Really cool kit! Great instructions! It was a fun project.
It was great, it was good, it went together like it should!
(Does this meet the 100 character requirement for this review?)

Jacob | Dec. 20, 2022

Beautiful craftsmanship, excellent soldering kit

For PDP-8 replica kit: the PiDP-8

While it's true you can get 80% of the experience by using SIMH on a bare Raspberry Pi, nothing quite matches the look and feel of snapping switches and watching the blinkenlights fade in and out. The experience of programming a PDP-8 is austere and minimalist. This review is for the hardware and its documentation. The case is wooden, and thus very configurable to meet your needs. The main PCB is well-marked and sensibly laid out. The instruction sequence is well documented. I "boldly" soldered the single buffer IC directly to the board rather than using a socket. I have one teeny-tiny complaint: I wish there were an insulator (e.g. plastic, wood, paperboard) included, to put between the Raspberry Pi and the back of the PCB, as the instructions mention that the USB and Ethernet shields on the Pi 3/4 will short out some of the LED leads if it touches them. But creating one myself was as easy as cutting up an empty paperboard cereal box with some scissors. It was a little fiddly to get the screws in place to hold the insulator and Raspberry Pi to the back of the main PCB.

My advice: Be very careful handling and installing front panel, as its rear scratches very easily, and these scratches become transparent. Also, don't attach any extra components "just in case," like a spare USB drive key, without first testing the whole system before you mount it all in the case. Otherwise you'll find your system no longer boots, and you have to either cut a big hole in the back of the case, or unscrew everything to get it working again!

Greg | Nov. 4, 2022

Fantastic kit!

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

For me being close to 50 and having only some basic experience in soldering it was a challenge, but with some magnifying lenses (~20 EUR) and good soldering station (~40 EUR) it was easy and funny. I did only one mistake (cold solder joint) that I had to correct.
Otherwise, it's great fun and a very entertaining piece of electronics - the instructions are great and even describe problems that you would not probably see.
Great quality of parts also - I have to confess that I did manage to brake the 'locking mechanism' because I tried to correct it forcibly to the 'right' position :-)
Be careful - the front panel is very 'scratchable' from behind!

Now it sits on my shelf and I am pointing everyone who asks what it is to :
https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-history-of-the-url/

It is really a magnificent piece of engineering in this replica

John | April 11, 2022

What can be said that hasn't been said, just fantastic!

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

I believe that the PiDP-11 is one of the premier replica computer kits of all recent kits I've seen. It capability and extensibility is simply mind boggling. Get one, you know you want to!

Jeff | Jan. 6, 2022

Great kit - fun to assemble and works well

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

This is a great kit. The design, packaging, assembly instructions, and the community are all first-rate. I assembled my kit in a matter of hours, used the detailed troubleshooting guide to find one missed solder connection (my fault), and was up and running quickly. The instructions and the troubleshooting guide were well-written and comprehensive. The assembled PiDP-11 is a beautiful conversation piece that actually works!

Heinz-Bernd | Sept. 15, 2021

Amazing kit

For PDP-8 replica kit: the PiDP-8

I can fully recommend this kit. It is easy to build even for beginners, but you need to set aside a few hours for the task (> 400 solder joins, e.g. per switch there are 9 joins you'll have to solder (1 diode, 3 electrical switch contacts, 4 pins for mechanical support).

Half of the credit must go to the people at tangentsoft who contributed a lot of of the software needed to link the panel to the simh simulator. An almost insane amount of effort must have been spent to make the LEDs appear more like real light bulbs (as in the original PDP-8) (fading effects etc).

The finished kit is very pleasant to look at, but the main fun and amazement to me was discovering what amazing things people in the 60s and early 70s could do with this little computing power, and this is best experienced hands-on of course. This is great for your yearly Python-Detox. ;-) .

P.S.: Contrary to what I wrote in my PiDP-11 review (not editable now), you really should assume that the front panel side is indeed covered with a protective foil that you need to peel off for best results: on the new matte panel the protective foil is transparent, rather thin and difficult to see when your eyes are failing :-)

Heinz-Bernd | Aug. 19, 2021

Very well designed, looks great and works perfectly

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

I can absolutely recommend this kit.

Delivery: delivery (to Germany) was very fast

Assembling the kit: I'm not experienced in soldering and this was by far my biggest soldering project so far, and the number of parts is a bit intimidating at first. But it's very simple to build this kit, you should just reserve a few hours of time. The YouTube videos linked on Oscar's page and the instructions there are very clear and easy to follow. For me as a relative novice, using a solder flux pen worked very well to get good quality solder joints. Watch out to double check the switch orientations, you don't want to unsolder them again! You can see that Oscar paid a lot of attention to detail to make this as fool-proof as possible (markings on the PCB, including some spare parts, including special "tools" to help align the switches etc etc).

The finished kit "in action": Again, a lot of attention to detail makes this a beautiful thing to put on your desk or on a shelf. The LEDs are very bright, the new matte finish panel looks great! The colors of the panel and switches are just right. The entire thing has a very high quality "feel" to it. Note that the new matte panel (at least in my case) no longer has a protective foil on one side so don't try to peel off the backside of it by accident.

The integration with the SIMH emulator is well done, and the software that is linked on Oscar's site allows you to switch between a whole bunch of ancient operating systems on the emulated PDP-11/70. I'm running the rather "modern" 2.11BSD distribution which has TCP/IP support and Y2K fixes backported into it, I can recommend it if you actually want to play around and do some programming on the PiDP11 . It is remarkably usable even today.

The kit was sold so often that the user community now has a good size and can help you in case you want to experiment or if you want to learn more about how it was to use a real PDP-11 back then. New users should definitely check out the pidp11 google group.

Many thanks to Oscar for putting all the effort into making this a high quality and fun kit.

James | June 29, 2021

Superb little project

For PDP-8 replica kit: the PiDP-8

Very nice little project - the PCB and case are nice quality and components go on easily (I always use flux anyway), whilst the switches and front-panel are perfect.

Since I'm using mind as a wall-mounted NAS, it was nice to find space in the box enough for a USB SSD and a PoE power splitter. I drilled some ventilation holes as well.

Mogens | June 9, 2021

High Quality Retro-Computing Experience

For PDP-8 replica kit: the PiDP-8

This is an amazing, awesome kit! All components are high quality. The building instructions found online are very clear, and it was easy to solder and assemble. Take your time to ensure that the alignment of the front panel switches is right (I don’t think it was too hard, just don’t rush it).

With the PiDP-8 kit you can really get the feel for what it was like to program in the 60’s and 70’s. And it is very satisfying to watch the blinkenlights accompanying your work, when you walk through the bootstrap procedures, using the front panel switches. Note that there are nice shortcuts in the PiDP-8, if you don’t want to toggle in everything every time you want to use the system! Running DEC OS/8 from disk, you probably won’t use the front panel switches very often.

The PDP-8 system demonstrates the huge progress in software for the computer, from front panel / paper tape programming in PAL assembler, to quite advanced operating systems (even multi-user), and compilers and interpreters for several programming languages. All of which can be used and run on the PiDP-8 kit. I was quite astonished to find out how much of the old DEC software and documentation is easily available on the web.

The PDP-8 was an impressive piece of hardware and software engineering, solving serious real-world problems for business and science.

Very few of us will get hands on a physical PDP-8/I today, I believe the PiDP-8 is as close as it gets. Highly recommended.

Andreas | April 22, 2021

Awesome ... all works fine and it is great ...

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

Born in 1966 ... I was still able to experience the php-11 as an old system. Of course, the subsequent systems as well.

Since I somehow belong to this retro generation that perceives a computer as such when it flashes, rattles and you can hear (or feel) the electrons noise, I had to have the retro kit.

And it fulfils everything I imagined.
The kit contains all the parts, the instructions guide you to success.

It looks good and, as a nerd, it is clear to my family and friends that I have to have something like this ;-)

So, if you like old technology and want to use and experience it in a new, contemporary way, this is the place for you.

Big praise to Oscar. Keep up the good work :-)

John | Feb. 22, 2021

Great little kit, a real joy to assemble and use.

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

Back when planes flew faster (SR-71, Concord) real computers had front panels, just one step above programming on the bare metal. The kit arrived from Switzerland well packaged. The online documentation and Youtube videos made assemble easy enough. I though that soldering the switches would be a pain in proper alignment, but included in the kit is an alignment guide so that the switches would be soldered uniformity in alignment. Everything thing work fine the first time power up. Software was easy to download and ready to go without any tweaking. Amazing kit overall, I would also purchase a DEC system KL10 front panel setup if the kit creator made such kit. A real quality product for the hobbyist tinker.

Joseph | Jan. 18, 2021

Fun project

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

Just what I needed in my home office. The blink lights and retro esthetic are perfect for my video meeting background. The raspberry pi still does real work but the pdp11 makes a good show.

Joe | Dec. 22, 2020

Love my PiDP-11 front panel and SIM

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

The quality of the kit and parts are excellent - what a remarkable, functional replica this is.

If you're nostalgic for the PDP-11/70 and numerous operating systems that ran on them, this kit is for you. I've enjoyed being able to key in and run machine programs on this front panel like I used to back in the 1980's. The behavior is the same, and running UNIX's from that time and being able to compile programs in K&R C has been extremely fun. I even found a version of rogue that compiled and was able to link into the PDP-11's memory overlays.

Christophe | Dec. 22, 2020

Great fun and learning possibilies

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

I had fun assembling all the components and picking up a soldering iron after so many years. For none-techies it's fun to see, for techies it's fun to do some IT archeology, and for old veterans it's a nice piece of nostalgia.

Takumi | Nov. 2, 2020

Really excellent !!

For PDP-8 replica kit: the PiDP-8

This is really the one of the seller’s masterpieces. It isn’t a hobby item but one of historical monuments. For almost senior computer users, the original PDP-8 must have been a favorite machine even in the present days.

Adrian | Oct. 5, 2020

Great kit.

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

I received the kit, read the documentation and then did the complete build in an easy day. Everything was just as described. I purchased a few extras and now it runs full time and I can explore it's capabilities. I should add that the software installation was easy and I do not recall any problems.
Now the fun and learning starts.

Ralph | Oct. 5, 2020

Not Really a Review

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

So far, I have received and unpacked the kit just to take a look at the parts. The kit was packed well. The parts seem to be very well made - seem to remember reading someplace that some parts are cut with a laser, so maybe this is a subconscious thing put they look, well, sharp. Sharp like a military honor guard sharp.

I’ve ordered and received a Raspberry Pi 3B+ and accessories that I’ll need and a fancy soldering kit. Haven’t done any soldering in at least 45 years and the neurologist described my hands as partially paralyzed so putting this together, once I get to it, is going to take quite a while! In the mean time, I am resisting installing the emulator software on the Pi - the sooner I get things in the queue already done, the sooner I can start putting the kit together.

I didn’t use a PDP-11 very much, just helped the techs that used one to control a gamma spectrometer and analyze accumulated data, and do on- and off-site dose calculations. Before that, took a course in the grad chemistry school were we stuck wires into PDP-8s and did things I no longer remember with things call JK FlipFlops. Also used for data logging and transmission to the school mainframes. Most of this was with Raymond Dessey, recently deceased emeritus professor at Virginia Tech - but I digress. More when I actually start assembly.

Robert | Aug. 25, 2020

Awesome kit!

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

Great kit - really well thought out, very well documented, results are fantastic. It's really quite straightforward to put together and to get the software running, and I've had lots of people ask me where they can get their own.

Willem | June 15, 2020

This kit is a joy!

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

The kit is very well laid out. The silk screen clearly marks which way diodes go and the layout is very logical - all the diodes (64 LEDs and 37 signal diodes) goes the same way. The few resistors are in clusters and well marked. You get a few spares for in case you mess up.

The instructions are straight forward and complete. A series of 4 build videos by Beige-o-Vision videos demonstrate the process.

The software allows you to run a whole range of the actual software from the 70's using simh including five Unices. While you could run that without the PiDP-11 front panel, the PiDP-11 integrates perfectly with simh to allow functions like single stepping, loading addresses and load/store data.

Truly a joy to build and days of nostalgic pleasure to operate.

Kenneth | April 17, 2020

Absolute Masterpiece of Future Retro

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

This is a very pleasant build with a great payoff at the end. I am using the PiDP-11 with a real DEC VT-100 dummy terminal over RS-232. This combination works perfectly at a baud rate of 9600. I decided to use the barrel keylock switch as a hard power switch. With this setup I can revisit old DEC operating systems and code as well as flip over into modern Linux. Aside from this kit neatening up a Pi from a mess of wires to a pleasant looking box, there is the real educational and operational aspect of this kit that makes it well worth its cost. It is a treasure.

Urs | April 2, 2020

Awesome Kit!!!!!

For PDP-11 replica kit: the PiDP-11

Wonderful kit, came well packaged. Top support on the creator's webpage.
Building was very easy. One LED was defect, but fortunately there came some spare LEDs with the kit.
Highly recommended!

Response from Obsolescence Guaranteed | Feb. 24, 2024

Thanks a lot for your review

Tindie

Obsolescence Guaranteed

Overall Rating:

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

All Reviews

Excellent Kit Building Experience!

Beautiful craftsmanship, excellent soldering kit

Fantastic kit!

What can be said that hasn't been said, just fantastic!

Great kit - fun to assemble and works well

Amazing kit

Very well designed, looks great and works perfectly

Superb little project

High Quality Retro-Computing Experience

Awesome ... all works fine and it is great ...

Great little kit, a real joy to assemble and use.

Fun project

Love my PiDP-11 front panel and SIM

Great fun and learning possibilies

Really excellent !!

Great kit.

Not Really a Review

Awesome kit!

This kit is a joy!

Absolute Masterpiece of Future Retro

Awesome Kit!!!!!

Response from Obsolescence Guaranteed | Feb. 24, 2024