177702 (R2) 010110 # mov R1,(R0)
177703 (R3) 000777 # BR .-1

Programmer's Console Cable Connections

To Do:

• Install jumper W5 on the M7234 Timing board because we don't have core memory

• Replace the modified filler panel below the front console with a normal filler panel. (Done 29-Oct-25)

• Replace the damaged KY11-D Programmer's Console with an undamaged one. The old and new chassis have different Programmer's Consoles and mounting brackets. The power enable wires connect to the left side on the old design and to the right on the new design. (Done 29-Oct-25)

• Remove the non-DEC power supplies that are mounted to the rear swing frame. (Done 29-Oct-25)

• Remove the PDP-11/23 boards and Q-Bus backplane from the CPU cabinet. (Done 29-Oct-25)

• Remove the Tektronix RM504 oscilloscope and lab power supply from the CPU cabinet. The idea was to install this oscilloscope in the PDP-9 as a future graphics display, but we really should use an RM503. We have several RM503 oscilloscopes in the warehouse to choose from. (Done 29-Oct-25)

• It might be a good idea to use one of the newer design CPU chassis. The newer chassis design, S/N 5000 and up, has an improved power distribution system. We have the three of newer chassis. One is in an empty cabinet, and two empty ones in the PDP-11/45 expansion cabinets. If the newer chassis is an expansion chassis, it might not have the signals for the line clock wired to the CPU backplane, or the wires that go from the Programmer's Console key switch to the AC Power Controller.

• If we use the older design chassis: (1-Nov-25 we decided to use the newer design chassis)

  • Repair or replace the first power distribution backplane.

  • Repair the first power supply to power distribution backplane connector on the power harness.

• Repair the AC power wiring for the fans in the power supply. (Done 19-Nov-25)

• Connect the terminals on the PDP-11/40 console to the remote input connector on the 861C AC Power Controller in the bottom of the cabinet.

• Test and possibly repair the AC and DC power subsystems. (Done 12-Nov-25)

• Test and possibly repair the upper and lower fans in the CPU chassis and in the power supply. Upper fan is repaired, the rear lower fan is seized.

• Install the PDP-11/40 CPU backplane and CPU boards in the CPU chassis. Leave the KD11-E EIS Option, KD11-F FIS Option, KT11-D Memory Management Option, KJ11-A Stack Limit, and Kw11-L Line Time Clock boards out of the CPU backplane for the initial testing. Note: There are a bunch of jumpers that need to be changed if these options are left out. (Done 12-Nov-25)

• Install the M9312 Bootstrap/Terminator in slot 9AB of the CPU backplane. (Done 12-Nov-25)

• Test and possibly repair the KY11-D Programmer's Console. (Done 12-Nov-25)

• Test and possibly repair the KD11-A CPU. Note: The 11/35 has another CPU board set, and Mike has another CPU board set at home.

• Test and possibly repair the DL11 Asynchronous Line Interface Board.

• Install the I/O expansion backplane in the CPU chassis. Move the M9312 to slot 16AB in the expansion backplane and install a M981 Unibus Jumper from slot 9AB to 10AB. (Done 19-Nov-25)

• Perform simple tests on the MS11-LD 128kW MOS Memory board and possibly repair it.

• Connect a laptop to the DL11, load PDP-11 GUI and verify that the CPU, Memory, and I/O board diagnostics run OK.

• Verify that the minimal CPU board set, the MS11-LD 128kW MOS Memory, and any of the I/O boards that are in the expansion backplane pass diagnostics.

• Install the KD11-E EIS CPU Option in the CPU backplane and verify that it passes diagnostics.

• Install the KD11-F FIS CPU Option in the CPU backplane and verify that it passes diagnostics.

• Install the KT11-D Memory Management Option in the CPU backplane and verify that it passes diagnostics.

• Install the KJ11-A Stack Limit Option in the CPU backplane and verify that it passes diagnostics.

• Install the TU60 in the top of the CPU cabinet. Install the TA11 controller in the I/O backplane and connect it to the TU60.

• Test and possibly repair the TA11 and TU60. There is lots of restoration info here.

• Install the RX02 diskette drive in the I/O cabinet. (Done 11/30/25)

• Connect the RX02 to the RX211 board.

• Create RX02 XXDP media using PDP-11 GUI and see if we can boot the XXDP Diagnostic Monitor from diskette. Note: The M9213 Bootstrap/Terminator board has the DY (RX02) boot ROM.

• Install the TU56-H DECtape drive in the I/O cabinet with the TC11 DECtape controller. (Done 11/30/25)

• Connect the TC11 to the end of the Unibus in the 11/40 chassis. Move the Unibus terminator from the CPU chassis to the TC11 chassis.

• Test and repair the TC11 and the TU56-H.

• Install two RL02 drives in the DECtape cabinet.

• Install scratch media in the RL02 drives and run the disk drive diagnostics.

• Install XXDP or RT-11 media in one of the RL02 drives and see if the Diagnostic Monitor or Operating System will boot.

• Install the VT11 backplane and boards in the CPU chassis. Move the M9312 to slot 17BC in the expansion backplane and install a M981 Unibus Jumper from slot 16AB to 17AB.

• Install the VR14 in the CPU cabinet and leaving a 3U gap above the CPU chassis.

• Connect the VR14 to the VT11 and see if the diagnostics will run.

• Create BSD2.9 UNIX RL02 media and see if it will boot.

• Remove either the KW11-P or DR11-C from the expansion backplane and install an RL11 disk controller.

• Connect the two RL02 disk drives to the RL11 controller.

• Replace the DL11 with a DZ11, connect it to the RS-232 distribution panel, and see if the diagnostics will run.

• Remove either the KW11-P or DR11-C from the expansion backplane and install an RL11 disk controller.