Hi Tim, 

> I am not sure what other UNIBUS cages there are out there, but I think
> and UNIBUS cage would probably work. They seem to be prity self contained
> and just paddle connectors. From memory only th 11/7xx and 8600 series
> realy used UNIBUS.

don't forget the PDP-11, UNIBUS was really the main PDP-11 system
bus.

> How are you going with getting hold of a system cabinet? and/or backplane?

two friends have turned up some things from the scrap yard. Unfortunately
those may be missing critical pieces and have been fairly exposed to 
whether and water on the scrapyard probably for years. It's a shame.
I'm not even sure I can afford the sipping accross the country, depends
on the condition. I'm still hoping to find a decomissioned complete
system someday somewhere. May be that would even have the UNIBUS
extension cabinet end everything (= VAX heaven :-).

> > > As far as the UNSBUS in my 11/785, I have a DEUNA Ethernet, SCSI Tape
> > > Controller and serial cards (can't remember part numbers of hand).
> >
> > Anything SCSI seems like utterly unaffordable for the VAX, whatever
> > bus it is, ebay prices simply skyrocket on every VAX SCSI adapter.
> > So, I'll do without. Leaves me with DEUNA, a whole bus for one
> > card! I won't cry if I don't get it
> >
> 
> I am in Australia, over here last time I tried bidding on a uVAX II, that
> when completely crazy! When as high as $700 AU, about $1400 US.

yea, eBay is a sword with two edges, it's a big flea market where we
can gather things, but there is a lot of activity going on driving up
the prices. There is nothing better than sitting right at the source
where people want to get things out of their way quickly. Blessed are
the folks in New York or other huge cities, who know where to turn to.
 
> As I  understand the MASSBUS on the 11/785 is just a couple of slots in the
> card cage in the system cabnet, far right hand site.
> The cards I have heard you can get for it are Disk/Tape controlers  and HSC.
> MASSBUS is genraly perfered to UNIBUS for speed reasons as it is full system
> width.

Ah, you mean the reserved slots in the main cabinet? O.K. that would at
least not require another major component. Cards show up over time.

> There is some more info in the 11/780 and 11/785 Installation Manuals that I
> have, that I can scan in if you are interested. Manly only things like
> pictures of the cabnets and layouts.

Thanks, I have one drawing of front and back side by now. Of course
I'd be glad for the manuals. If you could scan and put up on web site,
that would be a great community service. I'm sure there are others
who might want to look at this.

> I just thought, you would need to source a LSI-11 console as well?

very true, and unfortunately those are really PDP-11 computers that
people take from the yard just for its own sake. I dearly hope that
one of the machines the friends have found has that console computer
still in it. Otherwise it'll be a big pain. Do you have one spare?

regards
-Gunther

-- 
Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D.                    gschadow@regenstrief.org
Medical Information Scientist      Regenstrief Institute for Health Care
Adjunct Assistant Professor        Indiana University School of Medicine
tel:1(317)630-7960                         http://aurora.regenstrief.org