IBM 1130 Restoration at TNMOC in 2015

The system at TNMOC is an IBM 1130 model 2B with 8KW 3.6us core store, internal IBM 2310 512KW removable disk drive, IBM 1132 printer and an IBM 1442 model 6 card reader/punch. We also have an IBM 29 Card Punch which is part of the TNMOC collection before the 1130 arrived. The 1130 system is on loan from The Museums of Liverpool and arrived at TNMOC on 22nd May 2009.

Below you can read the logs from the restoration project team of Peter Vaughan.

10th January 2015

Card reading issues are still being investigated but I have had limited time recently so progress is slow. Still no clues why the problem is occurring

17th March 2015

Only had a few hours over the past few months to investigate the card reader issue with no progress as a result.

27th June 2015

With the d-block move postponed this weekend I was able to spend all day Saturday investigating the card reader problem.
After spending several hours tracing signals, finding no counters or any way that the 1131 processor knows what column it is reading, I was getting nowhere. I decided it was time to think outside the box... well actually outside the 1131 processor and back into the 1442 reader.
I had noticed when I was first working on the 1442 after it arrived, that there was a small piece of metallised tape on the emitter wheel and wondered why it was there. This is the wheel that has 81 holes cut in it and spins past a photocell. Each hole corresponds to a column on the card and when the light shines through it causes a level 0 interrupt to be sent to the 1131 processor. This causes the processor to read the card column (twice to verify a good read) and write what it read direct to memory if doing a 1st card program load, or passed back to a card reader program used to read the 2nd and subsequent cards.
As the reader had been working I left the piece of tape alone and thought nothing more of it. I also had no clear picture showing its position either. In its current position it was not covering anything, so, I thought, what if I used that piece of tape to cover over the 81st hole in the emitter wheel. Hey presto... I was able to read in cards again... after several more card decks were read, it was confirmed, the card reader was working.
My next task was to work out if I had just masked a problem (literally) or if, in fact, the tape had originally been covering the 81st hole but had slipped or got caught as the wheel was spinning and moved it, uncovering the hole it was masking.
I emailed Carl Claunch in the US who is currently restoring an 1130 and asked him to check his 1442 to see if it has 80 or 81 holes in the emitter wheel... His email and pic an hour later confirmed things... his 1442 also had a piece of metallised tape covering the 81st hole! So that was 2 systems with the same emitter wheel mod, and it slipping was the cause of the problem.
Now I know what the metal tape on the emitter wheel is for.
IBM 029: This is currently out of action due to a broken belt. It is proving difficult to source one in the UK so I may have to look in the US for a replacement.

23rd July 2015

The system has been working fine without any issues loading cards or running its test programs
IBM 029: My contacts in the US have found a possible supplier for an equivalent belt which they will be trying on their 029 punches. If this belt proves acceptable I will order some for the Museum. The 029 is likely to be out of action for a month or so.

18th September 2015

System continues to run without any problems.
Unable to continue restoration until a means of getting programs in to the 1130 or a DMS disk pack from a contact in the US can be built.
Still waiting for a belt for the IBM 029. A replacement has been located by a contact in the US but has not been sent yet.