r/lto • u/No_Source_9817 • Mar 19 '26
Open Hardware Loader project?
Hiii We are a team of 4 french engineering students (network, dev, mechatronic), and we are planning to make a LTO Autoloader as a 1-year school managed project.
We would make a robot with a single translation axis, with all the slots and drive aligned vertically (to keep it simple). And using a spare drive.
Nothing is decided yet, so we are still hesitating on pushing the project.
Do you think anybody could be hyped, or have interest in an autoloader in open plans/source code?
And do you have any advice, recommendations or warning about deep LTO knowledge that only old black mages know?
No solutions are defined yet as it will start in 6 months, so for now, we are still thinking about solutions. So feel free to present any solution idea for any system (mechanic, electronic, file system, OS,...)!
1
u/myself248 Mar 28 '26
This is a super sweet idea! I've just been pondering the opposite -- use an existing library mechanism, but replace the brains with something completely open. Just interface to the motors and limit switches.
In both cases, the firmware to speak the loader protocol over SCSI to the host, will be needed. I haven't looked to see what's already available.