VT340 Emulation

Zane Healy healyzh at avanthar.com
Thu Jun 24 01:25:35 CDT 2021


And all this time I thought that I wanted a VT525!  How much are the VTLAN40’s going for?

Zane 



Sent from my iPod

> On Jun 23, 2021, at 3:08 PM, Mark Matlock via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
>   One VT340 emulator that works quite well is the VT Lan 40. This was one
> of the last terminals made by DEC. It ran Windows 3.1 from ROM and
> used the LK411-AA keyboard (with the round PC keyboard connector) 
> displaying on a Super VGA LCD display (1024 x 768 x 16 colors)
> 
>  It could connect to several (unto 8) systems simultaneously using a 
> DB25 serial, a MMJ serial, then over its ethernet connector: multiple LAT, 
> CTERM (DECnet) and Telnet (TCP/IP) sessions. The session windows allow 
> cut and paste between Windows.
> 
>   The VT340 emulation seems to be perfect displaying Regis and pixels 
> correctly and handling mouse movements correctly in the VT340 mode. 
> Output from Saturn Graph for VMS works great!
> 
>  It also displays APL overstrike characters correctly with VAX APL using 
> the ^D prefix described in the APL documentation. It also handles some 
> escape sequence quirks that RSX KED does that mess up other VT100
> emulators.
> 
>   Being able to use a Super VGA display allows a small footprint compared to a 
> real VT340 (for VCF events) and the fact that it uses a real LK411 keyboard is great.
> 
>   The only minor issue is that they are not cheap, but you can buy new-in-thebox
> old inventory at:
> 
> http://keyways.com/vtlan40.html
> 
>   You’ll also need a VT411-AA keyboard sold separately and find a Super VGA 
> LCD display. Fortunately the last item can be cheap. I got a good NEC one at a 
> second hand store for $20.
> 
>   One final comment, the two VT Lan 40s I got eventually had a connector 
> between the front power switch and the actual switch break due to a bad 
> choice of plastic by DEC. However, this can easily be repaired with a 1” piece 
> of 1/8” I.D. PVC tubing from the hardware store.
> 
> Mark Matlock



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