Desperate...Help...HP 9-track drive...

From: Aaron Christopher Finney <af-list_at_lafleur.wfi-inc.com>
Date: Thu Oct 14 02:05:58 1999

On Wed, 13 Oct 1999, Bruce Lane wrote:

> Possibility: The emitter portion of the BOT/EOT sensor may have failed. I
> don't recall what 'F5' on the display means, but I'm pretty sure it's an
> error code.
>
> I seem to recall that the sensor on that drive used an infrared LED. There
> are two ways you can check if it's actually emitting (besides checking the
> voltage across it, of course).
>
> One is to look at it through almost any video camera/camcorder or digital
> camera. Such units are sensitive to IR emissions, and will show such as a
> bright white light in a monochrome viewfinder (I have no clue what it would
> look like with a color viewfinder).


Good trick! I happened to have a camcorder sitting idly by...

Both the BOT and EOT emitters are working. And I know the EOT receiver is
working because if I engage the loading arms and hold a mirror up to it,
the arms retract and I get the TAPE message on the display.

One thing, the drive never really seems to *look* for the BOT marker. I
mean, pressing load causes the drive to immediately rewind a good 8"-1' of
tape and then stops there. Nothing else.

One thing I was wondering about is the small prism located on the media
side just above the BOT/EOT sensors...what's it's function? There doesn't
appear to be anything to it besides a small prism fixed into a metal
block.

Thanks for the help so far,

Aaron
Received on Thu Oct 14 1999 - 02:05:58 BST