The handbooks for Trend PTRs document brake configuration to both stop on an octet or in the darkspace - educational.
I was given a powered Paper Tape Winder a few years ago, too on/off for my taste - especially with aged media. A powered paper tape winder really wants a variable speed motor with foot treadle control, for soft start, soft stop and damage control. I vouch this having had to repair tapes scrunched by a PTR which just kept going. Subsequently, I or'd a "stop" foot pedal with the brake solenoid drive - stand on brake ... And, I adapted a coil winder into a tape winder see https://www.emeritus-solutions.com/papertape/visualise.php New shaft and slotted winding hub, no real need for a cheek plate; finger and thumb. The base is 1/4" plate to keep it in one place and preclude toppling. <<snip>> Yes, that's the approach I saw first. The EL-X8 had 3 readers, each capable of over 1000 characters per second, which is pretty amazing for 1964 technology. More amazing still, they could stop and restart on command, without missing characters. In other words, the stop/start combined required less than 1 ms, the time between consecutive frames on the tape. I'm pretty sure that shop had powered tape winders, because winding long strings of paper by hand power would get pretty tiring during a full shift. After all, this was a batch system with all input -- programs and data -- on paper tape, so during a given shift the operators probably handled a hundred tapes, maybe more. paul
