Tom Parker wrote:

> I have a KDA50 qbus controller card set and an RA81 disk drive. I am having
> trouble getting them to work in my MicroVAX II.
>
> Can anyone interpret what is going on for me? I see that both the kda50 cards
> have 4 leds on them, and they all stobe on, one after the other in very quick
> succession about every 5 seconds.

This is just fine, it means that the KDA50 is working and passed all built in
tests.

> The RA81 has two black strap cables comming out of the back, labeled A & B.
> These cables are screwed to the case but seem to be permanently wired to the
> unit, as if you unscrew them there is no plug to pull, just more wires that
> are connected inside somewhere.
>
> Do i have to connect both cables to the kda50 card?

Yes you should do that. It's not really necessary since the RA81 has two separate
SDI channels A and B.
Don't forget to use this little box on the bottom of your cabinet, to connect it
to you MVII. It should look like this:

-------                                                     _______
|  RA81     |-A------| Box |------|   MVII |
|                   |-B------|           |------|             |
-------                                                       -----

Sorry for the bad drawing. Please ask if it's still unclear how to connect the
MVII and RA81.
The little box, just rearranges the SDI cable's connectors 180 degrees.

> The RA81 has buttons
> labeled A and B, should these be pushed in?

Yes that's a good idea. It lets the drive use both channels A and B.

> Both of them? Does the drive have
> to be spun up and the ready light lit when the microvax is turned on?

After power up, press the "RUN" button on your RA81. After that the RUN button
lights up and the drive should start to get noisy ;-) If the drive spins up
normal the READY light should turn on.
If the drive doesn't spin up pressing the "RUN" button, check the 4 pole power
bus which is fitted left and right to the SDI cables. They are labeled IN and
OUT. You need to terminate this bus in order to let the drive spin up. This is
kind of stupid specially if you only have one drive. I'm not really sure if you
need to terminate the IN or the OUT connector. The termination is very easy, just
short cut two poles of the four in the connector. Just try to find the correct
termination. Don't worry the drive won't damage if you short cut the wrong poles.

I hope this helps you. But don't expect to much from these RA81 drives, they
crash very often. I have several of these drives, and I must say they really
unreliable.

Cheers - Chris