If the head/voice coil assemblies have been removed
you'll have to go
through the entire alignment procedure which requires a special
alignment pack. You'll also want to make sure that all of the dreaded
"DEC foam" has been removed and replaced or you're heads and packs
won't last long. You'll also want to look at the filters and make
sure they're in good shape and replace them (if you can find them).
However, bad filters will also kill the heads and packs.
If the head/voice coil assemblies have been removed how do you know
that the drives are working?
I noticed that foam almost immediately, I cleaned up the majority but I'll
probably go over the thing with a scraper and the air compressor. I got the
same nasty foam in my SGI Crimson.
Well at the very least the drive powers up with no nasty smells or noises or
the fault lamp and I can get the spindle motor to spin up
They're one of the standard DEC lamps. I don't
recall off the top of
my head what the equivalent lamp # is but they (or a reasonable
facsimile) are readily available.
Awesome, that might be a bit better as well.
For an omnibus PDP-8 you need an RK-8E controller that
goes in the
omnibus chassis. The "hard" part is finding the cable that goes from
the RK-8E and the drive. For a PDP-11 (unibus) you need an RK-11D
controller. It is actually a 4 board set in it's own backplane that
goes in the CPU chassis. There is also an RK-11C for unibus but that
controller is of the "old style" that has 40 or so flip chips in a
rack width backplane and is mounted outside of the CPU chassis in a
rack (requires a separate power supply) that connects to the CPU with
unibus cables.
Hmm, that might be a bit of a problem as I never see spare flip chips or
anything unless they are on ebay for funky prices.
If you're not looking for a "blinken"
lights machine, you're best bet
would probably be an 11/34 system. I have several that are "spares"
but right now I'm swamped and haven't been able to spend any time on
classic computer stuff.
TTFN - Guy
Well right now I'll go for pretty much anything. I guess a 34 or similar is
a good starter system and on some distant day I'll switch to say an 8/e.
John