Bill H wrote:
>
> Has anyone ever built a homemade paper punch / reader? Are there any
> design specs available anywhere?

Punch no, reader yes. It involved leds and phototransistors
mounted in jigs with bits of metal and drilled holes to columnize
light beams. The electronics used the feed hole to strobe the data
bits and clock the result out. The only spec is that the holes are
on 0.1 inch centers (I think). Worry about the translucence of the
paper.

--
"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without
formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to
deny him the judgement of his peers, is in the highest degree
odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government
whether Nazi or Communist." -- W. Churchill, Nov 21, 1943

If building your own reader, look at the Elliott models from the 1960's.
Hard to get any simpler, mechanically.
The tape path is dead flat, leads over the drive roller (just the motor
shaft), past the optics, over a brake plate, & so out. Over the motor
shaft is an idler wheel, resting lightly on the tape. Likewise a brake
pad resting on the tape, over the plate. Both idler & brake have
associated solenoids, which can apply force, but do not move the
associated parts. There is no sprocket: the optics pick up the sprocket
holes. The motor runs continuously.
Control is basically a flipflop, whose outputs drive the 2 solenoids.
Set the flipflop to advance one character, & the sprocket-hole signal
then clears it. Those babies could read 1000 chars/sec, and stop on a
single character.
The optics weren't that elaborate, either. A festoon bulb (which has a
long, straight filament) over the reading site, with a "lens" comprising
a 1-inch length of Lucite rod to focus the light on the reading
character. A moulded block below, with holes to register with those in
the tape, & recesses for the photo-diodes.

CBFalconer wrote:
> Bill H wrote:
>> Has anyone ever built a homemade paper punch / reader? Are there any
>> design specs available anywhere?
>
> Punch no, reader yes. It involved leds and phototransistors
> mounted in jigs with bits of metal and drilled holes to columnize
> light beams. The electronics used the feed hole to strobe the data
> bits and clock the result out. The only spec is that the holes are
> on 0.1 inch centers (I think). Worry about the translucence of the
> paper.
>

I have a commercial optical paper tape reader from a GE Terminet 1200 terminal that I was going to
put on E-Bay. How much are you willing to pay for one???

Graig

"Bill H" wrote:

>Has anyone ever built a homemade paper punch / reader? Are there any
>design specs available anywhere?

--
Remove the "nospam." from my e-mail address when replying.

On 4 Feb 2006 17:15:38 -0800, "Bill H" wrote:

>Has anyone ever built a homemade paper punch / reader? Are there any
>design specs available anywhere?

Punch is a mechanical nighttmare but Heath did make a kitted one.

Reader is trivial. The simplest design out there is the OAE (Oliver
audio engineering) design.

I did a reader years ago. Simple phototransistors and long filliment
auto lamp for light. The transport was pull through manually and the
there were 9 holes (1 for sproket). Simple drilling task nothing
complex. The output of the phototransistors had one trick applied,
they were AC coupled (analog trick!) so the light to dark ratio is
less important and only sharp (even if small) changes from no hole to
a hole to were important. Made reading the oiled paper(very
translucent) much easier. The other trick was a clear mask to keep
the tape flat. Still have it as PT still pops up.

Allison

On 4 Feb 2006 17:15:38 -0800, "Bill H" wrote:

>Has anyone ever built a homemade paper punch / reader? Are there any
>design specs available anywhere?

For a punch, look for Model 33 or 35 teletype equipment. There are
still usable units around that can be refurbished. They're not speedy,
but functional. Model 28 and earlier are only five bits, so won't
handle ASCII or binary codes.

The greenkeys mailing list on QTH is home to many of us former TTY
folk.

Bob McConnell
N2SPP

In article <8m3gu1dd0dc1ebhrc236ejgs6lk4g98s1m@4ax.com>,
Bob McConnell writes:
> On 4 Feb 2006 17:15:38 -0800, "Bill H" wrote:
>
>>Has anyone ever built a homemade paper punch / reader? Are there any
>>design specs available anywhere?
>
> For a punch, look for Model 33 or 35 teletype equipment. There are
> still usable units around that can be refurbished. They're not speedy,
> but functional. Model 28 and earlier are only five bits, so won't
> handle ASCII or binary codes.

Actually, after building the interface and writing the software the first
printer on my TRS-80 was a Lorenz LO-15.

>
> The greenkeys mailing list on QTH is home to many of us former TTY
> folk.

What is QTH? That might be an interesting place to visit as I used to be
more TTY than CW or even voice at one time.

bill
KB3YV (formerly N2APY & DA1WO)

--
Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves
bill@cs.scranton.edu | and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton |
Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include

On 7 Feb 2006 12:02:31 GMT, bill@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) wrote:

>In article <8m3gu1dd0dc1ebhrc236ejgs6lk4g98s1m@4ax.com>,
> Bob McConnell writes:
>> On 4 Feb 2006 17:15:38 -0800, "Bill H" wrote:
>>
>>>Has anyone ever built a homemade paper punch / reader? Are there any
>>>design specs available anywhere?
>>
>> For a punch, look for Model 33 or 35 teletype equipment. There are
>> still usable units around that can be refurbished. They're not speedy,
>> but functional. Model 28 and earlier are only five bits, so won't
>> handle ASCII or binary codes.
>
>Actually, after building the interface and writing the software the first
>printer on my TRS-80 was a Lorenz LO-15.
>
>>
>> The greenkeys mailing list on QTH is home to many of us former TTY
>> folk.
>
>What is QTH? That might be an interesting place to visit as I used to be
>more TTY than CW or even voice at one time.
>
>bill
>KB3YV (formerly N2APY & DA1WO)

There is a mailing list server at www.qth.net sponsered by QSL.net,
with several dozen lists on various amateur radio related topics.
They've been raffeling off ICOM radios over the last couple of years
to raise funds to keep the server running.

Bob McConnell
N2SPP