On 5/11/2020 11:15 PM, Josh Dersch via cctalk wrote: > Hi all -- > > I'm restoring a Xerox Alto and I started going over the system's Diablo 30 > drive. The heads are in bad shape; the bottom one is actually missing both > parts of the erase poles (so the black portion of the head no longer makes > a "t", it's just a black line). This means the head (in addition to not > being able to erase) also won't float due to the head having small cavities > in them. The upper head looks a little better but I'd love to find a set > of upper and lower heads if anyone has spares. > > Then I get to learn how to align these things. > > Thanks! > - Josh >
I don't know if they would be compatible or not, but my inventory lists Diablo part number 15428, Model 31 / RK03 Carriage + Heads Assembly. (Perhaps I didn't want to remove the heads themselves). I suspect that I got the part number off the assembly itself somewhere - I don't have record of any illustrated parts breakdown for the diablo drive in my manual database. As I seem to have two of these assemblies, you could certainly have one of them, say for something like shipping plus $25. I don't know the differences between the model 30 and model 31 - but as the capacity of the model 31 was apparently twice that of the model 30 (2.5MB vs 1.25MB) - with both being referred to as Series 30, with the model 30 apparently short-lived production wise. The Series 30 maintenance manual, on the other hand, lists "Standard" and "HI-Density" of 12 million bits and 24 millions bits, respectively. >From what I read of the Alto online, its disk capacity was 2.5MB - implying the drive is a model 31 / hi density. I don't remember now if these parts I have were from drives originally on a DEC or DG system. If they really were from RK03's, then they would be the high density flavor. The box they are in are off-site in my storage unit (but well stored), and I could retrieve them in a day or so if you are interested, but at present I don't know if this is the entire assembly shown on page 5-3 of the maintenance manual, or just a portion. PS: I seem to recall a "Curious Marc" YouTube video featuring these beasties along with the Alto they were part of. JRJ
