More tapes - This time all Tektronix 405x series

[Randy Dawson]

Wow, good job Marty.


Now there are three of us.  Brad Sebrink has a 4051, and also written an emulator.

The Tek guys in Beaverton have another, VintageTek.  I will contact one of the guys there, he may have a RAMPACK and MAXIPACK for you, his software speeds up the graphics incredibly, and give you a non-volatile EEPROM program store.  He has put all of the collected programs we have so far on there, mostly games.


I have to cut into my 4051, it quit a few weeks back, I think it is just a supply problem.  I can run a simple basic loop, but what it draws on the screen is garbled, on of the analog supplies is messed up screwing up the vector drawing, but the computer itself is running.


I did the elastiband transfer when I first got the machine, from NOS tapes to the one that was in the machine.  Tricky, but I got it working, and WEATHERWAR off of it and a few others, biorhythm, etc.


Randy


________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Monty McGraw via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2018 5:39 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: RE: More tapes - This time all Tektronix 405x series

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