31 Mar
2010
31 Mar
'10
6:50 a.m.
On 3/30/10, Chris Elmquist <chrise at pobox.com> wrote:
If you get stuck, I can sure help. I recently
restored an HP 2748B
optical reader (500 CPS) and built an RS232 interface for it so that
I can read tapes into a Linux machine... and do it quickly. It's
optical and uses only a pinch roller to grab the tape so should be
minimally "damaging" to the tapes.
I have more than one reader - only the ASR-33s are mechanical. The
one that's the best shot to adapt at this point is the PRS/04, a
portable reader (it even has a handle) that was sold with machines of
the PDP-11/34 vintage when diagnostics still came on papertape but
customers might have bought a VT52 instead of a teletype. It is a
current loop device with plugs to sit between the console terminal and
the CPU on the same loop. It has a large (i.e. gentle curve) toothed
feed roller (vs pinch roller), but is optical read.
I'd post a link to a picture, but I can't seem to find any examples on
the 'net. It's a little larger than an external 5.25" floppy
enclosure with long (more than 2m) cables, white pebbled finish, small
handle...
I did this so that I could preserve hundreds of tapes
I have for an
Altair 680b.
Nice.
-ethan