Altair 8800b + drive alignment

From: Andrew Davie <adavie_at_mad.scientist.com>
Date: Wed Feb 4 07:13:10 1998

I recently purchased an Altair 8800b from the original owner. He told me
that last he used it (1984?), he was having trouble reading from the disk
drive, and he was sure that it needed alignment. Apparently an alignment
disk is required.
I suspect an oscilloscope as well.

I have two questions;

1) Can someone explain the process of aligning a disk drive, what is out of
whack, and how tricky it is for a rank electronics amateur like myself
2) Where can I obtain an alignment disk, if required.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the drive is an 8", the Altair model that has the
same basic case and look of the Altair itself. This repair is one of the (I
suspect) many that will be required to bring the Altair back to life.

I've managed to get it (almost) firing up during the self-test stage, but
one of the address lines doesn't behave (the light doesn't come on on A2
when I flick the switch that should light all of them, yet the light is
operational at other stages). I'll get to that one later.

Looks like a long, slow process. But worth it, no?

Cheers
Andrew
Received on Wed Feb 04 1998 - 07:13:10 GMT