windows program to read papertape from reader through serial port

Eric Moore mooreericnyc at gmail.com
Mon Jul 20 13:28:12 CDT 2020


https://gitlab.com/NF6X_Retrocomputing/papertape

Python scripts for working with papertape, including tapein.py. Pass it the
COM port and baud rate as arguments. I have not run it on windows but
should work, I have digitized a significant number of tapes with this
software.

As far as flow control, you can look in the python code. It uses pyserial,
which supports enabling HW flow control:

https://pyserial.readthedocs.io/en/latest/pyserial_api.html

More likely your issue is DTR or similar. You may need an RS232 light box
for debugging. Here is a sample from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005H46XS2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_.dEfFb1TVYE44

Good luck, if you keep facing issues feel free to contact me off list for
assistance. I can almost guarantee your comms issue is either your USB
adapter (prolific chipset is a good one) or your cable/adapter, not SW.
Your SW problem is easioy solved by using those python scripts I linked
which can work with raw binary over RS232. Teraterm and similar deal with
characters, not bimlnary data.

Worse comes to worse I have an excellent paper tape workflow and am willing
to digitize a few tapes if they are historically significant.

-Eric


On Mon, Jul 20, 2020, 12:02 Bill Degnan via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org>
wrote:

> Hi - I read on teraterm's forum or something like it that teraterm is not
> really equipped to receive an inbound papertape reader dump into an ascii
> file.  What do those of you who have both windows and a tape reader use?
> RealTerm?  If so, what settings?  I have been wresting with this for a
> while...I am told my DSI NC 2400 needs hardware flow control
> Thanks
> BIll
>


More information about the cctech mailing list