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IOMEC paper tape punch being operated with an Arduino.

M

mubase

Experienced Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2016
Messages
70
Location
Peckham, London,UK
HI folks!! Continuing on with the haul of paper tape machines I got from a very kind soul, I've got a 1974 model of an IOMEC punch only device working with Arduino. It operates entirely using solenoids so I've reverse engineered it and connected up the punch and transport solenoids to a bunch of TIP120 darlington transistors to be fired by Arduino digital pins and written a massive switch/case routine to handle converting ascii letters (letters only at the moment) to 5 hole Baudot code. The machine is however, capable of 8 hole too so i'll get that working next. :) Hope you find it interesting. Please give me your thoughts...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVfpuHd1ik8&feature=youtu.be
 
What a nice punch! I'm hoping to try a similar thing with a punch I just picked up!
Is the tape feed also solenoid based? I'm wondering how tape feed can be done so quietly.
 
Hi Christoffer. Yep. The tape feed is solenoid based. 2 solenoids push then pull at a cog that shunts the sprocket wheel forward 1 place.(with my other machines, a constantly whirring motor is responsible for the transport so it is noisy when punch mode is switched to on..) So I have the code set up to first punch the sprocket hole then send the paper forward. What punch do you have? I've looked all over for some info on mine but can't find much....
 
That sounds like a good way to do it. How much voltage/current are you putting through the solenoids? I have a swedish FACIT PE1500 from the early 1960's, solenoids and motor(sounds like a freight train), the tape is transported by a "feed" solenoid pressing it down against a movable plate. Here's the manual for mine, I don't know, you might be able to use the schematics for output stage design reference or something. It seems a good deal of the earlier punches has their drive logic in a separate unit.
http://museum.informatik.uni-kl.de/...Facit PE1500 High Speed Tape Punch Manual.pdf
 
Very Nice. I would expect it to run a tad faster though. You say it came from Display Electronics. They used to have an amazing amount of stuff, but usually at OTT prices. Have they now closed...
 
Well if it's solenoid-fed (is that a term? It sounds cool), it sounds like it'd just be a matter of how fast you clock your feed solenoid.
 
g4ugm said:
Very Nice. I would expect it to run a tad faster though. You say it came from Display Electronics. They used to have an amazing amount of stuff, but usually at OTT prices. Have they now closed...
Click to expand...

Yep. Sadly Display electronics closed completely in January. I was lucky enough to get in contact with John who let me have 3 Siemens T1560 reader/punches and this little IOMEC punch. All through the back door!
 
In addition to the solenoids for the feed, the feed hole punch and the 8 data punches theres also another pin that fires another solenoid but I can't see where it goes to... any ideas what it might be?
 
That might be a brake solenoid. If the tape cam move faster than you make it, it could need a brake to clamp it in place at correct timing.
It could also be a "disable" solenoid, to inhibit the data punches and feed blank tape (with sprocket hole punched).
Nice haul of tape gear, by the way!
 
That might be a brake solenoid. If the tape cam move faster than you make it, it could need a brake to clamp it in place at correct timing.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks Chris. My next adventure will be putting all the external power circuitry on a stripboard circuit. At the moment I am only using 5 of the 8 punches but I have some lovely 8 hole width paper I want to use (it was kindly donated by 2 very nice members on this forum (you know who you are :) ) Oh yeah, I'm powering the solenoids with a 30V laptop power supply. The solenoids have 23 Ohm marked on them. Does this mean the optimim current would be 30V / 23 Ohms which is 1.3 Amps ??
 
I suppose you could, yeah. 1,3 A could be right, but it's hard to tell without some data on them.
My punch solenoids run at as little as 10V and 250 mA, but again, they're really more "punch inhibit" as the solenoids push them sideways away from the punch die.
If they actually have to make the hole, more power sounds like the way to go, as long as you don't fry them.
 
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