Virtual TU56 restoration project?

[David H. Barr]

On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 21:47:27 -0500, Ashley Carder <wacarder at usit.net> wrote:
> Is anyone interested in helping me do the
> TU56/TC11 restoration as a "virtual restoration
> project"?  I know you California guys can get
> together in person and meet and work on your
> PDP-1 restoration.  I'm stuck here in South
> Carolina and don't have a face-to-face group
> to interact with.
> 
> I'm going to add a projects page to my site,
> and add the TU56 project under that.  I've
> taken some pictures of it the way it is today,
> which is pretty much how it arrived, except
> that I've located a couple cards that were
> missing.
> 
> I don't know if anyone has ever done anything
> like this remotely in a "virtual mode" before,
> but the idea of a team project sounds interesting
> to me.  David in New York could restore his
> TU56 in parallel.  In my current job I work
> daily with a team in India.  We never see one
> another face-to-face except when an occasional
> developer comes to the U.S. to spend some time
> learning our procedures and processes.  We are
> able to accomplish our goals with teams
> working on opposite sides of the globe.
> 
> Several folks have already privately been in
> correspondence with me and have already been
> a big help.  You know who you are.
> 
> If anyone's interested, let me know.  The
> project would have a plan that folks could
> help me put together, to do things in a
> reasonable and logical order.  Things like
> clean the backplanes, check the flip-chips,
> re-form the capacitors, etc.  I don't know
> what would be in it for everyone else, other
> than to know that you helped when it finally
> spins up a DECtape and can read and write to
> it as the unit is connected to one of my
> PDP-11s.
> 
> Call me crazy if you wish.  I suppose I've
> been involved in too many group projects over
> the past 20 years and this seems like a fun
> opportunity to try out the group/team concept
> in a different way.
> 
> Ashley

Sounds like a fun time to do the occasional video linkup.  Somehow
using new technology to restore very old technology smacks of the
irreverent just enough to be fun.

-dhbarr.