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Source for fan fold paper tape for my Reader/Punch.

BitWiz

Experienced Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2021
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419
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Glen Ellyn, Iil
Does anyone know of a good source of fan fold paper tape for the PC04/PC05 High Speed Reader/Punch or is willing to sell me a box or two of theirs?

I have about 1/3 of a box in my new reader/punch and I know i am going to need more.

Thanks.
 
There hasn't been a source for fan-fold in decades.
Your only choice is the occasional box that shows up on eBay, normally around $50
 
How well does the rolled paper tape read in the reader?

Roller TTY tape is usually oiled. So it will leave residue in a high speed reader. Probably will read Ok, but will need to clean the sensors of oil after. I'd not use it there. These are designed for dry paper tape only.
 
How well does the rolled paper tape read in the reader?
To answer your question, it works fine. You just let it spill out on the floor and hand wind it up afterword. I would thread the tape and use a finger through the center of the roll to keep everything straight. Rolling it up is the annoying part.

I have some Mylar tapes of things used all the time. The RIM and BIN loaders are in that box which I can't seem to locate right now. I am pretty sure those were punched on the CDC 3400 punch (The College mainframe when I was there). I never tried to punch Mylar on the Straight 8. I don't think it would be too hard to rig up a support in the punch for a spool of Mylar tape if such a thing could be found. I wonder if there are any Mylar ribbons of the correct width and thickness to work?

I do have 11 and a half boxes of DEC branded fanfold paper tape but I don't want to sell them. This is almost a full case. I suppose I might trade them for something at some point but I am not sure what that might be.

About 10 or 12 years ago I was having problems with my PC01. I made several loops with different test patterns on them and was able to let it run while scoping out the problem. Problem turned out to be mostly that someone had turned a pot which controlled the speed. The PC01 was trying to read at about 450 CPS and it was marginal at doing this. (Would this be considered an early example of overclocking?) Perhaps 50 years ago when everything was much newer it worked ok. Turning it back down to 300 CPS pretty much fixed it. I was initially a little worried about overheating something because the most you could normally read would be about a third of a box. A few minutes at most. But it turns out nothing got hot when running for 20 to 30 minutes.
 
PDP-8s and a SOL-20. How do Processor Technology and DEC get along.

The SOL had worlds most difficult to align 8" floppies. Getting the left and right side Helios drives aligned was a night mare
 
PDP-8s and a SOL-20. How do Processor Technology and DEC get along.

The SOL had worlds most difficult to align 8" floppies. Getting the left and right side Helios drives aligned was a night mare
The SOL-20 is one I built in 1976. They sold a socket option for a little more which I bought. Today the sockets are the problem. If it is acting weird you just pop the cover and take the keyboard off and rock every chip in the socket and it will work find for weeks to months. I keep threatening to pull the sockets and solder in the chips.

So to answer your question, they play well with each other. Before I built a baud rate generator/RS-232 board for the Straight 8 I used the SOL as the terminal because it could do current loop at 110 baud.

About that Persci drive in the Helios, yeah, a pain.
 
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