A Selectric printer...

[Mike Ross]

Just the typewriter. Western I/O evidently threw away all the IBM
electronics and took just the basic I/O Selectric mechanism, and
installed their own electronics in the base.

Video here, some pics in comments:
https://www.facebook.com/tmfdmike/videos/10207930350486487/?l=4583813823466285768

Mike

On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 3:46 AM, Paul Berger <phb.hfx at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2015-11-22 9:20 AM, Mike Ross wrote:
>>
>> I have an I/O Selectric device which is badged as, and was originally, an
>> IBM 2970 Reservation Terminal.
>>
>> For better or worse, it was one of those bought up in the late 1970s by a
>> company called 'Western I/O", based out of Scottsdale Arizona. They
>> converted them for home use. One version used a Motorola 6800 to make a
>> nifty-sounding terminal with selectable baud rates etc. I appear to have
>> the 'other' version; a cheap and nasty printer-only conversion with some
>> form of parallel port.
>>
>> Anybody else got one? Docs about them? Parts? Schematics? I'd like to get
>> hold of one of the 'proper' terminal conversion versions... Must be some
>> squirreled away in garages!
>>
>> Alternatively, any doc on the original 2970? There's an incredible dearth
>> of information about what we're once very common devices...
>
> Did you get the whole machine typewriter and control unit or just the
> typewriter?  If you got the control unit the manuals may be inside.  The
> typewriter part of it is just a modified office selectric with solenoids to
> do the selection and operate the functions and then a whole bunch of open
> strap contacts for feedback and also to sense what is typed on the keyboard.
> One of the first problems you may encounter is the motor belt is likely
> rotten and would be a challenge to change if you have never been inside a
> selectric, especially with all the extra stuff hung off it on an I/O.  The
> reservation terminals I worked on nearly 40 years ago where connected to a
> telegraph line. 75 baud with about a 150V DC swing.  Pictures?
>
> Paul.



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