DEC RL01/02, RK05/06/07 Cartridge Inspector/Cleaner

From: Paul Koning <pkoning_at_equallogic.com>
Date: Wed May 5 14:16:51 2004

>>>>> "Ashley" == Ashley Carder <wacarder_at_usit.net> writes:

 Ashley> Does anyone know anything about this "Inspector / Cleaner"?
 Ashley> I've also seen mention of an "alignment pack" for RK05
 Ashley> drives. Does anyone here have experience maintaining /
 Ashley> aligning RK05 drives and keeping them running?

It looks vaguely familiar. I'm not sure anymore if I've seen this in
use. I *have* seen someone clean an IBM 1311 pack, which is somewhat
lower density but reasonably similar.

RK05 and friends have head clearance such that, if you use high
quality materials, you can get away with using pads and solvent for
cleaning a pack. Don't if you don't have to, but if you have to, it
should work.

Alignment is done with a pack that has a special pattern written on it
with a high-accuracy writer. I think it's somewhat like a servo
pattern as you'd find it on newer drives (RK05 doesn't have that kind
of servo). You use an oscilloscope to see if the signal on the read
head is what it's supposed to be, or if not, you tweak the head
position accordingly. The manuals describe all this nicely if you can
find them (try bitsavers.org). I haven't personally done it but I've
seen it often enough.

     paul
Received on Wed May 05 2004 - 14:16:51 BST