Celestial Software

Can I use AT to simply squirt a binary file out a serial port? I want to copy a binary file to a paper tape punch without any intervention on the part of the terminal emulator.

It would also be nice to do the reverse - simply pass a bit stream through to a file, but the send function is more critical.

Thanks for a great product!

Yes!

By hijacking passthrough printing, I think you can already do both of those things.
See the attached screenshot.
At the unix shell, you turn on passthrough with 'tput mc5' and off again with 'tput mc4'. Anything in-between will be sent as binary data to Absolute. Typically, this would be raw data to send to a printer, but there are options to send to a file or even dump to a local serial port. When enabled, the serial port option has bi-directional capabilities as well, so anything read from Absolute while in passthrough mode will actually be read from the serial port instead.

This sounds like what you're looking for. Let me know how you make out.

B

BTW, I'm also terribly curious about your use of a paper tape punch on a serial port. I don't get many requests for things like that these days. What are you up to?

B

Looks like pass-through printing should do it, but today my paper tape punch started misbehaving. That's the trouble with working on the trailing edge - stuff just dies or goes gimpy.

Anyhow, I'm trying to write diagnostic tapes to help in the restoration of an HP 2116C. I'm using a 2109B as a test mule and I have the paper tape reader almost working - reads a word and then stops - but it would be really nice to know that the tapes are actually readable.

I'll get back to you when I've gotten the stuff on my end working so I can verify that your stuff is working. Don't expect anything soon. I'm pretty old and slow myself.

Best regards -
Jack

Just circling back to confirm that Passthru Printing works just fine to punch tapes on my FACIT paper tape punch.

Thanks -
Jack