I am also wondering, that since I have very few PDP8-sectored RK05 packs, and a ton of
PDP-11 sectored
packs, if , when I first power up the drive after it has been connected up to the RK8E ,
I can put one of my PDP 11 > packs in there and spin it up, if the controller will be
able to load the heads? I'd much rather sacrifice one of
these packs if there are problems rather than risk one of my precious PDP-8 sectored
packs.
An RK05 will spin up and load the heads without a controller. It is a darn good idea to
have a terminator
fitted (otherwise noise on the interface lines can do interesting things, like cause write
glitches, don't ask
how I found that out).
It does need a pack with the slotted hub so that the drive electronics can tell the drive
is up to speed before
it tries to load the heads. But obviously a 12 sector (PDP11) pack will do for that.
So yes, you can use a PDP11 type of pack to see if the heads will fly even though the
drive is on an RK8/E
-tony