On 06/09/2015 09:13 PM, Mark J. Blair wrote:
Thank you very much for the offer! If I'm not mistaken, that drive
has a Pertec interface, though, like the Kennedy 9610 that I already
have, so I think I will let somebody else have a crack at it. That
drive model looks familiar; we probably had at least one in the
computer room I worked in during college in the late 1980s, and I may
have done a tape mount or two on them!
Hmm, I guess I have yet another option: Once I fix the hub motor
drive in my Kennedy 9610, maybe I could just make my own interface
for it. Maybe a small FPGA to handle the interface signals, and an
off the shelf microcontroller (like a BeagleBone Black board?) to
give it a UI and interface it to the outside world. Much more effort,
but also more fun!
I may be able to borrow a SCSI-interface magtape drive locally, but I
still wouldn't mind having one of my own. And I am still hoping to
find a TZ30 drive.
Not complete off-topic, but I just received an email from Shaun Halstead
that he's looking to get rid of a CDC Keystone drive (vertically
mounted) (read: TU80 family, with Pertec interface) that was apparently
used on a Xerox system.
If you're in the Chicago area and interested, you might want to drop
Shaun a line at microfilm at
microfilm.kscoxmail.com
Any particular reason why Pertec IF isn't desirable? I'm coding now for
a Pertec-to-USB interface board. How's that for an anachronism?
--Chuck