[Info-vax] Monitor for Alphastation 500

[thedavegray at gmail.com]

On Friday, 6 September 2019 01:05:26 UTC+1, Steven Schweda  wrote:
> > [...] This has a 25 pin monitor port on the back [...]
> 
>    Seems unlikely.  A parallel port, perhaps?  Before doing
> anything else, I'd try to find the user manual for the thing.
> Identifying the components correctly might be helpful.

I have the ring bound "DIGITAL AlphaStation 500 Series- User Info." The bottom right port, next to the terminated SCSI is for a parallel device. 
Says next to nothing about the monitor, except how to clean one - helpful.  

There are two VGA style plugs but these are serial ports, so I'm guessing that I could plug my VT320 in with the correct adaptor.  There are three free PCI ports which it says I can use for video/graphics expansion module and a monitor. 

> 
>    I'd expect any (optional) graphics to be on a PCI card.
> 
> > [...] The manual says [...]
> 
>    _Which_ "The manual"?  If you have two disks, then you can
> run Tru64 and VMS.  (If you can find a Tru64 installation
> kit, and don't care about details like legality.)

The box must be loaded up with OpenVMS because there's a lot of CDs and rather grand license certificates.  

It was supplied with a three button ball mouse (blast from the past) must be capable of graphics with the right hardware and monitor. 

There's some OneDrive pictures of the box, back ports and manual pages if anyone wants a look. 

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ah9cer_nAx90jZcc97v5Vk34KsjFMQ?e=6Qj7Cu 

Sorry if this is a bit garbled, it's 4:20 in the morning here and I really should switch off and get some zzzz. 

Thanks