UK: tape winder? Atlas Autocode charset (flexowriter)

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Tue Aug 5 16:15:00 2003

> Chris Whitfield and Ian Young have interfaced the borrowed optical
> paper tape reader that we were kindly loaned and have it working on
> a PC. Before we go to the site that has the paper tapes (several
> dozens) does anyone have a winder we could borrow to save winding them
> all back up by hand?

I have one, but it wouldn't be easy to lend it to you...

However they're not hard to make. The thing you wind the tape onto is a
cylindrical core about 1" in diameter with a disk (about 4-6" in
diameter) screwed on one side. A slot cut in the cylinder holds the end
of the tape. I would rotate it by hand (the handle and gears from a
hand-driven grinding wheel are _ideal_ for this -- in fact one of my
winders was converted from such a unit) -- motorising winding adds all
sorts of problems if you want to avoid snapping the tape.

>
> Also before I write it (I have some paper documentation to work from
> describing the Atlas Autocode character set, which is from the
> Flexowriter printers that were attached to it) does anyone already have
> any code to convert from the flexowriter char set to ascii in any form?

tr(1) ?

-tony
Received on Tue Aug 05 2003 - 16:15:00 BST