Hi All.  Regarding John McClelland's enquiry about a MIDI to Punch
program, I punch 20, 26 and 31 note organ rolls directly from MIDI
using software written for me by John Wale.

The software is capable of driving a punch in almost any note
arrangement, hole spacing and increment rate.  There is a table
of preset values for all of these.

I built the punch myself using stepper-motors.  The head traverse
has a resolution of 0.01 mm and uses optical sensors to establish a
reference point in its traverse.  The software drives the punch from
the PC's parallel (printer) port at TTL levels.

A good level of program sophistication is reached with optical
travel sensors confirming that the punch has gone fully down and has
come back up again; in case it were to jam in the paper.  Another
excellent development is the Manual Punch feature which allows me to
put in extra holes where needed, using the PC keyboard.

John Wale developed this software especially for me, but he has
plans to produce a version for general sale.  Contact him at
<essfc@csv.warwick.ac.uk> (Mr J D Wale).

I intend to produce a booklet on the design and building of the Punch
Machine and its interface, time permitting, in the next month or so.

Bob Essex
bobessex@aol.com