Hi! Some time ago, I got my hands on a DECtape II, though no tapes. That'll change after a long time and in a few days, even multiple tapes will come in.
With that drive, I started some first tests. It's PSU seems to be all fine, providing stable 5 and 12 V. It's board's wire wrapping is in factory settings, so baud rate etc. is all known. However, when I checked the two drives capstans, they're old. One has a crack, and as things go, they feel partially either hard or gooey. Are there recommendations to exchange these for new ones? I also noticed that one of the two motors rotates quite freely (both unconnected from the board, so I'm sure they're not magnetically braked) while the other ... can be turned without any unreasonable torque, but it won't continue to spin at all. Also, when the tapes arrive, are there recommendations in case their drive belts are gone? And a final question: There are three firmware versions archived for the TU58 control board. It's a known version: jbglaw@charon:~/customers/Glaw/VAX/DECtape II$ md5sum *.bin | sort 0e5f30a960e72c9d64174a4da8f48f50 23-294E2-00.bin 5e059396f779aef9cd80bc75a36c90b2 23-089E2-00.bin 5e059396f779aef9cd80bc75a36c90b2 jbglaw-DECtapeII-ROM.bin a407fbb5aaa4823a92dd2bc374d1d3ae 23-389E2-00.bin I guess I got the oldest version? Were there board changes, or could I put in a compatible 2Kx8 ROM with any of these versions? I guess any firmware will probably work "good enough", but if I'd avoid known problems (are the differences known?), I'd rather avoid them. But after all, I'm quite happy that all the bits'n'pieces will come together in a few days. Yay! MfG, JBG --
