[DECtec] [HECnet] TK50 issues

[Brian Schenkenberger, VAXman-]

Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> writes:

On 2014-05-17 20:14, Cory Smelosky wrote:
On Sat, 17 May 2014, Johnny Billquist wrote:

I got the one perfectly cleaned...but the motor appears to be failing at
times and putting a cartridge in seals its fate.   If I start using it
beyond the first foot or so I'd be fine...so long as I never want to
REMOVE the cartridge.

A bit odd. I don't remember ever having that problem. I've had drives
that occasionally decided to not give the cartridge back, and I have
had to extract them and manually rewind the tape in (boring as hell),
but after some mucking around I've normally gotten them working again.
But the TK50 is not the best design around, and the operation is
confusing. The TK70 is better... And TK50 exists in different firmware
revisions, and some are quirkier than others.


Agreed with the operation being confusing. ;)

I think I'm going to end up just cleaning a DAT drive and shoving RSTS/E
install media on that.

I have Exabyte, DDS-3 and TK50 on my PDP-11 at home. I never use the 
TK50. :-)

Hopefully, your Exabyte isn't the 8200. ;)

-- 
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker       VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG

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