18 May
2023
18 May
'23
8:19 p.m.
I have just acquired a number of PDP-8 paper tapes. My reader/punch is
not working at the moment (neither is my PDP-8 but that's another story).
I am looking to beg, borrow or buy a paper tape reader or reader/punch
(stand alone or PC04) so that I can archive these tapes as they are
getting more and more rare.
I would prefer a serial (RS-232) reader or reader/punch but I could deal
with a parallel and create my own parallel to serial converter or get
some kind of USB to parallel adapter.
There are several "hand pull" types of readers out there (like the
OP-80A) but I am afraid of damaging the very old fanfold paper tape by
using my inconsistent hand rather than some kind of motor driven
mechanism which is designed for smooth paper tape flow.
Does anyone have any ideas or something they have to sell or donate?
Please contact me by email directly.
Note: This is also being posted to the VCF DEC Forum.
Thank you,
Mike Katz
bitwiz@12bitsbe
18 May
18 May
8:31 p.m.
I have just acquired a number of PDP-8 paper tapes. My reader/punch is
not working at the moment (neither is my PDP-8 but that's another story).
I am looking to beg, borrow or buy a paper tape reader
or reader/punch
(stand alone or PC04) so that I can archive these tapes as they are
getting more and more rare.
I would prefer a serial (RS-232) reader or
reader/punch but I could
deal with a parallel and create my own parallel to serial converter or
get some kind of USB to parallel adapter.
There are several "hand pull" types of
readers out there (like the
OP-80A) but I am afraid of damaging the very old fanfold paper tape by
using my inconsistent hand rather than some kind of motor driven
mechanism which is designed for smooth paper tape flow.
Does anyone have any ideas or something they have to
sell or donate?
Please contact me by email directly.
Note: This is also being posted to the VCF DEC Forum.
Thank you,
Mike Katz
bitwiz@12bitsbe
10:53 p.m.
Where are you located
Bill
On Thu, May 18, 2023, 4:19 PM Mike Katz via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
I have just acquired a number of PDP-8 paper tapes.
My reader/punch is
not working at the moment (neither is my PDP-8 but that's another story).
I am looking to beg, borrow or buy a paper tape reader or reader/punch
(stand alone or PC04) so that I can archive these tapes as they are
getting more and more rare.
I would prefer a serial (RS-232) reader or reader/punch but I could deal
with a parallel and create my own parallel to serial converter or get
some kind of USB to parallel adapter.
There are several "hand pull" types of readers out there (like the
OP-80A) but I am afraid of damaging the very old fanfold paper tape by
using my inconsistent hand rather than some kind of motor driven
mechanism which is designed for smooth paper tape flow.
Does anyone have any ideas or something they have to sell or donate?
Please contact me by email directly.
Note: This is also being posted to the VCF DEC Forum.
Thank you,
Mike Katz
bitwiz@12bitsbe
11:02 p.m.
Bill,
I live in the western suburbs of Chicago.
Glen Ellyn to be precise (60137-3794).
Mike
On 5/18/2023 5:53 PM, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
Where are you located
Bill
On Thu, May 18, 2023, 4:19 PM Mike Katz via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
> I have just acquired a number of PDP-8 paper tapes. My reader/punch is
> not working at the moment (neither is my PDP-8 but that's another story).
>
> I am looking to beg, borrow or buy a paper tape reader or reader/punch
> (stand alone or PC04) so that I can archive these tapes as they are
> getting more and more rare.
>
> I would prefer a serial (RS-232) reader or reader/punch but I could deal
> with a parallel and create my own parallel to serial converter or get
> some kind of USB to parallel adapter.
>
> There are several "hand pull" types of readers out there (like the
> OP-80A) but I am afraid of damaging the very old fanfold paper tape by
> using my inconsistent hand rather than some kind of motor driven
> mechanism which is designed for smooth paper tape flow.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas or something they have to sell or donate?
>
> Please contact me by email directly.
>
> Note: This is also being posted to the VCF DEC Forum.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Mike Katz
> bitwiz@12bitsbe
>
19 May
19 May
2:04 a.m.
On 5/18/23 15:19, Mike Katz via cctalk wrote:
I have just acquired a number of PDP-8 paper tapes.
My
reader/punch is not working at the moment (neither is my
PDP-8 but that's another story).
I am looking to beg, borrow or buy a paper tape reader or
reader/punch (stand alone or PC04) so that I can archive
these tapes as they are getting more and more rare.
I have a stepper-sprocket EECO optical paper tape reader
with motor-driven reels and spring arms. One of the arms
got broken off but it could still work with fan-fold tapes.
It does have a 12 V parallel interface, however. It is a
19" rack mount unit.
Jon
2:35 p.m.
I live in Madison, WI, and have a DEC PC05 on a PDP-11 that can also
host a Unibone board to make file transfers easy. I also have a
recently restored HP 2748B, for which I have a simple Arduino interface
with an Ethernet "hat" to read files into a PC. Neither is available
for loan, but I'd be happy to read tapes in for those willing to make a
day trip or mail them to me.
The PC05 works well for fanfold tapes, but I have found it doesn't work
well for larger spooled paper tapes, even though I made a couple of 3D
printed inserts to provide a spool post on the input side and an
extended guide on the output side. The mass of a large spool puts quite
a bit of drag on the sprocket feed. But the HP 2748B works well for both.
I'd also point out that there are repositories of a lot of PDP-8 paper
tapes around, including:
https://bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp8/
which includes tape images from a couple of other repositories. So,
aside from installation specific tapes, there is a pretty good chance
that someone somewhere already has images.
JRJ
On 5/18/2023 3:19 PM, Mike Katz via cctalk wrote:
I have just acquired a number of PDP-8 paper tapes.
My reader/punch is
not working at the moment (neither is my PDP-8 but that's another story).
I am looking to beg, borrow or buy a paper tape reader or reader/punch
(stand alone or PC04) so that I can archive these tapes as they are
getting more and more rare.
I would prefer a serial (RS-232) reader or reader/punch but I could deal
with a parallel and create my own parallel to serial converter or get
some kind of USB to parallel adapter.
There are several "hand pull" types of readers out there (like the
OP-80A) but I am afraid of damaging the very old fanfold paper tape by
using my inconsistent hand rather than some kind of motor driven
mechanism which is designed for smooth paper tape flow.
Does anyone have any ideas or something they have to sell or donate?
Please contact me by email directly.
Note: This is also being posted to the VCF DEC Forum.
Thank you,
Mike Katz
bitwiz@12bitsbe
4:16 p.m.
------- Original Message -------
On Thursday, May 18th, 2023 at 13:19, Mike Katz via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
I have just acquired a number of PDP-8 paper tapes. My
reader/punch is
not working at the moment (neither is my PDP-8 but that's another story).
I am looking to beg, borrow or buy a paper tape reader or reader/punch
(stand alone or PC04) so that I can archive these tapes as they are
getting more and more rare.
If you can't find a working traditional paper tape reader, you might want to look
into
building or borrowing an optical reader.
https://hackaday.com/2022/04/16/paper-tape-reader-self-calibrates-speaks-us…
http://www.e-basteln.de/computing/papertape/overview/
The Doctor [412/724/301/703/415/510]
WWW: https://drwho.virtadpt.net/
Don't be mean. You don't have to be mean.
552
days inactive
553
days old
6 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
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Bill Degnan -
Jay Jaeger -
Jon Elson -
Mike Katz -
The Doctor