Where have all the Selectrics gone?

It's covered in the first ed. 1976 TV Typewriter Cookbook with green cover.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Tim Shoppa" <shoppa_classiccmp at trailing-edge.com> To: <cctech at classiccmp.org>; <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 3:07 PM Subject: Re: Where have all the Selectrics gone? > "Barry Watzman" <Watzman at neo.rr.com> wrote: >> All selectric mechanisms, at the mechanism level, use tilt/rotate code. >> You >> tilt the ball to select a row, and then rotate it to select a column, >> then >> whack the paper through a ribbon (it's a mechanism that Tony Soprano >> would >> love). That is simply how a selectric works, and any other code will >> ultimately get converted into tilt/rotate before being applied to >> solenoids >> in the mechanism. > > I believe that one of Don Lancaster's logic cookbooks shows how to > convert ASCII to tilt/rotate codes. Either that or some mid-late-70's > Radio Electronics article that also tells how to use surplus core > memory... > > The one Selectric that I saw converted just used a bunch of solenoids > to whack the keys on a plain old keyboard. > > Did any micro hobbyists actually succesfully use surplus core? I remember > it somewhat cheap (but not ridiculously cheap) > in the Meshna catalog etc. but never saw it being used. It is not > a trivial matter to time and calibrate all the drive and sense lines > especially when it's some random core plane and the first you ever > saw. > > Tim.