Retro computing enthusiast creates perforated tape reader designed ‘from scratch’ — reads data at about 50 bytes per second

A retro computing aficionado, electronics enthusiast, and maker has demonstrated a freshly created perforated tape reader, dubbed the Putapre. Skyriver says they designed this highly compact device from scratch (machine translation) using minimal parts. The maker’s device is said to be much faster than punched tapes or cards of old which used contact-based sensing technology, as this device uses an optical sensor and modern microcontroller to read the data.