21 Jul
2010
21 Jul
'10
7:45 a.m.
On 21 Jul 2010 at 5:58, dwight elvey wrote:
Although, one can create a belt that will work or
find a cartridge
that has good bearings. Eventually you'll need to do something
else. It might be worth making a transport that one can spool
the tapes onto and read them that way for one last time.
"One last time" is the part that bothers me. Almost all cartridge DC-
style tapes are recorded "serpentine" style--i.e. start in one
direction, shift the head, reverse, etc...
So the spooling scheme had better work. I'm not aware of any 32-
channel (for example) QIC heads.
I suppose one could get a batch of heads and mount them, with each
head offset by an appropriate amount.
I like the idea of vacuum-column drives with air/vacuum capstans, but
the mechanicals are going to be nasty to figure out from off-the-
shelf parts.
--Chuck