tape emulator

[bbrreid]

Hi,
anyone know of paper tape emulator /
this contraption came with an old Yamazaki cnc lathe i bought
it has a ribbon cable with a small board that sits on the read head of
my fanuc tape reader and a socket for a serial or parallel (not sure which) plug
on the other end and a box of electronics in between.if it is a parallel connection
does anyone have software to run it.or have worked with one or even seen one before.
Thanks
Brian

[Al_The_Man]

Looks like a home-cooked BTR, Looks like there is only a couple of wires going to the 25pin D socket so I would guess it is a serial to parallel conversion.
If you are lucky and it has its own firmware (EEprom) or dedicated USART chip, then you could try hooking up to a PC serial port and use any Modem program DOS or otherwise, the only problem is you may have to try a few different protocols, baud rates etc to get anything to work.
Cimnet sell a Fanuc reader BTR replacement system that may work, if you are looking for an alternative.
Al.

[bbrreid]

Hi Al , thanks
got the magnifying glass out had a look the hand writing on the sticker on the chip reads " ser pow cs= 8603 2/10/87 " marking on the chip is D8748
L3228308S
Intel 80'
some one did put a 5 volt battery to it and the led's on the side lite up
I tried a serial cable and cnclite dnc and no lights came on but i used the cable from my Bridgeport with Heidenhain so maybe the wiring is wrong.this gismo has blue to pin3 yellow to pin4 black to pin7and white to pin11
looks like it saves spending big money on a BTR.
Brian

[Al_The_Man]

The common serial Tx/RX pins are pin 2 & 3 pin 7 common, Pin 11?.
These pins would have to come off a RS232 chip like a 1488 or 1489.
If this is 70's vintage it could be a Intel 8748 processor which had everything on board, processor, memory/i/o etc.
It looks like very much a one-off.
Al.

[bbrreid]

Thanks Al,
the date on the main chip is 1987 and I do think you are right about it being a "one off" I gave it to a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy etc.
so if I have any luck I will post the info so other members may find some use
for it.
Brian