13 May
2009
13 May
'09
7:09 a.m.
On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 2:56 AM, Philipp Hachtmann <hachti at hachti.de> wrote:
I can entirely believe that. I don't think very many were made
compared to most other forms of terminals.
Does local echo send all the way out to the loop and back? Routing
through the PDP-8 tests everything, but I can see how local echo could
be handy if you suspect a local mechanical problem.
In all
honesty, no. ?I don't think I've ever even *seen* a VT05...
I have seen some old computers the last years... But the VT05 seems to be
nearly a phantom. I know there exist other VT05s.... I have just seen two -
in the same pile of stuff. And one is mine now. That's the only one I've
ever seen working - after repair :-) I don't know... My H316 comes with 33/35 ASR,
too.... It's made in 1969.
I was thinking of DEC equipment in particular. I know that hobbyists
used ASR33s with early IMSAIs, etc (cf Micro-Soft's paper tape BASIC)
years after they were no longer on every DEC machine.
That's interesting. So I need to get a VT52, too.
Will manage that - I
hope...
There is lots of VT52 support at the application level for OS/8. The
big one is the VTEDIT TECO MACRO. You can edit files as if with EDT.
The code is *ugly* but I have used it with a real VT52 (it doesn't
work right with a VT220 in VT52 mode - the emulation must not be
bug-for-bug compatible).
Don't worry. Most 33's I have are equipped
with the DEC mod. And.. I think
you won't get in trouble without the mod.
Without the mod, the CPU can't single-step the reader. Sometimes that
matters, sometimes it doesn't, I think.
And... honestly... Loading
software via teletype is one of the most time consuming excercises I ever
did.
It is awful, but I've owned PDP-8s that only had paper-tape as a load device.
Aha? I never had to adjust anything.. except... The
hammer. I replaced the
gum by ugly windings of electric tape - works like a charm, but has to be
replaced every 3 to 4 paper rolls. Take care not to ruin your print
hammer!!!
I have one or two replacement rubber pads I bought from Western
Numeric Controls over 10 years ago. They are new-in-bag, so haven't
turned to goo... yet.
On one unit I have rewound the hammer spring to get a
better print result
(there is NO adjustment for the hammer force, isn't there?!?).
There may be (I haven't tweaked that in a while), but the big one for
my main teletype is balancing upper and lower force - sometimes my
letters have an uneven impression.
That's all. I primarily was a collector of
mechanical teleprinter gear, so I
am a bit familiar with mechanical digital equipment.
Fair enough.
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.
What about local echo? ... And if your 33 is really tooo bad to restore -
just throw it away and
get another one. They stand around in every corner.
They used to be common at the Dayton Hamvention. I picked up a news
TTY (w/modem in the pedestal) for $35 or $50 at Dayton about 25 years
ago. I still have it, but I removed the touch-tone keypad in a failed
attempt to turn it into a local-only TTY for my PDP-8 (I later got a
real console TTY) So now, this one answers the phone, but can't dial.
I last tested it calling into CompuServe shortly after I bought it.
It was great to see the login prompt in yellow and black.
I haven't seen a single TTY for sale at Dayton in at least 20 years.
-ethan