Project Bring-it-Back-to-Life IBM 3803 Tape Control Unit Customer Engineer's Service Panel (Version 3)
The IBM 3803 tape control unit had a very nice customer engineer service panel (pictured above). It had lots of lights and dials and the markings like "ALU" that make it sound like a computer in its own right (in fact, it was). We brought this panel "back to life" by building a nice black walnut case for it and embedding a microcontroller (MCU) that changes the lights randomly, but with a realistic appearance. (Gives the kids something they likely will never see -- real 3803's driving a football field sized raised floor full of 3420 drives spinning like something out of Alice in Wonderland!) Each of the original incandescent bulbs was replaced with an LED inside the original lens (another 3803 uses mini-incandescents of lower power than the originals). This 3803 CE panel has a MicroChip PIC 16F84 microcontroller running a custom simulation program that makes it look like it could still be running, except without the rest of the 500lb 3803. Here is a picture of a 3803 tape control unit and some 3420 tape drives attached to it. A Gallery reader wrote: It was neat to seet the 3803/3420 on your web page. I was the Lead Designer and Architect of the 3803. I started with IBM in 1956 as a CE trainee on the 705 Model II; we installed 2 705s in Nashville, TN in 1957, one at National Life and Accident and one at General Shoe. I moved to the lab at Poughkeepsie in 1958 and worked on the 705 Model III and the Tractor and Swift tape drive projects. Swift became Hypertape and I was Lead designer of the Hypertape control unit. I later was Lead designer and architect for the 2802 Tape Control Unit and a few years after that, Lead Designer and Architect of the 3803 which was a very large modification based on the 2802. Three of us shared a Corporate Award for the 3803 and I, along with Planner Charlie Von Reyn, came up with the name "Group Coded Recording (GCR)" as the name of the recording method. The 3803 was so much in demand even after production ceased that we put competitors tape systems in our own data center so that we could recondition the 3803s and 3420s and ship them to customers. I retired in 1991 as a Senior Engineer with 30 filed patents, at least 29 of which issued. Return to The Gallery of Old Iron home page

Project Bring-it-Back-to-Life

IBM 3803 Tape Control Unit Customer Engineer's Service Panel (Version 3)

The IBM 3803 tape control unit had a very nice customer engineer service panel (pictured above). It had lots of lights and dials and the markings like "ALU" that make it sound like a computer in its own right (in fact, it was).

We brought this panel "back to life" by building a nice black walnut case for it and embedding a microcontroller (MCU) that changes the lights randomly, but with a realistic appearance. (Gives the kids something they likely will never see -- real 3803's driving a football field sized raised floor full of 3420 drives spinning like something out of Alice in Wonderland!)

Each of the original incandescent bulbs was replaced with an LED inside the original lens (another 3803 uses mini-incandescents of lower power than the originals).

This 3803 CE panel has a MicroChip PIC 16F84 microcontroller running a custom simulation program that makes it look like it could still be running, except without the rest of the 500lb 3803.

Here is a picture of a 3803 tape control unit and some 3420 tape drives attached to it.

A Gallery reader wrote:

It was neat to seet the 3803/3420 on your web page. I was the Lead Designer and Architect of the 3803.

I started with IBM in 1956 as a CE trainee on the 705 Model II; we installed 2 705s in Nashville, TN in 1957, one at National Life and Accident and one at General Shoe. I moved to the lab at Poughkeepsie in 1958 and worked on the 705 Model III and the Tractor and Swift tape drive projects. Swift became Hypertape and I was Lead designer of the Hypertape control unit.

I later was Lead designer and architect for the 2802 Tape Control Unit and a few years after that, Lead Designer and Architect of the 3803 which was a very large modification based on the 2802. Three of us shared a Corporate Award for the 3803 and I, along with Planner Charlie Von Reyn, came up with the name "Group Coded Recording (GCR)" as the name of the recording method. The 3803 was so much in demand even after production ceased that we put competitors tape systems in our own data center so that we could recondition the 3803s and 3420s and ship them to customers.

I retired in 1991 as a Senior Engineer with 30 filed patents, at least 29 of which issued.

Return to The Gallery of Old Iron home page