RL02 Spinup fails

[Henk Gooijen]

Van: Aaron Jackson via cctalk<mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Verzonden: maandag 6 november 2017 19:15
Aan: cctech at classiccmp.org<mailto:cctech at classiccmp.org>
Onderwerp: RL02 Spinup fails

Hi everyone,

I have managed to hook up an RL02 drive to my PDP-11 (thanks to Dave
Wade for the drives) . This took me longer than I thought it would - I
tried with a flat ribbon cable with a DIY terminator going straight into
board , but couldn't get it to work. Removed the terminator, and the
fault light turned off. So that's positive.

I tried to load a cartridge, which I had cleaned, inspected and
generally appears to be in good condition. It started to spin up and I
could hear it getting faster, but after 30-40 seconds the fault light
returns. I made a short video demonstrating this:

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=japwBBodO8U

According to the manual the fault light can appear for the following
reasons:

- Drive select error... Surely this would come on at the start?
- Seek time out error... I'd have to hear the heads move first
- Write current in heads during sector time error... Same as above
- Loss of system clock... The fault light would be on from the start.
- Write protect error... I don't think it got that far
- Write data error... Same as above
- Spin error... Is this the only remaining fault?

So could the only cause be a spin error? I am wondering if the belt is
slipping or something like that?

Can anyone offer some advice?

Thanks,

Aaron.

I saw the video.
It seems that the motor runs and the disk spins up.
As Tony suggests, check the possible fault sources.
One obvious fault: is the head still locked? That’s the small
metal plate fixed with one screw in the top right corner (IIRC).

Long ago, I tried to run RK07 drives of the RK611 controller
using a flat cable (not shielded), length 1 meter. The XXDP diags
gave all sorts of errors that went away after I found the correct
(shielded) cable BCxx.

You are correct, the fault light will go on immediately when the
drive is no connected to the controller. I *think* READY should
come up even when no terminator is installed.

One other possible fault. Are you sure the RL02 disk pack is OK?
If it has been wiped with a magnet, it has become useless as a
disk pack, but maybe useful for a “wall clock platter”. READY will
never light up, and possibly there is a time out.
Not sure you can *hear* the head (carriage) move though …