1 Apr
2019
1 Apr
'19
9:42 p.m.
Hi all,
I just bought this Burroughs BU4400 tape drive:
https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1999913439
As the seller says, Google comes up empty. Seems strange, I would have
expected some reference somewhere. Does anyone know anything about it?
I'm going to pick it up this evening. It'd be superb as a display piece,
but I'd be really keen to drive it with something and get it reading and
writing.
On that topic, are there any suggestions on how I could get my hands on
a few tapes, preferably with a format this drive can read? The actual
contents aren't important; even blanks would be OK, though not being
able to get it reading before moving on to writing would make the
project more difficult.
Cheers,
Mike
1 Apr
1 Apr
11:46 p.m.
Judging from the controls and lack of mechanical buffering, I'd
pronounce this to be a tape verifier, or possibly a cleaner. The "half
cycle" and "slow" are clues.
FWIW,
--Chuck
On 4/1/19 9:42 PM, Mike van Bokhoven via cctalk wrote:
Hi all,
I just bought this Burroughs BU4400 tape drive:
https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1999913439
As the seller says, Google comes up empty. Seems strange, I would have
expected some reference somewhere. Does anyone know anything about it?
I'm going to pick it up this evening. It'd be superb as a display piece,
but I'd be really keen to drive it with something and get it reading and
writing.
On that topic, are there any suggestions on how I could get my hands on
a few tapes, preferably with a format this drive can read? The actual
contents aren't important; even blanks would be OK, though not being
able to get it reading before moving on to writing would make the
project more difficult.
Cheers,
Mike
2 Apr
2 Apr
3:04 p.m.
Quoting Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>:
Judging from the controls and lack of mechanical
buffering, I'd
pronounce this to be a tape verifier, or possibly a cleaner. The "half
cycle" and "slow" are clues.
> I just bought this Burroughs BU4400 tape drive:
> https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1999913439
Looks like you're right! I'm pretty sure it's a cleaner. Everything on
it seems to work well, once I figured out how it was intended to work.
Just had fool the tape optical sensor (BOT/EOT?) with a piece of paper
and it started up fine. It only seems to want to go 'slow' in reverse,
but that may be something to do with the lack of tape. I like the tape
counter a lot. It shows error codes when they occur, and is a dot
matrix style LED display (perhaps not true dot matrix, just something
nicer looking than a 7-segment display).
So, that's good news - to demo it fully all I need is a reel of tape,
rather than needing to find or implement a controller as well. I'm in
New Zealand, but I think I'd be lucky to find anything here. As a
fallback, there is plenty on eBay, at least. If anyone has some
damaged or otherwise unusable tape that's only suitable for
demonstrating a cleaner, please drop me a note.
Cheers,
Mike
5:41 p.m.
On 4/2/19 3:04 PM, mike--- via cctalk wrote:
Looks like you're right! I'm pretty sure
it's a cleaner. Everything on
it seems to work well, once I figured out how it was intended to work.
Just had fool the tape optical sensor (BOT/EOT?) with a piece of paper
and it started up fine. It only seems to want to go 'slow' in reverse,
but that may be something to do with the lack of tape. I like the tape
counter a lot. It shows error codes when they occur, and is a dot matrix
style LED display (perhaps not true dot matrix, just something nicer
looking than a 7-segment display).
If you're going to use this thing, do check the carbide (sometimes
ceramic) cleaning blade. You want the edge to be sharp and smooth; if
it's nicked or chipped, it will end up doing more harm than good.
I suspect that a carbide insert for machine tools might be cobbled up as
a replacement, if required.
--Chuck
6:35 p.m.
Hey Tony,
Here is a 10-pack of 9-track tapes for $10USD:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/BASF-9-Track-Mag-Tapes-Brand-New-Case-of-10/112152…
Shipping to NZ will probably be $100... I bought one of these boxes and
could send you a single tape if you need it, but I imagine there's someone
with a tape they don't need closer to you.
Let me know!
--
Anders Nelson
+1 (517) 775-6129
www.erogear.com
On Tue, Apr 2, 2019 at 8:41 PM Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On 4/2/19 3:04 PM, mike--- via cctalk wrote:
Looks like you're right! I'm pretty sure
it's a cleaner. Everything on
it seems to work well, once I figured out how it was intended to work.
Just had fool the tape optical sensor (BOT/EOT?) with a piece of paper
and it started up fine. It only seems to want to go 'slow' in reverse,
but that may be something to do with the lack of tape. I like the tape
counter a lot. It shows error codes when they occur, and is a dot matrix
style LED display (perhaps not true dot matrix, just something nicer
looking than a 7-segment display).
If you're going to use this thing, do check the carbide (sometimes
ceramic) cleaning blade. You want the edge to be sharp and smooth; if
it's nicked or chipped, it will end up doing more harm than good.
I suspect that a carbide insert for machine tools might be cobbled up as
a replacement, if required.
--Chuck
7:23 p.m.
Quoting Anders Nelson via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>:
Here is a 10-pack of 9-track tapes for $10USD:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/BASF-9-Track-Mag-Tapes-Brand-New-Case-of-10/112152…
Shipping to NZ will probably be $100... I bought one of these boxes and
could send you a single tape if you need it, but I imagine there's someone
with a tape they don't need closer to you.
The shipping guess was damn close - $97.94 (approx. NZD143.54), plus
US$10 for the actual tapes. It actually sounds like quite a good deal,
for brand new tapes. Thanks for the offer of the tape, if I get stuck
I'll drop you a note.
Cheers,
Mike
7:51 p.m.
On 4/2/19 7:23 PM, mike--- via cctalk wrote:
The shipping guess was damn close - $97.94 (approx.
NZD143.54), plus
US$10 for the actual tapes. It actually sounds like quite a good deal,
for brand new tapes. Thanks for the offer of the tape, if I get stuck
I'll drop you a note.
It's $60 shipping inside the US, so $100 shipping sounds like a bargain.
However, if you'd like a full-szied 10.5" reel, these aren't that. Look
like 600' reels, rather than the full-length 2400' ones.
--Chuck
7:02 p.m.
Quoting Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>:
If you're going to use this thing, do check the
carbide (sometimes
ceramic) cleaning blade. You want the edge to be sharp and smooth; if
it's nicked or chipped, it will end up doing more harm than good.
In this case, it's really just for show - I don't have a real 9-track
drive, or any tapes. That was why I'd prefer an unusable tape, rather
than destroying a good tape by passing it through a cleaner
repeatedly. However, tapes do seem really quite cheap and easy to find.
I suspect that a carbide insert for machine tools
might be cobbled up as
a replacement, if required.
I suspect the blade is actually missing. There's am empty spot that
looks like it might have taken a cartridge at once point in the tape
path. Maybe nothing actually goes there, but on the tape path diagram,
it seems to show something with a narrow gap the tape passes through.
If I wanted to make it functional, I could fairly easily make a
cartridge that fits in the spot as above, and passes the tape across a
blade of that sort without a great deal of pressure.
I would really like a working drive sometime, so I am actually
considering doing this...
Cheers,
Mike
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anders.k.nelson＠gmail.com -
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mike＠fenz.net