[DECtec] [HECnet] TK50 issues

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2014-05-17 19:33, Cory Smelosky wrote:
On Sat, 17 May 2014, Johnny Billquist wrote:

Others have replied, but anyway.
Yes, you need to clean the TK50. Almost certain that is your problem.
And cleaning them is easy. Open the box, so that you can see the
drive. There is a cover plate over the drive, fastened by four screws.
Remove the cover plate and you'll see the head, the rollers, and the
pickup hub.
Use iso-propanol and a swab, and just clean the head.
Reassemble, and you're done.

      Johnny



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.

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                                   || "I'm on a bus
                                                                  ||   on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se                         ||   Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                                         ||   tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

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