More tapes - This time all Tektronix 405x series

Monty McGraw mmcgraw74 at gmail.com
Thu Jun 21 07:39:50 CDT 2018


I was successfull at capturing all the files from a Tektronix 4051 Graphics
T1 tape last weekend.

Here is the link to a couple of photos of the process:

Capturing Tektronix 4051 Graphics T1 tape files to laptop
<https://drive.google.com/open?id=18hROXB28PD9Z_GYDNNSXGPK4Pv7GQD8w>

First I replaced the disintegrated drive belt with one from a NOS 3M DC6250
cartridge.

I used my 4051 to PC serial transfer program on my recently repaired and
upgraded 4054A.

I set the comm speed of the 4054 serial interface to the maximum 9600 baud,
but as it is 7-bit, my program changes all 32 Tektronix control characters
to "~X~" where X is the ASCII character corresponding to that control
character.

This way I don't lose any of the Tektronix 405x text formatting in the
transfer.

I was using ExtraPutty on the laptop to capture the program text strings,
then copied the statements into Notepad++ and saved each file.

I am also working on a Tektronix 4051/52/54 compatible GPIB MicroSD flash
drive that will emulate the Tektronix 4924 tape drive - for all of us with
these computers to use - since both the tapes and drives are very
problematic after all these years.

This flash drive contains an Arduino with my code - based on the GPIB
flowcharts and info in a 4051 and 4052 GPIB manual.

You will be able to use the existing 405x program statements with @Y for
the drive GPIB address - since I don't know how to write a ROMPACK for any
of the series :)

I plan to organize the different captured tapes in directories on the flash
- and that may mean using a non-4924 GPIB secondary address for that
command.  It also likely means I need to change any tape commands in each
program to use the flash drive GPIB address.

That's why I wanted to capture one of the Tektronix tapes with a menu - is
to ensure I could get those files to work on my flash drive design.

Monty McGraw


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