DEC VT05 with OS/8 -- basic system rebuild?

On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 12:25 AM, Philipp Hachtmann <hachti at hachti.de> wrote: In all honesty, no. I don't think I've ever even *seen* a VT05. I've seen plenty of ASR-33s and lots of VT52s (and plenty more newer terminals), just not the VT05. In my experience, if you had an older system (pre-OMNIBUS), an ASR-33 was quite common, though I have used a VT220 with my TTL-era PDP-8s (because of the included 20mA interface). By the time the OMNIBUS came around (1972?), the ASR-33 was no longer the "only" terminal to use - I've seen a number of -8/e and -8/m with either a VT52 or some flavor of Tektronix terminal on them. The VT52 was quite common on the PDP-8/a, and I'd say the ASR-33 much less so, but by no means unknown. In all of that, the VT05 kinda stands apart. I don't have much experience with the multi-terminal Edusystems, but perhaps that was a place where the VT05 might have been used. You'd at least have a place for a driver, unlike at the OS/8 prompt. I also don't recall the VT05 being pushed in the PDP-8 literature of the day, unlike the ASR-33 and the VT52. As long as you have the DEC reader-run-relay mod (there'll be a 6-wire cable from the TTY, not 4-wire), you'll do great. If you lack the RRR, you will probably have issues trying to load software, but you can punch tape and run software from the keyboard and printer just fine. There are plenty of 4-wire ASR-33s out there from DEC installations because they were used for non-console use, say on an DZ11 or a KL8JA. If you lack the RRR mod, I know I've seen it at the back of one of the DEC print sets, though I can't recall right now if it was a PDP-8 print set or an 11/20 printset (I have both and have read both many times). If your ASR-33 hasn't been cleaned and properly lubed (not over-lubed), you might want to take some time cleaning and adjusting it. I know I have to tweak on mine once or twice a year, but nothing really major - just make sure the top and bottom of the letters make even impressions, make sure the keys all create letters (and send bits down the wire). It shouldn't be hard to locate or write an ASCII echo program for testing the TTY. It's much more revealing of problems than trying to type DIR commands in OS/8. Good luck! -ethan