13 Jun
2016
13 Jun
'16
12:17 p.m.
2016-06-11 22:00 GMT+02:00 Pete Turnbull <pete at dunnington.plus.com>:
On 11/06/2016 18:17, Mattis Lind wrote:
Unfortunately for me my unit does not seem to be the same as the one in the
manual. The section on connecting to BT lines is probably still valid since
it does have a Rockwell modem board in it.
I did find an old Computerworld ad from 1989 which matched. Informer 213 -
emulating a 3274 control unit with an attached 3178 mod 2 terminal. Someone
with IBM knowledge might share what that means and how the terminal can be
used.
Anyway. I put together a webpage on the thing:
http://www.datormuseum.se/peripherals/terminals/informer-213
/Mattis
I just dig out this little thing form my father
stash of various stuff.
When bringing up the setup screen it does not look like the one in the
manual.
I love the way they felt they had to explain the keyboard at such length.
And explain that the unmarked key is the space bar - I remember when I was
about 6 or 7, having to ask my dad how to get a space on his office
typewriter.
I was also amused to see they have a section on connecting it to the UK's
BT lines (in the days when things needed BT Approval) so it's obviously
intended for UK use, yet it's pictured with an American power lead.
--
Pete
13 Jun
13 Jun
12:50 p.m.
does have a Rockwell modem board in it.
I did find an old Computerworld ad from 1989 which matched. Informer 213 -
emulating a 3274 control unit with an attached 3178 mod 2 terminal.
Someone with IBM knowledge might share what that means and how the
terminal can be used.
Reading the add it looks like you need a dial-up SDLC (that?s synchronous data) link into
a mainframe with a telecoms controller running VTAM, l which I guess is as rare as hens
teeth these days.
When you get to the set up menu's can you check if it can run bi-sync as that might
be hackable, providing a suitable synchronous modem can be found.
Anyway. I put together a webpage on the thing:
http://www.datormuseum.se/peripherals/terminals/informer-213
/Mattis
Dave
G4UGM
1:05 p.m.
On Mon, Jun 13, 2016 at 3:50 PM, Dave G4UGM <dave.g4ugm at gmail.com> wrote:
Some time around 1992, give or take, there were piles of Informer 207s
for sale cheap at the Dayton Hamfest. We were doing Bisync and SNA
products at the time, so we bought a couple. We were able to fiddle
our environment enough to get one of them to connect - our flagship
product was an SNA PU type 2, much like a 3274 terminal controller,
but with interactive sessions via VT100 + software 3270 emulation
instead of a real IBM 3270. My memory is that you could dial up your
37x5 (via sync modem, as Dave mentioned) from one Informer 207, then
attach several "child" Informer 207s to the first, as if you had a
real 3274 + multiple 3270s. I have to think the later Informer
terminals had the same functionality (unless it was later determined
that it was "better" (and/or cheaper) to do one-modem-one-user instead
of supporting a remote office and multiple sessions off of one
connection.
Essentially, what we had to do with out Informer 207 was to provision
our environment pretty much the same as adding a new 3274 and get the
settings to match on both sides of the phone line. I think it took a
few hours of fiddling to get both sides happy.
The 207 was SNA-only. It did not support HASP or 3780, the
predominant bisync protocols (we supported those on other products,
and they are _far_ simpler than anything SNA).
Sorry I don't have any data on the 213. It sounds like a device we
would have liked to have had 20+ years ago.
-ethan
does have a
Rockwell modem board in it.
I did find an old Computerworld ad from 1989 which matched. Informer 213 -
emulating a 3274 control unit with an attached 3178 mod 2 terminal.
Someone with IBM knowledge might share what that means and how the
terminal can be used.
Reading the add it looks like you need a dial-up SDLC (that?s synchronous data) link into
a mainframe with a telecoms controller running VTAM, l which I guess is as rare as hens
teeth these days.
When you get to the set up menu's can you check if it can run bi-sync as that might
be hackable, providing a suitable synchronous modem can be found.
1:33 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ethan Dicks
Sent: 13 June 2016 21:06
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Informer 213 terminal - 3274 / 3178 compatible ?
On Mon, Jun 13, 2016 at 3:50 PM, Dave G4UGM <dave.g4ugm at gmail.com>
wrote:
data)
link into a mainframe with a telecoms controller running VTAM, l which I
guess is as rare as hens teeth these days.
Looking at the documents on the web it looks like the AE is a straight forward VT100
terminal, the PT was the 3270 version.
If it is an AE it should work with any Unix/Linux/PDP/VAX etc. etc. out of the box.
Dave
G4UGM
does have
a Rockwell modem board in it.
I did find an old Computerworld ad from 1989 which matched. Informer
213 - emulating a 3274 control unit with an attached 3178 mod 2 terminal.
Someone with IBM knowledge might share what that means and how the
terminal can be used.
Reading the add it looks like you need a dial-up SDLC (that?s synchronous When you get to the set up menu's can you
check if it can run bi-sync as that
might be hackable, providing a suitable
synchronous modem can be found.
Some time around 1992, give or take, there were piles of Informer 207s for
sale cheap at the Dayton Hamfest. We were doing Bisync and SNA products at
the time, so we bought a couple. We were able to fiddle our environment
enough to get one of them to connect - our flagship product was an SNA PU
type 2, much like a 3274 terminal controller, but with interactive sessions via
VT100 + software 3270 emulation instead of a real IBM 3270. My memory is
that you could dial up your
37x5 (via sync modem, as Dave mentioned) from one Informer 207, then attach
several "child" Informer 207s to the first, as if you had a real 3274 +
multiple
3270s. I have to think the later Informer terminals had the same functionality
(unless it was later determined that it was "better" (and/or cheaper) to do
one-
modem-one-user instead of supporting a remote office and multiple sessions
off of one connection.
Essentially, what we had to do with out Informer 207 was to provision our
environment pretty much the same as adding a new 3274 and get the settings
to match on both sides of the phone line. I think it took a few hours of fiddling
to get both sides happy.
The 207 was SNA-only. It did not support HASP or 3780, the predominant bisync
protocols (we supported those on other products, and they are _far_ simpler
than anything SNA).
Sorry I don't have any data on the 213. It sounds like a device we would have
liked to have had 20+ years ago.
-ethan
14 Jun
14 Jun
11:24 a.m.
Looking at the documents on the web it looks like the AE is a straight
forward VT100 terminal, the PT was the 3270 version.
If it is an AE it should work with any Unix/Linux/PDP/VAX etc. etc. out of
the box.
I think that the PT was a version which included a 386SX processor and the
AE is a pure terminal. http://bit.ly/1UrQL8Z
My guess is that the firmware is the difference between the one I have and
the the VT100 version. Possibly the modem board as well.
It is not possible to configure it to do anything like bi-sync. There is a
setting to configure NRZI or NRZ line coding, nothing else.
Let's hope there is someone out there that could dump the EPROMs. I hope to
get a response from the guy which shows a VT100 Informer 213 on Youtube. It
would be nice to actually use it. Attaching it to something IBMish using
VTAM seems unlikely.
/Mattis
Dave
G4UGM
11:49 a.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Mattis Lind
Sent: 14 June 2016 19:25
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Informer 213 terminal - 3274 / 3178 compatible ?
OK so that answers that question. It sounds like its HDLC only...
Looking at the documents on the web it looks like the AE is a straight
forward VT100 terminal, the PT was the 3270 version.
If it is an AE it should work with any Unix/Linux/PDP/VAX etc. etc.
out of the box.
I think that the PT was a version which included a 386SX processor and the AE is
a pure terminal. http://bit.ly/1UrQL8Z My guess is that the firmware is the
difference between the one I have and the the VT100 version. Possibly the
modem board as well.
It is not possible to configure it to do anything like bi-sync. There is a setting to
configure NRZI or NRZ line coding, nothing else.
Let's hope there is someone out there that could dump the EPROMs. I hope to
get a response from the guy which shows a VT100 Informer 213 on Youtube. It
would be nice to actually use it. Attaching it to something IBMish using VTAM
seems unlikely.
I am not sure about that. There are HDLC to TCPIP gateways e.g. :-
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/zosbasics/com.ibm.zos.znetwork/…
/Mattis
> Dave
> G4UGM
>
>
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days inactive
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5 comments
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dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
mattislind＠gmail.com