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Like the RX02 before it, I want to test the controller in a standalone Unibone setup.
Providing power
The DELUA card has some rather hefty power requirements:
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This will require some setup with lab PSUs; an empty Unibone setup already takes about 3.2A.. Luckily enough the real power use (at least at startup) is less: putting my KA3305 in parallel mode, with 5A per channel provides enough power (about 4A per channel).4.8A per channel).
| Note |
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Make sure your power cords are thick enough! You will have substantial losses in voltage with this amount of current! And they will get pretty warm! Do not use your typical Chinesium wires! |
Example: assuming 12A at 5V through 1M of cable (effectively 2M for power and ground):
AWG | mm2 | Loss | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
15 | 1.65 | 0.516V | 4.48V |
13 | 2.63 | 0.324V | 4.67V |
10 | 5.26 | 0.162V | 4.83V |
9 | 6.6 | 0.128V | 4.87V |
- | 16 | 0.053V | 4.95V |
We now also need -15V. This is found on pin FB2 of the backplane. See the power connector diagram for details.
Card configuration: DIP switches
Dip switches on the DELUA card at arrival:
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The leftmost dipswitch defines the vector address, and should be set to 120 for the 1st controller:
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which is correct too.
XXDP tests for the DELUA controller
The absolutely awesome XXDP database by Joerg Hoppe can be searched by device: click the “Device Index” link, then search for DELUA. This returns the tests available for the device. Another route is to download the “PDP11 Diagnostics Handbook” from Bitsavers. In there we find the following tests:
ZUAC??: NIE Exerciser Diagnostic. This is a tool which allows discovering nodes on the network. Does not seem to be very useful.
ZUAD??: Functional Diagnostic. This test needs a loopback connector on the AIU connector, and consists of 27 subtests.