RK05 - PDP8 Media

On 5/9/05, Andreas Holz <asholz at topinform.de> wrote: That's a toughie. It took me years and the kindness of list members to rectify my lack of 16-sector media. I have wads and wads of 12-sector packs (PDP-11), but that doesn't help. Since this is a re-occurring question, I might as well launch into the two methods we've hashed about repeatedly to resolve the lack of 16-sector media... 1) modify the hub of a 12-sector pack to have cuts at the right places (plug some old ones, cut some new ones), and 2) build a circuit between the hub sensor and the drive electronics to read the pulses from a 12-sector pack and emit pulses as if it were a 16-sector pack. Since I managed to score media before I have had the chance to fire up my RK8E, I have never had the need to try either of these hacks, but in principle they should work. Hack 1 would remake a 12-sector pack into a real 16-sector pack that could be mounted on any drive anywhere, but requires each pack be modded. Hack 2 would only be useful for interchance with a similarly modified drive. One advantage of Hack 2 is that the mod would be easy to make in a completely reversible fashion, whereas Hack 1 would not be quite so bi-directional. One possible compromise between the two would be to locate a crashed 16-sector pack and steal a platter from a 12-sector pack... Good luck on your search. -ethan