Date   : Sun, 11 Sep 2005 11:50:19 +0100
From   : "Ian Wolstenholme" <BBCMailingList@...>
Subject: Re: MDFS Tape Drives

That's interesting because with the tapes I received there was a tape
drive but the connector was a 34-way edge connector like you find on a
5.25" floppy drive.  I haven't had the tape drive in pieces as it's crammed
in the middle of my MDFS tower but I'll pull it apart one day.

Best wishes,


Ian

----- Original Message -----
From: Jules Richardson
To:  bbc-micro@...
Sent: Thu, 08 Sep 2005 14:57:30 +0100
Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] MDFS Tape Drives

Mark Usher wrote:
> It may be that the tape has termination set via jumpers, or more likely via
> resistor packs on the underside. This may cause the problem if both the last
> drive and the tape drive has termination present. It then wouldn't matter
> where it was on the chain, it would still cause a problem.

Agreed on the resistor pack front. There are usually two or three packs 
too - check that one hasn't fallen off as that causes all sorts of funny 
problems!

I can't remember the setup for those MDFS drives. I've got a feeling 
they might be something other than SCSI, and there's a bridge board in 
the tape casing to convert to SCSI. Other obvious things to break 
besides termination are the drive itself (electronics usually hold out 
though and mechanical failure kills them) and the power supply feed to 
the drive / bridge board.

Oh and of course double-check data cabling and for damaged pins at the 
connectors.

cheers

Jules