Removed stiffness in feed wheel roller pivot on 1442 reader, moved some equipment into the data center and worked on SAC interface programming

1442 CARD READER/PUNCH RESTORATION

After quite a bit more disassembly, I had access to the pivots and rubbing areas for the pivoting roller that was so stiff and sticky. With plenty of lubricants and work, I have it working so much better that I believe that all it will take is some time with NPRO and reading cycles to have this as good as new.

Now I need to figure out what I do about the broken feed wheel tire, which cracked off along part of the circumference. If I can get this refurbished I can get this punch together, installed and nicely operational.

I didn't do anything on the cornering station and stacker issue since I can't test until the punch is re-installed.

REPLACEMENT DISK HEAD FOR CHI DISK DRIVE

As you may remember, the 2310 compatible external disk drive I brought back had suffered a head crash, so that both heads are all scraped up and damaged a test pack when I spun it up. I noticed an eBay auction for a 2314 disk head and it seemed to be usable as a spare, so I bought it for a nice small amount.

Look at the picture side by side, with the head I just bought on the left and the crashed head on the right - looks like it is possible to move the main part of the head over and use it. The head is backwards relative to the other head, but I might be able to mount it on the other arm not this one in the picture. Now I just need to find one more head.

New head on left, bad head on right, looks like it can be remounted  on the long substrate

SAC INTERFACE FOR ADDING PERIPHERALS TO THE 1130

I installed the toolchain for configuring the Ztex FPGA board and began configuring the USB side to meet my needs.

As well, I began changing the VHDL files for the SAC interface to make use of the Spartan-6 based chip on the board. There is quite a bit to modify but I did make good headway today.

DATACENTER SHED CONSTRUCTION

The new GFCI breaker was installed in the panel, I plugged the shed cable into the outlet and successfully tested the outlets inside. I am now ready to move some of the gear clogging up the garage out to the data center. First out were the Documation card reader and its control unit, placed on an 8 foot folding table. Next were my paper tape reader and punch units and the plotter.

I was eager to move the 029 keypunch out to the shed as well, but its weight and cumbersome size was an issue since the shed floor is more than a foot off the ground level. Fortunately, I figured out how to do this without too much sweat and now have plenty of extra moving and working space in the workshop.