5 Apr
2005
5 Apr
'05
2:07 p.m.
hi,
Silly me, I bid on an RX01 on ebay, hoping it had a controller card.
Naturally it's just the drive. It has a nice Digital sticker on the side
and seems dirty but mechanically sound and the head looks ok.
So, where can I get a controller card for this thing? any ideas? are
these things like hen's teeth?
Naturally I have an unibus rx01 controller card, so all I need is a
controller card for this drive, right? (and a cable, and power supplies
:-)
I just have this unbending need to boot rt-11 from it. I know it's
silly but I need to do it. And, it seemed like it might be fun to boot
other things too. Plus, with the Shugart drives I have I thought I
might actually be able to transfer small files.
-brad
5 Apr
5 Apr
2:50 p.m.
Brad wrote:
I bid on an RX01 on ebay, hoping it had a controller card. Naturally it's
just the drive. [...] where can I get a controller
card [...] Naturally
I have an unibus rx01 controller card, so all I need is a controller card
for this drive, right?
I'm completely confused. You have a controller card? Or you don't? If
you have one, surely you don't need one? Or are you saying that you need
one for a different bus? Or is your drive missing the drive electronics,
which is the real controller (vs. the Mxxxx "controllers", which are
really just host adapters)?
The "controllers" (host adapters) are:
Unibus Qbus Omnibus
----------- ----------- ----------
RX01 RX11 M7846 RXV11 M7946 RX8E M8357
RX02 RX211 M8256 RXV21 M8029 RX28 M8357
(Note that the RX8E and RX28 are exactly the same module.)
Eric
5:10 p.m.
"Eric Smith" wrote:
Brad wrote:
I bid on an RX01 on ebay, hoping it had a controller card. Naturally it's
Sorry. To much coffee and emulators today :-)
I bought an RX01 8" drive and it has no drive electronics card on it.
I have an RX11 M7846 controller (host adapter).
I assume to make this work I need an electronics card on the RX01 drive
itself. The drive has what looks like mounting holes for a PCB and I
the RX11 is way too simple so I assume there is something which bolts
onto the RX01 drive. And a ribbon cable between them. And a power
supply :-)
-brad
just the drive. [...] where can I get a
controller card [...] Naturally
I have an unibus rx01 controller card, so all I need is a controller card
for this drive, right?
I'm completely confused. You have a controller card? Or you don't? If 
5:17 p.m.
Brad wrote....
I assume to make this work I need an electronics card
on the RX01 drive
itself. The drive has what looks like mounting holes for a PCB and I
the RX11 is way too simple so I assume there is something which bolts
onto the RX01 drive. And a ribbon cable between them. And a power
supply :-)
I have a problematic RX02 "internal" controller card, I was in a hurry to
get the drive operational and just bought a new card for it. You're welcome
to the old one (which obviously needs some repair), if it will help in your
quest.
Jay
7:22 p.m.
I assume to make this work I need an electronics card
on the RX01 drive
itself. The drive has what looks like mounting holes for a PCB and I
the RX11 is way too simple so I assume there is something which bolts
onto the RX01 drive. And a ribbon cable between them. And a power
supply :-)
Do you just have the bare drive mechanism, then?
The RX01 unit contains 2 of these drives bolted under the chassis using
the holes you thought were to mount a PCB. On top of the chassis there's
a read/write PCB which all the cables from both drives plug into. There's
also a PCU mounted behind it. On top of the read/write board there's
another PCB stuffed with digital electronics which is the controller
itseld. And finally, there's a fan and air plenum mounted on the back of
the 2 drives...
Sounds like you have rather a lot to find.
-tony
6 Apr
6 Apr
2:03 a.m.
On Apr 5, 2005 2:07 PM, Brad Parker <brad at heeltoe.com> wrote:
Silly me, I bid on an RX01 on ebay, hoping it had a
controller card.
Naturally it's just the drive. It has a nice Digital sticker on the side
and seems dirty but mechanically sound and the head looks ok.
I don't know if I have the right auction, but I did go back over
'rx01' in completed auctions and saw a couple completed ones for what
is depicted as the drive mech only... if one of them is you, what you
have is a small part of an RX01/RX02 drive subsystem... the parts I've
broken them down to (for cleaning, etc.) is a pair of drive mechs
(like it seems you have), two large circuit boards, a PSU, a fan and
duct assembly, and a frame that all these other elements mount on.
This frame is not used when one is mounting drives in a DECmate I
pedestal, but for rack-mount or tabletop mounting, there _is_ a steel
frame.
One does not _need_ the frame, strictly speaking, but it does have all
the right standoffs for the board set, the hinge (the top board swings
up and out of the way of the lower board), and screw holes for
everything else.
Someone like me might put what you have to use (I have an RX01 down to
one drive because the bearings seized up on one of the drive motors),
but you need a lot of pieces to turn what you have into a working
drive.
If you _do_ score the boards, etc., you might be interested to note
that DEC _did_ sell single-drive versions of the RX01 (and possibly
the RX02), but I gather they weren't particularly popular, since most
floppy systems tended to have one boot floppy and one open floppy for
random data disks. The RX01 inside a VAX-11/780 was one notable
exception, as the particular application (console processor) didn't
need more than one drive to do its job.
Good luck with putting something together, but my personal opinion is
that you have purchased spare parts for a complete drive you'll find
later. Perhaps you'll get lucky and find a cheap single-drive RX01 or
RX02 and be able to mount what you have now and plug it in and turn it
into a dual-drive system.
-ethan
7119
days inactive
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5 comments
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participants (5)
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
brad＠heeltoe.com -
eric＠brouhaha.com -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
jwest＠classiccmp.org