Slob
Experienced Member
1. I owe the poster of the Addmaster head a response. I’m sure that the interface is pretty simple and you can see some clues if you look at the Data I/O manual mentioned in this thread. The power transistors are onboard and probably operate at 20-24 volts. The rest operates at 5 volts. Obviously, if you experiment, do NOT get these wrong. It is possible to hook these types of heads up to an Arduino, etc. I’ve done this several times with Decitek and Fujitsu heads in order to serialize the data and operate the stepper.
2. On punches, I have two DSI punches, possibly 1970’s models. One has a reader and one doesn’t. I have gotten away with using a “cheater” RS232 cable and time delays at 300 baud. One can punch paper/mylar laminate and one can’t, which is probably due to a dull punch/die. I’m scared to disassemble/ sharpen/ reassemble the head although these units have been somewhat rebuilt by me, new timing belts, they are the only things in the house operated by an F8 CPU. I found a user manual for these, but no service manual.
I suspect that “sharpening” could be as simple as carefully dragging a flat over the exposed die, but we will see.
I have some yellow fanfolds, a few mylar laminate rolls, black paper rolls, and some genuine DEC rolls and fanfolds. I tried to sell some DEC boxes on this forum but didnt get any takers at what I thought was a reasonable price. Interesting thing about the DEC tape; the print and arrow is backwards for punching on the DSI.
2. On punches, I have two DSI punches, possibly 1970’s models. One has a reader and one doesn’t. I have gotten away with using a “cheater” RS232 cable and time delays at 300 baud. One can punch paper/mylar laminate and one can’t, which is probably due to a dull punch/die. I’m scared to disassemble/ sharpen/ reassemble the head although these units have been somewhat rebuilt by me, new timing belts, they are the only things in the house operated by an F8 CPU. I found a user manual for these, but no service manual.
I suspect that “sharpening” could be as simple as carefully dragging a flat over the exposed die, but we will see.
I have some yellow fanfolds, a few mylar laminate rolls, black paper rolls, and some genuine DEC rolls and fanfolds. I tried to sell some DEC boxes on this forum but didnt get any takers at what I thought was a reasonable price. Interesting thing about the DEC tape; the print and arrow is backwards for punching on the DSI.