On 08/16/2015 03:20 PM, Jay Jaeger wrote:
One issue with the capstan idea, though, would be direction.
Capstans really want to pull. Not very good a pushing. ;) So if
you did that, and you wanted to direction operation (required if you
can't stream the entire tape), then you'd need two sets of capstans
like the big IBM and the like 7 and 9 track tape drives had.
Or CDC... :)
Or maybe just a tachometer and let the reel motors do the work. QIC
data is pretty much self-clocking (but for those HP 2-track drives).
Still mulling it over--the number of QIC cartridges I've had to handle
has gone down substantially over the years.
--Chuck
