[rescue] TZ875-NT DLT changer questions

[Shirker]

Hi all,

First off, apoligies that this is a bit offtopic - I've asked around a
few groups of people now to try and find answers about this machine, and
turned up nothing (and Google's not being that helpful) so here goes:

I've just acquired a DEC TZ875NT 5-tape changer (which I'm guessing from
the name contains a TZ87 aka Quantum DLT2000 transport).

The gentleman I bought it from has been kind enough to not only provide
an "if it doesn't work, bring it back for a refund" warranty, but to let
me take it away and test it first before paying.

Problem is, I don't have any real idea where to start in testing the
thing (I've never played with tapes on UNIX before - sorry to be such a
raging newbie). mtx changes the tapes fine in it, but a friend wired it to his
Athlon (Debian Linux) earlier on this evening, and spent a while playing
with lots of commands I didn't recognise, before announcing "it doesn't
work". It did seem to be making a lot of whirring noises when he wrote
to the tape with tar, FWIW.

The right status messages do seem to come up on the LCD ("LDR RDY" when
it's doing nothing, "LDR ACT" when the arm's moving tapes about, "DRV
ACT" when the drive's reading/writing, and "DRV REW" when the tape's
being rewound. The Load/Unload and Open buttons work fine.

It does seem that the unit sometimes gets a bit confused when you switch
it on, and spends a while alternating the display between "ERR UNK
[01234]" and "LDR RST", but this seems to go away after a while/couple
of power cycles.

So, if anyone can provide any pointers as to software I could use to
test the thing (systems I have available are: Mac G4 with OS X 10.2,
SPARCstation ELC with Redhat Linux 6.2, and (though this is a few miles
away, so I'd sooner avoid using it if possible) Ultra 1 200E with
Solaris 8), I'd be happy. If anyone can tell me where I might get a PDF
or dead-tree manual for it, I'd be even happier. Estimates of how much
the thing's worth (so I can see if I got ripped off or not) also
appreciated.

TIA,

Ed.

-- 
I remember why I started becoming less tolerant, and I think I should strive
to become less tolerant in future. - RobA