On Sat, Sep 22, 2018, 9:53 PM Ethan Dicks via cctalk <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 22, 2018 at 10:34 AM, Guy Dunphy via cctalk > <[email protected]> wrote: > > By coincidence, today I started evaluation of a punched/optical card > reader. > > Model TM200, made by Documation Inc. > > > > Pics here: http://everist.org/pics/TM200/ > > > > The immediately obvious problems: > > * Mains input connector is one of those old round locking type. Not sure > if I have any of these. > > I have an M200 and I just had to look up in the docs (on bitsavers) > that my unit requires a Hubbel > 7484 for the power cable. Yours is different but it's likely to be > some sort of Hubbel product. > > > > * Hose from vacuum pump to pickup heel is hardened. Needs replacement. > > * Plastic elbow fitting for vacuum to pickup heel is broken in half. > Make new one. > > * Plastic mount for status display lights is cracking around brass nut > inserts. > > * Four rubber transport rollers have de-vulcanised, melted, and flowed > gunk. Urrgh, what a mess. > > Hmm... I probably need to look into mine for similar things. > > > * Ouch, that interface connector. > > Fortunately, my M200 came with a factory add-on board that's an RS-232 > interface to the upstream host. > > > I wonder where I'm going to find some card stacks for testing it? If I > get that far. > > An old co-worker buddy of mine gave me a box of his punchcards when he > was in school in 1970. He's really on me to read them. I don't want > to put his in first and have roller goo or something else ruin them so > I have a bit of exploration to do. > How many cards are in the deck? If it's not a lot, you can carefully number the cards in pencil, then run them through a document scanner... though the OCR process might be a challenge. Warner I'll be interested to hear how your saga unfolds because I'm expecting > all of that and more on mine. > > -ethan >
