Disabling HP65/67 card reader write protect

[Don Shepherd]

(03-07-2019 06:08 PM)wallyt Wrote:  I would like to re-record some pre-recorded cards that seem to have lost their data integrity. I would like to record onto the original factory recorded cards since they have all the program nomenclature nicely printed on them. Has anyone thought of how to do this? I have tried to stick some tape to the end of the card, filling the cut so that the reader thinks it is a recordable card, but have not had much success with this.

Is it possible to temporarily wire a switch to the circuit that detects the card's write protect status, say the pad under the little ball, that I could toggle when I need to record a card?

Wally, I needed to do this too years ago when some of my 65 standard pac cards got too close to a magnet. I forget who told me this, but it works like a charm. Here is what he wrote me:

You can write to protected cards easily with an "unprotect" card - take an old card that you aren't otherwise using and cut its bottom right corner off so its right side is at a 45 degree slope in the upper right corner. Then, if you gently put that card into the exit port of the card reader (the left slot), you can write to a protected (cut corner) card. The protected card will push this one out of its way as it goes through, but this card's pointed corner will fill the gap of the protected card's cut corner, fooling the 65 or 97.

the card looks like this: