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From: hoffman@xdelta.enet.dec.nospam (Hoff Hoffman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Subject: Re: VAXStation 2000, will DEC VT??? display?
Date: 22 Dec 1997 15:52:28 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corp
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In article <67gdpd$sa2$1@news.duke.edu>, sg18@acpub.duke.edu (Subir Grewal) writes:
:I have a VaxStation 2000 I bought almost a year ago.  I'm rather
:embarassed to say I've not even turned it on more than once (and that
:just to see if it would power up and the drive would spin up).  I
:basically tried hooking up a VT220 to it, and that idea bombed, I think
:because the pins are a little different.  I have a document in my mail
:somewhere about how to go about crafting a cable for the VS2000. 
:
:My question is, can I hook up any VT??? terminal to this box at all?  My
:college surplus store has a wide range of VT terminals, and I was sort
:of hoping I could pick one up and just use it instead of going through
:the trouble of making cables. 

  Acquire the H8571-B MMJ adapter, and you can get going -- see the
  OpenVMS Frequently Asked Questions for information on the MMJ wiring
  system, and the various adapters.  The FAQ is available at the URL:

    ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/dec-faq/vms

  The VAXstation 2000 and certain other systems of similar vintage use
  a loopback inside the cable connector to indicate to the system that
  the cable is present -- pins 8 and 9 were shorted.  (This jumper was
  present inside the BCC08-series cabling, which was the console cable
  used on these systems.)

  The DB9 used on the VAXstation 2000 and other older DEC systems used
  a (then-standard pinout that predates the 9-pin pinout used on the
  PC-class systems.  And now, the PC DB9 is now the standard pinout.

  And yes, any VT-series terminal will work as a console terminal on
  these systems.

  The console pinouts were documented in Appendix C of the VAXstation
  2000 system manual.

  The VAXstation 3100 series systems and later VAX systems now typically
  use a switch to control the use of the console line.  On most of these
  systems, this switch is a slide-switch labeled "S3".

  -------------------------- pure personal opinion ---------------------------
   Hoff (Stephen) Hoffman   OpenVMS Engineering   h*ffman@xdelta.enet.dec.c*m
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