This is the output of the head amplifier for head 3 on cylinder 23. The narrow spikes are the sector headers. This is the track where the overwrite stopped. Somewhat over half of the sectors were overwritten. The sectors are interleaved so the sectors sequentially on the track are 0 16 1 17 etc. At the beginning only the sector headers are left since both sectors 0 and 16 were overwritten. Further down the track every other sector still has data since for example sector 5 was overwritten but 21 wasn't. Normally overwrite would still have transitions since MFM data is required to have transitions at least every 200 nanoseconds. Seeing just low level noise the head was writing but no MFM data was being written. When I moved the heads off the center of the track transitions didn't start to show up until the head was picking up the adjacent track so it was not the data was written with the heads in the wrong location.
Previous picture Next picture (wrapping to first)
Back to Previous page All of Pulling head servo: pictures
Feel free to contact me, David Gesswein djg@pdp8online.com with any questions, comments on the web site, or if you have related equipment, documentation, software etc. you are willing to part with. I am interested in anything PDP-8 related, computers, peripherals used with them, DEC or third party, or documentation.
PDP-8 Home Page  PDP-8 Site Map  PDP-8 Site Search