[SunRescue] Re: Computer pics, also that 6-DDS2 tape changer

[Robert Novak]

> > I'll get some pics up after I replace my racks and so forth. I've got 18
> > systems right now, and maybe I should get some pics of my out-of-town
> > storage stuff too (lots of Apple and my Sun 2/120 are about an hour away
> > still).
> 
> Am I the only person who doesn't have a rack in their home?

Mine isn't a 19" rack, I have the plastic Home Depot shelving that I'm
replacing with steel and wood Gorilla(tm) shelving racks for safety and
cool-looking-ness. I do have a half-high rack in storage, 19" relay-style,
with a 30A Northern Telecom power supply for a KSU (anyone in the san
francisco bay area want the power supply? contact me off-list, it'll be
really really cheap, but I keep the rack.) which may come home someday
when I get the power supply out of it.

> > So I'm looking at
> > http://www.logicbomb.net/newhouse/DansRoom/dans-computers-2nd-shelve.jpg
> > and I see this tape changer in the middle that reminds me, hey, I have one
> 
> If your talking about the Sun one, I have NO idea what it is (apart from
> the obvious) but it sure does have a cool orange LED display that reads
> SCANNING when I switch it on, it came with the U1... I don't really have a
> use for it.

The one in the Sun enclosure is a 4584 Seagate/Archive Python changer if
memory serves me. Takes 4-tape or 10-tape magazines, DDS2, not too bad. I
have two of them myself. The 4-tape magazine works with the drive assembly
retracted inside the case; for the 10-tape magazine, the drive assembly
stays in the ejected position and hangs the magazine in front. 

I'm wondering about the one in the exact middle with the big round button
and the 5.25"-floppy-label-shaped door, a friend sez it's something like a
SureStore DAT8x6e and I guess I could plug mine in at home (if I can
excavate it) and see for sure. It was in a batch of rescued stuff from a
friend's refuse pile at work, and I didn't notice until I got home that
there was no magazine for it.

On the 4584-ish ones, you *can* operate single-tape without a magazine.
It's a bit awkward, but possible. I don't know abouot the 6x dat changer,
I suspect it's a bit more challenging but I'd have to try and find out.
Time to get out those $2 junk shop dat tapes :)

Rob




-- 
Robert Novak, Indyramp Consulting * rnovak at indyramp.com * indyramp.com/~rnovak
        "And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe
           Maybe this year will be better than the last...." -- counting crows