Many say the window on the Raptor X serves no purpose

[Rubycon]

You can clock the actual disk speed in use without destroying the disk or data!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcUuzddX2Ew

The instrument used (Strobotac) pulses a xenon flashtube at a high rate freezing the motion of the spindle. The point where the spindle appears to be completely stopped is noted and the number on the dial = rev/min. (10,025 rpm in this case) So the drive is slightly overclocked. (Actually most drives do not spin at EXACTLY the published speed but 10,000 rpm drive is a lot easier to remember than 10,025 rpm drive.

 

[Zap]

Mine's visible through the side window. Gotta take pics someday. Sheesh, I keep saying that.

 

[covert24]

thats amazing. doesn't even look like its spinning at all its going so fast. the speed of the arm is amazing.

 

[Mucker]

The strobe does that. Great for checking high rpm equipment.

 

[mooseracing]

Yea I can't see mine except for when I was setting it up I had it out to watch, kinda neat but kinda like putting a window on a CD-Rom drive.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
You can clock the actual disk speed in use without destroying the disk or data!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcUuzddX2Ew

The instrument used (Strobotac) pulses a xenon flashtube at a high rate freezing the motion of the spindle. The point where the spindle appears to be completely stopped is noted and the number on the dial = rev/min. (10,025 rpm in this case) So the drive is slightly overclocked. (Actually most drives do not spin at EXACTLY the published speed but 10,000 rpm drive is a lot easier to remember than 10,025 rpm drive.

Now that is cool, even if it is not some critical piece of information. Sorta like setting the timing on a car.

 

[Rubycon]

Yes because to do this with a traditional drive would basically destroy the drive. Any drive opened outside of a specialized "clean house" should never be trusted.

That said I think I will crack open a drive or two to take measurements under different conditions and loads to see how effective the stepper regulation is.

 

[Davegod]

Originally posted by: covert24
thats amazing. doesn't even look like its spinning at all its going so fast. the speed of the arm is amazing.

I could be talking out of my arse here but I think that's by design of the experiment.

When the frequency of the strobe light flashing equals the spin of the disk, every time there is a flash the disk has completed a rotation and hence it appears that it has not moved at all.

If the strobe is slightly too slow, the disk will have appeared to move slightly forwards when actually it has done a full rotation and slightly more. If the disk appears to move backwards, the strobe is faster than the disk. Or... so much slower that the disk has rotated almost twice.

this vid shows the raptor under normal lighting (approx half way through), also this is longer but worse quality.

 

[taltamir]

Wow... there is a definite cool factor there... I will also NEVER, EVER overclock a HARD DRIVE... Data safety = holy grail.

 

[AmberClad]

There was an episode of Mythbusters a few years ago where they were looking into the whole exploding CD-ROM myth (i.e. CD drives had become so fast in terms of rotational speed that any minor flaw in a CD would cause them to explode into shards when spun up). They had the casing removed from the CD drive and were using some sort of hand-held device to read the RPMs. Not sure if it is the same device in this case.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
There was an episode of Mythbusters a few years ago where they were looking into the whole exploding CD-ROM myth (i.e. CD drives had become so fast in terms of rotational speed that any minor flaw in a CD would cause them to explode into shards when spun up). They had the casing removed from the CD drive and were using some sort of hand-held device to read the RPMs. Not sure if it is the same device in this case.

They could have used a handheld stroboscope although the one's I've had a chance to use didn't seem very accurate. But for rudimentary testing of a tv show a guess is good enough!

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Zap
Mine's visible through the side window. Gotta take pics someday. Sheesh, I keep saying that.

Here it is, through a scuffed up and dusty side window. Really though, in RL the window looks much more clear.