[rescue] Sun 3's Tape Drives and Mac Mini's

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Thu, Jun 21, 2007 at 07:22:58AM +0100, Mike Meredith wrote:

> However the tape thingy in question is I believe a capstan (or
> capstans). 

I don't think so.

One of them is an idler wheel which goes up against a steel capstan
in the drive. The rest are pulleys. If you look at the cartridge
(anyone have a URL for a photo?), there is a small round hole
next to the trap door for the heads. I don't have one here to 
check, but I think it is on the jamb side, not the hinge.

The capstan fits in there and then an idler wheel presses against it.

 
> If one were to hold a tape cartridge in a vertical orientation and to
> start using the tape itself as a lifting mechanism, it would be called
> a pulley although the thingies in question would themselves be called
> sheaves.

The orientation of a pulley does not affect its name. Most VCRs have
horizontal pulleys.

I'm no going to quote dubious sources here, anyone have a URL for
a good online dictionary?

While QIC drives tend to be horizontal, I've seen many kinds of tape
drives (for example 7 and 9 track tape and casettes) that were vertical.
I remember seeing a veritcal QIC drive in an RS-232 protocol analyzer,
but that would be almost 20 years ago, so I may be wrong.

Geoff.

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