Given the relative dearth of DSSI equipment in the NW USA, I hacked in a HSD05 SBB to my VAX 4000/200 so I could use SCSI disks (don't worry - it's reversible. HSD05 module removed from the SBB holder and attached to a plate that fits in the drive sled tracks in the top of the BA430, with a 50-pin pin header soldered into the HSD05 and a loop cable connecting to the backplane at one end and the original backplane->bulkhead connector on the other. SCSI and power brought in via a custom perfboard DIN-96 breakout board. Disks mounted on another "sled plate" and power brought out from the TK70 sled power connector).
Anyway, after a bit of use the first drive (a Sun OEM Seagate ST34371WC) would often fail to boot (b dia100 would go 2.. and then stop), and later it didn't even come up as an option under "show dev". I immediately suspected my DIN96 adaptor board (erm, actually after worrying that I'd blown my HSD05 and turned the 4000 into a doorstop), but replacing the Sun drive with a RZ01-xx 4.5GB unit started it working just fine. Tests of the Sun drive in a Sun have so far come back OK.
And now for the question: Do the HSD devices only work reliably with DEC-firmware disks? Do they require a firmware tweak (such as some CD-ROM drives have, e.g. the SGI drives for 4Ds that pass themselves off as hard drives so the PROM will boot from them), or was this just one oddity?
So in general I shouldn't need to worry about keeping a stock of true-(beige? burgundy?) DEC disks around as replacements. Good, makes it a bit easier. I'm running v7.3, so SCSI support should be good. How much of the SCSI-ness is exposed to the VAX, though? It sounded like the HSD05 took care of much of that.
I've never really run an HSD05 but I have run systems HSD10... VERY fussy on the disks it will "see"... 4.3 GB and below in the putty color bricks. I have also run SE scsi on an MV4000-100A to a BS35x storage shelf... it only sees half the slots(every other one) but allows you access to at least 18GB disks :-). I've been buying the dec bricks on eBay for quite some time for $10 plus shipping... not worth the time or potential data loss in making non-dec firmware disks work.
malmberg August 04 2022 No more VAX hobbyist licenses. Community licenses for Alpha/IA64/X86_64 VMS Software Inc. Commercial VMS software licenses for VAX available from HPE.
ozboomer July 20 2022 Just re-visiting.. No more hobbyist licenses? Is that from vmssoftware.com, no 'community' licenses?
valdirfranco July 01 2022 No more hobbyist license...sad
mister_wavey February 12 2022 I recall that the disks failed on the public access VMS systems that included Fafner
parwezw January 03 2022 Anyone know what happened to FAFNER.DYNDS.ORG? I had a hobbyist account here but can longer access the site.
gtackett October 27 2021 Make that DECdfs _2.1A_ for Vax
gtackett October 27 2021 I'm looking for DECdfs V2.4A kit for VAX. Asking here just in case anyone is still listening.
MarkRLV September 17 2021 At one time, didn't this web site have a job board? I would love to use my legacy skills one last time in my career.
malmberg January 18 2021 New Hobbyist PAKs for VAX/VMS are no longer available according to reports. Only commercial licenses are reported to be for sale from HPE
dfilip January 16 2021 Can someone please point me to hobbyist license pak? I'm looking for VAX/VMS 7.1, DECnet Phase IV, and UCX/TCPIP ... have the 7.1 media, need the license paks ... thanks!
