This is awesome! I've had an idea on the back burner that would require some fairly custom plastic punched tape. I was thinking of using a laser engraver but this would be a lot better -- no scorched edges.
On Fri, Dec 1, 2017 at 5:51 AM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > If you have a paper tape reader and no punch, you can now make real > working paper tapes using a normal home stencil-cutting machine. > I've written a small command line utility that can take a .PTAP (or any > other binary or textfile) and generate output that these > machines will cut. that your reader will read. > > It can easily make repair pieces for existing old broken tapes from any > byte offset. In addition it can make banner tapes, 5-level > Baudot RTTY tape, your own custom n-level paper tape or cut tapes from > other materials such as plastic. > Even if you don't need it to make or repair tapes, it can be used to > visualise a paper tape through the console output it produces. > > I'd never claim it's any sort of replacement for a real punch, and it's a > whole lot slower. But, it does work :) > > A simple example to make a tape of the characters ABCDEF with 1/2 inch of > sprocket leader and 1/2 inch of trailer: > > C:\> ptap2dxf --text="ABCDEF" --leader=5 --trailer=5 --output=ABCDEF.dxf > +---------+ > | . | > | . | > | . | > | . | > | . | > | O . O| > | O . O | > | O . OO| > | O .O | > | O .O O| > | O .OO | > | . | > | . | > | . | > | . | > | . | > +---------+ > Joiner 0000: data byte 00000000 absolute position 00000011 > > The resulting ABCDEF.dxf file can be viewed in a DXF viewer such as > Inkscape and directly loaded into the paper/vinyl cutter for producing > the actual working tape. > > > Another example: say you need a repair piece for an absolute loader, > starting at byte 57 for 12 bytes. (A repair piece has removeable side > tabs for handling as a self-adhesive vinyl joiner): > > C:\> ptap2dxf DEC-11-L2PC-PO.ptap --range=57,12 --joiner --ascii --control > +---------+ > | O .O O| JOINER % > | . O | JOINER <STX> > | . | JOINER <NUL> > | O . O| JOINER ! > | . OO| JOINER <ETX> > |OOOO .OOO| JOINER > | O. O| JOINER <HT> > | O O.O | JOINER , > | . | JOINER <NUL> > |O .O | JOINER > | OO . OO| JOINER c > | . O| JOINER <SOH> > +---------+ > > The output for machine cutting will be in DEC-11-L2PC-PO.dxf > For larger tapes, the output can be chunked into sections which can be cut > individually. There are other options to invert, mirror, reposition > the sprocket feed and so on. > > If you think you may find it useful, it's fully open source and available > at https://github.com/1944GPW/ptap2dxf > It will run on Windows (pre-built exe provided) and Linux and Mac (follow > building instructions). > The 26-page illustrated User Manual PDF is at https://github.com/1944GPW/ > ptap2dxf/blob/master/Documentation/PTAP2DXF_User_Manual_v1.0.pdf > > Steve. > > >
