Ok - not so much of a newbie - fed punch tape into a reader for a PDP8 when I attended tech school back when the earth was cooling .... I have my hands on a PDP8a and a Remex reader. They both seem to function OK with basic tests. I would like to try to read a Mylar punch tape to see if there is anything interesting on it - as well as a couple of paper tapes. My end run would be to show something useful running on the PDP8a - and loaded with the punch tape. The Mylar reel would have been the programming for a CNC machine. I suspect the first part of the reel may be some boot loader or init routine. So, my thought is this - connect the Remex unit to a Pi or Arduino to capture the data and have a look at it or, load the tape directly into the PDP8 and see what happens? Then, examine the PDP8 memory locations. So, the issue is that I have not researched the proper way to get the tape and PDP8 initialized and reading into the PDP8. I am not 100% sure the Remex unit is working, other than it spins the reels. Any suggestions?? Love the forum by the way - I wish I had a machine that would slow the clock on the wall down to give me more time to play. I guess they call that retirement ..... Cheers, Brian -- Brian McIntosh Columbia Valley Maker Space Communications Guy info at cvmakerspace.ca 250 270 0689