This person has built a punched-tape reader around a Microchip PIC18 microcontroller which seems to run faster than any actual paper tape
reader from back in the day <https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/retro-computing-enthusiast-creates-perforated-tape-reader-designed-from-scratch-reads-data-at-about-50-bytes-per-second>.

Creating tapes to read is a bit more involved process, requiring the
layout of vector files that are fed to a laser cutter (!).

Somehow I don?t think the tape is made out of actual paper, but I
could be wrong ...

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2025-11-25, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

This person has built a punched-tape reader around a Microchip PIC18 microcontroller which seems to run faster than any actual paper tape
reader from back in the day
<https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/retro-computing-enthusiast-creates-perforated-tape-reader-designed-from-scratch-reads-data-at-about-50-bytes-per-second>.

Creating tapes to read is a bit more involved process, requiring the
layout of vector files that are fed to a laser cutter (!).

Somehow I don?t think the tape is made out of actual paper, but I
could be wrong ...

I wonder if it could read actual vintage paper tapes. The article
doesn't seem to say.

Niklas
--
Please, if you want to solicit transoceanic transport for the purposes of buggery, TAKE IT OUT OF THE MONASTERY!
-- Bill Cole

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 25/11/2025 05:54, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

This person has built a punched-tape reader around a Microchip PIC18 microcontroller which seems to run faster than any actual paper tape
reader from back in the day [...].

They claim 50 cps. The tape readers of the '60s ran at around
500 cps [otherwise there would have been no way to keep the mainframes
properly fed and watered]. Specialised equipment was much faster --
Colossus read 5000 cps [in the 1940s!] [but was, of course, secret for
several decades]. Tape /punches/, which /had/ to be mechanical, were
much slower, and indeed 50cps was roughly the going rate.

--
Andy Walker, Nottingham.
Andy's music pages: www.cuboid.me.uk/andy/Music
Composer of the day: www.cuboid.me.uk/andy/Music/Composers/Jessel

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 11/24/25 22:54, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

This person has built a punched-tape reader around a Microchip PIC18 microcontroller which seems to run faster than any actual paper tape
reader from back in the day <https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/retro-computing-enthusiast-creates-perforated-tape-reader-designed-from-scratch-reads-data-at-about-50-bytes-per-second>.

Creating tapes to read is a bit more involved process, requiring the
layout of vector files that are fed to a laser cutter (!).

Somehow I don?t think the tape is made out of actual paper, but I
could be wrong ...

It looked like he was pulling the tape thru by hand.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2025-11-25, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

This person has built a punched-tape reader around a Microchip PIC18 microcontroller which seems to run faster than any actual paper tape
reader from back in the day
<https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/retro-computing-enthusiast-creates-perforated-tape-reader-designed-from-scratch-reads-data-at-about-50-bytes-per-second>.

50 cps? - That's nothing! Try 2000 cps back in the day.
We had this in 1969:

https://datamuseum.dk/bits/30002495

--
Lars Poulsen - an old geek in Santa Barbara, California

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 11/25/25 6:29 AM, Peter Flass wrote:

It looked like he was pulling the tape thru by hand.

Stone knives and bearskins

You can buy used optical paper tape reader assemblies from Japanese
CNC equipment for under $100.

I spent a bunch of time documenting various models on bitsavers
this year.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2025-11-25, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

This person has built a punched-tape reader around a Microchip PIC18 microcontroller which seems to run faster than any actual paper tape
reader from back in the day <https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/retro-computing-

enthusiast-creates-perforated-tape-reader-designed-from-scratch-reads- data-at-about-50-bytes-per-second>.

Creating tapes to read is a bit more involved process, requiring the
layout of vector files that are fed to a laser cutter (!).

Somehow I don?t think the tape is made out of actual paper, but I
could be wrong ...

Here's a DIY paper tape puncher:

<https://unimplementedtrap.com/paper-tape-punch>

Toward the bottom it shows the author's process to cut thermal paper
down to size and spool it.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Lars Poulsen <lars@beagle-ears.com> writes:

50 cps? - That's nothing! Try 2000 cps back in the day.
We had this in 1969: https://datamuseum.dk/bits/30002495

Or 5000 cps for the tape loops on Colossus in 1943: https://web.archive.org/web/20150310151804/https://www.ivorcatt.com/47c.htm

"The practical speed at which Colossus could be operated was tested by
loading it with a maximum length tape and increasing the speed until
something happened. At about 9700 characters per second, the tape broke
in one and then several places. The various sections of tape did their
best to obey Newton's first law and travel in a straight line in the
direction they happened to be going with an initial velocity of nearly
60 miles per hour, and thus found all sorts of curious places in which
to come to rest. Clearly, the maximum safe speed at which paper tape
could be driven could not be much greater than 5000 characters per
second."

--
Adam Sampson <ats@offog.org> <http://offog.org/>

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2025-11-25 16:15, Adam Sampson wrote:

Lars Poulsen <lars@beagle-ears.com> writes:

50 cps? - That's nothing! Try 2000 cps back in the day.
We had this in 1969: https://datamuseum.dk/bits/30002495

Or 5000 cps for the tape loops on Colossus in 1943: https://web.archive.org/web/20150310151804/https://www.ivorcatt.com/47c.htm

"The practical speed at which Colossus could be operated was tested by loading it with a maximum length tape and increasing the speed until something happened. At about 9700 characters per second, the tape broke
in one and then several places. The various sections of tape did their
best to obey Newton's first law and travel in a straight line in the direction they happened to be going with an initial velocity of nearly
60 miles per hour, and thus found all sorts of curious places in which
to come to rest. Clearly, the maximum safe speed at which paper tape
could be driven could not be much greater than 5000 characters per
second."

It is a bit curious talking about a limit as characters per second
instead of cm per second, though. There will be also a limit in size
(smaller) of the holes.

--
Cheers, Carlos.
ES??, EU??;

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2025-11-25, Lars Poulsen <lars@beagle-ears.com> wrote:

On 2025-11-25, Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

This person has built a punched-tape reader around a Microchip PIC18
microcontroller which seems to run faster than any actual paper tape
reader from back in the day
<https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/retro-computing-enthusiast-creates-perforated-tape-reader-designed-from-scratch-reads-data-at-about-50-bytes-per-second>.

50 cps? - That's nothing! Try 2000 cps back in the day.
We had this in 1969:

https://datamuseum.dk/bits/30002495

I worked in a shop which had that exact unit. We had few
applications that could run it flat-out - but the one that
did built up enough of a static charge to crash the computer.
We wound up hanging a grounded chain of paper clips near the
unit so that the tape would hit it on the way out, and even
then we had to run a kettle in the machine room to bring the
humidity up enough to bleed off the charge.

Thanks for the manual. I particularly like the way the cover
shows the four tape formats that the unit could handle.
(We only worked with 8-track tapes ourselves.)

Back in the early days of personal computers, I saw a homebrewed
paper tape reader which consisted of a small circuit board with
a couple of wire guides on either side of a photocell array.
You'd pull the tape through by hand; AFAIR it would read tape
as fast as you could pull it.

--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | Growth for the sake of
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | growth is the ideology
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | of the cancer cell.
/ \ if you read it the right way. | -- Edward Abbey

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In <H2nVQ.67755$pEH7.55701@fx18.iad> Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> writes:

[snip]

Back in the early days of personal computers, I saw a homebrewed
paper tape reader which consisted of a small circuit board with
a couple of wire guides on either side of a photocell array.
You'd pull the tape through by hand; AFAIR it would read tape
as fast as you could pull it.

There was a similar device in a 1970's Heathkit catalog.

(Never got it, although I did build the Heathkit VTVM
and Morse code keyer)

--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 11/25/25 11:01 AM, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

I saw a homebrewed
paper tape reader which consisted of a small circuit board with
a couple of wire guides on either side of a photocell array.
You'd pull the tape through by hand; AFAIR it would read tape
as fast as you could pull it.

Oliver Audio Engineering OAE80 https://deramp.com/swtpc.com/OAE80_Reader/OAE80_Index.htm

the wire tape guide was the clever part



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> writes:

It is a bit curious talking about a limit as characters per second instead of cm per second, though. There will be also a limit in size (smaller) of the holes.

Why do you think it odd?

Paper tape represents characters as sets of holes punched across the width of the tape, perpendicular to the direction of travel and rigidly aligned.

It thus makes perfect sense to describe both input and output in terms of the number of such sets of holes to be punched or interpreted in a single time unit.

cm/sec would not tell you anything about the processing speed of either input or output without a conversion factor of chars/cm, so why bother with that extra step?

--
Rich Alderson news@alderson.users.panix.com
Audendum est, et veritas investiganda; quam etiamsi non assequamur,
omnino tamen proprius, quam nunc sumus, ad eam perveniemus.
--Galen

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2025-11-25, Rich Alderson <news@alderson.users.panix.com> wrote:

"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> writes:

It is a bit curious talking about a limit as characters per second instead of
cm per second, though. There will be also a limit in size (smaller) of the >> holes.

Why do you think it odd?

Paper tape represents characters as sets of holes punched across the width of the tape, perpendicular to the direction of travel and rigidly aligned.

It thus makes perfect sense to describe both input and output in terms of the number of such sets of holes to be punched or interpreted in a single time unit.

cm/sec would not tell you anything about the processing speed of either input or output without a conversion factor of chars/cm, so why bother with that extra step?

The same applies to magnetic tape. With magnetic tape, it's more common
to refer to a tape as being written at a number of bytes per inch. Tape
drives vary widely in the speed they move the tape; description of a
particular tape drive usually includes both the tape speed in inches
per second, and the data transfer rate in bytes per second. However,
if you're trying to read a tape that was written elsewhere, you're more concerned with the density in bytes per inch; you won't be able to read
a 1600-bpi tape on an 800-bpi drive, regardless of the speed at which
either drive moves the tape.

Getting back to paper tape, they're typically punched at 10 characters
per inch. If you have an oddball tape punch that does, say, 15 characters
per inch, its tapes quite likely won't be readable by a 10-cpi reader - especially the mechanical reader found on, say, a 33ASR Teletype.

In the end, both figures have their place: density in characters per
unit length determine whether the tape is interchangeable at all,
while the speed at which the tape moves determines how much data
can be transferred in a given length of time. (It's a bit more
complicated with magnetic tape drives, where you have to take into
account the time it takes the tape to start and stop, and to cross
inter-record gaps.)

--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | Growth for the sake of
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | growth is the ideology
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | of the cancer cell.
/ \ if you read it the right way. | -- Edward Abbey

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2025-11-25 06:54, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

This person has built a punched-tape reader around a Microchip PIC18 microcontroller which seems to run faster than any actual paper tape
reader from back in the day <https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/retro-computing-enthusiast-creates-perforated-tape-reader-designed-from-scratch-reads-data-at-about-50-bytes-per-second>.

Creating tapes to read is a bit more involved process, requiring the
layout of vector files that are fed to a laser cutter (!).

Somehow I don?t think the tape is made out of actual paper, but I
could be wrong ...

50 bytes per second reading is much slower than old time paper tape
readers. I've used ones that did 300 cps when reading. I think punching
was about 50 cps.

Johnny

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Adam Sampson <ats@offog.org> writes:

Or 5000 cps for the tape loops on Colossus in 1943: >https://web.archive.org/web/20150310151804/https://www.ivorcatt.com/47c.htm

"The practical speed at which Colossus could be operated was tested by >loading it with a maximum length tape and increasing the speed until >something happened.

...

What if the reader is at the top of a TALL shaft and the tape drapes
down N stories ;=?

--
A host is a host from coast to coast...............wb8foz@panix.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close..........................
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In <mp9tecFh78jU2@mid.individual.net> rbowman <bowman@montana.com> writes:

On Wed, 3 Dec 2025 01:14:21 -0000 (UTC), David Lesher wrote:

Adam Sampson <ats@offog.org> writes:

Or 5000 cps for the tape loops on Colossus in 1943: >>>https://web.archive.org/web/20150310151804/https://www.ivorcatt.com/ >47c.htm

"The practical speed at which Colossus could be operated was tested by >>>loading it with a maximum length tape and increasing the speed until >>>something happened.

...

What if the reader is at the top of a TALL shaft and the tape drapes
down N stories ;=?

I've got a very vague memory of IBM magnetic tape readers that let the
tape droop down and had some sort of vacuum gizmo to control the tension. >I'm sure something could be worked out.

my recollection was the vacuum was also removing bits and
pieces of the tape media that had come loose. Plus other
dust and debris, too. Maybe...


--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 12/2/25 21:42, rbowman wrote:

On Wed, 3 Dec 2025 01:14:21 -0000 (UTC), David Lesher wrote:

Adam Sampson <ats@offog.org> writes:

Or 5000 cps for the tape loops on Colossus in 1943:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150310151804/https://www.ivorcatt.com/

47c.htm

"The practical speed at which Colossus could be operated was tested by
loading it with a maximum length tape and increasing the speed until
something happened.

...

What if the reader is at the top of a TALL shaft and the tape drapes
down N stories ;=?

I've got a very vague memory of IBM magnetic tape readers that let the
tape droop down and had some sort of vacuum gizmo to control the tension.
I'm sure something could be worked out.

Every IBM S/360 tape drive until the cartridge drives worked this way.
All the 2400-series.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2025-12-03, Peter Flass <Peter@Iron-Spring.com> wrote:

On 12/2/25 21:42, rbowman wrote:

On Wed, 3 Dec 2025 01:14:21 -0000 (UTC), David Lesher wrote:

Adam Sampson <ats@offog.org> writes:

Or 5000 cps for the tape loops on Colossus in 1943:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150310151804/https://www.ivorcatt.com/

47c.htm

"The practical speed at which Colossus could be operated was tested by >>>> loading it with a maximum length tape and increasing the speed until
something happened.

...

What if the reader is at the top of a TALL shaft and the tape drapes
down N stories ;=?

I've got a very vague memory of IBM magnetic tape readers that let the
tape droop down and had some sort of vacuum gizmo to control the tension.
I'm sure something could be worked out.

Every IBM S/360 tape drive until the cartridge drives worked this way.
All the 2400-series.

Plus tape drives from just about every other computer manufacturer.

The reason for the vacuum columns was to have only a short length
of tape that needed to rapidly start or stop, while the tape on the
reels, which couldn't spin up nearly as fast, was buffered by the
columns. The reels were driven by servo motors which tried to keep
the vacuum columns half full. A typical drive could bring the tape
under the heads from a standstill to as fast as 200 inches per second
almost instantaneously - and stop it just as quickly - leaving an
inter-record gap of 0.6 inches. (I think the latest GCR models
shortened this to 0.3 inches, but I never worked with them.)

--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | Growth for the sake of
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | growth is the ideology
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | of the cancer cell.
/ \ if you read it the right way. | -- Edward Abbey

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)