17 Apr
2008
17 Apr
'08
7:31 a.m.
The two faults I remember with VT220 terminals were
dead 9636/9737
EIA chips, and loss of horizontal hold. It was tough getting the
old EIA chips out to mount sockets (must have had heavy copper
inner layers on the mainboard PCB), but once that was done, those
were easy to fix. We only lost about one a year, anyway. The
video, I was never able to fix myself with what I knew then. Perhaps
I could fix it now.
I don't think we ever had a total loss of video on any model of
terminal, mostly just the faults I described. Hardly scientific,
but it was a sample size of several dozen terminals, in operation
for at least 10 years.
-ethan
Hey,
Whatever the brand or model, I absolutely must have a terminal with a
"green screen". I don't know if other members have this problem but, it
really strains my eyes to read an amber or white CRT.
A few years ago bought some "Versys" terminals for about $5 each. I
believe they are a LinkSys clone. They have proved to be excellent. The
screens are bright, the fonts are sharp and very readable. The only
repairs I've made is to replace some 1488s and 1489s. I think that's
because of a ground loop problem in my old house. The computer was in
one room, the terminal(s) in another.
Whatever terminal you use, it should have VT100 emulation. It seems like
most classic OS's and applications will have support for the VT100.
--
Steve Robertson
steerex [at] ccvn [dot] com