Interesting tidbits Re: Fixing a TK86

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Mon Oct 16 16:56:11 2000

At 02:01 PM 10/16/2000 -0700, Zane wrote:
>Just go ahead and hook it up.

Which I did and it seems to work fine. After init'ing a tape in it the "use
cleaning tape" light came on but that is easily dealt with. I did a
standalone backup to the tape and booted from it so it seems to work both
for reading and writing.

So here are a couple of interesting tidbits:
         1) The TK85 and TK86 tape drive mechanisms share the same
            connection (a 50 pin high density honda connector)
         2) The "bridge board" (DEC Part #5419089-21) is the same
            for both drives. (this board has a DSSI interface on it)
         3) I'm guessing that the bridge board for the TZ85 is the
            same as the TZ86 so I'm pretty much in high density heavan.

Now to find an inexpensive source of a dozen or so CompacTape III's.

--Chuck
Received on Mon Oct 16 2000 - 16:56:11 BST