Quoting Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org>:
Judging from the controls and lack of mechanical buffering, I'd
pronounce this to be a tape verifier, or possibly a cleaner. The "half
cycle" and "slow" are clues.
I just bought this Burroughs BU4400 tape drive:
https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1999913439
Looks like you're right! I'm pretty sure it's a cleaner. Everything on
it seems to work well, once I figured out how it was intended to work.
Just had fool the tape optical sensor (BOT/EOT?) with a piece of paper
and it started up fine. It only seems to want to go 'slow' in reverse,
but that may be something to do with the lack of tape. I like the tape
counter a lot. It shows error codes when they occur, and is a dot
matrix style LED display (perhaps not true dot matrix, just something
nicer looking than a 7-segment display).
So, that's good news - to demo it fully all I need is a reel of tape,
rather than needing to find or implement a controller as well. I'm in
New Zealand, but I think I'd be lucky to find anything here. As a
fallback, there is plenty on eBay, at least. If anyone has some
damaged or otherwise unusable tape that's only suitable for
demonstrating a cleaner, please drop me a note.
Cheers,
Mike
