An update on my fight with the PPR, also one of its cousins. https://www.cnczone.com/forums/general-cnc-machine-related-electronics/430874-cnc-engineering.html#post2505622 covers my RFI to the CNC community and provides a few pictures of a 19" rack reader integrated with a Zynq; load binary tape, run program on FPGA PDP-11.
That was the cousin, which provided an education on Fanuc PTRs. The PPR's PTR turns out to have had a blown illuminator: the series (active) diode was o/c and the PNP which effects the constant current source had the wrong pin out - the Fanuc footprint is not industry standard. The PNP had obviously been replaced by hands unknown, the flux had not been cleaned off. My only, real, interest in the pathology is will it happen again. With that fixed: PPR in remote mode, load tape, send DC1, tape whizzes through, octets crawl out (4800 baud). My unanswered questions are now mostly those associated with the 19" rack reader. Specifically, what input A13 does and the semantics of the front panel switch positions. Martin
