Fanuc PPR - Paper Tape Punch, Printer and Reader : Not quite working

[Martin Bishop]

Hi Bill

Back with a suplementary query.  
Do you have a pin out for the Fanuc 50 way ribbon cable which goes to the BTR.

As you may have read the reader electronics in my PPR look to be dead.  However, probing signals in the PPR box does not look trivial : poor access, no schematics and the comparators are not evident.

Consequently, in the first instance, I'm following in your footsteps with an A13B-0070-B001; the interface card is a A20B-0007-0750-07B.  Similar, but different to your reel to reel unit.  With four quad comparators on an exposed board it looks ideal for investigation and idc (hopefully) house training - the question is can I skip the reverse engineering phase.  Thereafter, back to the PPR. 

If the DosTek was not 5 hours behind and limitless import hassle in prospect, I would consider using it as a test fixture.

Best Regards

Martin

-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Bill Degnan via cctalk
Sent: 10 April 2022 00:14
To: Eric Moore <mooreericnyc at gmail.com>; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Fanuc PPR - Paper Tape Punch, Printer and Reader : Not quite working

I have a dostek 440a for sale and notes about my fanuc tape unit here.
https://www.vintagecomputer.net/fanuc/index.cfm

On Sat, Apr 9, 2022, 6:51 PM Eric Moore via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:

> Hi Martin, I use the PPR for all kinds of paper tape shennanigans.
>
> https://youtu.be/hGr0F9a7x1A
>
> Remove all but the first jumper, and that may help with your issues. I 
> found at one point the jumper settings, but will need to search.
>
> -Eric
>
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 9, 2022, 4:56 PM Martin Bishop via cctalk < 
> cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> wrote:
>
> > A nicely made yellow box with a rather poor manual - both lost in 
> > translation and limited in scope.
> >
> > Working on setting one to work, but can't get anything out of the 
> > serial port.  In drives the punch, and the punched data verifies 
> > (based on a
> QL).
> > In also drives the printer, although somewhat garbled, perhaps due 
> > to BCD coding or perhaps due to invalid parity (which is configured 
> > as no
> check).
> > The reader 'reads' tape both in response to X/ON over RS232 and in
> response
> > to front panel keys.  However, nothing is emitted onto 232.  The D25 
> > -
> D-9
> > transition has all the RTS/CTS and DSR/DTR/DCD lines knitted
> appropriately
> > and indicating 'correctly' on blinkenlites.  Interestingly, on long 
> > test tapes the reader does not fall off the end but stops, 
> > repeatably after
> ~49"
> > which is remarkably close to 512 octets.  Finally, the CNC 
> > termination octets : % (ASCII) and 0x80 (BCD : RS-244) don't seem to 
> > impress the
> reader
> > - nothing changes.
> >
> > Specific queries:
> > - Are there any magic control codes or handshaking rituals to coax 
> > data out of the reader
> > - Is the PPR to CNC Controller interface protocol manual available 
> > as pdf
> > - Where can I find drawings for the PPR's electronics, most 
> > importantly the main board (with its 8031)
> > - Suggestions on how to proceed with setting to work / fault 
> > diagnosis
> > - Has anyone house trained one of these to read PDP-11 absolute 
> > binary tapes, their target market was G code (text)
> >
> > Martin
> >
>