On 2020-05-14 08:22, Martin Reilly via cctalk wrote: > I'm trying to bring a pdp-11/83 back to working order. Challenge right now > is storage - I have RQDX3 and RD54 but the RD54 appears to be unserviceable > (never goes ready)
As you like to go for the MFM emulator anyway, lets just talk about the TK50 ... > and TQK50 with a TK50 which never gets to a stage of > allowing me to operate the handle to load a cartridge - the green LED > doesn't come on, the red LED is solid for a short time after power applied > but then flashes rapidly. I plan to go with an MFM emulator in place of the > disk, but would like to get a TK50 working as I have a lot of old stuff I'd > like to try reading off cartridges. You hear it doing anything? The solenoid, which locks the cartridge got stuck? > I have a spare TK50 drive, which behaves exactly the same. The TQK50 LEDs > suggest it passes diagnostics, and the boot menu recognises it and will > attempt to boot from it before saying there is no such drive. I don't have a > spare controller. If you look for one, go an get the tqk70 ... > > > There is a lot of very detailed documentation for the TQK50/TK50 as far as > the electronics and interfacing is concerned but I haven't found much in the > way of information about the mechanical side. Are there common failure modes > for these drives when they've been stored for a long time? Last time they > were powered up is probably close to 20 years ago. Without much in the way > of test kit (I have multimeter but no scope) is there anything I might be > able to check easily? Very short one: https://www.netbsd.org/docs/Hardware/Machines/DEC/vax/tk50.html As this says, they suck up dust better than most vacuum cleaners, so cleaning is a must ...
