Hello,

I run a RX02 drive system on a 11/93

Floppies with RT11 V5.7 created on a 11/94 with RX02 drive.
Floppies are bootable at he 11/94 system without errors.

cleaned the drives and heads
checked the belts
checked the motors stepper and drive
lubricant to the steppers spindle
checked the power supply

11/93 bootable from RL02
can't the floppies
booting from DY0 oder DY1 --- result bootblock error
- but the floppies are OK (checked on another RX02 at a 11/94 and a DILOG floppy system (Shugart) at a 11/73)

drive reset, step to track zero working, head load working - but the floppy is not readable

checked with 2 another pairs of controller and read/write boards at the RX02 drive - same results

any ideas what's the reason for the problem.
How can I check mechanical adjustment of the drives

I hope anybody knows more about this problem

regards

Michael

On 2023-02-07 19:58, Mikesch wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I run a RX02 drive system on a 11/93
>
> Floppies with RT11 V5.7 created on a 11/94 with RX02 drive.
> Floppies are bootable at he 11/94 system without errors.
>
> cleaned the drives and heads
> checked the belts
> checked the motors stepper and drive
> lubricant to the steppers spindle
> checked the power supply
>
> 11/93 bootable from RL02
> can't the floppies
> booting from DY0 oder DY1 --- result bootblock error
> - but the floppies are OK (checked on another RX02 at a 11/94 and a DILOG floppy system (Shugart) at a 11/73)
>
> drive reset, step to track zero working, head load working - but the floppy is not readable
>
> checked with 2 another pairs of controller and read/write boards at the RX02 drive - same results
>
> any ideas what's the reason for the problem.
> How can I check mechanical adjustment of the drives
>
> I hope anybody knows more about this problem

If the floppies are readable by one drive, I would try using that drive
on the system you want to boot from. That should eliminate any problems
with the drives themselves.

Johnny

Johnny Billquist schrieb am Mittwoch, 8. Februar 2023 um 18:34:41 UTC+1:
> On 2023-02-07 19:58, Mikesch wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I run a RX02 drive system on a 11/93
> >
> > Floppies with RT11 V5.7 created on a 11/94 with RX02 drive.
> > Floppies are bootable at he 11/94 system without errors.
> >
> > cleaned the drives and heads
> > checked the belts
> > checked the motors stepper and drive
> > lubricant to the steppers spindle
> > checked the power supply
> >
> > 11/93 bootable from RL02
> > can't the floppies
> > booting from DY0 oder DY1 --- result bootblock error
> > - but the floppies are OK (checked on another RX02 at a 11/94 and a DILOG floppy system (Shugart) at a 11/73)
> >
> > drive reset, step to track zero working, head load working - but the floppy is not readable
> >
> > checked with 2 another pairs of controller and read/write boards at the RX02 drive - same results
> >
> > any ideas what's the reason for the problem.
> > How can I check mechanical adjustment of the drives
> >
> > I hope anybody knows more about this problem
> If the floppies are readable by one drive, I would try using that drive
> on the system you want to boot from. That should eliminate any problems
> with the drives themselves.
>
> Johnny

Hello Johnny

Drives are all working - because checking them attached to the second RX02 system.

Seems I've found a reason:

With the QBus RX Controller the systems seems to be very critical with the cable lenght between Controller and RX02 unit.

Tested with a modern 3 ft ( aprox. 1 m) cable and got read errors and bootblock error on booting.

Yesterday used a original 15 ft (aprox. 4,6 m) DEC cable and now it works!

Doing a cross check with the 3 ft cable with the unibus RX controller inside my 11/94 - and it works with original 15 ft and short 3 ft cable.

This evening I'll try with a modern 15 ft cable - I've to press it first.

There is a difference in cable problems one the the RX contr. at unibus and the RX contr. at QBus.

I'll will post the test results - I have 4 QBus RX-Controller's - I'll check all and 3 Unibus RX-controllers - also check this.

regards

Michael