RL02 Question

[Aaron Jackson]

I think I have made some progress. I bought a new scope (TDS420A) and
now I can actually measure things. My old scope was far too slow. It
turns out the radial alignment was *very* off, so I have corrected
this. If I disable the seek timeout error, the heads load onto track 0
and the READY lamp is stable. This is as opposed to before, where the
READY lamp would flash while the heads try to remain locked onto
track. So, that's good. However, the drive will not accept commands
while the seek timeout error is disabled. And without SKTO the heads
don't load even make it to the outer guard track.

Since this is a timeout error, I am beginning to wonder if the heads are
failing load fast enough.

Is it possible (or even likely) that the carriage survo is a bit sticky?
I have a couple of these survos spare, but don't really want to mess
with the carriage unless I have to.

If anyone is interested, I have screen caps of some of the alignments
and checks from the manual here:

http://aaronsplace.co.uk/blog/2018-03-29-rl02-possible-problem.html

Thanks,
Aaron.



Aaron Jackson via cctalk writes:

> Sorry to keep bothering you all with RL02 questions. I think I am nearly
> there.
>
> It seems my head cleaning in a warm bath of isopropyl alcohol was a
> success. I bought a tested RL02 pack and loaded it - no bad sounds, I
> can extend the heads all the way. So that's good. I have supposedly a
> working RL02K pack, and seemingly good heads.
>
> After I load a pack however, it goes into fault mode. Checking through
> the test points on my scope, there is no survo burst data until I push
> the heads 3-5mm further forward. So it seems to me that the heads are
> not loading far enough into the pack.
>
> I loosened the head alignment screws to move the heads all the way
> forward, tightened them back up, and tried loading the pack again. It
> stopped again, 3-5mm short of track 0. So moving the heads forward
> didn't seem to make any difference.
>
> I have tried a different control board, and read/write amplifier board,
> with no success.
>
> Has anyone else experienced this? Is there some sensor which I am not
> seeing?
>
> Thanks,
> Aaron.


--
Aaron Jackson
PhD Student, Computer Vision Laboratory, Uni of Nottingham
http://aaronsplace.co.uk