[rescue] Re: Free: Heath PDP-11-compatible 8" dual-drive unit

[Mike Katchabaw]

> I've got a RX01-compatible dual-8" floppy drive unit made by Heath
> in the bottom of my closet.. I do *not* have the required Heath-made
> controller card to go with it... 
> 
> Free, YOU MUST PICK IT UP, in Austin, TX.  This is too heavy to ship -
> heck, its almost too heavy to *move*.  Probably weighs at least 75-100 lbs.
> 

I'm not interested in this drive, but I thought you guys might help
with a question about something similar I recently rescued.  It's a
dual-8" floppy drive as well, with an "IBM Instruments Inc." sticker
on the top of it.  The only thing close to a model number is a sticker
on the back that says it's an IBM 8-inch diskette, Type 9000.  No
other model number, but I can provide a serial number.  Like the above
drive, this sucker is quite heavy.

The unit appears to have two Centronics-style connectors on the back,
with a set of dip switches.  This led us to think that it might be
SCSI based, but we also thought that the drive could have predated
SCSI use.  Google unfortunately has turned up nothing in terms of
documentation for this, so we have no idea how to connect it up to
a box to test it out.  (I don't want to connect something that may
or may not be SCSI up to something I actually care about just to see
if it is!)

Anyone have ideas on this beast?  We actually have some old 8-inch
media kicking around, so it would be neat to actually see if it still
works!  If not, we'll add it to our museum of antiques.

Thanks a lot!

Mike.