Wow all these cool replies!!
If you need 1" paper tape I have cornered the worlds supply in a big pile of boxes
Hi Andrew, thanks. I've got 2 full rolls of 8 hole tape at the moment. 1 pink and 1 blue. Still working out how to get the machine to punch 8 hole data though. I've set the tape spring guides in the punch mechanism to accept 8 hole width paper through the tape guide which wasn't too difficult as I have a pdf of the punch manual (GNT36). I also have about 3 rolls of 5 hole tape. I'll definitely keep you in mind though. I want to repurpose the machines to play sounds as part of a sound art project my partner is involved in. On the main PCB of the machine are 2 sets of rainbow coloured dip switches (8 each). I'm guessing that 1 is for baud rates and am hoping the other has a switch that sets either 5 hole or 8 hole punch...
No help to you, but I'm trying to imagine what these could possibly be used for? I used then in the early - mid seventies as a crude communication device but as soon as a pc with a serial port came along, didn't these become dinosaurs? Is this just a hobby ?
It is kind of a hobby. I've always loved electronics and computers and as I grew up using a ZX81 I've got pangs of nostalgia for older systems so love these.
Still some old machines out there running that need a tape to load the basic brains into them and they won't "get" a serial port without it.
Bob
Tell me about it. I've got another machine made by IOMEC which has a date stamp of 1974 and is the punch mechanism only. Its a small black grille box with the punch on top and it has no interface. Fascinating thing is there's no motor. Its all run by solenoids!! Even the sprocket wheel! I'll post some pics as its a really nice piece of machine tech.
Have you contacted Ghielmetti to see if they can help?
http://www.ghielmetti.ch/
Regards,
DB
I did a few weeks ago but no reply as yet, I've also sent one to Siemens obsolete....
Presumably you know the encoding scheme of the actual holes. If so it would seem to possibly be easier to build a reader with some IR emitters and detectors and an Arduino board or suchlike. Especially if you could reuse the mechanical parts to run the tape. Maybe I'm missing something...
The encoding system is 5bit ITA2 code (Baudot). I've found a couple of windows serial terminals that can communicate with the machine. The shift codes work nicely.
You're ahead of me! One of the machines looks fairly beaten up so I might take off the reader and punch and motor and hook them up to an arduino. The reader wouldn't be too much of a problem as it could be strobed for read/no read quite easily but the punch would require a litle more research and planning...
Thanks for the show of interest!! Oh, and as this is a machinist forum, I've worked in the past as a bench presser, a hole stamping machine operator for Phillips (when they were in Croydon)and on Urban machines cutting upvc frame parts for window frames. The job I'm in now involves soldering irons, multimeters and oscilloscopes.