21 Oct
2010
21 Oct
'10
9:32 a.m.
I posted not too long ago looking for a framebuffer driver that seemed to be missing from
the Solaris distributions I have for my Voyager. Well, I finally opened up the machine
and found something quite unexpected.
I had assumed (as had others, according to statements) that the color and monochrome
components (screen and framebuffer) would be physically incompatible, so it would be
impossible to mix and match. *Wrong!* In fact, I found I have a color framebuffer, which
was talking to the monochrome screen. What's really strange is that OpenBoot seems to
have created a new name - bwthree - to describe the framebuffer!
I don't suppose anyone has a monochrome framebuffer with which you might be willing to
part company? Or perhaps a color screen? -- Ian
UNIX is user friendly. It's just selective about who its friends are.
Ian S. King, Sr. Vintage Systems Engineer
Vulcan, Inc.
http://www.livingcomputermuseum.org
21 Oct
21 Oct
9:37 p.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
Hi
I just got this use drive and I was wondering if it
is working as expected.
When I plug in the tape, the head moves up and down
but the tape drive motor doesn't move.
Is this normal?
Dwight
9:50 p.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
On 21 Oct 2010 at 21:37, dwight elvey wrote:
I just got this use drive and I was wondering if it
is working as expected.
When I plug in the tape, the head moves up and down
but the tape drive motor doesn't move.
Is this normal?
My recollection of this drive is that the tape should be
automatically positioned to BOT when inserted. (i.e., the drive
should spin the tape a bit).
--Chuck
22 Oct
22 Oct
7:07 a.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
From: cclist at sydex.com
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:50:44 -0700
Subject: Re: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
On 21 Oct 2010 at 21:37, dwight elvey wrote:
Thanks Chuck
I was afraid of that. That was my recollection
of similar drives. Now I have to find out why the motor
doesn't spin.
As I recalled, if the tape was accidentally loaded
with the end of tape marker off the spool, it would
unspool the hole thing and it would then be a 30
minute job to spool it back on.
I'll have to look at the motor drive and see what is up.
The fact that I see the head moving gives me confidence
that it is most likely the motor drive circuit.
This is suppose to back up my Sparcbook. As you recall
my 8mm drive didn't seem to work with it so I thought
I'd try a drive that was inteneded.
Dwight
Dwight
I just got this use drive and I was wondering if
it
is working as expected.
When I plug in the tape, the head moves up and down
but the tape drive motor doesn't move.
Is this normal?
My recollection of this drive is that the tape should be
automatically positioned to BOT when inserted. (i.e., the drive
should spin the tape a bit).
--Chuck
7:13 a.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
On 10/22/10 10:07 AM, dwight elvey wrote:
This is suppose to back up my Sparcbook. As you
recall
my 8mm drive didn't seem to work with it so I thought
I'd try a drive that was inteneded.
8mm drives were sold with early SPARCstations and SPARCservers as
well, FYI. An 8mm drive will work fine if it's properly set up.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
2:37 p.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
Hi
The Sparcbook I have is an early version and requires one to
use the built in backup program. It is a binary so it is not easily
patched. With the 8mm, I get write errors that I've not confirmed
were caused by the drive or the software in the Sparcbook.
I though if I used a drive that was more like what it expected,
I stood a better chance.
Of coarse, if the drive doesn't work it is no help. I do realize
that the 8mm drive should work as well but doesn't seem to.
It might be a timing issue with the drive or a bad drive. I'm not
setup to do general testing of SCSI drives.
I just resently found software that I believe I can use on
my DOS machine to try to use the 8mm drive with. I'll
try to do that to confirm that the drive is working.
Dwight
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:13:34 -0400
From: mcguire at neurotica.com
To:
Subject: Re: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
On 10/22/10 10:07 AM, dwight elvey wrote:
This is suppose to back up my Sparcbook. As you
recall
my 8mm drive didn't seem to work with it so I thought
I'd try a drive that was inteneded.
8mm drives were sold with early SPARCstations and SPARCservers as
well, FYI. An 8mm drive will work fine if it's properly set up.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
3:39 p.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
On 10/22/10 5:37 PM, dwight elvey wrote:
The Sparcbook I have is an early version and
requires one to
use the built in backup program.
If it's running SunOS, this is not likely, whether it's early version
of the hardware or not. If it has a SCSI device driver that handles
tape devices ("ls -l /dev/*st*"), then you can use lots of different
programs to access the tape drive.
The only way this might not be the case is if they bastardized SunOS
in such a way that it doesn't directly recognize SCSI tape devices and
present them as standard device nodes. As there's no reason in the
world for them to do that, I really doubt they would have. They
definitely did *not* do that on the later SPARCbook-3 series (the
SPARCstation-5 laptops), as I've used all manner of tape drives (up to
DLT-4000) on those, and other random SCSI devices as well.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
23 Oct
23 Oct
7:04 a.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
From: geoffr at zipcon.net
On 10/22/10 5:37 PM, dwight elvey wrote:
Hi
It is SunOS 4.1.2 but the hardware is custom on the SparcBook S1.
It doesn't have OpenBoot. It has a custom BIOS
It wasn't until S2 and S3 that they made the hardware interface
more genaric.
Dave has sent me some simple command line commands to try.
Since these are just normal commands they should work. I'll
give them a try sometime this weekend.
The OS is said to be quite custom under the cover and some
normal things may or may not work as expected. I've already
found a few missing commands. It does have
a working OpenWin.
Dwight
The Sparcbook I have is an early version and
requires one to
use the built in backup program.
What version of SunOS are you running???
22 Oct
22 Oct
3:04 p.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
Hi
I need to check that the tape isn't already sitting on the
end mark. It might be that it has nothing to do.
I've not actually tried it on my SparcBook yet.
The box I put it in doesn't supply terminator power
and I need to plug several things together.
Dwight
From: bear at typewritten.org
To: cctech at classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 23:23:44 -0700
On Oct 21, 2010, at 9:37 PM, dwight elvey wrote:
When I plug in the tape, the head moves up and
down
but the tape drive motor doesn't move.
Is this normal?
It could be, depending on firmware.
ok
bear
24 Oct
24 Oct
5:22 p.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
On Oct 22, 2010, at 3:04 PM, dwight elvey wrote:
I've not actually tried it on my SparcBook yet.
The box I put it in doesn't supply terminator power
and I need to plug several things together.
Many Viper 2150S drives, including the Sun OEM ones, do nothing with a
newly inserted tape until the device node is opened.
ok
bear
25 Oct
25 Oct
2:01 p.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
From: bear at typewritten.org
On Oct 22, 2010, at 3:04 PM, dwight elvey wrote:
Hi Bear
Good to know. I'll give it a try then. I can see the heads
moving so that works. I meant to look at it this weekend
but other projects got in the way.
Thanks
Dwight
I've not actually tried it on my SparcBook
yet.
The box I put it in doesn't supply terminator power
and I need to plug several things together.
Many Viper 2150S drives, including the Sun OEM ones, do nothing with a
newly inserted tape until the device node is opened.
ok
bear
28 Oct
28 Oct
7:30 a.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
Hi
Last night I put the tape in the drive and did
a 'mt -f /dev/rst0 status'
The drive seemed to do as expected. The tape
shuttled back and forth and the status read out.
Then I thought I'd try the retension as the tape had
been sitting for some time.
It started off OK then came to a stop.
I looked at things and realized that the capstan
had turned to goo. :(
I'll have to try some tubing on it.
Does anyone know the expected diameter of
the capstan? I would think it wasn't too critical
if I'm not trying to recover data from the tape
I have.
I had to clean out the tape case. It is not as easy to
get the band back on if there is tape on both spools.
I've done it in the past with just one full spool
and then loaded the tape on the other after
getting the band on. One just needs to feed
on enough to get past the end of tape holes.
There was just too much tape on both spools
to do it that way. I hope I didn't crinkle the tape
too much.
I have the capstan offand cleaned up. rubbing
alchohol seems to clean it off well enough.
Dwight
12:15 p.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
On Oct 28, 2010, at 7:30 AM, dwight elvey wrote:
Does anyone know the expected diameter of
the capstan?
It's just under 0.500". I have a note next to this that says
(31/64"??). At the time I measured it it wasn't clear to me whether
there was some sort of standard sizing for this type of thing that it
could be better referred to as.
ok
bear
4:11 p.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
From: bear at typewritten.org
On Oct 28, 2010, at 7:30 AM, dwight elvey wrote:
Hi Bear
My guess is that it doesn't have to be exactly the right size.
I'm sure that when reading the data, it uses a servo-loop.
When writing, it would care but a little fast of slow shouldn't
make a big difference.
I'll target 0.5 or slightly smaller. Smaller will give me more
data ;)
It was a mess. I wish I'd looked first. I know better just didn't
look. It is under the pully and hard to see. The ebay seller said
it was from a working system. I guess he didn't say how many
years had gone by since it was working!
Dwight
Does anyone know the expected diameter of
the capstan?
It's just under 0.500". I have a note next to this that says
(31/64"??). At the time I measured it it wasn't clear to me whether
there was some sort of standard sizing for this type of thing that it
could be better referred to as.
ok
bear
6:18 p.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
On 10/28/10 7:11 PM, dwight elvey wrote:
My guess is that it doesn't have to be exactly
the right size.
I'm sure that when reading the data, it uses a servo-loop.
When writing, it would care but a little fast of slow shouldn't
make a big difference.
I'd assume it uses a PLL to recover the clock from the data stream.
If that's the case, the speed can drift quite a bit and it should still
get a good read.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
4 Nov
4 Nov
11:28 a.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
Hi
As those that followed the original thread, I had the capstan rubber
turn to goo. I've tried replacing the capstan with a piece of tygon
tubing and it is not working. The problem seems to be that it has
too much memory. If it sits for just a few minutes, it gets a bump.
I'll need to locate some similar sized rubber tubing. My local
hardware only carries the tygon but I think I can find something
at the auto shops, used for vacuum lines of fuel lines.
I'll let you know what I find.
In my experiments, I was able to get a partial write/read to
work so I'm on the right track.
I still need to understand why the 8mm didn't work as expected.
Dwight
11:44 a.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
I've used Terry's Rubber Rollers ( http://terrysrubberrollers.com/ )
for roller rubber replacement in the past. Very excellent service,
though slightly expensive. Also I'm not sure if he has any experience
with tape drive rollers.
In any case, it's important to know the original diameter of the roller.
--Dave
1:22 p.m.
New subject: Viper 2150S scsi tape drive
From: aek at bitsavers.org
On 11/4/10 11:28 AM, dwight elvey wrote:
At least the goo didn't get on the heads. It was funny,
it seemed to work for a few seconds, al least it loaded.
When I tried to retension, it didn't make it and the capstan
was goo.
I just got some hose that may work. I'll play with
it after home projects tonight.
Dwight
I still need to understand why the 8mm didn't
work as expected.
There is a rubber pinch roller in them. Make sure is hasn't cracked
At least they don't turn to goo.
4944
days inactive
4958
days old
20 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
aek＠bitsavers.org -
bear＠typewritten.org -
cclist＠sydex.com -
d235j.1＠gmail.com -
dkelvey＠hotmail.com -
geoffr＠zipcon.net -
IanK＠vulcan.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com