#127 is alive and well.

[R Clark]

Kit #127 is alive.  Ran the test.sh and all lights work.  All switches work.  Looks like I am ready to button things up!!!   Yeah!   I'll post a picture once boards are installed in the case.

Funny thing (well, NOT) happened when installing switches.  Bet none of you guys did this.  

I got all switches set in place with help from the otto board. I then placed the face plate on top ...  I was struggling the get all the switches through the holes and lights all at the same time... so dummy me goes to pick up the assembly ... and yes, it all came apart as I picked up the 'sandwich' ... and base board hit the floor and all the switches went flying.... Picked everything up and left it for the night....  Today, I figured out to do a single  'row' of switches at a time.  Much easier to get switches in holes when dealing with just a row at a time!  Obviously went smooth after that as everything works.  Happy.

[R Clark]

And pictures of completed Machine!   Note that 'extended' the PI to sit higher for cooling and away from any metal touching.  No reason to have it right up against the main board as plenty of room in the back.

[R Clark]

One more picture with all of the PiDPs on the shelf.  I get into the PiDPs with ssh and the PiDP-1 has a web interface as well.  Will see how that works now that I've got off the local display.   The PiDP-1 lights are a bit bright compared to the other PiDPs!

[Bill E]

I have all of mine in the living room. They frequently end up a topic of discussion when people come over.

I usually vnc into a desktop on all of them, but of course ssh into the running OSs, OS-8, RSX-11, and ITS on the respective boxes.

All except the -1, of course. The web intf is nice for that one, although I also use the gui intf.

I agree, the -1 lights are too bright. I think Oscar or Angelo commented about comparing them with a real PDP-1. I'm going to the computer museum in Dec, I'll take a look at theirs.

Bill

[R Clark]

Mine are in our in our computer room/library/office area in the basement.  My wife likes to keep 'her'  living room 'un-cluttered' ...  All shelved computers are on a UPS.   The PiDP 11/70 is also my PI-Hole, NTP server and a few other things.  My PiDP-10 is all setup as a file server besides running the simulator (running tops-20 right now). Currently it is the 'backup' file server as I haven't switched over to it... yet. 

One other thing I added was a 180 degree USB-C adapter so the power cable isn't sticking 'up'.  I'd do the same for the hdmi (or 90 degree) if I had a screen connected for display.  A bit cleaner.

I too noted the web interface tries to load tapes from the remote machine.  Probably needs two buttons, so you could upload new tapes, or run tapes that are local to the PiDP-1 . Minor right now of course.  There is aways VNC/remote desktop too.

[R Clark]

Did some rearranging... Added my 'almost' a type 340 display to the shelf.  Now all DEC equipment except for the Star Trek computer on the right.  Took me quite awhile this morning to figure out how to start an application automatically 'after' auto login as the Type 340 Display application must run after the GUI is already up...  But finally hit the right method (lot of misleading info on the web). Yeah!   Looks like I need to tidy up all the power cords and ethernet cables :rolleyes: .

Also a picture of the back of the PiDP-1 with the last couple of parts added. You can see the 180 degree power adapter on the left.  Note I sanded down the 'nibs' on the sides of the parts so they 'just' click into the slots.  Then you don't have to bend the sides so much to get the back pieces in or out as needed as these pieces do not have to be super secure.

[Michael J. Kupec]

Nice!

I still need to build my PiDP-10* and can’t wait to get the email from Oscar yo send $$$ for the -1! 

* Im punishing myself to not build the -10 until I get the rats nest of my work bench cleaned up and 20 years of old laptops and servers sold/recycled/given away! 

BTW: Does the Star Trek computer actually do anything?  

Have a great Day!

Michael J Kupec 

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 4, 2025, at 5:35 PM, R Clark <rbclar...@gmail.com> wrote:



Did some rearranging... Added my 'almost' a type 340 display to the shelf.  Now all DEC equipment except for the Star Trek computer on the right.  Took me quite awhile this morning to figure out how to start an application automatically 'after' auto login as the Type 340 Display application must run after the GUI is already up...  But finally hit the right method (lot of misleading info on the web). Yeah!   Looks like I need to tidy up all the power cords and ethernet cables :rolleyes: .

Also a picture of the back of the PiDP-1 with the last couple of parts added. You can see the 180 degree power adapter on the left.  Note I sanded down the 'nibs' on the sides of the parts so they 'just' click into the slots.  Then you don't have to bend the sides so much to get the back pieces in or out as needed as these pieces do not have to be super secure.

<computerWall_20251003_1024_4.jpg>

<PiDP-1_Completed_back_1024_2.jpg>

On Saturday, October 4, 2025 at 9:26:20 AM UTC-6 R Clark wrote:

Mine are in our in our computer room/library/office area in the basement.  My wife likes to keep 'her'  living room 'un-cluttered' ...  All shelved computers are on a UPS.   The PiDP 11/70 is also my PI-Hole, NTP server and a few other things.  My PiDP-10 is all setup as a file server besides running the simulator (running tops-20 right now). Currently it is the 'backup' file server as I haven't switched over to it... yet. 

One other thing I added was a 180 degree USB-C adapter so the power cable isn't sticking 'up'.  I'd do the same for the hdmi (or 90 degree) if I had a screen connected for display.  A bit cleaner.

I too noted the web interface tries to load tapes from the remote machine.  Probably needs two buttons, so you could upload new tapes, or run tapes that are local to the PiDP-1 . Minor right now of course.  There is aways VNC/remote desktop too.

On Saturday, October 4, 2025 at 8:05:52 AM UTC-6 wjegr...@gmail.com wrote:

I have all of mine in the living room. They frequently end up a topic of discussion when people come over.

I usually vnc into a desktop on all of them, but of course ssh into the running OSs, OS-8, RSX-11, and ITS on the respective boxes.

All except the -1, of course. The web intf is nice for that one, although I also use the gui intf.

I agree, the -1 lights are too bright. I think Oscar or Angelo commented about comparing them with a real PDP-1. I'm going to the computer museum in Dec, I'll take a look at theirs.

Bill

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<PiDP-1_Completed_back_1024_2.jpg>

<computerWall_20251003_1024_4.jpg>

[R Clark]

"

Does the Star Trek computer actually do anything?  

"

In a way :) . All buttons/dials/switches are all sensed.  To gain access, you have insert the key (that red block you see inserted in a slot).  Then enter a pass code with the buttons.  Two factor authentication... my way.    Then you get access via a command-line interface which allows you to run calculations, basic programs, and general file i/o.  It also has a movement sensor in it to sense people nearby. It will show a 'H' on the LED display when you walk by.    Otherwise it does the o' light going back and forth like on the kit car... It also knows when the lights are on in the office  and lets you know when you turn off/on.  Had a camera in it for awhile (I was going to add a better RPI camera, but haven't got back to it) and do face recognition.  It will play wave files and do text to speech when say you authenticate, or when booting, or ... Just fun stuff.   Tried speech to text with a microphone, but mostly it just garbled what I said, so disabled that -- for now. I have the RPI AI module here in house, so may try a different route for speech to text...   There is a rpi-5 (was a 4) behind the scenes talking to a Adafruit Grand Central M4 which has lots of I/O.... So lots of potential for upgrades.  Oh and some of the lights are statuses, like a watch dog and room lights, whether user is logged in or not, entered a bad pass code....  The main lights just blink randomly -- then you know it is thinking... Ha!  Going to add a temp/humidity sensor to it one of these days as well and whatever else I can think of!!!

[R Clark]

FYI, The command line interface I developed was/is for Pico and Pico 2 (or any 2350, 2040 controllers), but also runs on any Linux machine.  I had meant it for a simple way of managing files and such and has an A: and B: drive just like o' DOS days...  but then it got out of hand. Added batch file handling, then  I created a basic interpreter for it so I could run old basic programs (graphic general, and turtle, and text)... That turned out to be fun trying to adapt to all the different basic dialects  out there .. but it now runs most old basic games, some with a little massaging... Still work in progress. Also, then added  the PAM (Personal Assistant Manager) module for more general information handling for fun (module not for RP2350 systems)...  I sometimes get carried away.

Here is the old style star trek command line after startup in ssh session.  Command line will not work, unless you do the physical 2 factor authentication talked about above. So,  maybe call this three factor authentication if you count the login to the command-line.  Anyway, I digress.... 

[Ken Hansen]

Once upon a time Google made an 'assistant' that ran on an RPi, had a speaker & mics, but it never really caught on - why spend $50 to build something you can buy for $29.95? Anyway, as I remember it was a bit user modifiable, it might make a nice 'purpose' for your Star Trek computer?

It was called Google AIY (Assemble it yourself, I think).

Early kits needed an RPi 3B+, later kits came with RPi zero included.

 https://aiyprojects.withgoogle.com/voice/

Ken

On Oct 5, 2025, at 02:32, R Clark <rbclar...@gmail.com> wrote:

"

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pidp-1/4c069355-edb7-428c-8ecb-3252bca53609n%40googlegroups.com.

[R Clark]

Thanks... Only one problem... Well, big problem is the AIY connects to Google in the cloud.  All my projects are on my home network and going to stay that way. Ie. Local access only.   No Internet Of Things here with external accounts for services. I have a separate network for accessing the internet.  I know I am a Luddite in a public Information world, but some lines I just can't cross.  One of the reasons I left the M$ world and all machines at home are Linux or microprocessor based.  Like and use technology ... to a point.

[R Clark]

Kind of neat you can 'power off' (click) and the 'power on' (click) and toggle 'start' and back running where you left off.  Anyway time to learn more about the PDP-1 .  Hopefully I'll get some time before other projects start taking over :) .  I must say one more time, I really enjoyed building the kit and seeing it all 'work' the first time.  Thanks Oscar (and all the others that contributed)  for all the hard work of making this kit and software happen!

[Oscar Vermeulen]

Bill,

On Saturday, October 4, 2025 at 4:05:52 PM UTC+2 wjegr...@gmail.com wrote:

I agree, the -1 lights are too bright. I think Oscar or Angelo commented about comparing them with a real PDP-1. I'm going to the computer museum in Dec, I'll take a look at theirs.

If you can do that, Please! Some video of the original lamps when running - and subjective impressions are very welcome. There is surprisingly little of it online, just the camera passing a glance at the lights. And also, the lamp glow is very subjective - different ambient lighting and a camera tells you a whole different story. We had to make do with what we and knew. But the last visit to the CHM was in 2018, I think...

The lamp glow simulation can be tweaked with various parameters, brightness, persistence of incandescent glow, etc. We were planning to go to the CHM to perfect it, but it is a 9 hour flight from here...

Kind regards,

Oscar.

[R Clark]

I see I have some of the 'yellow' LEDs but no biggie.  Gives the panel an antique look ... I think :) .  

I got a Passive Cooler H509 for my PI-5 on the PiDP-1 as I've ran into fans starting to rattle/make noise and need replaced over time.  But I found, using the passive cooler, at idle it sits around ~42-45C and when running in the sim it jumped to mid 60s which would be it's normal state as I run these 24x7....  A bit warm for my tastes... <sigh> So I screwed down a small fan to top of the passive cooler and it runs the sim in the low 40s where I like to see it.  I am cool with that I suppose.  Just replace fans when they fail....  Since I couldn't use the +5V and Gnd on the RPI-5, I soldered a couple wires to a +5V and GND holes at the top of the panel board.  Would have liked to add pins, but that would require tearing down the box to get at the front for soldering.  I wasn't keen on disassembly and reassembling again.  So it goes.  I wasn't thinking ahead it appears :) .

[R Clark]

And here is new 'knobs' that my son printed for me.  I painted the tips red.  I noticed these when I was watching the play music with pdp-1 video and had to make a set.

[Malcolm Ray]

I love those! They fix one of my two aesthetic complaints about the console (the other being that the small switches are too close together to allow all the nuts to be fitted).

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[Glenn Babecki]

I wonder if these dress nuts would fit in the space?  I haven't put my kit together yet so I can't easily verify this myself at this time.

https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/nut-dress-nut-mini-toggle-switches

https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/nut-dress-nut-threaded-through-mini-toggle-switches

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[Malcolm Ray]

It might be worth a try, though there really is very little space: about 3mm between each pair of switches. Also, the real PDP-1 at the Computer History Museum uses hex nuts on those switches.

Dress nuts would be appropriate on the larger switches.

This is nit-picky, I know!

[Glenn Babecki]

Yikes, 3 mm ain't much to work with.  As indicated I didn't check the spacing and I didn't even look at the dimensions of the dress nuts.  They came to mind as a possibility so I just tossed it out in the ether.

I completely understand the aesthetic issue, but if (big if) they could work it would be better than unsecured threaded stems. 🤷🏻‍♂️

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[R Clark]

Yeah, looks like you need real thin hex nuts, or for 'display' purposes just a 'washer' style to fit over the threads and tack to the front plate....   To bad the display wasn't just a couple centimeters bigger so all for the regular nuts would clear each other -- if only by a 0.5mm  or so :) .  Still I am not complaining.  I like the kit and will enjoy it for years to come.

[Glenn Babecki]

Another example of what can happen when scaling goes wrong.

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[Unibus]

For cooling I used the optional Raspberry Pi cooling fan. It's low profile so clearance from the PCB is not an issue. It has one advantage, at startup the fan runs at high speed for a few seconds before video appears. This gives faint audible notification that the Pi is on the way up. So far I have never heard the fan in normal operation. So heat has not been an issue, possibly no need for extra cooling.

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[Bill E]

I have a cooling fan and I've noticed that it runs fairly often at low speed. I have a continuous loop of display progs running via my rotate-from-drum 'supervisor' prog, so maybe all that display activity is the culprit. It does a lot of floating point.

Bill