RX02 Difficulties

[allison]

On 12/08/2017 09:45 AM, Aaron Jackson via cctalk wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I originally posted this on VCFed (which was new to me) but the
> moderation queue has had me waiting for about 3 days, so I thought I'd
> ask here as well, the usual of gurus. :)
>
> I was recently sent an RXV21 controller so I could test out my RX02
> drive. When I power up the PDP-11 or reset the machine I get the nice
> clunking sound which I have been told is normal. I expect I wouldn't
> hear this if the ribbon cable was in the wrong way.
>
> To test, I tried to use VTserver to dump the contents of a disk, but it
> immediately threw an error. I soon realised there are two DIP switches
> on the logic board of the RX02 drive which had to be adjusted to work
> with the RXV21. So, I had some progress. Output of VTserver almost
> looked promising but then it hangs, as below:
>
> ]] Tape record n from device xx is written as xx(0,0,n)
> ]] Disk drive xx is written as xx(0,0,0)
> ]]
> ]] Enter name of input record/device: rx(0,0,0)
> ]] Enter name of output record/device: vt(0,0,1)
> ]]
> ]] Opened copy.out read-write
> ]]
>
> So, following some advice I booted via TU58em into XXDP and ran the
> diagnostics:
>
> ]] DR>STA
> ]]
> ]] CHANGE HW (L)  ? N
> ]]
> ]] CHANGE SW (L)  ? N
> ]]
> ]] CZRXFB0 SYS FTL ERR  00040 ON UNIT 00 TST 011 SUB 000 PC: 003476
> ]]  CSR BITS - LGC TST
> ]]   AC LOW FATAL ERROR
> ]]       REG ACTUAL=000000
> ]]       REG EXPECT=000000
> ]]
> ]]   POSSIBLE FAILING "FRU'S":
> ]]             INTERFACE - M8029
> ]]
> ]]   UNIT#0 RXCSR=000000 RXESR=000000 CMD=000000 ->
> ]]  ->NO PWR, CABLED BACKWARDS, STRAPPED RX01, PDP-8
> ]]  DROP UNIT#0 FROM TEST
> ]]
> ]] PASS ABRTD THS UNIT
> ]] CZRXFB0 SYS FTL ERR  00040 ON UNIT 01 TST 011 SUB 000 PC: 003476
> ]]  CSR BITS - LGC TST
> ]]   AC LOW FATAL ERROR
> ]]       REG ACTUAL=000000
> ]]       REG EXPECT=000000
> ]]
> ]]   POSSIBLE FAILING "FRU'S":
> ]]             INTERFACE - M8029
> ]]
> ]]   UNIT#1 RXCSR=000000 RXESR=000000 CMD=000000 ->
> ]]  ->NO PWR, CABLED BACKWARDS, STRAPPED RX01, PDP-8
> ]]  DROP UNIT#1 FROM TEST
> ]]
> ]] PASS ABRTD THS UNIT
> ]] CZRXFB0 EOP    1
> ]]     2 TOTAL ERRS
>
> So, the possible errors according to XXDP:
>
> - Bad power - I get 25v, 5v and -5v. The motors are spinning, not
>   convinced it is this?
>
> - Cable backwards - I don't think I'd be hearing that clunk.
>
> - Strapped RX01 - I don't know what this means
>
> - PDP8 - eh?
>
> If anyone has any suggestions it would be great to hear them.
>
> Thanks,
> Aaron.

Why not do the obvious and flip the able at one end?  Its not like it
can hurt something.

FYI the two switches are for set for PDP-8 (12 bit) operation and the
other sets is for RX01
or RX02 mode.  RX01 mode locks the logic for RX01 operation only and the
RX02 mode
allows it to do both RX01 and RX02 media.

]]  ->NO PWR, CABLED BACKWARDS, STRAPPED RX01, PDP-8

That means check for:
     No power, drive has now power.
     Cable reversed
     set for RX01 or Set for PDP-8

Its a list of things that can be wrong to make it not work.

Allison