9 Jan
2006
9 Jan
'06
4 p.m.
Hello everybody,
I can get an old Honeywell type drive. But I know literally nothing
about it. Not even the model number...!
Here is a link to a few pictures I've received today:
http://hachti.de/honeywell-tape/
All I know about it is that it has the colour and same switches style
like my Honeywell H316 computer. Perhaps I could use them together?
The tape was originally connected to a machine called H632.
So I ask for every information known about this tape drive. Perhaps
someone has software, schematics etc.?
I would be grateful for every little piece of material/knowledge!
Thank you very much,
Philipp :-)
10 Jan
10 Jan
12:01 a.m.
At 10:00 PM +0100 1/9/06, Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
I can get an old Honeywell type drive. But I know
literally nothing
about it. Not even the model number...!
Here is a link to a few pictures I've received today:
http://hachti.de/honeywell-tape/
I spent time working with several Honeywell DPS-8's and DPS-6's in
the early 90's. That looks to predate anything I saw at the site
with the DPS-8's, and we had some pretty old equipment.
What I think is interesting is the size, it's a decidedly small tape
drive, on the DPS-8 we only had what I would call "full size" drives
(think old Sci-Fi shows), on the first set of DPS-6's I dealt with,
we had full size drives, as well, and on the last set, we simply had
ones that were about 5U or 6U. I've *never* seen a 9-Track drive
that size. It looks like it was intended to be used while sitting
down.
Zane
--
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| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
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+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
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12:30 a.m.
What I think is interesting is the size, it's a
decidedly small tape
drive, on the DPS-8 we only had what I would call "full size" drives
(think old Sci-Fi shows), on the first set of DPS-6's I dealt with,
we had full size drives, as well, and on the last set, we simply had
ones that were about 5U or 6U. I've *never* seen a 9-Track drive
that size. It looks like it was intended to be used while sitting
down.
I would bet that is from one of their late 1960s/early 1970s
machines. They had a number of small mainframes that all sat pretty low,
like really big desks.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
8:14 a.m.
Hi,
I spent time working with several Honeywell
DPS-8's and DPS-6's in
the early 90's. That looks to predate anything I saw at the site
with the DPS-8's, and we had some pretty old equipment.
It must be from the
late 60's or early 70's, not newer.
What I think is interesting is the size, it's a
decidedly small tape
drive,
Do you think it has a smaller reel size, too? When I was looking at the pic
I could not esteem if
the reel size is reduced, too.
I've *never* seen a 9-Track drive
that size. It looks like it was intended to be used while sitting
down.
So I will rescue it.
Regards,
Philipp
... Still looking for more information...!
12:01 p.m.
At 2:14 PM +0100 1/10/06, Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
It's really hard to tell, but based on the picture with a person
standing next to it, I *think* that it takes either normal sized
tapes, or slightly smaller than normal sized.
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
What I think
is interesting is the size, it's a decidedly small tape
drive,
Do you think it has a smaller reel size, too? When I was looking at
the pic I could not esteem if
the reel size is reduced, too.
15 Jan
15 Jan
12:10 a.m.
New subject: Unknown Honeywell tape drive - Full disclosure!
Hi folks!
Today I have visited the place where I will get the tape drive from. I
could not yet get my fingers on the tape (because no key was avaliable
on weekend) but I found the full documentation.
It ist a Honeywell 4120 Magnetic Tape Drive
Some Info:
* Date of purchase approx. april 1970
* From the manual: "... is a Very Low Cost (VLC)" :-)
* 1/2-inch seven channel
* Tape reel size "IBM compatible"
* 15 inch/s
* 200 bpi and 556 bpi resolution <-- !!!
* weight: 400 lb... uff.....
The drive is designed for the Honeywell Series 16 computers. A
controller for the CPU is needed.
Today I also found the complete controller...!
The controller's new price was DM 53,000, the H316 computer with 4K only
ca. DM 40,000, about $10,000 at that time....
Good night,
best wishes,
Philipp
P.S.: If anyone can tell me more about the drive and controller I would
be glad. I'm still missing the software, software manuals and
documentation for the controller (schematic, wirelist, explanation etc).
4:42 p.m.
New subject: Unknown Honeywell tape drive - Full disclosure!
Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
It ist a Honeywell 4120 Magnetic Tape Drive
* 1/2-inch seven channel
Ah hah, matches the
heads from the one my friend dismantled,
* Date of purchase approx. april 1970
interesting.. getting kind of late for 7 channel,
* weight: 400 lb... uff.....
.. that too matches
up with what my friend reported :/
Today I also found the complete controller...!
If you're going to try to interface it to something more modern I wonder if
you'd be better off skipping the controller and working directly with the drive...
5:03 p.m.
New subject: Unknown Honeywell tape drive - Full disclosure!
Hello,
Oh, same model?
Spares???
I am not sure! Will know more in a
few days.
Perhaps. But I *won't* interface it to "something more modern".
The controller is built into a 1969 Honeywell H316 chassis, I want to
use it its original context :-)
Regards,
Philipp :-)
* 1/2-inch
seven channel
Ah hah, matches the heads from the one my friend dismantled, * Date of purchase approx. april 1970
interesting.. getting kind of late for 7 channel, Today I also
found the complete controller...!
If you're going to try to interface it to something more modern I wonder if
you'd be better off skipping the controller and working directly with the drive...
11:49 p.m.
New subject: Unknown Honeywell tape drive - Full disclosure!
Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
I just got an email back from the friend after sending him a link to your
pictures: apparently not the same, the one he dismantled had the controls
along the top. So it's a different model or perhaps the tape-handling
mechanism was being OEM'd (I'm still fairly convinced the tape handling
mechanism is the same). He couldn't get a model/manufacturer of the one he
dismantled, the nameplate and some parts of it were missing. Just for
amusement I've been trying to match the parts I got to
a manufacturer/model number.
Ah hah,
matches the heads from the one my friend dismantled,
Oh, same model? Spares???
Perhaps. But I *won't* interface it to
"something more modern".
The controller is built into a 1969 Honeywell H316 chassis, I want to
use it its original context :-)
Well that's even better ... didn't realise you had period equipment to use it
with, although I do recall seeing some web pages of someone in Germany with a
'smaller' Honeywell processor.
11 Jan
11 Jan
6:47 p.m.
At 10:00 PM +0100 1/9/06, Philipp Hachtmann wrote:
>I can get an old Honeywell type drive. But I know literally nothing
>about it. Not even the model number...!
>
>Here is a link to a few pictures I've received today:
>
>http://hachti.de/honeywell-tape/
Interesting, from the pictures I think I recognise the head and tape-guide
assembly a friend gave me from a drive he dismantled some time ago. I had been
wondering what manufacture/model-line it came from, your pictures provide a
possible answer (might be another OEM).
The head which I received was 7-track, not 9-track, so you may have a 7-track
drive there, although it's conceivable the same mechanism was used with a
9-track head. Would be interesting to here which it is if/when you receive it.
On the mechanism I received a big vacuum cyclinder was used to rotate the heads
into/out-of contact with the tape, presumably to reduce wear on the
copper-clad heads.
6796
days inactive
6803
days old
9 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
aw288＠osfn.org -
hachti＠hachti.de -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca