curiousmarc
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Apollo Mystery Uplink Box Tape Reader Repaired
🕑 Added 2021-09-07 18:16:03 +0000 UTCThis is from our mystery Apollo Uplink Command box. The tape reader is at the bottom left.
I managed to get the tape reader working again. Here is a short video of it, actuated manually.
The tape should contain the command messages to be sent, we think we just figured out the unusual format, using only 3 bits per step, which is enough for coding an octal digit. Ken thinks that the rest of the bit positions are used to replicate the 3 bits, to provide error checking.
Marc
Comments
Rene Schickbauer
If i understood Ken on Twitter correctly, uplink works by basically typing in commands by simulated keypresses. Wouldn't that require 4 bits? If you're clever and only use octal and don't require the "Key Release" or "Clear", you wouldn't need a 5th bit. Well, of course, If you're splitting every Key Press into two uplink commands, you'd get the full keyboard. The 6th bit would then encode if it's an even or odd nibble.
John Riney
Manual pulse generation π
