Hi,

This isn't directly related to Amanda, but I figure this is the best place
to ask since I've been using Amanda for a number of years with various
devices...

My ADIC-1200D developed a fault some time back and I couldn't get the time
to look at it until yesterday. The fault is that when the unit is turned
on, and I press the 'load' button, the gripper arm moves a few mm in
towards the Sony DAT drive, then back out, as though the stepper motor
driving it is rotating a few steps then going back again.

Nothing else happens. The tape carrier doesn't move, and pressing the
'load' and 'unload' buttons together to reset the unit has no effect.

Looking at the insides of the unit with the cover off, there appear to be
a bunch of sensors which detect the position of various items, but none of
those senors appear to be blocked by dust or showing any form of physical
defect.

The unit cost me a fair ammount of money when I bought it last year
(almost A$1k - it has a Sony SDT-9000 DDS-3 drive installed), and I don't
want to throw it away. 8-)

Does anyone have any experience trouble-shooting and/or repairing the
ADIC-1200 units? I've got ADIC's PDF product manual and it doesn't help
much since no error codes are flashed on the LED's on the front panel, so
I've got no idea if there might be something wrong with the electronics
(and not the mechanics as such) of the unit.

The Sony drive works perfectly... Just the autoloader unit built around it
which is faulty at present.

Thanks for any tips or advice you're able to provide.

Regards,

Craig.

-- 
               Craig Dewick. Send email to "cdewick AT sunshack DOT org"
 Point your web client at "www.sunshack.org" or "www.sunshack.net" to access my
 archive of Sun technical information and links to other places. For info about
     Sun Ripened Kernels, go to "www.sunrk.com.au" or "www.sun-surplus.com"