RA-81 issues (Jerry Wright)

[Michael Thompson]

>
> From: Jerry Wright
> Sent: Friday, February 06, 2015 8:54 PM
> Subject: RA-81 issues
>
> I have a rack full of  RA81's, all Pass Rom base self test.  If  I try to
> spin
> up one of the drives, It will start to spin up and then just stop.  There
> are
> no front panel lights that come on or codes on the terminal screen.  all 3
> drives do the same.
>
> These are not connected to a controller, and  the manual does not say this
> is need.
>
> The forth one has no drive and the motor seems to turn hard,  is there a
> brake
> on the motor ???
>
> - what I'm I missing here
> Thanks Jerry
>

I have seen two common problems problems with RA-81 drives.
Failure of the motor start capacitor, and failure of the optical sensor on
the bottom of the HDA for spindle speed. With both failures the drive will
start to spin-up, and then spin-down.

You can connect a serial terminal emulator to the DB25 diag connector. Then
you can run internal diagnostics and get the fault codes.

The RICM has several RA-81 drives, all with failed optical sensors.

-- 
Michael Thompson