I will first describe the results that I saw with looking at the LEDs on the boards in the small rack inside the RK07 drive. A small LED on the outer board (M9016) is always ON. In the stand-by condition the UNLD HDS LED is ON. When I load a pack, and push the LOAD button, the LEDs SPEED OK and BRUSH go ON after approx 15 seconds. A number of seconds later the LEDs BRUSH and UNLD HDS go OFF. At that same time the LEDs LD HDS en FWD go ON and the heads move toward the centre of the spindle. When the head has reached that position, the LEDs LD HDS and FWD go OFF, and RTZ and REV go ON. The head moves back, and when the heads are on "track 0" (this is an assumption) those two LEDs go OFF too. Only the SPEED OK LED is still ON. --- I will have to boot RT11 to tell the error message. AFAIK, you can not format the pack, only do an INIT. I did not check the cable to the controller and to the next drive, but I am pretty sure they are in the port A connections. As the second drive is OFF (and has the terminator), and the controller is OFF, I guess that this does not interfere with the load sequence getting to the READY lamp ON state. I can see the motor that drives the spindle runs, and the belt is OK. It must be driving the platters, otherwise I think the SPEED OK LED would not turn ON. Indeed, there are 4 heads. The wires from one is clearly connected to a different board, so that must be the servo data. I will do your experiment, Tony. And no, I will not blame you if the heads crash :-) Good to hear that no FAULT light ON is OK. I can also try the second drive this weekend, but I must remove the brushes from that drive first. I have a third drive (!) but then I must move stuff around to get to it ... thanks, - Henk. ________________________________ Van: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org namens Tony Duell Verzonden: di 17-01-2006 21:46 Aan: cctalk at classiccmp.org Onderwerp: Re: RK07 questions What error do you get. IIRC the RK07 pack can be formatted (this does a low-level format of the data surfaces). You need to do that before INITing in most cases. You can also swing the card cage assembly twards the rear of the drive. Make sure you have the cables connected correnctly (IN and OUT are not the same on these drives -- the controller must connect to an 'IN' connector, the terminator to an OUT connector. Unless you have a dual-ported drive, use the 'A' connectors, make sure you have the interface card in the right slot of the cardcage, and press the 'A' button on the front). On the top of some of the boards are LEDs. The plastic cover over the boards identifies them. What do they do at spin-up? OK so the 9.6V NiCd under the chassis is still good. You should hear the spindle motor start running. Mind you, if it wasn't, you'd get some very nasty noises when the heads moved. I think that is correct. The heads do a full seek to the inner guard band, then return to cylinder 0. I think so. I would think they'd go towards the spindle and then return to the unloaded position as the drive wouldn't find any servo information at all. I've not tried this, so don't blame me if the heads run into the spindle or something horrible, but you could unplug the servo head from the servo preamplifer and try again. With no servo signals at all, you'd be simulating a bulk-erased pack. Look for a change in behaviour. IIRC there are 4 heads in the RK07. All 4 head cables plug into the read/write board, but one of them has another connector coming from it. That's the servo head. The 'connector' on that head on the R/W board is just to anchor the cable, it's the end-of-cable connector that plugs into the servo preamplifier that you might disocnnect. I think so, but it's been a long time. No, an RK07 will spin up and load the heads without a controller. No FAULT lamp. -tony This message and attachment(s) are intended solely for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient or agent thereof responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone and with a "reply" message. Thank you for your cooperation.