Kennedy 96xx takeup arm

From: John Wilson <wilson_at_dbit.dbit.com>
Date: Sat Apr 8 17:42:26 2000

I don't *think* this is OT, I don't see any IC date codes newer than '89...

Is anyone here familiar with the inner workings of a Kennedy 9662 tape
drive? FWIW, I think the 9610/9612/9660/9662 are all essentially the same
drive, depending on the combination of {rack mount vs. table top} and {Pertec
vs. SCSI}.

My problem is, the drive keeps giving "TAK ARM?" errors, which according
to the manual, means there's some problem with the takeup arm (i.e. the
motor-driven arm which has the takeup pulley on it). I've been all through
the manual section on how to adjust the various relevant sensors and I *think*
I've got it more or less happy. I fiddled with the height of the capacitive
disk thingy (which evidently is what encodes the arm position for the on-board
micro), it was way off but now I'm getting more or less the voltage spread
that the manual asks for and the "zero" position does give 0.0V.

But I'm totally stuck with what to do next, partly because there are some
differences between my drive and what's in the manual. The manual claims
that there's a mechanical limit adjustment, but there's nothing in the
area where the arrow points (it's not even visible on their sketch so I
don't know what they mean here). The cam that drives the micro switch to
set the limit of arm travel is nothing like what's in the book, I've been
dinking with its set screw trying to move the limit one way or the other
but the same mechanism seems to be what drives the *actual* mechanical limit
(there's one peg which pushes another) and I don't seem to have independent
control over them -- maybe that's on purpose since the manual wants the
switch limit set a fixed angle past the mechanical limit (I would think
they'd want it the other way around though???).

Anyway I have no idea what to do next, is this familiar territory for any
of you folks? FWIW the drive gave the same message when I first got it, but
after I randomly poked and prodded around the takeup arm a bit it magically
started working. So of course I'm suspicious that the actual problem is just
a flakey connector or something (I've wiggled them all again) and not the
mechanical adjustment at all, although as I say the range that the encoder
was giving was all wrong. Unless it's actually my manual that's all wrong.

I'd really like to bring this thing back to live, it was a wonderful
tape drive.

Thanks,

John Wilson
D Bit
Received on Sat Apr 08 2000 - 17:42:26 BST