6 Jan
2015
6 Jan
'15
9:10 a.m.
I have an RK05J drive that has been sitting around for a long time, and I want to prepare
it for going back into service on my PDP 8/e system.
Here's what I've done so far:
- I have replaced the foam that isolates the blower motor from the housing, as it had
started to deteriorate.
- I vacuumed out the entire drive very carefully
- I removed the head-lock that was put in when the drive was transported from its original
location to my location
- I ran the drive without a cartridge (and not connected to a system) for about 6 hours
with the old absolute filter in place
- I removed all of the circuit boards and cleaned the edge connectors and sockets
- I tested all of the front panel lamps, and found all to be good
- I replaced the absolute filter and ran the drive for another few hours to circulate air
and get any last particles of stuff filtered out.
- I very carefully cleaned the heads... they were extremely clean. I used a lint-free
swap, and a commercial solution that I have that I've used for floppy disk head
cleaning that seems to work well. I used this solution on the first RK05's heads, and
it worked with no problems. However, the first drive was in service on the PDP 8/e when I
got it, and was running fine. This second drive came off a PDP 11 system, and has been
sitting for a very long time (years).
I plan on running the drive without a pack in it for about 2 hours before I try loading a
pack.
I'm wondering if there is anything else that I should do before add the drive to the
chain (this would be the second drive on the system)?
I am also wondering, that since I have very few PDP8-sectored RK05 packs, and a ton of
PDP-11 sectored packs, if , when I first power up the drive after it has been connected up
to the RK8E , I can put one of my PDP 11 packs in there and spin it up, if the controller
will be able to load the heads? I'd much rather sacrifice one of these packs if
there are problems rather than risk one of my precious PDP-8 sectored packs.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions/answers.
Rick Bensene
6 Jan
6 Jan
10:30 a.m.
Hi Rick,
That's a good idea. It should load heads with no problem, but should not be
able to read or write. I would suggest going through all of the servo
adjustments in the PM procedure but would advise you NOT do a head
alignment.
Paul
On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 11:10 AM, Rick Bensene <rickb at bensene.com> wrote:
I have an RK05J drive that has been sitting around
for a long time, and I
want to prepare it for going back into service on my PDP 8/e system.
Here's what I've done so far:
- I have replaced the foam that isolates the blower motor from the
housing, as it had started to deteriorate.
- I vacuumed out the entire drive very carefully
- I removed the head-lock that was put in when the drive was transported
from its original location to my location
- I ran the drive without a cartridge (and not connected to a system) for
about 6 hours with the old absolute filter in place
- I removed all of the circuit boards and cleaned the edge connectors and
sockets
- I tested all of the front panel lamps, and found all to be good
- I replaced the absolute filter and ran the drive for another few hours
to circulate air and get any last particles of stuff filtered out.
- I very carefully cleaned the heads... they were extremely clean. I used
a lint-free swap, and a commercial solution that I have that I've used for
floppy disk head cleaning that seems to work well. I used this solution on
the first RK05's heads, and it worked with no problems. However, the first
drive was in service on the PDP 8/e when I got it, and was running fine.
This second drive came off a PDP 11 system, and has been sitting for a very
long time (years).
I plan on running the drive without a pack in it for about 2 hours before
I try loading a pack.
I'm wondering if there is anything else that I should do before add the
drive to the chain (this would be the second drive on the system)?
I am also wondering, that since I have very few PDP8-sectored RK05 packs,
and a ton of PDP-11 sectored packs, if , when I first power up the drive
after it has been connected up to the RK8E , I can put one of my PDP 11
packs in there and spin it up, if the controller will be able to load the
heads? I'd much rather sacrifice one of these packs if there are
problems rather than risk one of my precious PDP-8 sectored packs.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions/answers.
Rick Bensene
11:32 a.m.
That's a good idea. It should load heads with no
problem, but should not be
able to read or write. I would suggest going through all of the servo
adjustments in the PM procedure but would advise you NOT do a head
alignment.
Can't some of the servo adjustments affect the exact point at which the servo locks?
In other words you should really do a head alignment after adjusting them.
Whatever you do don't put the alignment disk in as the first pack you try, for very
obvious reasons!. But if you have an alignment disk I see no reason not to do the
head alignment -- after you are sure the drive is OK.
What I would do is to make sure it will spin up with a 12 sector pack (as those are
common) and the heads fly, etc
Then try a 'scratch' 16 sector pack. Format it (the RK05 does a true low-level
format,
of course), then read/write. If it has any problems, find out why, it is not head
alignment
Assuming it gets that far, then put the alignment disk in and check the head alignment.
-tony
1:36 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of tony
duell
Sent: 06 January 2015 19:32
To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts
Subject: RE: Resurrecting RK05
servo
That's a good idea. It should load heads with
no problem, but should
not be able to read or write. I would suggest going through all of the
servo adjustments in the PM procedure but would advise you NOT do a
head alignment.
Can't some of the servo adjustments affect the exact point at which the locks?
In other words you should really do a head alignment after adjusting them.
Whatever you do don't put the alignment disk in as the first pack you try,
for
very obvious reasons!. But if you have an alignment
disk I see no reason
not to
do the head alignment -- after you are sure the drive
is OK.
What I would do is to make sure it will spin up with a 12 sector pack (as
those
are
common) and the heads fly, etc
It is good to know that RK05 packs for the PDP11 are common. I have an RK05
drive for my 11/45 but no packs. It is going to be a while before I get this
machine going again, but if anyone in the UK has suitable packs they might
be prepared to part with, it would be good to hear about it.
Thanks
Rob
10:59 a.m.
I am also wondering, that since I have very few PDP8-sectored RK05 packs, and a ton of
PDP-11 sectored
packs, if , when I first power up the drive after it has been connected up to the RK8E ,
I can put one of my PDP 11 > packs in there and spin it up, if the controller will be
able to load the heads? I'd much rather sacrifice one of
these packs if there are problems rather than risk one of my precious PDP-8 sectored
packs.
An RK05 will spin up and load the heads without a controller. It is a darn good idea to
have a terminator
fitted (otherwise noise on the interface lines can do interesting things, like cause write
glitches, don't ask
how I found that out).
It does need a pack with the slotted hub so that the drive electronics can tell the drive
is up to speed before
it tries to load the heads. But obviously a 12 sector (PDP11) pack will do for that.
So yes, you can use a PDP11 type of pack to see if the heads will fly even though the
drive is on an RK8/E
-tony
1:36 p.m.
I would definitely replace the foam around the squarish tube that supplies
air to the pack. That's the worst place for a foam particle to break off.
On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 10:59 AM, tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
I am also wondering, that since I have very few PDP8-sectored RK05
packs, and a
ton of PDP-11 sectored
packs, if , when I first power up the drive
after it has been connected
up to the RK8E , I can put one of my PDP 11 > packs
in there and spin it
up, if the controller will be able to load the heads? I'd much rather
sacrifice one of
these packs if there are problems rather than
risk one of my precious
PDP-8 sectored packs.
An RK05 will spin up and load the heads without a controller. It is a darn
good idea to have a terminator
fitted (otherwise noise on the interface lines can do interesting things,
like cause write glitches, don't ask
how I found that out).
It does need a pack with the slotted hub so that the drive electronics can
tell the drive is up to speed before
it tries to load the heads. But obviously a 12 sector (PDP11) pack will do
for that.
So yes, you can use a PDP11 type of pack to see if the heads will fly even
though the drive is on an RK8/E
-tony
4:58 p.m.
Keep in mind that the drive has an internal selector for drive number.
Something tells me that a competition between two drives would not be a
pretty thing.
On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 1:36 PM, Marc Howard <cramcram at gmail.com> wrote:
I would definitely replace the foam around the
squarish tube that supplies
air to the pack. That's the worst place for a foam particle to break off.
On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 10:59 AM, tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
wrote:
connected
--
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS
Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School
University of Washington
An optimist sees a glass half full. A pessimist sees it half empty. An
engineer sees it twice as large as it needs to be.
I am also wondering, that since I have very few PDP8-sectored RK05
packs, and a
ton of PDP-11 sectored
> packs, if , when I first power up the drive after it has been up to the RK8E , I can put one of my PDP 11 >
packs in there and spin it
up, if the controller will be able to load the heads? I'd much rather
sacrifice one of
darn
these packs if there are problems rather than
risk one of my precious
PDP-8 sectored packs.
An RK05 will spin up and load the heads without a controller. It is a good idea to have a terminator
fitted (otherwise noise on the interface lines can do interesting things,
like cause write glitches, don't ask
how I found that out).
It does need a pack with the slotted hub so that the drive electronics
can
tell the drive is up to speed before
it tries to load the heads. But obviously a 12 sector (PDP11) pack will
do
for that.
So yes, you can use a PDP11 type of pack to see if the heads will fly
even
though the drive is on an RK8/E
-tony
7 Jan
7 Jan
4:40 a.m.
Also the selection method is different between pdp8 and the 11, one used 1
of n and the other 3 binary digits, cant remember which is which but do
remember I had a bit of a fiddle getting my ex 11 drive to correctly select
on my 8.
DavH
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian S. King" <isking at uw.edu>
To: <marc.howard at ieee.org>; "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts"
<cctech at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 12:58 AM
Subject: Re: Resurrecting RK05
Keep in mind that the drive has an internal selector
for drive number.
Something tells me that a competition between two drives would not be a
pretty thing.
On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 1:36 PM, Marc Howard <cramcram at gmail.com> wrote:
I would definitely replace the foam around the
squarish tube that
supplies
air to the pack. That's the worst place for a foam particle to break
off.
On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 10:59 AM, tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
wrote:
connected
--
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS
Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School
University of Washington
An optimist sees a glass half full. A pessimist sees it half empty. An
engineer sees it twice as large as it needs to be.
I am also wondering, that since I have very few PDP8-sectored RK05
packs, and a
ton of PDP-11 sectored
> packs, if , when I first power up the drive after it has been up to the RK8E , I can put one of my PDP 11 >
packs in there and spin
it
up, if the controller will be able to load the heads? I'd much
rather
sacrifice one of
darn
these packs if there are problems rather than
risk one of my precious
PDP-8 sectored packs.
An RK05 will spin up and load the heads without a controller. It is a good idea to have a terminator
fitted (otherwise noise on the interface lines can do interesting
things,
like cause write glitches, don't ask
how I found that out).
It does need a pack with the slotted hub so that the drive electronics
can
tell the drive is up to speed before
it tries to load the heads. But obviously a 12 sector (PDP11) pack will
do
for that.
So yes, you can use a PDP11 type of pack to see if the heads will fly
even
though the drive is on an RK8/E
-tony
5:25 a.m.
The standard RK8E do a select using just one pin, meaning you can have
at most 4 drives on the system.
The RK11 have a binary unit number encoding, meaning you can have 8 drives.
There was also a version of the RK8 controller which did a binary unit
selection. I don't remember the designation of that controller off my
head at the moment.
More fun is that the same pins were used for both binary and 1ofN
selection. I don't remember how on earth this was detected/handled by
the drives, as I don't remember anything beyond the unit setting rotary
switch on one of the boards of the RK05.
Ans in theory, you could have gone to 16 drives, since you had 4 pins.
But then again, I wonder if it wasn't some clever design using the 4th
pin as a way of indicating that the other 3 pins were a binary unit
number by making sure that you never had just one signal active...
Johnny
On 2015-01-07 13:40, David Humphries wrote:
Also the selection method is different between pdp8
and the 11, one used
1 of n and the other 3 binary digits, cant remember which is which but
do remember I had a bit of a fiddle getting my ex 11 drive to correctly
select on my 8.
DavH
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ian S. King" <isking at uw.edu>
To: <marc.howard at ieee.org>; "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts"
<cctech at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 12:58 AM
Subject: Re: Resurrecting RK05
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
Keep in mind that the drive has an internal
selector for drive number.
Something tells me that a competition between two drives would not be a
pretty thing.
On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 1:36 PM, Marc Howard <cramcram at gmail.com> wrote:
I would definitely replace the foam around the
squarish tube that
supplies
air to the pack. That's the worst place for a foam particle to break
off.
On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 10:59 AM, tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
wrote:
--
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS
Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School
University of Washington
An optimist sees a glass half full. A pessimist sees it half empty. An
engineer sees it twice as large as it needs to be. >
> I am also wondering, that since I have very few PDP8-sectored RK05
packs, and a ton of PDP-11 sectored
> packs, if , when I first power up the drive after it has been
connected
up to the RK8E , I can put one of my PDP 11 >
packs in there and
spin > it
up, if the controller will be able to load the
heads? I'd much >
rather
sacrifice one of
> these packs if there are problems rather than risk one of my
precious
PDP-8 sectored packs.
An RK05 will spin up and load the heads without a controller. It is a
darn
good idea to have a terminator
fitted (otherwise noise on the interface lines can do interesting >
things,
like cause write glitches, don't ask
how I found that out).
It does need a pack with the slotted hub so that the drive electronics
can
tell the drive is up to speed before
it tries to load the heads. But obviously a 12 sector (PDP11) pack
will
do
for that.
So yes, you can use a PDP11 type of pack to see if the heads will fly
even
though the drive is on an RK8/E
-tony
9:44 a.m.
The standard RK8E do a select using just one pin, meaning you can have
at most 4 drives on the system.
The RK11 have a binary unit number encoding, meaning you can have 8 drives.
The RK11-D (and I guess RKV11) use binary encoding on the select lines, so up to
8 drives on the cable. The RK11-C uses 1-of-n encoding (like the RK8E) and allows
for 4 drives per cable. But the RK11-C has 2 cable connectors, so you can have
8 drives on it.
The older RK02 and RK03 drives (Diablo model 30) used 1-of-n encoding only,
and will not directly work with the RK11-D. I seem to remember a Plessey clone
of the RK11-D which had an interface board in the disk cable slot which had a
decoder IC on it to allow for 1-of-n selects.
More fun is that the same pins were used for both
binary and 1ofN
selection. I don't remember how on earth this was detected/handled by
the drives, as I don't remember anything beyond the unit setting rotary
switch on one of the boards of the RK05.
There was a pin on the drive interface connector which if high enabled 1-of-n
selects (it was normally pulled high by the terminator). If pulled low (done
by an RK11-D controller) the drive used binary selects.
-tony
12:11 p.m.
I nave 2 RK11-C backplanes, a Diablo drive, and a Plessey controller here
if anyone is interested. Feel free to make me an offer off list.
On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 11:44 AM, tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
The standard RK8E do a select using just one pin, meaning you can have
at most 4 drives on the system.
The RK11 have a binary unit number encoding, meaning you can have 8
drives.
The RK11-D (and I guess RKV11) use binary encoding on the select lines, so
up to
8 drives on the cable. The RK11-C uses 1-of-n encoding (like the RK8E) and
allows
for 4 drives per cable. But the RK11-C has 2 cable connectors, so you can
have
8 drives on it.
The older RK02 and RK03 drives (Diablo model 30) used 1-of-n encoding only,
and will not directly work with the RK11-D. I seem to remember a Plessey
clone
of the RK11-D which had an interface board in the disk cable slot which
had a
decoder IC on it to allow for 1-of-n selects.
More fun is that the same pins were used for both
binary and 1ofN
selection. I don't remember how on earth this was detected/handled by
the drives, as I don't remember anything beyond the unit setting rotary
switch on one of the boards of the RK05.
There was a pin on the drive interface connector which if high enabled
1-of-n
selects (it was normally pulled high by the terminator). If pulled low
(done
by an RK11-D controller) the drive used binary selects.
-tony
8 Jan
8 Jan
9:29 a.m.
Marc Howard wrote:
I would definitely replace the foam around the squarish tube that supplies
air to the pack. That's the worst place for a foam particle to break off.
Thanks, Marc, for this advice.
I have fabricated a replacement for the foam that provides the coupling between the disk
pack and the filtered air source. The original foam looked OK, but after a closer
inspection, it was rather stiff, and probably wouldn't provide a good seal, not to
mention the possibility a piece of it flaking off and getting into the clean space.
If the stars align right, I am hoping to be able to get the drive cabled up and give it a
try tonight.
I will post and let the list know how things go when I get to this point.
Thanks to all for the comments.
-Rick
11 Jan
11 Jan
6:36 p.m.
This afternoon I got the drive racked up, got the drive select set to drive 1, removed the
terminator from drive 0 and plugged in the bus extension cable, routed it to drive 1 and
plugged it into the drive.
The second drive already had the terminator it in (nice, I now have a spare).
I finished routing the cabling and power cable for the second drive, and then powered up
the system. I left it all sit for about 30 minutes before I tried anything.
I noted that there was no LOAD indication showing up on drive 1, so I investigated.
There wasn't any bulb there, so I put one in, and it lit up.
Drive 0 had an OS8 boot pack in it already, and I spun it up, and it went ready just fine
(a relief). I started up my SerialDisk server, and turned off the HALT switch on the 8/e,
hit CLEAR, then raised and lowered the SW switch. The machine proceeded to boot using the
diode ROM bootstrap for the RK8E. It booted up just fine, and I was able to access the
SerialDisk drive also.
So, I loaded a RK05 pack that I had formatted on drive 0 into drive 1, and flicked the
LOAD switch. Things were quiet for a moment, then I could hear that the pack was
spinning up, and shortly thereafter, the drive went ready.
I did a "DIR RKA1:", and got an empty directory with the appropriate number of
free blocks.
I then did a "COPY RKA1:<SD0:*.*" (copying everything from the SerialDisk
drive 0 to the A side of the new drive), and let it run. It took a while, but the copy
succeeded just fine. I could run stuff off the new drive just fine after the copy had
finished. Seems all is good.
I did an RKCOPY command and copied the entirety of Drive 0 to Drive 1, with verify turned
on, and it copied just fine.
Spun down both drives, and swapped packs, and tried booting, and it succeeded. I was able
to read and write files on drive 0 and drive 1 just fine, so the two drives seem (with
only a little testing) seem to interchange packs OK.
Thanks to all for the advice and discussion.
Rick Bensene
6:48 p.m.
On 1/11/15 6:36 PM, Rick Bensene wrote:
This afternoon I got the drive racked up, got the
drive select set to drive 1, removed the terminator from drive 0 and plugged in the bus
extension cable, routed it to drive 1 and plugged it into the drive.
The second drive already had the terminator it in (nice, I now have a spare).
I finished routing the cabling and power cable for the second drive, and then powered
up the system. I left it all sit for about 30 minutes before I tried anything.
I noted that there was no LOAD indication showing up on drive 1, so I investigated.
There wasn't any bulb there, so I put one in, and it lit up.
Drive 0 had an OS8 boot pack in it already, and I spun it up, and it went ready just fine
(a relief). I started up my SerialDisk server, and turned off the HALT switch on the 8/e,
hit CLEAR, then raised and lowered the SW switch. The machine proceeded to boot using the
diode ROM bootstrap for the RK8E. It booted up just fine, and I was able to access the
SerialDisk drive also.
So, I loaded a RK05 pack that I had formatted on drive 0 into drive 1, and flicked the
LOAD switch. Things were quiet for a moment, then I could hear that the pack was
spinning up, and shortly thereafter, the drive went ready.
I did a "DIR RKA1:", and got an empty directory with the appropriate number
of free blocks.
I then did a "COPY RKA1:<SD0:*.*" (copying everything from the SerialDisk
drive 0 to the A side of the new drive), and let it run. It took a while, but the copy
succeeded just fine. I could run stuff off the new drive just fine after the copy had
finished. Seems all is good.
I did an RKCOPY command and copied the entirety of Drive 0 to Drive 1, with verify turned
on, and it copied just fine.
Spun down both drives, and swapped packs, and tried booting, and it succeeded. I was able
to read and write files on drive 0 and drive 1 just fine, so the two drives seem (with
only a little testing) seem to interchange packs OK.
Thanks to all for the advice and discussion.
Great!
I've found that the RK05 is a pretty bulletproof drive. The vast
majority of work that I've done on mine has been to clean the drive from
disintegrated foam and replacing said foam (BTW I find that garage door
weather stripping works *really* well for the task). It usually takes
me 3-4 hours to go from a completely unknown drive to a working/tested
drive (cleaning out & replacing the foam is the first step everything
after that is dependent upon what I find while I'm doing that).
I've worked on about a half dozen drives and they all work flawlessly.
I have another 8 or so that I haven't done any serious work on yet
mainly because I haven't had to. I'll get to them when I'm bored. ;-)
TTFN - Guy
6:48 p.m.
MAN -- feels great, doesn't it? Congrats and nice work.
On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 9:36 PM, Rick Bensene <rickb at bensene.com> wrote:
This afternoon I got the drive racked up, got the
drive select set to
drive 1, removed the terminator from drive 0 and plugged in the bus
extension cable, routed it to drive 1 and plugged it into the drive.
The second drive already had the terminator it in (nice, I now have a
spare).
I finished routing the cabling and power cable for the second drive, and
then powered up the system. I left it all sit for about 30 minutes
before I tried anything.
I noted that there was no LOAD indication showing up on drive 1, so I
investigated. There wasn't any bulb there, so I put one in, and it lit up.
Drive 0 had an OS8 boot pack in it already, and I spun it up, and it went
ready just fine (a relief). I started up my SerialDisk server, and turned
off the HALT switch on the 8/e, hit CLEAR, then raised and lowered the SW
switch. The machine proceeded to boot using the diode ROM bootstrap for the
RK8E. It booted up just fine, and I was able to access the SerialDisk
drive also.
So, I loaded a RK05 pack that I had formatted on drive 0 into drive 1, and
flicked the LOAD switch. Things were quiet for a moment, then I could
hear that the pack was spinning up, and shortly thereafter, the drive went
ready.
I did a "DIR RKA1:", and got an empty directory with the appropriate
number of free blocks.
I then did a "COPY RKA1:<SD0:*.*" (copying everything from the SerialDisk
drive 0 to the A side of the new drive), and let it run. It took a while,
but the copy succeeded just fine. I could run stuff off the new drive just
fine after the copy had finished. Seems all is good.
I did an RKCOPY command and copied the entirety of Drive 0 to Drive 1,
with verify turned on, and it copied just fine.
Spun down both drives, and swapped packs, and tried booting, and it
succeeded. I was able to read and write files on drive 0 and drive 1 just
fine, so the two drives seem (with only a little testing) seem to
interchange packs OK.
Thanks to all for the advice and discussion.
Rick Bensene
6:56 p.m.
On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 8:36 PM, Rick Bensene <rickb at bensene.com> wrote:
I did a "DIR RKA1:", and got an empty directory with the appropriate
number of free blocks.
I then did a "COPY RKA1:<SD0:*.*" (copying everything from the SerialDisk
drive 0 to the A side of the new drive), and let it run. It took a while,
but the copy succeeded just fine. I could run stuff off the new drive just
fine after the copy had finished. Seems all is good.
Glad to hear of your success with both the RK05s and SerialDisk! Nice to
hear stories where things just come together.
Kyle
8:03 p.m.
On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 06:36:30PM -0800, Rick Bensene wrote:
I noted that there was no LOAD indication showing up
on drive 1, so I
investigated. There wasn't any bulb there, so I put one in, and it
lit up.
Don't you just hate it when it's the easy stuff that gives you the
stomachache? :-)
mcl
10:49 p.m.
On Sun, 11 Jan 2015 18:36:30 -0800
"Rick Bensene" <rickb at bensene.com> wrote:
This afternoon I got the drive racked up, got the
drive select set to
drive 1, removed the terminator from drive 0 and plugged in the bus
extension cable, routed it to drive 1 and plugged it into the drive.
The second drive already had the terminator it in (nice, I now have a
spare).
I finished routing the cabling and power cable for the second drive,
and then powered up the system. I left it all sit for about 30
minutes before I tried anything.
I noted that there was no LOAD indication showing up on drive 1, so I
investigated. There wasn't any bulb there, so I put one in, and it
lit up.
Drive 0 had an OS8 boot pack in it already, and I spun it up, and it
went ready just fine (a relief). I started up my SerialDisk server,
and turned off the HALT switch on the 8/e, hit CLEAR, then raised and
lowered the SW switch. The machine proceeded to boot using the diode
ROM bootstrap for the RK8E. It booted up just fine, and I was able
to access the SerialDisk drive also.
So, I loaded a RK05 pack that I had formatted on drive 0 into drive
1, and flicked the LOAD switch. Things were quiet for a moment,
then I could hear that the pack was spinning up, and shortly
thereafter, the drive went ready.
I did a "DIR RKA1:", and got an empty directory with the appropriate
number of free blocks. I then did a "COPY RKA1:<SD0:*.*" (copying
everything from the SerialDisk drive 0 to the A side of the new
drive), and let it run. It took a while, but the copy succeeded just
fine. I could run stuff off the new drive just fine after the copy
had finished. Seems all is good.
I did an RKCOPY command and copied the entirety of Drive 0 to Drive
1, with verify turned on, and it copied just fine.
Spun down both drives, and swapped packs, and tried booting, and it
succeeded. I was able to read and write files on drive 0 and drive 1
just fine, so the two drives seem (with only a little testing) seem
to interchange packs OK.
Nice work, Rick!
Guy helped me with replacing the foam in my RK05. After that I had some
debug work to do on the drive (including alignment). That was several
years ago - and it's been working perfectly ever since.
I've also had good long term success with several RL01s/2s that I have
on a variety of systems.
One thing I'm a fanatic about - whenever I get a new disk pack, I take
it apart and clean all the surfaces of the pack (not just the oxide
surfaces) in as close to a clean room environment as I can achieve.
This also allows me to examine the oxide carefully for any crash marks
or "dings". If I don't like the way a pack looks - I don't use it -
period.
By being careful, I've only had one head crash (RL02) ever in many
years of collecting and restoring. BTW: That crash was not the result
of a bad pack - but "operator" error. I somehow mounted the pack
incorrectly - but good enough for the heads to load :(
Cheers,
Lyle
--
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
http://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"
3584
days inactive
3590
days old
17 comments
13 participants
participants (13)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
bqt＠update.uu.se -
cramcram＠gmail.com -
david＠hheng.plus.com -
ggs＠shiresoft.com -
isking＠uw.edu -
jacob.ritorto＠gmail.com -
kylevowen＠gmail.com -
lbickley＠bickleywest.com -
linimon＠lonesome.com -
rickb＠bensene.com -
robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com -
useddec＠gmail.com