Selenar Graphics II (Was: DECWriter II LA36 being given away)

In article <B9639BAE3F34504E83FEEDD71D4AFB463D4595 at mail.bensene.com>, "Rick Bensene" <rickb at bensene.com> writes: I knew that Selanar made a graphics board for the VT-100; I didn't know they made one for LA-36. That's exciting! I found these hits via Google books: "Plug-In Converts the DECwriter to Plotter", InfoWorld, November 21, 1979 <http://books.google.com/books?id=LD4EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA19&ots=PbU5HsoFz4&dq=selanar%20graphics%20decwriter&pg=PA19#v=onepage&q=selanar%20graphics%20decwriter&f=false> "Board Adds Features to Decwriter LA35, LA36", Computerworld, December 4, 1978 <http://books.google.com/books?id=omXPM3l72p8C&lpg=PA37&ots=zebVuGqvVB&dq=selanar%20graphics%20decwriter&pg=PA37#v=onepage&q=selanar%20graphics%20decwriter&f=false> Resolution is 1320x792, 4 fonts with APL standard. I'm guessing your EPROM slots are either firmware, font definitions, or both. The RAM slots look to be for the "1,000 character buffer" that allowed communication speeds up to 1200 baud. "Other standard features include EIA RS-232, 20mA current loop and TTL interfaces." Perhaps your other DB25F connector is the TTL interface. I have a Selanar board for the VT100, but I don't have one for the LA36, although I knew there were aftermarket boards for LA36 that provided faster printing and graphics features. It's entirely possible the graphics commands are compatible with Tektronix 4010/4014. I would cobble together a little BASIC program (or whatever) that outputs some Tek4010 vector drawing commands and see what happens. Google books excerpted an entry from BYTE, 1982, that appears to give the escape codes for the graphics commands. The excerpt reveals: pg. 176: ^L Form feed ^N APL character set Selects 2nd character set (factory set with APL) ^O Normal character set Selects normal character set ESC 5 Print entire character set Test mode ESC 7 Upside-down print mode Rotates characters 180 degrees ESC 8 Sideways I print mode Rotates characters 90 degrees ESC 9 Sideways II print mode Rotates characters 270 degrees ESC 0 Double width characters Prints double width characters ESC A Boldface characters Prints each character in boldface ESC C Special reset Returns DECwriter to normal configuration ESC F Power-up reset Resets ???, character styles, tabs, and top of form (also occurs at power-up) ESC H Down 1/4 line ESC J Set bar mode In graphics mode, prints all seven dots instead of one at a time ESC N 3rd character set Selects 3rd character set (factory set with math and greek symbols) ESC P 4th character set Selects 4th character set as defined in programmable memory By carefully crafting more google book searches, I was able to extract more of the table above. The issue in question is March, 1982, Volume 8, Number 3 pg. 172 "Graphics II by Selanar". <http://malus.exotica.org.uk/~buzz/byte/pdf/BYTE%20Vol%2007-03%201982-03%20Printers.pdf> <ftp://helpedia.com/pub/archive/temp/Byte/BYTE%20Vol%2007-03%201982-03%20Printers.pdf> LA36 ribbons are still fairly easy to obtain, so you should have no problem getting a "real" ribbon for it. Also, I think you can have the old ribbons re-inked. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book <http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline> The Computer Graphics Museum <http://computergraphicsmuseum.org> The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals.classiccmp.org> Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>