Kennedy 9600 9-track w/DQ132 on mVAX-II??

[Allison]

>
>Subject: Kennedy 9600 9-track w/DQ132 on mVAX-II??
>   From: "Robert Armstrong" <bob at jfcl.com>
>   Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2005 09:40:13 -0800
>     To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'"	<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>  I have a MicroVAX-II and I want to add a Kennedy 9600 9 track drive.
>AFAIK, this drive has a standard Pertec interface and I was planning to use
>it with a Dilog DQ132 controller.  The drive is capable of both 800 and
>1600bpi, and I need to be able to use it at both densities. 
>
>  I installed it and cabled it all up - VMS (v4.5 in this case) sees  the
>DQ132 and autoconfigures it as MSA0 (a good sign!), and the drive seems
>happy and loads a tape.  VMS reports that MSA0 is a TSV05 (which is what I'd
>expect) and doesn't log any errors.  But, whenever I try to access the
>drive, VMS says that it's offline and I can't get it to actually do
>anything. 
>
>  Yes, the Kennedy is actually online (the online LED is lit) and the
>"select" LED on the drive flickers for an instant when VMS tries to access
>the drive.  The drive is set as unit 0, and it was working the last time it
>was used (with an Emulex controller in that instance). 
>
>  Just for fun, I tried the Kennedy drive with a real TSV05 (M7196)
>controller that's known to work with a real TSV05 drive - same results.
>
>  Is there any obvious reason why this wouldn't work?
>
>  The 9600 is Pertec, right?  If you Google for this drive you'll find a
>couple of places that say it's SCSI, but that seems wrong.
>
>  Anybody got a manual for the 9600?  Bitsavers has the manual for the 9610,
>but it appears that the 9600 is substantially different.

No manual but do check the interrupt grant chain.  I've been dinged a few 
times because I had a gap in the chain and VMS sorta finds the device
but cant really work it.

Allison