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An IBM 1440 Restoration,
just starting

"Center for Technology & Innovation" has web site, with this report.

Table of Contents

- Early E-Mail April 30, 2010
- PowerUp This Afternoon? July 15, 2010
- From Jud McCarthy July 17, 2010
- Quarterly Report Sept 28, 2010

Early E-Mail April 30, 2010


Subject:   Re: 2010-04-27 Update IBM 1440 project 
 
From: Robert Garner     
 
Date: Fri, Apr 30, 2010 2:30 pm 
To: Susan Sherwood < director@ctandi.org > 
Cc: ...
 

Thanks for the update on your 1440 project!

Van Snyder has the Sindelfingen contact info, in fact he is traveling 
there soon. (I've cc'd him).

Regarding 1440 parts & CE manuals, it looks like Al has the parts and 
several CE manuals on his \"www.bitsavers.org" website. Paul may have 
some too. I believe you have all the ALDs (schematics), right?

I've cc' some of the 1401 team here for their thoughts.(Allen Palmer 
supported 1440s)

Good luck!

Robert

===============================

On Apr 29, 2010, at 8:06 PM, Susan Sherwood < director@ctandi.org > wrote:

> Good progress was made on Tuesday 27 April by the team that included:
>
> Charlie Davis, Gary DeBlieck, Kalesh Kapur, Donovan McCarty, Carl 
> Mosher, Fred Petrus, and Don Seraphim.
>
> Testing on the 1441 unit determined that all filter capacitors were 
> a-ok and they were reformated (reformed?). The line voltage power 
> filter was reinstalled, after raising the machine onto wood 
> blocks. Future work in this line awaits installation of 3-phase 
> power in the workshop area.
> Next week's session will focus on inspecting and cleaning SMS cards 
> in the areas of previous mouse occupancy. There is no evidence of 
> chewing (so far), and the cards, which where coated, are in good to 
> very good condition.
>
> Work began on cleaning up the 1447 console - removing uninhabited 
> mouse house, cleaning surfaces, partial disassembly of mechanism. 
> Next steps include further disassembly - somethings stuck - 
> polishing the rail, and running the motor. We need to find someone 
> who understands or can decipher the power system of the device. 
> Ribbons and tilt/rotate tapes are available for purchase through the 
> Web.
>
> We need to find a Parts Catalog for the 1441 and a Systems Guy or 
> someone who can understand the architecture of the 1441.
>
> IBM's office in Sindelfingen has a museum where all devices are 
> operational, and are operated by a team of retirees similar to the 
> 1440 team. It may be a great source of assistance and spare parts. 
> I'm seeking contacts through the IBM Corporate Archivist; if anyone 
> has Sindelfingen connections, please see what you can find out.
>
> We are still looking for a 1403 printer (without an optimized 
> character set), a card punch/reader, and programs that run on the 
> 1440. Anchors Away or other musical applications will be a special 
> treat.
>
> Last, but not least, we are looking for someone to write up the 
> progress reports who has more knowledge than I. Volunteers?
>
> Next Work Session will be Tuesday 4 May 1:15 PM. The workshop 
> will be open Tuesday evening from 5-7:30 PM for the Blue Box Team to 
> work, and the IBM 1440 will be available. Please feel free to stop 
> by and see what's happening Tuesday evening.
> Thanks to all,
>
> Susan
>
> S. I. Sherwood, Executive Director
> Center for Technology & Innovation,Inc.
> 321 Water Street, Binghamton, NY 13901
> Future home of TechWorks! museum
>
> Tel 607-773-0092
> Fax 607-722-6616
> Cell 607-624-1090

PowerUp This Afternoon? July 15, 2010

With what I have come to observe as typical, Jud McCarthy's persistence 
directed with his laser-like focus on
a particular goal yields results. Jud has been in Binghamton this week 
and is intent upon putting power to the 1440
before he leaves this evening. To this end, a small group of hardy 
souls have braved less than ideal work conditions
to, among other things, remove nuts from the California dessert (and 
another mouse house or two) that were jamming
fan motors, cable the 1440 to the 1447 console, and reinstall reformed 
caps and voltage regulators (which deliver
to spec after 50 years). Hat's off to IBM's manufacturing quality. 
Many thanks to Bill Davis, Charlie Davis, Jud McCarthy,
Don McCarty and his student, Nick, Fred Petras, and Bob Pratt for their 
contributions in this week's heat. 
With some more work that starts at 1 PM today, the team expects to be 
able to repower the system by mid-afternoon.

Please stop by the former Binghamton Ice Cream Company building at 321 
Water Street this afternoon and help
mark their progress. Best to park on either side of the railroad 
trestle, west side of Water Street, entering at the south door.

Next week, Don Crandall, who designed the 1440 diagnostics, will be up 
from Florida to help move the project along.
There will be a work session with Don and Gerry Schrag, who worked on 
the 1440 systems team, Monday 19 July, and
probably others later in the week, depending on progress. If you want 
to be on the contact list for the work session scheduling
and other project logistics, please send me an email.

Keep cool,

Susan

S. I. Sherwood, Executive Director
Center for Technology & Innovation, Inc.
321 Water Street, Binghamton, NY 13901
Future home of TechWorks! museum of
invention and upstate NY industry

tel - 607-624-1090

www.ctandi.org

From Jud McCarthy JHMcCarthy atsign aol dot com - July 17, 2010

Subject: IBM 1440 System Restoration Status (USA)
Attachment
Gentlemen: Attached, please find the latest subject status of our activities here in Binghamton / Endicott, NY USA.

Please be aware that we have only

a 1441 Processor,
a 1447-3 (Console / KB/ Selectric Printer),
and a 1311 disk unit.
We do not have
a 1442 or 1402 card I/O unit,
and we do not have a 1443 or 1403 rinter unit.
Any suggestions you may have for us to locate these units would be welcomed.

However, the main reason for this note is to see if you, in Germany, have any logic diagrams

on the 1447 console lights and switches,
and / or 1441 logics showing the paddle card feed through B gate in the 1441.
Please note that although we do have the 1447 Model 3 logics for the KB & Selectric Printer portions of the 1447, the Mod 1 (Console Only) logics would have the logics of the lights and switches we are looking for. .
Best regards ------ Jud

PS: By copy to Robert Garner, I am asking him to check with the guys at the Mt View museum to see if they have any suggestions or input.

PSS: By copy to David Clapp (System Donator): David, this is for your info, and to ask the following questions:

  • Did you ever have Card I/O and / or printer output units with the subject 1440 system? If so, input for us?
  • Can you check to se if there any system documents that may still be in your posssion, such as the 1447 Console unit
  • Did you or your company ever have power up on the 1441 unit, and if so can you provide a history of the usage?
  • If you never powered the units up, was it sold to you as a functioning set of units.
  • Who did you actually procure the units from?
Thanks in advance ------- Jud

Justin (Jud) McCarthy
251 SW 9th Ave
Boca Raton, FL 33486
Home (561)391-1422 Cell: (561)504-7048


Quarterly Report Sept 28, 2010
Subject:	
 	1440 Restoration in Progress - Quarterly Report
From:	
Susan Sherwood 	  
Date:	Tue, Sep 28, 2010 12:02 pm
To:	...

This report covers the time period between 8/04/2010 and 9/15/2010.

Progress continues at a reasonable pace since power on in July.

A summary of problems encountered and corrective actions follow.

* We determined that additional connections between the 1447
and 1440 were required. 2 logic signal cables and a voltage(AC) cable
were located and installed.

* 2 broken cable paddle cards were replaced.

* While checking 1440 clock and trigger ring circuits, time
000-030 driver output was loaded down. The problem was that 2 logic
cards gate 1A3, positions H18 and H26 were transposed.

* Transposed wires on paddle card 47C2H12 were corrected.

* Several communication problems between the 1447 console
switches and indicators and the 1440 were noted during continuing
debug. We determined that cable paddle cards 47C1H13,14,and 16 were
incorrectly labeled, and therefore incorrectly plugged. It appears that
this was a factory error, and corrected during Customer installation by
transposing the other end of the cables in gate 1B3, without re labeling
the connectors. The paddle cards at 47C1 were correctly labeled and
plugged. This corrected many of the problems including LAMP TEST.

* When attempting to manually enter addresses to the storage
address register from the console switches, units position 1 and 8 bits
were on all the time. A shorted transistor on a card involved in this
function was found and replaced correcting that problem.

* A Start Reset line loading problem was noted while working
on the previous problem. The was caused by transposed cable connectors
1B3C09 and C10.

* Carl Mosher has worked the past couple of sessions on the
selectric printer. He changed the drive belt, and has been working on
replacing the type carriage drive cord. to this point we don't have one
that is the right length.

Communication between the 1447 Console switches and the 1440
Processor is about 75% complete.(Est.). We can enter addresses manually
into the storage address register, instruction address register, and
A&B storage address registers. Some problems affecting parity as
incorrect "C" bits show up. We have started some checking of main
storage including 1B2 gate voltages and storage clocking.

We have reached this status point through the efforts of
Charlie Davis, Gary deBlieck, Fred Petras, and John Westermann, under
the watchful eyes of Bill Davis. We expect steady progress through year
end.

Compiled by Fred Petras, 9/20/2010