TU58 Archival (Was: Re: Tektrionix VAXBI board and DC100 training tapes?)
> On Sep 21, 2019, at 12:17 PM, Mattis Lind wrote: > > I dumped some 40 TU58 tapes a year ago. I replaced the band directly with 90 > mm plastibands without even trying to run the tape. This was my procedure: > Open up the tape cartridge. Then the old band was removed carefully by > heating it slightly with a heat gun (low temperature). Then I managed to > remove it without destroying the tape itself. One can see the tape changes > appearance on the surface, then it can be removed. (Thanks to Rik Bos for the > advice about heating) Thank you very much for your detailed instructions! I've tried using plastibands from a Baumgarten assortment once but it didn't work for me. I think the ones I used were the wrong size. They were very narrow once stretched into place, and they wouldn't stay on the tape reels without slipping off and terribly tangling everything up. Coincidentally, I just got a food dehydrator for baking magnetic media before archiving, to prevent oxide shedding. I'll be using it for 8" floppy diskettes first. Does it matter whether baking is done before or after unsticking the old band from the tape? > There are usually some residue from the band left on the tape. I used > isopropanol to remove this by gently rubbing the surface. Sometimes some kind > of salty residue has deposited on the back of the tape. Usually at the posts. > This was also cleaned gently using isopropanol. Failure to do the last step > usually caused the tape to stick during tape winding. Then cleaning the > backside helped out. Is cyclomethicone lubricant helpful for imaging old edge-driven cartridges like TU58, QIC, etc., or does it interfere with the belt drive? > The bands I used was the 90 mm baumgarten plastibands. The interesting thing > is that they are actually japanese made by Nisshinbo and are called mobilon > bands. > > It should be possible to buy from Misumi. > > https://us.misumi-ec.com/vona2/detail/223000860382/?KWSearch=Mobilon=results2products=%7b%22field%22%3a%22%40search%22%2c%22seriesCode%22%3a%3000860382%22%2c%22innerCode%22%3a%22%22%2c%22sort%22%3a1%2c%22specSortFlag%22%3a0%2c%22allSpecFlag%22%3a0%2c%22page%22%3a1%2c%22pageSize%22%3a%2260%22%2c%220161458%22%3a%22mig0001661601%22%2c%22fixedInfo%22%3a%22MDM0001617623122300086038211%7c12%22%7d=codeList > > > 460 bands for 18 dollars is far better than buying those assorted packs from > Baumgarten. > > Haven’t ordered myself since they want that you have a company to order. > Need to ask a friend to help out. I've ordered a bag of those Mobilon bands. I just typed in my name for the company name when I registered, and their site seemed happy with that. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X http://www.nf6x.net/
Re: Tektrionix VAXBI board and DC100 training tapes?
lördag 21 september 2019 skrev Mark J. Blair via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org>: > > > > On Sep 21, 2019, at 11:19 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > I've got over a hundred TU58s I need to look at some day as well. > > Fixed the pinch rollers on some TU58s a year or two ago, just too many > other things to do. > > I have about a dozen TU58 cartridges which came with my VAX-11/730. I'd > like to archive them (or even read them, for that matter), but so far I > have had not had any success with repairing cartridge drive belts. I just > hate those things. I have a feeling that I might have better results by > building an open reel imaging drive where I transfer the tape media out of > the original cartridge, abandoning the &$@#! drive belt concept. But that's > going to be a fairly big project, so I haven't made progress on it beyond > brainstorming so far. I dumped some 40 TU58 tapes a year ago. I replaced the band directly with 90 mm plastibands without even trying to run the tape. This was my procedure: Open up the tape cartridge. Then the old band was removed carefully by heating it slightly with a heat gun (low temperature). Then I managed to remove it without destroying the tape itself. One can see the tape changes appearance on the surface, then it can be removed. (Thanks to Rik Bos for the advice about heating) There are usually some residue from the band left on the tape. I used isopropanol to remove this by gently rubbing the surface. Sometimes some kind of salty residue has deposited on the back of the tape. Usually at the posts. This was also cleaned gently using isopropanol. Failure to do the last step usually caused the tape to stick during tape winding. Then cleaning the backside helped out. Now the plastiband was installed and the cover put back. I managed to fully recover all but one tape that had one bad block. The bands I used was the 90 mm baumgarten plastibands. The interesting thing is that they are actually japanese made by Nisshinbo and are called mobilon bands. It should be possible to buy from Misumi. https://us.misumi-ec.com/vona2/detail/223000860382/?KWSearch=Mobilon=results2products=%7b%22field%22%3a%22%40search%22%2c%22seriesCode%22%3a%3000860382%22%2c%22innerCode%22%3a%22%22%2c%22sort%22%3a1%2c%22specSortFlag%22%3a0%2c%22allSpecFlag%22%3a0%2c%22page%22%3a1%2c%22pageSize%22%3a%2260%22%2c%220161458%22%3a%22mig0001661601%22%2c%22fixedInfo%22%3a%22MDM0001617623122300086038211%7c12%22%7d=codeList 460 bands for 18 dollars is far better than buying those assorted packs from Baumgarten. Haven’t ordered myself since they want that you have a company to order. Need to ask a friend to help out. /Mattis > > -- > Mark J. Blair, NF6X > http://www.nf6x.net/ > >
Re: Tektrionix VAXBI board and DC100 training tapes?
> On Sep 21, 2019, at 11:19 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk > wrote: > I've got over a hundred TU58s I need to look at some day as well. > Fixed the pinch rollers on some TU58s a year or two ago, just too many other > things to do. I have about a dozen TU58 cartridges which came with my VAX-11/730. I'd like to archive them (or even read them, for that matter), but so far I have had not had any success with repairing cartridge drive belts. I just hate those things. I have a feeling that I might have better results by building an open reel imaging drive where I transfer the tape media out of the original cartridge, abandoning the &$@#! drive belt concept. But that's going to be a fairly big project, so I haven't made progress on it beyond brainstorming so far. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X http://www.nf6x.net/
Re: Tektrionix VAXBI board and DC100 training tapes?
On 9/21/19 10:57 AM, Mark J. Blair via cctalk wrote: >> I know of only one place that has TU58 dumps. >> http://iamvirtual.ca/VAX11/VAX-11-software.html I should mirror those. I've got over a hundred TU58s I need to look at some day as well. Fixed the pinch rollers on some TU58s a year or two ago, just too many other things to do.
Re: Tektrionix VAXBI board and DC100 training tapes?
> On Sep 19, 2019, at 12:45 PM, Mattis Lind via cctalk > wrote: > > Then there were some DC100 tapes in a huge heap of TU58 diagnostic tapes > for VAX-11/730 and VAX-11/750 that looked different. [...] > BTW. What are the status of various 11/730 and 11/750 diagnostics on TU58. > Are those already dumped? It takes some time to work with TU58 so if > someone already done all this I might skip dealing with them. > > I know of only one place that has TU58 dumps. > http://iamvirtual.ca/VAX11/VAX-11-software.html That's the only site that I know of, too. Please see to it that those tapes get archived! Especially the 730 ones, for my own selfish interests as a 730 owner. :) -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X http://www.nf6x.net/
Re: Tektrionix VAXBI board and DC100 training tapes?
On 9/19/19 12:45 PM, Mattis Lind via cctalk wrote: > An ex DEC engineer offloaded some stuff that he had found in his attic. > > https://i.imgur.com/413NSSL.jpg?1 > > It came together with a tektronix 1241 Logic Analyzer. > > Someone that can tell more about it? > A Tek BI-Bus preprocessor for the 1241? > Then there were some DC100 tapes in a huge heap of TU58 diagnostic tapes > They were marked "BI-SYNC TRAINING TAPE" and "ASYNC TRAINING TAPE > TAP-895-103-1.0 3.04" > > > Anyone recognize what that could be? > Tek logic analyzers and protocol analyzers of the era used those tapes It may be sample data for those protocols
Re: Tektrionix VAXBI board and DC100 training tapes?
On 19/09/2019 22:06, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: On Sep 19, 2019, at 3:45 PM, Mattis Lind via cctalk wrote: An ex DEC engineer offloaded some stuff that he had found in his attic. ... Then there were some DC100 tapes in a huge heap of TU58 diagnostic tapes for VAX-11/730 and VAX-11/750 that looked different. https://i.imgur.com/6n8yCxd.jpg?1 They were marked "BI-SYNC TRAINING TAPE" and "ASYNC TRAINING TAPE TAP-895-103-1.0 3.04" BI-SYNC is an odd spelling, but I would guess it means "BISYNC", the ancient communication protocol mostly used by IBM. With the hyphen it sounds like it's related to BI, but I suspect that's a red herring. paul It must be BISYNC - DEC had many bisync comms products over the years. VAXBI stuff on TU58 doesn't make very much sense to me ! Antonio -- Antonio Carlini anto...@acarlini.com
Re: Tektrionix VAXBI board and DC100 training tapes?
> On Sep 19, 2019, at 3:45 PM, Mattis Lind via cctalk > wrote: > > An ex DEC engineer offloaded some stuff that he had found in his attic. > ... > Then there were some DC100 tapes in a huge heap of TU58 diagnostic tapes > for VAX-11/730 and VAX-11/750 that looked different. > > https://i.imgur.com/6n8yCxd.jpg?1 > > They were marked "BI-SYNC TRAINING TAPE" and "ASYNC TRAINING TAPE > TAP-895-103-1.0 3.04" BI-SYNC is an odd spelling, but I would guess it means "BISYNC", the ancient communication protocol mostly used by IBM. With the hyphen it sounds like it's related to BI, but I suspect that's a red herring. paul
Re: Tektrionix VAXBI board and DC100 training tapes?
> On Sep 19, 2019, at 12:45 PM, Mattis Lind via cctalk > wrote: > > An ex DEC engineer offloaded some stuff that he had found in his attic. > > https://i.imgur.com/413NSSL.jpg?1 > > It came together with a tektronix 1241 Logic Analyzer. > > Someone that can tell more about it? I don’t know anything, but I’m curious. :-) I’d recommend trying the Tek Museum, I think they’re actually now on the Tek Campus (unless I’m mistaken, Tek is down to the original site). https://vintagetek.org/ Zane
Tektrionix VAXBI board and DC100 training tapes?
An ex DEC engineer offloaded some stuff that he had found in his attic. https://i.imgur.com/413NSSL.jpg?1 It came together with a tektronix 1241 Logic Analyzer. Someone that can tell more about it? Then there were some DC100 tapes in a huge heap of TU58 diagnostic tapes for VAX-11/730 and VAX-11/750 that looked different. https://i.imgur.com/6n8yCxd.jpg?1 They were marked "BI-SYNC TRAINING TAPE" and "ASYNC TRAINING TAPE TAP-895-103-1.0 3.04" Anyone recognize what that could be? BTW. What are the status of various 11/730 and 11/750 diagnostics on TU58. Are those already dumped? It takes some time to work with TU58 so if someone already done all this I might skip dealing with them. I know of only one place that has TU58 dumps. http://iamvirtual.ca/VAX11/VAX-11-software.html Anywhere else? /Mattis
