Reviving a Facit 4070 Paper Tape Punch

[@CuriousMarc]

As you just found out, color of paper tape is important! It’s blue for boy computers, and pink for girl computers. Congrats on filling your workshop with vintage bits! They go everywhere. They’ll now be part of your life forever…

[@mal2ksc]

Is the yellow tape what you use until your computer grows up enough to display a gender?

[@k1ngjulien_]

​​​@@mal2ksc yellow is for non-binary computers, obviously ... wait 🤔

[@AndreasDelleske]

Mine was always yellow.

[@recurvestickerdragon]

ph-dependent tape that changes over time

[@andrewbarnard3229]

@CuriousMarc love your channel, nice to see your active in the comments, even on other peoples channels. You and Usagi and others provide invaluable entertainment and knowledge for many of us here in cyber space.

[@mre9789]

Back in the 1980's, we used punched tape in our old CNC machines in our machine shop. Our tapes were used over and over so much that we went to mylar tape to make it last longer. If a paper tape broke or had damaged holes, it could cause the machine to crash and scrap the part being made. Especially if it was cutting threads on the part at the time. The problem with punched tape in the CNC world is, if you need to make a small change to the program, you had to punch a whole new tape. I discovered that the Punched Tape Reader communicated with the machine control over a parallel interface, very similar to the printer port of an early PC computer. I wrote some software for the PC that mimicked the operation of the PTR, and made up a cable. We then saved all of our programs in ASCII text files. In operation you could see the lines of text scrolling on the PC screen. This made it much easier to edit the files if needed, and the complete part program library was located at the machine for faster access. Also, no more bad tapes.

[@CATech1138]

in the lat 90's i had to troubleshoot a PTR communication problem involving a GE unit the size of a fridge that ran a modified bridgeport knee mill....i was a wannabe homebrew PC tech withna reputation of being able to sus out weird issues...when i got the call....I'm completely lost in S100 bus, back plane and wire wrap technology....they had already put in hours on the phone with the PTR supplier, the bus cad supplier and an old guy that knew more than i ever will ...mailing cards and cables back and forth and updating software all with no results....I notice the reader light isn't on and ask all 3 sources on a conference call, if that matters, nope, the reader has nothing to do with the PTR function, i was told....so i take the bull by the horns and trace out the wiring for the reader and ,sure enough, found a ground wire broken at the wrap on the backplane...5 minutes later, reader light on, they were running parts again...total repair time 18 minutes turns out that the ground on the reader is responsible for logic low at the reader and logic low doesn't sink much current so logic high can persist on the bus i was considered a genius formthe next 30 minutes (when it was discovered that imhad locked my keys in my car)

[@RodHartzell]

@@CATech1138 Awesome! The universe has a way of keeping us humble.

[@mal2ksc]

Nowadays you'd probably use an Arduino or similar with a small screen and a few buttons, and only need to hook up a computer to add or modify programs. The paper tape fragility was dealt with in the days of Jacquard looms by using punched cards strung together in a fan-fold. This also meant individual cards could be replaced. It probably would be speed-limited by its own physics though.

[@mal2ksc]

@@CATech1138 Too bad this was before everyone carried a phone, or you could have called the Auto Club or a locksmith and kept the "keys locked in" incident to yourself.

[@DougDingus]

It is entirely possible to edit a paper tape record! One can delete and insert tape segments to get this task done. It is also possible to reconstruct damaged tapes. One shop I worked in had the little square pieces of tape with all the hole positions punched out, which made it perfect for bonding two tape segment ends together and maintain good index hole alignment. They also had a manual punch. Basically, this was a small station that had 8 punches one could operate by hand. It also had an index sprocket and wheel one could turn and advance the tape one byte at a time. (Or one record for some tapes.) With those tools, the operators could punch up a replacement segment, cut the tape using the little shear on the patch station, insert fresh tape into the station and punch all the characters needed, then shear both ends for precision joining with the paper tape, patch tape. Take a few minutes to smooth it out, maybe put a bit of very light oil on and run the now patched tape through the reader and go!

[@GeekIWG]

The fact that you can now transfer data from your modern laptop to such an old machine as the Bendix G15 is mind blowing

[@drgenio2006]

you can go back even further and transmit data to old teletypes. It's mind blowing that, while PCs have dropped the RS-232 serial ports about a decade ago, you can still buy USB and PCI-Express serial cards that are fully compatible with such old machines. While RS-232 is the standard, the signaling (+12/-12V) goes way back. You can, with a simple voltage adapter, connect to Teletypes from over 100 years ago.

[@-argih]

@@drgenio2006 Some MoBos still have internal COM ports so you can connect the serial interface directly. My relatively recent B450 MoBo (~2021) have a couple that can be enabled or disabled on BIOS

[@fromgermany271]

You only need a mechanical code converter 😂

[@drgenio2006]

@@-argih well, there is still an ISA bus in every PC motherboard. it's just not easily accessible haha

[@toxicpsion]

​@@drgenio2006most of the time it doesn't even make it out of the southbridge package anymore.

[@TastyBusiness]

That's a real nice punch, going to make a whole pile of hole-punchies with that. A bit bucket is a must!

[@UsagiElectric]

You know, my brain never made the connection between bit bucket and the literal bucket to catch paper tape bits until just now!

[@mcolville]

@@UsagiElectric Holy crap!!

[@mal2ksc]

I think it would be wise to make a 3D-printable mounting bracket that could be used to attach a paper bag.

[@davenally8672]

and a bell when the bit bucket is full 🔔

[@Dr_Mario2007]

​@@davenally8672Bit overflow bell would be nice. Ping! 🔔

[@clyde3013]

Dude you need a sponsorship from simple green at this point lol

[@carolinavenger]

It's good stuff. I run a big cranky robot at work and it's been a lifesaver. Can't count how many times someone else walked off with it and left me yelling "WHERE'S MY GREEN STUFF"

[@UsagiElectric]

I would not say no to that, haha.

[@LitheInLitotes]

I eat simple green

[@JamesTK]

@@LitheInLitotes delicious and nutritious

[@FreejackVesa]

I've been using simple green for probably 20 years. Love the stuff.

[@davidferguson7075]

The blue tape is probably Mylar tape which is used for tapes that are used a lot. The tape does not tear or fall apart. We would use these for final production for programs such as boot loaders. Paper tape was used for larger programs. The paper tape is also normally oil impregnated to oil the punch and Mylar is not but it wore out the punch if punched a lot.

[@xKynOx]

I worked in a warehouse they still had 5 machines that needed paper tape in 1998, i love the way you update nothing until it breaks.

[@UsagiElectric]

The great thing about paper tape is that as long as some bugs don't eat the paper, it'll last as a storage medium for an incredibly long time. Magnetic media can be incredibly difficult to get the appropriate drive for working, but even a clever piece of software on your cell phone today can still read old paper tape. It's a wonderful storage medium!

[@FreejackVesa]

What did the machines do? And how big were the machines the tape operated on? Thanks

[@bluecollarmage4512]

In 2019 I worked at a machine shop with a GnL horizontal boring mill that had been upgraded from tape to floppy. It had a metal tape as what I presumed was its firmware that it still relies on.

[@fhunter1test]

The last I have seen machine using a paper tape was in early 2010s in Russia. It was pretty advanced CNC stamping machine, and programs for it were on paper tape. (Which makes sense - in industrial setting, paper tape survives much better than magnetic media). We were asked if we could find someone to help them replace the dead interface panel/terminal for the machine (something in CRT circuit burned out, they tried to repair it, but failed). But the whole other parts of the machine were functional. In the end we weren't able to negotiate available time/etc, because that thing looked mostly undocumented. Which was a bit sad, the machine was impressive. (People there showed us what it could produce - like precision antenna arrays and so on).

[@jeromethiel4323]

This is the bane of my existence. I repair large-ish industrial equipment, and obsolete equipment is a factor of life. Sadly, when a product just isn't made anymore, you cannot get parts to do repairs. Which really sucks when the customer says (and i quote) "we never upgraded that machine because for the past 30 years it has just worked!" Sorry buddy, that part isn't made anymore, and even used parts are getting to be unobtainium. Time to either buy a whole new machine, or upgrade at least the electrics. Was just at a customers site, and thankfully, i got them running again, but the variable frequency drives on that machine aren't made anymore, and if one of those had been bad, they'd have been screwed. Luckily it turned out to be a communication error (profibus), which i happen to be very good with. So i had it fixed relatively quickly (2 hours), but it could have been a very bad day for that company.

[@krugtech]

'll never forget the day we read tape into memory for the first time and realized we only had to get the tape to read good one time. I wept tears of joy.......

[@CucumbersSC]

Swede here! Its a long A, so more FAH-cit. So fun to see them turn up here, an iconic old company. The word means "answer key" or "the correct answer", especially in mathematical contexts but also more generally.

[@bradnelson3595]

So it rhymes with Farah Fawcett (Majors)?

[@sofiarosendal1172]

@@bradnelson3595 anther swede here, yes sounds like Fawcett but with an i instead of e in the end.

[@mellertid]

Fa as in far, cit as sit.

[@tectopic]

@@bradnelson3595 Yep. "Fawcitt"

[@jeremylindemann5117]

@@sofiarosendal1172 So it's ring A (Å) instead of A?

[@carolinavenger]

I work in a print/mail shop running a big mail insert machine and it's funny how many parallels I see (maybe because of how old some of our equipment is lol). The little tensioners on the tape punch are just tiny versions of the dancers on our big roll printer. And the photodiode / paper color thing actually makes a lot of sense - my inserter has a ton of optical sensors so it can "see" where paper is, and if we're running something with a heavy black line on it somewhere, for example, sometimes we have to adjust the sensitivity on the sensors or they get triggered at the wrong time and donk everything up. These videos give me a new appreciation for my grumpy robot. Although mine just turns itself off at the end of a run- I wish it had a bell! I'll never get over how charming that is

[@Milsparro]

Donk everything up lol

[@magickmarck]

David, I'm not one for so-called brown-nosing. I don't even like the term! But I am so thankful that the Bendix machine found its way into your capable hands. I started my journey (ok, I started watching..) you back right around when you found the Centurion machine, or a little after. I'm a visual artist, not an electronics guy, though i've done some soldering etc. Your channel has been a real gift, just as an example of dedication to one's craft and an example of having fun and being excellent at the same time. Thank you so much for all the care you put into these videos. I am also someone who suffers from depression and other rather serious mental health issues, and your videos are a nice place to park my brain. It is so great to see these projects come to fruition on your channel, and to know some of what might be in store going forward. You are why this format (still) exists. A window into something unknown. Peace, brother.

[@magickmarck]

PS I love how it barfs the bits out the side. Too cool.

[@larsbr4519]

Worked at Datasaab Linköping 20 Miles from Facit Åtvidaberg in the seventies. Assembling D5-20 computers. And we used a two feet long paper bootstrap first so you then could load the test program, then you had to rewind the paper tape with your index finger ;-) Time flies :-)

[@lerikhkl]

Östergötland represent 😎

[@GegoXaren]

I'm from Strömstad, and I'm sure they had a factory for the mecanical calculators they made, long long before my time.

[@draco5991rep]

Is he pronouncing the name correctly? Or is the C pronounced like a K?

[@simonlandeholm7086]

​@@draco5991rep C is pronounced with an "s".

[@draco5991rep]

@@simonlandeholm7086 how unfortunate 😢 a k sound would have been so much funnier

[@imlarry425]

When you mentioned needing a bucket for the chad it reminded me of a visual joke the DEC field service guy left in the VAX 11/780 in the PLU computer center. The middle cabinet is nearly empty and he had hung a small plastic beach pail inside with a loop of cable running into it along with a handful of paper tape chad. Our system manager would show this to people during the occasional tour and say that when there was an overflow condition any of the extra bits falling off the end would get captured here and that he needed to empty it once or twice a month. The pail was labelled "bit bucket." Thanks for taking me back!

[@OscarSommerbo]

My dad was less than pleased when I discovered the "bucket of confetti" and spread it around his bacherlor pad. I was 5.

[@AlistairGale]

@@OscarSommerboc’mon dude, we know that you’ll do the same thing right now.

[@amazing763]

@@OscarSommerbo Those were floating points from the floating-point hardware that every DEC computer either had or wished it had.

[@am2dan]

Came to the comments looking for this. Something similar was joked about the rectangular chad from the 80-column card punches used way back when.

[@jfwfreo]

I like that you are bringing these old beasts (the G-15 and the Centurion and the PDP and the other old computers you have) back to life and preserving these pieces of history not just as static museum pieces for people to look at but actual functioning running computers that can actually run code and produce output.

[@AnonYmous-yz9zq]

Every machine you fix is a living treasure. We need more people who fix things rather than break them.

[@termiterasin]

old technology is rare and its amazing people will refurbish and use it.

[@johnopalko5223]

I have fond memories of punched paper tape. I think the last time I used it was in 1975. I used to work 4:00 'til midnight at a printing service. Our biggest contract was printing the Directory Assistance telephone directory every day. Somehow a paper tape with all the data appeared during the day. I don't know if the phone company delivered it or if they sent the data and we punched it on-site. Regardless, the first thing I did once I got in was use a Mohawk machine to read the paper tape and write it to a magnetic tape. Then we ran it through several programs on our RCA Spectra 70 mainframe that eventually produced an output magnetic tape. I then mounted that tape on a photo typesetter that produced camera-ready copy. Toward the end of my shift, the stab paper was finally dry and I delivered the copy to the print shop in the back where they made litho plates and began printing all night. It was a pretty interesting job that lasted about a year. I got "laid off" after I testified against the company at a Labor Board hearing. Oh, well.

[@mikefochtman7164]

"Standard RS232 shenanigans" Yup! We finally got some db25's with individual jumpers so we could do the 'shenanigans' in one step instead of three. lol

[@vicroc4]

RS232 shenanigans are best shenanigans.

[@RJTC]

I still have an "Interfaker" 25 pin RS232 monitor & patch box that gets regular use with machine tool programming jobs; it can save ages sorting out the various signal combinations different makers use.

[@Drew-Dastardly]

Oh lord. I remember ordering a gender changer DB9 from China and what was delivered was totally ghey. Straight pin to straight pin. Utterly useless and who could come up with such nonsense? Apparently such things exist purely to save the DB9 connector on the motherboard from too many connect/disconnect cycles. Thank god for USB.

[@dflood6111]

I've worked in a couple of Data Centers where paper tape hadn't been used in many years. And we were still finding chads every time we did any cleaning...

[@FreejackVesa]

Bunch of chads, hanging around, like they do. Apparently

[@termiterasin]

worlds most chad paper punch

[@Wiktorion]

My grandfather worked at Facit at the time of its dissolution and he managed to save a lot of cool Facit machines such as several model 1122 Nixie-tube engineer's calculators.

[@nice8D]

Seeing that you have all that g15 software backed up and a paper punch to test it now had me so excited to know that this machine can now operate the way it was originally meant to. You're doing great work dude don't forget it!

[@EdwinSteiner]

For some reason, old and new equipment communicating like this gives me ultimate geek joy. I hope you will find a replacement for the broken switch. This beautiful punch deserves it!

[@tommythorn]

Oh no, all the bits are dropping to the floor! I think we love paper tape because it's so tangible; we can literally read the data with our own eyes. The punch is a very special piece of equipment that would be incredibly difficult to make ourselves, so congrats! Now we just need to work out a sustainable supply of blank paper tape.

[@roberternest7289]

Exactly. I mean, it could workby making strips from normal paper and joining them together

[@ionstorm66]

Ordering a custom width roll of paper would be fairly cheap if you ordered say 100~ rolls from a smaller paper mill.

[@esra_erimez]

"Oh no, all the bits are dropping to the floor!" 🤣

[@juango500]

What do you mean the code is _inside_ the vacuum cleaner!?

[@josefnovak7496]

@@juango500 They are actually all zeros that have turned into ones :-)

[@EmperorKonstantine01]

Don't know why but every time you clean and detail old equipment its mentally rewarding to watch !

[@jcmo5900]

At about 22 minutes in, you mentioned something everyone had been wondering about. In my head ridiculous thoughts broke through... "Can it run Doom?"

[@JosephGartman-g1g]

Hi congratulations on your fast. I was 19 and working @ WU data center in Cleveland . Being ful of miss and vinegar as most teenagers are . I was given the task of emptying the 5 gallon bucket that was under our paper punch machines . So I took the 5 gallon bucket to the roof of the building witch was on 9th st . The wind comes off of the lake and up 9th st. like nobody's bissness and the Chad came down like snow and for days past you could see 8 level oiled paper ckad in people's hair . I'm all to familiar with what it's like to clean up this Chad. Besides working on KSR33's and 28's fun,fun,fun!

[@indisputablefacts8507]

I used paper tape in my very early days of computing. I can assure you that paper tape is, far and away, the most fun digital storage medium ever invented.

[@ennexthefox]

0:44 Hey whoa whoa whoa we're just gonna gloss over how satisfying the action of removing the paper tape cartridge is? It's a super mundane thing, but watching the tape "head" retract when you unlocked the cartridge, and all the associated noises was very pleasing.

[@DawnOfTheComputer]

Like you, I have a long-running project to build a computer using only pre-semiconductor technology, and had planned on using punchtape as cheap program memory. Building a reader is easy enough with an Arduino and 3D printer, but trying to punch out in 2024 is surprisingly difficult. Vintage punch machines are rare, rarely work, and are dull if they still do. Designing one demands custom precision hardened steel parts. Nobody even makes the blank tape anymore. I'm glad someone is making this idea work in spite of the challenges!

[@JunkyardDigs]

Holy hell that bendix computer has 3100 hours on it, that as much as most worn out farm equipment from that era!

[@adriansnow5087]

That's awesome. As a 55 year old you've got to get that machine running the early moon lander game that ran on HP & TI calculators back in the 70s. Brilliant work 👍

[@galeng73]

It has been a long time since I've seen a paper tape punch in operation. This pleases me. Thanks!

[@BatGuanno]

It is so neat watching you bring old things back to life, can't wait for it to be punching out the program for your hand made computer. Keep on punching on. 🙂

[@andreas7136]

On a TI 960 minicomputer, we had yellow paper tape, which was oiled for multiple readings, red paper tape, unoiled to glue together (after a link run) and blue Mylar tape for bootstrap loader and OS, Assembler Editor.

[@weirdmindofesh]

The bell dinging at the end of the program is one of those touches you don't see often now. It's kind of like the POST beep that everything is okay.

[@termiterasin]

probably a reason why pc speakers exist.

[@bsadewitz]

​​​​@@termiterasinIt goes all the way back to the 19th century with the Baudot BEL code. Teletypes were the first terminals, and they already had a bell, so electronic terminals inherited it. The character persists to this day in ASCII and Unicode. You could actually play 6-bit PCM audio through the PC speaker by converting it to pulse width modulation, then clip the wires off the speaker and plug it into your stereo lol. It took no CPU time because it used the hardware timer. Which is funny because I don't think it was really intended to do much more than beep.

[@ByteDelight]

This is one of the best episodes, seeing the old punch CREATE the medium to load the software, is insane!

[@movax20h]

Always check for obvious shorts before powering any old hardware. It takes seconds, and in fact saves time. It is mesmerizing and fun watching the punch working so fast.

[@rzerobzero]

I was so (probably a little TOO) excited to hear that bell at the end, lol. Great job as usual.

[@bradnelson3595]

I've never been so thrilled to hear a bell. It's really hilarious, but at the same time cool. I think we need a Bell Cam to show it in operation.

[@chrisa2735-h3z]

The bendix it is definitely one of the most beautiful and elegant computers I’ve ever seen!!😍😍 I love 1950s tech!!

[@ellis16]

What an absolute delight of a machine. Amazing how well it and all the older machines commit to their original purpose. Thanks for sharing!

[@PaulinesPastimes]

The Facit machine is do beautiful in it's precision. In the early 1970s, a very young me was a telephone operator at the main Trunk Exchange in Sydney, Australia. By 1975, subscribers could dial their own long distance calls but before that you had to call the operator. Our favourite was Lily Tomlin's Ernestine of course. Back then, you could phone an operator and order a Wakup call and your phone would ring at the requested time and you would hear the automated time voice to tell you it was 6am or whatever, and you had to get up and go to work. All those Wakup Calls were entered onto paper tape, just like yours, and fed through some sort of magic machine which dialled every number at specific times and got grumpy workers up for the day. I wasn't in the section where it was done but I saw it in action and it was like the most modern and futuristic thing. Within a couple of years it was all on big computers with big tape spools and I suppose the paper tape devices were just disposed of. Loving this series. The Bendix G15 is fabulous.

[@Unfinished80]

Wow. I really didn't expect that punch to just work. That's awesome! I wonder if you could get the Bendix playing Zork through the typewriter. That would be freakin' cool!

[@Dr_Mario2007]

Indeed, I agree! It would be epic seeing the oldest digital computer handling simple text adventures game.

[@bigclivedotcom]

The punching happens much faster than I was expecting.

[@fellipec]

I remember when I was a kid and my dad was the manager of a retail shop, they had Telex machines and they saved the text to be transmitted in punched paper tapes. I liked to play with the “confetti” it made.

[@MeriaDuck]

That's a lot faster than I would've expected! ❤ Machine goes brrrrrrrrrrr!

[@Cruznick06]

Simple Green is used in so many applications. I use it for cleaning de-molding agent off of gunpla pieces. Garage Kit builders use it to deep-clean their resin parts before painting. Not to mention using it for cleaning mechanical components, car parts, and basic household stuff! So cool to see you get this working and learn how paper tape is cut. Thanks for making this content.

[@ahmad-murery]

What a great result. Notepad++ is a real gem for quick text coding. Thanks David!

[@Daniel-A84]

Cool to see something from my country and that era :) thank you!

[@ipcamper9940]

I bet the paper is hard to find. Back in the 80's, my uncle loved all things musical and gadgets. He had many player piano's and slotted disc players. He decided to rebuild a grandfather clock, and included a full two octaves of door bell chimes. The music was on a long loop tape that used leds and photo sensors to activate relays for the chimes. He could not find the right type and size of paper for it, so he took a vinyl shower curtain and cut it into strips the right size. punched holes on both sides for a dot matrix tractor feed to run the strips over the "Read Head". the clock played a different tune for each hour.

[@K5HJ]

As I recall from my Teletype tinkering days, the white (now yellow) tapes were read using mechanical contacts as opposed to optical sensors. I'm pleased to see that you were able to adjust the bias to make it work on the Bendix. I would imagine that the peak to peak levels from the diodes would be lower than when using an opaque tapes but the amplified signals look good on the oscilloscope. I'm really enjoying this series of videos. I cut my teeth in electronics back in the vacuum tube days.

[@joaosnow4801]

For the UE-1 you could use a vhs player roller for the pinch roller, so it doesnt create inconsistencies on tape read, like a change in the speed of the tape pull. You can also put springs to pull the pinch roller more tightly to the tape and smooth out any inconsistencies on the tape or capstan thickness.

[@derekchristenson5711]

Wow, that's so cool! Bonus for being able to use it unmodified with both 8- and 5-bit tapes!

[@trbowlin]

I don't know what's funner, watching your joy when you get these old dinosaurs working, or the memories of me sitting at a teletype in high school *(75') with a tape reader/writer, writing code to generate a star trek program to run on the school districts pdp-12.

[@Hutschnur]

Being childish as I am, I'm still giggling about the fact, that Bendix called its diagnostic routine "Diaper". "Seems we have some noisy bits in the diaper..." I'm sorry, it just cracks me up xD btt: It's so cool to see the Bendix up and running. And now with a tape punch on hand I'm curious what we can actually do with it. And what the UE1 is capable of. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@monkeymhn7]

Hum if there is noise in the diaper then it is likely a dirty diaper.

[@markpitts5194]

@@monkeymhn7 How can something so small produce so much of something so disgusting!

[@enojelly9452]

This was so satisfying to watch, and the bell adds some sort of culmination to the entire arc. Love this channel, truly can’t wait for what’s coming next.

[@andrewmackie5110]

Right?! "I got Doom to run on a baby monitor!" Cool! *Bendix bell rings* WHOA

[@theelmonk]

I bought one of those in '85 for work when they were still easy to find. We used it to create tapes for pick'n'place machine on a word processor. Previously we had to punch tapes out on an actual teletype with only for corrections. It was parallel input so I built a serial->parallel card using one of the last few non-processor UARTS. I love that spiral post.

[@Lunniemusic]

Usagi I’ve been watching for quite a while now and you’ve been working so hard on these old machines to keep them from the scrapyard keep up the good work

[@kturek625]

Oh my god I can't believe I stumbled on to this and actually watched the whole thing. But I was totally amazed! Yeah I went to community college for computers in 78 and had the store my basic program on paper tape. I saw a number of your videos. You make them intriguing because I don't know what's going to happen next but your enthusiasm, excitement, your thrill and positive attitude makes these videos great. Keep up the good work!

[@CATech1138]

and here I am rooting for the Bell as soon as the first 5 level tape was proven correctly punched

[@jannepeltonen2036]

Yay! Working paper tape punch! My first typewriter was a Facit, they made good stuff :)

[@ferrari2k]

Seeing that paper punch machine working really made me happy :D Congrats on that whole journey!

[@NowInAus]

Oh man, that is a stupendous piece of engineering. So great to see it punching and producing proper instructions. Can't wait for the next step.

[@torondin]

Nice to see that paper tape punch working. Now you can give the Bendix a new diaper.

[@paulturner5769]

At 1:28, Read as RIght to Left, Reader-order and Top=lsb, the highlighted ASCII tape says "PRINT CHR$ (0);: RESTORE 70 NEXT N75 G0SUB 8"

[@BassistInATutu]

You are indeed pronouncing the word Facit correctly! I have a couple of 1940/50's Facit mechanical calculators I repaired so this was quite interesting to see other things they made.

[@KameraShy]

But apparently not The Swedish Way.

[@frozendude707]

Facit is one of those archaic words that not a single soul outside of language scholars pronounce correctly anymore, using the correct phonetics just sounds weird to me (pretty similar to the Arabic word فقير if you alter the last part), so people can generally pronounce it however they want as far as at least I am concerned.

[@RetroMario]

It is pretty crazy that I'm sitting by a computer that's considered mini, even today (A Mac Mini) and watch those behemoth of the previous century chugging along and having the time of their lives. Those machines have a certain type of charm. Not to mention they were the catalysts of advancements in human history and it blows my mind in so many levels!

[@germanderspeedwell]

What a magnificently satisfying piece of engineering to watch working. How exciting to be in the room on the day. Well done and thank you :)

[@muppetpaster]

As a kid( born in '69 ) I had so many of these punchers AND readers....My dad imported,sold and repaired them...Very time a newer model or defected came back, I goyt the remainder of these machines, to tinker with (1974 till approx. 1982) For example a "lot" of GNT 460x series reader/punchers... So sad to remember how I pulled them apart , tinkered and threw them away, now..... We had loads of early computer stuff at home. All pre PC....... Also...We started of our fireplace with the little dots punched out.....Worked great too.....

[@williamsquires3070]

Hi David. Before adjusting the calibration for the blue paper tape, mark the settings before trying it with white paper tape; this’ll save you some time resetting the calibration back to blue paper tape once you’re done having too much fun with white paper tape. Also take that (paper tape puncher) to the next VCF! 😅

[@fenny1578]

My favorite part of this whole series is the 'I think it's working!' vibe.

[@dev-debug]

Used IBM tele-terms back in the mid 70s in school so paper for a screen and paper punch to save and load programs. Don't know how I managed not to lose a program given how easy it is to rip the tape. Your computer build is impressive.

[@HessTruckBOOKS]

20:43 Automagically! Love it

[@douglasmayherjr.5733]

Pretty cool paper tape punch. The paper tape was before my computer use time. I appreciate the history and the work you are going through to bring the Bendix G15 back to useful life. Thanks for the Videos. Hopefully you had a Happy Thanksgiving.

[@thirstyCactus]

That's a lot quieter and faster than I expected! I remember looong ago (late 70's) seeing some punch tape that had a blue/metallic look and felt cool to the touch, like it was aluminum covered in Mylar or something.

[@justinpakarno4346]

Good job editor David, that puncher is an exciting new tool!

[@timlash]

Really great to see both these vacuum tube machines coming to life. Thanks for sharing all your hard work!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@aserta]

The broken button is easily fixed, mind you. Just take it apart by pulling on the swing and then glue it. DO IT, inside of a clear plastic bag, just in case something inside the button decides to try to reach L1. edit: 18:36 on the left half of the screen, left of the double row, there's either a miss-punch or an error. Also, at first, you gave it the order to punch, but not all the "teeth" came out. IMO, you should carefully open up the assembly there and put some dry lubrication in the passage where the "teeth" sit.

[@CaptainSouthbird]

I'm surprised how little that device needed to get up and going, basically just a fuse and capacitor and seems healthy enough. Impressive for its age, honestly.

[@cpunut]

Awesome paper tape punch , the first time I've seen anything other than a reader. Great troubleshooting on the one more modern photodiode. I love the videos of your projects 🙂👍

[@audreywinter4553]

Congrats on the multiple wins! The Bendix lives! Now, just a month left to get the UE-1 processing code, and that should be relatively easy with the experience you've gained. This is exciting!

[@DrewskisBrews]

You might find additional punch machines and supplies in a forgotten corner of machine shops. Punch tape was pretty common for NC machine tools, and was still being used quite a bit into the 1990's.

[@zehalmeida]

But can you run a LLM on this 4070? Jokes aside, this is amazing! Retro computing shows us how ingenious people were and also how many thing we take for granted today had to be engineered and really thought out before becoming standard. Computing history is amazing and you are THE absolute legend for keeping up with those projects. Thank you and keep up the good work, you're a gem of a person and even though I am not from US, you are definitely a national treasure.

[@henryatkinson1479]

The reel system on this is like a concentric magazine on a film camera (motion picture). Spiral is exactly the same concept as can be found in basically every Panavision magazine.

[@justinkovacik9436]

That is completely awesome to see the speed the paper tape punch works at. It's fascinating that they can engineer something to work consistently like that.

[@LewisDonofrio]

Neat that the bell was made in “Adrian, Michigan.” I live 40 minutes north east from there, keep on being awesome…

[@LazloNQ]

I helped my Dad clean a newspaper office that was using paper tape in the late 80s still. I remember dumping the collection of paper dots in the trash. Prior, Dad also cleaned a bank where punch cards were used and I was allowed to pull the catch pan out and dump it. It was a royal mess when I'd occasionally drop the pan. I learned to be very careful after a time or 2 of that. During the time he cleaned the bank, the punch card machines were removed. I didn't know it at the time, but some of the big cards they threw away were ring memory which we salvaged for the copper. DOH!

[@jarms40]

Okay. Seriously... that's the coolest gadget you've ever played with on this channel (and that's really saying something).

[@baronvonschnellenstein2811]

The punch machine literally going, "brrrr" - nice! Getting the G15 tuned to read the white tape was a bonus :)

[@jamesdecross1035]

…I was waiting for those triumphant bells!

[@UsagiElectric]

Ding! Victory!

[@volvo09]

That paper tape punch is seriously cool! It MOVES!

[@UsagiElectric]

I'm sure there are faster punches out there, but this one is way faster than I was expecting!

[@volvo09]

​@@UsagiElectric wow, can't imagine how fast those punch heads must move! I'm sure a faster one must have been a welcome time saver back in the day. How long did it take to punch the copy of DIAPER?

[@TheCrypto34]

That's incredible to see something so old make brand new tape with very little maintenance.

[@TheStickCollector]

Glad to see these and how they work. Most people won't know about these, let alone kids.

[@BlankBrain]

We used paper tape punches at Floating Point Systems to code wire wrap instructions. The backplanes on the array processors were wire wrapped, and backplanes had 62 long wire wrap board slot connectors (2 connectors/board X 31 boards). The wire wrap machine displayed a code indicating the wire length and positioned a guide over the correct pin (sort of like a plotter). The operator/assembler grabbed the indicated wire, put the end in the wire wrap gun tip, put the tip onto the pin using the guide, and wrapped it. Then the operator pressed a pedal (I think), and the guide positioned itself over the second pin. The operator affixed the other end of the wire to the pin. The paper tape reader provided instructions for the next wire. When a change was made, new tapes had to be punched for all backplane assembly stations. If this was done today, it would be networked. Someone would screw up the file, and a whole bunch of backplanes would have to be reworked. Around 1980, I unboxed and carried a brand new Remex paper tape punch/reader into the computer room to install in a rack. I carried it through the printer room where someone had spilled a drink. I slipped, lost my balance, and went down with the drive. It weighed about 40 pounds (18 kg) and had sharp edges on the sides. I tried to save it. The side of the drive cut the tendons in my right middle finger, I had surgery to put it back together, but it still doesn't work right. Now I kinda irrationally dislike paper tape punches.

[@andrewinnj]

I love when my favorite KZbinrs get fresh haircuts. Looks sharp!

[@LaLaLand.Germany]

Facit was Swiss or German- what do You expect from a watchmaker or the inventor of the audio reel to reel machine that used 6mm paper tape with iron oxide on it? Exactly. No wonder it worked. And if You don´t belive me on the reel to reel bit: AEG presented their machine in august 1935 in Berlin, the K1. AEG with help of the BASF went away from paper tape to what we know today: thin vinyl tape. November 1936 The London Philharmonic Orchestra was recorded on that with the AEG K2- the rest is history. Radio broadcasters got interested and the tech was used intensively for propaganda. But congratulations on that working. It´s very cool to see that all come together and do stuff. I love the bell. "Dinner´s ready, Dear"… And a proud kitty at the end. Nice, good job!

[@jamesross3939]

So awesome!! Your excitement is palpable! Fun to watch!

[@spikeevans1488]

Your tape punch brought back memories. Well into the '90s I worked developing cnc controller software fir machine tools. I can't tell you how much mylar punched taped we used for older machines. If you want to get back at someone you put a handfiull of mylar chad in a desk drawer, very difficult to clear up.

[@Dogwalkeroftwo]

particularly if you oil it up first!

[@kingofl337]

Very cool project, looking forward to seeing the UE-1 run.

[@patprop74]

MAN!!! that thing is amazing lol I dont know why, but something about punching holes in paper that fast just is a treat to see.

[@spajdude]

A Swede here. The difference in the Swedish and your pronounciation of "Facit" is like the British and American way of pronouncing "can't". The 'a' sound is different, but everyone knows what is said. And "Facit" is a Latin word, so Swedes are probably not pronouncing it correctly anyway. Very interesting video. I wonder how much tape it would take to store a simple video game.

[@Steelgramps]

Yes, just like saying far but without the r and follow it with sit, like sit on a chair.

[@damienconroy3914]

say it like this: faaw-sit

[@ChuffingNorah]

Old Harpsichords & Organs had the makers imprimatur stencilled/painted on the casework in Latin. Such as "Johannus Silbermann Facit Me Anno Domine 1720". meaning "Johann Silbermann made me 1720 A.D"! Maybe those old Computer Bods should have done the same, to show some legacy & provenance!

[@kevincozens6837]

@spajdude You can calculate how much tape would be needed. Take the number of bytes used for the video game and multiply that by 0.1". That will tell you how many inches of tape are required to store the video game.

[@HalianTheProtogen]

are always hard in Latin, so /ˈfa.kit/.

[@RinoaL]

I really love the design of that Facit paper tape puncher.