Miscellaneous Operating Systems/Hardware

I have the above 9 track tape drive (a couple are on ebay at the moment) and I can't find any documents on the internet on how to hook it up and use it.

It has the cable for P3 which appears to be a 25 pin serial cable (not all pins are there).

Anyone have any experience with one?

thanks

thegoldbug

These tape units were adaptable to different computer systems using "formatters", which were bus translator boards that were attached, sometimes inside the drive, sometimes inside an I/O cabinet or sometimes by themselves. It looks like that drive has three interfaces coming out of it, so it might have some formatters on board. The busses they use are all ancient stuff like Unibus, there is nothing modern like SCSI except on some very late 1990s drives. And it goes without saying that no tape drive uses async serial comms.
I'm surprised there's no light for 6250 cpi.

Are the "P1" and "P2" connectors perhaps a standard Pertec tape interface? Connecting a Pertec interface to anything more modern than the ISA bus could be a challenge. As robespierre mentions, that's more likely to be found for Unibus or the like. But there are ISA cards available on ebay such as this one (16-bit) or this one (8-bit) . (Assuming, of course, that it is a Pertec interface.)

Pertec-to-SCSI interface adapters might exist.

It's also possible that 25-pin connector is a parallel port. Some people have mentioned a parallel interface on the OD3201 for use with PCs; others say it's Pertec only.

Thanks. The one I have at home is 6250 capable.

I've found the specs for the P1 and P2 interfaces on the back but haven't found the P3 specs. My tape drive shipped with that 25 pin cable connected to the P3 interface/port.

http://www.sydex.com/pertec.html

Okay, I can confirm that the P3 port is a parallel port ( http://www.pestingers.net/PDFs/Other_co ... er_man.pdf )

Now, about the software......