24 May
2003
24 May
'03
10:31 a.m.
IBM made a bunch of printer terminals based around the Selectric typewriter
- 1052, 2740, 2970 etc. Look in any old copy of BYTE, and you'll also find
several vendors were selling 3rd party terminals based around IBM
Selectrics, often converted for ASCII/RS-232c operation, as teletype
alternatives.
Where have they all gone? (I appreciate, from what I've heard, that many
folks who used them in anger would reply 'I don't know, I don't care, good
riddance!') Early DECwriters are not uncommon. Teletypes are (almost) ten a
penny, ASR33s show up frequently enough on ebay, I have several.
But the only Selectric based unit I've *seen* in over ten years of
collecting is a 2970 Reservation Termainal (see
http://www.corestore.org/2970-1.jpg ) which I was offered a year or so ago.
It needs a fair bit of TLC, and it's a print-only device; it can receive
data from a host and print it, but not send anything back from the keyboard.
I'd love to get a bidirectional equivalent to use as an 'authentic' terminal
for a 360 emulator I work with... any clues? Can anyone recommend a
Selectric repair shop? No way I want to try to fettle something THIS
mechanically-intimidating myself!
Mike
http://www.corestore.org
24 May
24 May
11:42 a.m.
On Sat, 24 May 2003, Mike Ross wrote:
IBM made a bunch of printer terminals based around the
Selectric
typewriter - 1052, 2740, 2970 etc. Look in any old copy of BYTE, and
you'll also find several vendors were selling 3rd party terminals based
around IBM Selectrics, often converted for ASCII/RS-232c operation, as
teletype alternatives.
Where have they all gone? (I appreciate, from what I've heard, that many
folks who used them in anger would reply 'I don't know, I don't care,
good riddance!') Early DECwriters are not uncommon. Teletypes are
(almost) ten a penny, ASR33s show up frequently enough on ebay, I have
several.
Well, I have one sitting in storage. I'm not sure of the model though.
But the only Selectric based unit I've *seen* in
over ten years of
collecting is a 2970 Reservation Termainal (see
http://www.corestore.org/2970-1.jpg ) which I was offered a year or so
ago. It needs a fair bit of TLC, and it's a print-only device; it can
receive data from a host and print it, but not send anything back from
the keyboard.
Mine also needs some work. I believe it is some kind of modified terminal,
and was used as a printer on a TRS80 Model 1. I also have the custom
interface box that connects the two.
I'd love to get a bidirectional equivalent to use
as an 'authentic'
terminal for a 360 emulator I work with... any clues? Can anyone
recommend a Selectric repair shop? No way I want to try to fettle
something THIS mechanically-intimidating myself!
The original owner of my Selectric also gave me a service manual for the
Selectric line, but I don't think it exactly covers the unit I have. Most
likely, it covers most of the mech, but not the exact same configuration.
The part number of the manual is S241-5615-3 and lists these models on the
cover:
IBM "Selectric" Typewriter (7XX)
IBM "Selectric" II Typewriter (8XX)
IBM Correcting "Selectric" II Typewriter (8XX)
IBM 96 "Selectric" Typewriter (9XX)
-Toth
2 Jun
2 Jun
3:29 a.m.
I dunno where they all went... In my case, I had a competing Smith-Corona
daisy-wheen typewriter with a female DB9 attachment on the back that hooked
into my first Realistic (tv monitor) computer, and made a right fair LQ
printer. I gave it to my daughter 9-10 years ago, and it seems to have
disappeared since then...
Cheers
Ed/San Antonio, TX, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Ross" <mross666(a)hotmail.com>
To: <cctech(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 05:29 PM
Subject: Where have all the Selectrics gone?
IBM made a bunch of printer terminals based around the
Selectric
typewriter
- 1052, 2740, 2970 etc. Look in any old copy of BYTE,
and you'll also find
several vendors were selling 3rd party terminals based around IBM
Selectrics, often converted for ASCII/RS-232c operation, as teletype
alternatives.
Where have they all gone? (I appreciate, from what I've heard, that many
folks who used them in anger would reply 'I don't know, I don't care, good
riddance!') Early DECwriters are not uncommon. Teletypes are (almost) ten
a
penny, ASR33s show up frequently enough on ebay, I
have several.
But the only Selectric based unit I've *seen* in over ten years of
collecting is a 2970 Reservation Termainal (see
http://www.corestore.org/2970-1.jpg ) which I was offered a year or so
ago.
It needs a fair bit of TLC, and it's a print-only
device; it can receive
data from a host and print it, but not send anything back from the
keyboard.
I'd love to get a bidirectional equivalent to use as an 'authentic'
terminal
for a 360 emulator I work with... any clues? Can
anyone recommend a
Selectric repair shop? No way I want to try to fettle something THIS
mechanically-intimidating myself!
Mike
http://www.corestore.org
7:20 a.m.
I dunno where they all went... In my case, I had a
competing Smith-Corona
daisy-wheen typewriter with a female DB9 attachment on the back that hooked
This reminds me,...
Somewhere I have an electronic tyewriter, It's portable, battery operated
(!), and has a Centroinics port on the side so you can use it as a
printer. The mechanism? A wide-carriage (8" or so) version of that little
ballpoint pen plotter that we discussed recently, you know the
CBM1520/CGP115/etc one). One odd pen i have for it once contained
white-out type correction fluid and and could be used to erase characters
from the output (!).
-tony
9:09 a.m.
--- Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
This reminds me,...
Somewhere I have an electronic tyewriter, It's portable, battery operated
(!), and has a Centroinics port on the side so you can use it as a
printer.
I think the plotter mechanism for the workslate was also battery powered.
The mechanism? A wide-carriage (8" or so) version
of that little
ballpoint pen plotter that we discussed recently, you know the
CBM1520/CGP115/etc one).
Nice.
One odd pen i have for it once contained
white-out type correction fluid and and could be used to erase characters
from the output (!).
Wow! That'd be a cool pen to have. You could put colored paper in the
mechanism and use it for "white" (if it didn't flake off).
-ethan
9:25 a.m.
--- Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
Well, the print quality wasn't as good as a 'real' typewriter, on the
other hand this thing is pretty light, and IIRC there's a mode for
drawing pie charts, etc (!) which are not easy to draw on a normal
typewriter.
It's an interesting toy, I guess. But I'll stick to my real, mechanical,
manual typewriter for filling in forms, and the laserprinter for word
processing :-)
This reminds me,...
Somewhere I have an electronic tyewriter, It's portable, battery operated
(!), and has a Centroinics port on the side so you can use it as a
printer.
I think the plotter mechanism for the workslate was also battery powered.
The mechanism? A wide-carriage (8" or so)
version of that little
ballpoint pen plotter that we discussed recently, you know the
CBM1520/CGP115/etc one).
Nice. One odd pen i have for it once contained
white-out type correction fluid and and could be used to erase characters
from the output (!).
Wow! That'd be a cool pen to have. You could put colored paper in the mechanism and use it for "white" (if it
didn't flake off).
I don't think it was as fine a tip as the normal pens.
-tony
9:40 a.m.
On Mon, 2 Jun 2003, Tony Duell wrote:
Somewhere I have an electronic tyewriter, It's portable, battery operated
(!), and has a Centroinics port on the side so you can use it as a
printer. The mechanism? A wide-carriage (8" or so) version of that little
ballpoint pen plotter that we discussed recently, you know the
CBM1520/CGP115/etc one). One odd pen i have for it once contained
white-out type correction fluid and and could be used to erase characters
from the output (!).
I had one like this - by a company called Silver-Reed. It was fine if
you liked everything to look like it was plotted - as opposed to
typewritten. And, the little pens tended to 'weep' and leave random
blobs of ink and streaky smears.
But it was Cool to watch it work, especially when hooked up to my old
Kaypro 2.
Cheers
John
7825
days inactive
7834
days old
6 comments
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participants (6)
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
erd_6502＠yahoo.com -
ETILLMAN＠satx.rr.com -
jpl15＠panix.com -
mross666＠hotmail.com -
tothwolf＠concentric.net