Destructive Imaging of DECTAPE II Media

[Al Kossow]

On 1/31/15 11:31 AM, Mark J. Blair wrote:
>
>> On Jan 31, 2015, at 11:18, Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote:
>>
>> On 1/31/15 11:00 AM, Mark J. Blair wrote:
>>>
>>> hopefully they don't use capstan and pinch roller drive
>>
>> There is a maintenance manual on bitsavers
>> It is servo based with an encoder attached to a roller in contact with the tape.
>> The two reels are motor driven.
>
>
> That sounds very promising. I'll look for the maintenance manual. I think that about the only thing that would be better would be a system where I could lift the reels and tape out of a DECTAPE II cart without needing to transfer the media linearly or do any splicing, but that would take a lot more effort. For me, the mechanical part would be a lot harder than the electronic and software parts.
>

DC-100 reels float on two pins, so at a minimum you'll have to find one of the good quality cassette tapes
that had actual reels inside and transfer the tape to those.

I just picked up a TEAC cassette mechanism at a surplus place, and the part of the tach that touches the
tape is mostly metal with a channel cut into it with what looks like something rubber-ish where the tape
would touch at the bottom. That seems a little strange so I'll pull it apart and take pictures of the mechanism.