19 Sep
2016
19 Sep
'16
12:34 p.m.
So what do people think the (monetary) value of a 7-track TU10 master drive
is? I have no idea what these older vacuum-column drives are worth - don't
recall ever seeing on for sale. This one is in good condition, and has all its
Flip Chips. The 7-track is a plus in some ways (rarer), and negative in
others (can't read old 9-track tapes, which are probably more common than
7-track).
Noel
19 Sep
19 Sep
1:16 p.m.
Is there a thread with more details? I assume this is a master drive, the
cards installed indicate whether it came from a pdp 8/9/10/11. Which is
it? How is the power supply?
b
On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 12:34 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:
So what do people think the (monetary) value of a
7-track TU10 master drive
is? I have no idea what these older vacuum-column drives are worth - don't
recall ever seeing on for sale. This one is in good condition, and has all
its
Flip Chips. The 7-track is a plus in some ways (rarer), and negative in
others (can't read old 9-track tapes, which are probably more common than
7-track).
Noel
1:28 p.m.
On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 12:34 PM, Noel Chiappa
<jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
> So what do people think the (monetary) value of a
7-track TU10 master drive
> is?
I don't know about monetary value, but it is likely to be
one of the VERY FEW 7-track drives that might be brought
back to life. There certainly should be a few of these
drives kept available for reading ancient data tapes.
Jon
2:43 p.m.
What is the model number of the TU10? They can be 9 or 7 track. For
example TU10-EE is 9-track, TU10-FE is 7 track . (assuming 60hz/115V).
Photo of the door, that indicates 7 or 9 channel
http://vintagecomputer.net/pictures/2015/WV_trip/DEC_TU-10_front-panel.jpg
The presence of the TU10M label along with a separate TU10 label plate
means the tape has the the master transport unit installed.
http://vintagecomputer.net/digital/TU10/model_serial-num.jpg
More:
http://vintagecomputer.net/digital/TU10/
Hopefully this will compare with the unit you're interested in and assist
with your assessment.
See DEC-00-TU10S-DC and related doc for more diffs 7 vs, 9 track,
b
On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 1:28 PM, Jon Elson <elson at pico-systems.com> wrote:
On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 12:34 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc
at mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:
So what do people think the (monetary) value of a
7-track TU10 master
FEW 7-track drives that might be brought back to life. There certainly
should be a few of these drives kept available for reading ancient data
tapes.
Jon
drive
is?
I don't know about monetary value, but it is likely to be one of the VERY
2:52 p.m.
On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 10:34 AM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:
So what do people think the (monetary) value of a
7-track TU10 master drive
is? I have no idea what these older vacuum-column drives are worth - don't
recall ever seeing on for sale. This one is in good condition, and has all
its
Flip Chips. The 7-track is a plus in some ways (rarer), and negative in
others (can't read old 9-track tapes, which are probably more common than
7-track).
Whatever someone is willing to pay. Peripherals are rarer than CPU's.
People tended to hang on to CPU's but not
so much the Peripherals. If it is in really good shape with controller for
the machine I have I could imagine paying
as much as $3000 for it. But I could also imagine someone paying a lot
more than that. Put it up on EBAY with
an unrealistic reserve and see what it would go for if all you want to know
is what it would sell for. What controller
do you have for it?
My straight 8 had a homebrew controller and I think it was a Pertec 7 track
which I did not get when I purchased
the system. The tape drive had real value still and was the only piece the
guy I bought it from wanted for resale.
If I hadn't taken the machine it would have gone for scrap at 14 cents per
pound which is what I paid him for it.
This system was used in the summer months from 1968 through 1973 to do
thunderstorm research and data was
collected on DECtape during the storm and then transfered to 7 track and
shipped off to be processed on the Cray.
I have a couple of hundred DECtapes with weather data on them. Around 30
meg words of data. I am assuming that
all three drives were used during a data capture session. One drive would
be writing, One drive would be waiting to
write. And the third drive would be rewinding and then unmounted and
changed while the others were actively in service.
The Pertec drive was not a data break device and had to be actively managed
so would not have been able to keep up
with the data stream.
--
Doug Ingraham
PDP-8 SN 1175
7:42 p.m.
On Sep 19, 2016, at 12:34 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at
mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
So what do people think the (monetary) value of a 7-track TU10 master drive
is? I have no idea what these older vacuum-column drives are worth - don't
recall ever seeing on for sale. This one is in good condition, and has all its
Flip Chips. The 7-track is a plus in some ways (rarer), and negative in
others (can't read old 9-track tapes, which are probably more common than
7-track).
I don't know either, but I can say this much:
7 track tape drives are quite rare. 7 track data is not all that common either, but it
shows up from time to time. There are plenty of 9 track tapes out there; the ability to
reach 9 track media is not at risk. But for 7 tracks, it might well be. In other words,
it would be a very good idea to see this drive preserved.
Along those lines, a project I'm working on has turned up a number of 7 track tapes,
possibly 556 bpi though that is not entirely clear. They are in Europe, where searches
for working 7 track setups have come up empty. Can anyone offer pointers? Will it take
shipping the media to another continent to get the data preserved?
paul
8:56 p.m.
I had two 7 track TU10 drives , different customers, on contract while
working at DEC. Both where used in CAD systems. I have no idea how many
where in the branch, but at our site maybe 20 to 30 % 7 track. I would
think the national average is lower.
A 9 can be converted to a 7 with a head change and I thing a board change
or removal. The only differences are the head and R/W circuitry I think. I
know I have TE16 and other heads, and I recall having a TU10 7 track here
somewhere.
The first drive on the controller has to be a master, all the rest can be
slaves.
Paul
On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 6:42 PM, Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
On Sep 19, 2016, at 12:34 PM, Noel Chiappa
<jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:
So what do people think the (monetary) value of a 7-track TU10 master
drive
is? I have no idea what these older vacuum-column
drives are worth -
don't
recall ever seeing on for sale. This one is in
good condition, and has
all its
Flip Chips. The 7-track is a plus in some ways
(rarer), and negative in
others (can't read old 9-track tapes, which are probably more common than
7-track).
I don't know either, but I can say this much:
7 track tape drives are quite rare. 7 track data is not all that common
either, but it shows up from time to time. There are plenty of 9 track
tapes out there; the ability to reach 9 track media is not at risk. But
for 7 tracks, it might well be. In other words, it would be a very good
idea to see this drive preserved.
Along those lines, a project I'm working on has turned up a number of 7
track tapes, possibly 556 bpi though that is not entirely clear. They are
in Europe, where searches for working 7 track setups have come up empty.
Can anyone offer pointers? Will it take shipping the media to another
continent to get the data preserved?
paul
2825
days inactive
2826
days old
6 comments
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participants (6)
-
billdegnan＠gmail.com -
dpi＠dustyoldcomputers.com -
elson＠pico-systems.com -
jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu -
paulkoning＠comcast.net -
useddec＠gmail.com