Chris Bartram writes:

> After having gone through several of these little buggers, I wonder if
>  there's any alternative to just throwing them out... Can they (HPC1503Bs)
>  be repaired once they stop working (I assume the heads wear out as we do
>  tend to go through a good number of tapes...:-) ).

It's not in the nature of a helical-scan tape head to wear out -- at least
not in the manner by which standard, fixed-position tape heads wear out. An
awful lot of metal would have to be removed from the rotating cylinder that
houses the tape heads before any actual tape head damage would be done.

The more common mechanical modes of failure in a DDS-like drive are going to
be associated with the bearings of the rotating tape head, belts (if they're
used) will dry out, crack, or become otherwise deformed, and lubricants (most
especially those associated with moving the fingers that grab and seat the
tape) will become gummy from fractional evaporation and contamination. All of
these problems can be corrected quite easily, once diagnosed (however, let me
add this one bit of caution: changing out the tape head as a unit whole is
enormously easier than changing the bearings. Generally the bearings are
inserted into the tape head during manufacture using a heating process that
differentially expands the cylinder into which the bearings are seated. This
is a process that is very difficult to recreate in reverse, after the fact.
Nonetheless, tape head failure is very rare. Bearings are about the only
thing that can go wrong).


>  If they can be repaired/reconditioned, anyone out there do it - or know
>  someone that does?

There is nothing particularly special about a DDS/DAT drive. They are simply
very miniaturized versions of a VCR. Anyone who is quite good and well
experienced at repairing VCRs should be able to recondition a DDS drive. The
real problem lies in providing an environment that allows the reconditioner
to exercise the DDS while he is working on it. Generally that only be done
with the drive hanging off of a computer that can talk to the drive.

Wirt Atmar