On November 3, you wrote:
> 	This is what I have been able to establish so far as to what all compnents
> I have with my 730.
> 
> TU80
> RA80 (two actually)
> RA81
> RL02
> 
> Can someone decipher for me?

  TU80:		1600bpi 9-track magtape drive
  RA80:		121mb SDI-interface (UDA50) 14" fixed disk drive
  RA81:		456mb SDI-interface (UDA50) 14" fixed disk drive
  RL02:		10mb 14" removable disk drive

  As far as I know, the only way to connect an RA81 to an 11/730 is
via a UDA50.  If I remember correctly, a UDA50 can control four
drives.  This suggests that your RA80s actually *are* RA80s and not
R80s, which one would normally find on an 11/730.

  In an 11/730, an RL02 will be controlled either by an IDC
(Intelligent Disk Controller, which will only work in an 11/730 as far
as I know) or an RL11.  The RL11 can control up to four RL01 or RL02
drives in any combination.  The RL01 is the 5mb version of the RL02.

  RLs are tiny, but are very reliable and don't pull much power.

  I don't remember much about the TU80, but...You should be able to
boot from it, it'll only do 1600bpi (roughly 40mb on a 2400' tape
depending on blocking) and is fairly slow.  One nice thing about it is
that it uses air bearings...tape wear isn't much of a problem on them
compared to tension-arm type magtape drives.

  The TU80 controller (anybody remember what board this is?) should be
one quad-sized board.  The UDA50 is two hex-sized boards, an ethernet
interface (if you have one, if not, try to find one) if it's a DEUNA
it'll be two hex-sized boards, if it's a DELUA (much faster) it'll be
a single hex-sized board.  The RL11 will be one hex-sized board.

  The RA-series drives connect to the controller via small quad-coax
cables.  On the outside, it's not immediately obvious that these
cables are coaxial.  The connectors are standard 0.1"-center 8-pin IDC
connectors.  They connect radially to the controller, one per drive.

  The RL-series drives connect with a proprietary (and rather neat)
connector which, on the outside, resembles an telco-style Amphenol
connector with a thumb-twist screw on one end and a cable coming out
of the other.  These drives connect to the controller in a daisy-chain
fashion, with a terminator on the last unit.  The two connectors on
the back of each RL-series drive are identical.

  Unit selection of both RA- and RL-series drives is done by
unit-select plugs.  On the front of the drives, there are rows of
square lights...The white "ready" light will have a number on it;
that's the unit number.  If you grab the white plastic part of the
light and pull it straight out, you'll notice that it has little
plastic fingers that insert into the lamp assembly.  Those fingers are
molded into different shapes depending on the unit number, and tweak
tiny switches in the lamp assembly when inserted.

  Hopefully, your 11/730 will have its boot tape intact.  Without it,
the machine is quite useless.  It sounds, however, like enough people
are getting their hands on these machines that we'll all have at least
one boot tape around...someone wil undoubtedly figure out how to make
copies of it and get them to those in need.

  The most power-hungry part of that system will be the RA-series
drives.  They pull upwards of 8-10 amp surge (assuming 120v) for a few
seconds when you hit the start button, until the spindle gets going.
I'd suggest spinning them up individually to give the surge time to
die down.  You'll almost certainly need to wire this system such that
it spans two or three 15- or 20-amp circuits.

  The RL- and RA-series drives are 10.5"-high 19" rackmount devices.
Their power is controlled by a breaker on the rear of each drive.  The
RAs are a two-man lift, the RLs are easily moved by one person.  Put
the back of the drive (where the weight is) toward your belly and
angle it upwards for the best lifting angle.  Voice of experience
here. :) The RL-series drives pull out on slides...there's a little
nub on the top lid; put your finger and thumb into it and squeeze.
This will release the lid and allow you to change disks.  It locks
when the disk is spun up and when the power is off.  If your heads are
locked when you get the system, or if you can't tell if they are or
not, email me and I'll tell you what to do.

  Whew.  That's about all I can remember now.  Good luck.  WHen you
get your hands on the system, write down the ordering of the boards in
the backplane and send us a list of what you've got in there.


                           -Dave McGuire
                            mcguire@neurotica.com