DEC H500 "Computer Lab"

I have this cool DEC "Computer Lab". It's a box with a power supply, some switches and lights, some logic, and a variable clock. Here's a picture of the thing: My Computer Lab, from eBay. You use jumper wires of various lengths to connect together the circuit you want to build. There is a workbook (and a teacher's edition) of exercises that turn it into a course on computer logic. Here are some pictures of the wires (I think these were taken by Ashley of his wires): The wires (color coded by length). A closeup of the funky tapered brass ends on the wires. I can't source those funky taper pins. I believe they were DEC 12-03498 (AMP #41675). The closest pins I can find data sheets for are #42107 "88" series, and #42279. All obsolete, of course. There's an intermittent that is cured by flexing the box a little -- perhaps a bad solder joint or the like. But other than that, it works great. In case you were wondering, it does indeed use the same switches as the PDP-8/I :-). Jack Rubin sent some photos of his patch cables, a style I've never seen before: A few of Jack's patch cables. Cool stackable DEC branded mini-banana plugs! Jack also says the Pomona 1081-24-9 patch cords work well: A bag of Pomona patch cables. Glenn Axelrod also sent me a very nice PDF schematic of the thing.

Last updated on 02/25/23 02:21 vrs