Sunday, June 5, 2022

Finishing up the memory load function for the IBM 1130

CASE FOR ARDUINO AND SHIELD WITH CABLE OUTLETS

I picked up a case that will cover and protect the Arduino plus its shield but allow the cabling through. I like the way it fits together and it does seem ideal for this application inside the 1130.

Arduino and Shield inside the protective case

MOUNTING THE ARDUINO CASE INSIDE 1130

The case is sitting inside the 1130 at this time but I will work out some way to secure it in place for a more permanent and reliable installation.

In place under cover but not yet secured in place

CHECKING CLEARANCES FOR RELAY BOARDS

The relay boards sit with the rear terminals just under the 1053 Console Printer whose case is metal, so that I had to carefully test the clearances to be sure there was no risk of shorting. Fortunately the placement of the boards has them under the bottom in all cases, whether the 1053 is seated down in its location or a bit forward; the front edge of the mount elevates the 1053 slightly when it is forward out of position thus safely above the relay terminals.

TEST OF THE LOADER DEVICE

I programmed a small routine at startup of the Arduino that trips each relay in turn with about a second between them, sequentially from left (Bit 0) to right (Bit 15), delays and then pushes Prog Start for a second after which it finishes with Load IAR.

The system powered up fine and with the rotary mode control in Load mode, I saw the bits go on in the IAR register lights on the console display panel. The Prog Start worked properly to load the value into memory and the Load IAR seemed to work too. 

I also tested to be sure that the Prog Start, Load IAR and the Console Entry Switches all worked manually as they should. I was satisfied, the only thing left to test is to send commands over the USB serial link and verify all works correctly. 

IBM 1130 with USB link to load memory contents

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