TC11, TU56, was :(Re: WTB: 5 1/4" Magneto Optical Cartridges - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

18 Feb 2000

-----Original Message-----
From: John Wilson &lt;wilson(a)dbit.dbit.com&gt;
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org &lt;classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org&gt;
Date: Friday, February 18, 2000 1:01 PM
Subject: Re: WTB: 5 1/4" Magneto Optical Cartridges

...
 On Fri, Feb 18, 2000 at 10:56:44AM -0500, John B
wrote:
> If you had said DECTape drives then I probably would have taken you up on
> it. I can *now* truly appreciate why many dec engineers, field service, and
...
   prior dec
employees all call them junk. Many have been guilty of using
 Luttig's name in vane... now, me too!

 I wonder if TU56s float? 
What do you mean?  Just because they break down a lot and have an ECO list a
...
 mile long?  Doesn't matter! 
Doesn't matter? People generally rate an old piece of equipment by the way
it performed.. Most tape drives in the late 1960's were *not* that bad.

...
  They're one of the coolest peripherals around
anyway!  It's amazing the lengths DEC went to, to have a cheap removable
medium that only *slightly* pre-dated floppy disks. 
They made DECTape type drives since '62.. (555), TU55, then (after one would
*think* they would get it right)... the TU56.

...
   But then again they had
no choice...  My only complaint is that the TC11 backplane has a full-height
...
 bracket on only one side, if you take it out of the
rack then the two halves
...
 of the other side of the backplane is being held
together by the wire wrap
wire alone.  Solution -- don't ever take it out of the rack! 
That was not a blunder - it was a feature. DEC *knew* the drives were
horrible so it only seemed fair to implement an upgrade strategy for the
customer. One too many breakdowns... customer pulls the left side of the
TC11 down and... presto! customer now has a valid reason to replace the
entire tape system.

I am working on a TC11 this very minute :-( I have a few to restore

...
   And only DEC
would make a pretty lights 'n switches control panel and then hide it behind
...
 a black block-out panel. 

DEC did a good job creating flashing light panels ... but,  how many times
did DEC want to light up a customers computer room with ENDZ, PAR, and other
fault lights? This is the *only* lightbulb status panel they ever hid,
wasn't it?

...

Anyway I promise you TU56s don't float, not by a long shot! 
I know many DEC customers tried. Some also tried extreme heat or pressure...
or both! ;-)

I really feel sorry for the field service guy now...  to take abuse from a
customer looking over his shoulder while trying to repair *another* bad
DECTape drive...

BTW: Do you have a TC11 _working_ ?

john

PDP-8 and other rare mini computers

http://www.pdp8.com

...

John Wilson
D Bit