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Vintage Computers Any vintage computer systems, calculators, video games etc., but with an emphasis on 1980s and earlier equipment. |
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20th Feb 2021, 10:51 pm | #1 |
Heptode
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: North Walsham, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 899
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Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
When I was a youngster growing up in the 1970's when Calne in Wiltshire had an enormous pork pie factory slap bang in the centre of town we also had lots of up and coming tech companies, Kode, Romarsh, EKB electronics, HH Electronics, Shade software company and in the next town of Melksham was the now famous Citronic disco consoles. Anyways a popular school trip was to the Kode factory where they made data entry equipment. My stepdad was a toolmaker there for a while and made the master moulds for keycaps.
We all traipsed round the factory and on the production line a lady stood aside so we could have a go at soldering links on a board. I of course smashed it as electronics was my hobby and I knew exactly what to do. At the end of the visit we were given a sales brochure and I found the remains of it today during my deep clean after having the roof replaced, lots of stuff from the attic. Something got to it and it is falling apart but I have scanned what's left for your amusement. I think it is pre 1974 when postcodes for all uk addresses were made common so I would have been 16 then and I am sure I was only about 14 when the visit took place.
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https://www.facebook.com/gntrading Last edited by Radio Wrangler; 21st Feb 2021 at 6:16 am. Reason: fixed typo in title |
21st Feb 2021, 12:40 am | #2 |
Octode
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, UK.
Posts: 1,362
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Re: Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
Fascinating the 33 must be an ASR33 knockoff... Thanks for sharing - the XY plotter looks interesting as well - I used to love watching ours - especially when it changed pens...
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21st Feb 2021, 3:12 am | #3 |
Octode
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 1,264
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Re: Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
I was surprised to see the cassette unit. Looks like it was intended for professional computer systems but I have only ever seen them used in amateur or home computers.
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21st Feb 2021, 3:28 am | #4 |
Octode
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 1,264
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Re: Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
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21st Feb 2021, 9:17 am | #5 |
Heptode
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Worthing, Sussex, UK.
Posts: 661
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Re: Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
It is based on ASR-33 parts but with a call control unit (CCU) that meets the GPO specification for leased lines - recognised by the four buttons on the CCU to the right. From memory the green one is the on button - the unit turned off after a delay if no activity and the red one was reader step.
There were teletypes with the same CCU at Bath univeristy, and I bought several for £10 each converted them for use with home computers and sold them for £50. These were in the standard ASR-33 case and noisy. I had to trace the wires to see how they worked. Also very similar made by Data Dynamics https://www.electroprops.co.uk/73/Co...ine-P1504.html |
21st Feb 2021, 10:10 am | #6 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
Posts: 6,118
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Re: Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
Yes, I too would be fascinated to know in what context compact cassettes (albeit being recorded in a format more similar to the 1" tapes than the audio used on home computers) were used in the professional arena. All the other media (mag tape, punch tape, punch cards etc.) look horribly familiar, and although the hardware (such as card/tape punches and verifiers) we used was by IBM rather than Kode, the designs are not that different.
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Mending is better than Ending (cf Brave New World by Aldous Huxley) |
21st Feb 2021, 12:39 pm | #7 |
Octode
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 1,885
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Re: Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
I went in to work with my dad a couple of times we booted his ICL mainframe from cassette. This would have been later eighties. I also had a box full of cassettes that he had donated and also some from a professional pc backup device. IIRC they had an extra notch in the top and sounded awful for music!
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21st Feb 2021, 4:29 pm | #8 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Biggin Hill, London, UK.
Posts: 5,188
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Re: Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
The compact cassettes used with larger computers were different to the normal audio ones. They contained a different grade of tape (higher coercivity?) and had a slightly offset notch on the rear edge that could be used to identify the cassette as a digital one, to prevent it being turned over or to detect which way up it was.
There were several data formats (not surprisingly). One almost-standard one was ECMA 34. Then there was the one used by HP in the HP9830 'calculator' and the related HP9865 tape drive. This was similar, but not identical, to the format used by the Racal Thermionic 'Digidek' ('Thermionic' here is part of the company name, that device didn't use valves!). Facit made the 4208 cassette drive which I seem to remember could do ECMA34 and some other format. There was also a version of the Texas Instruments Silent 700 thermal printing terminal with a pair of cassette drives on top. These simulated a paper tape punch and reader, you could transfer and edit data between them, send/receive data between the cassette and the line, etc. And that's just listing the devices I happen to own... |
21st Feb 2021, 4:51 pm | #9 |
Octode
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 1,264
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Re: Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
Interesting that the hp9830 doesn’t use a capstan but directly drives the reels. Are the other digital cassette systems the same?
I used to have a mini cassette that was spool driven, and wrote a cassette operating system for a z80 that bit banged the nrz format to the tape. I’ve been trying to create something similar using standard cassettes, with direct drive of the spools from two dc motors, but unable to drive the motors slowly enough using pwm without them starting to tick as the poles of the motor rotate. Trying to get some bit together to gear the motors down but still allow the un-driven spool to turn its motor. |
21st Feb 2021, 6:26 pm | #10 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Bristol, UK.
Posts: 115
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Re: Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
I've spent a lot of hours at one of those Kode card punches. I used to support operating systems on ICL mainframes. I could handpunch 'em pretty quickly as well. In EBCDIC. Still got some cards somewhere...
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21st Feb 2021, 8:45 pm | #11 |
Heptode
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: North Walsham, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 899
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Re: Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
Wow I used one of those punches on my programming course writing programs in Basic to run on a mainframe in Birmingham when we went to Chippenham Tech one afternoon a week whilst in 6th form.
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21st Feb 2021, 10:08 pm | #12 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
Posts: 6,118
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Re: Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
That was the closest my school came at that time to owning a computer, and I too became quite competent at "touch-typing" on it, pressing between one and three keys for each letter. The problem was spotting anything that was mis-typed as, unlike the keypunches with a typewriter keyboard, there was no conversion to text along the top of the card, though I have to admit that we did sometimes manage to use a card interpreter belonging to the National Institute of Oceanography* retrospectively to print them.
*It was the NIO's computer into which our decks of punched cards were fed to run our programs when it wasn't in use for more serious purposes, as they were sited next to the school at the time - on land leased from the school. Not such a pretty pattern as the one on the machine in circuitryboy's post, but for the sake of nostalgia, here is a card from one of the programs I wrote at school:
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Mending is better than Ending (cf Brave New World by Aldous Huxley) |
22nd Feb 2021, 4:55 pm | #13 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Biggin Hill, London, UK.
Posts: 5,188
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Re: Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
Quote:
Some other digital formats did use a capstan and pinch roller. The Facit 4208 certainly does. I guess other ECMA34 drives did too. |
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22nd Feb 2021, 4:56 pm | #14 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Biggin Hill, London, UK.
Posts: 5,188
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Re: Old Sales pamphlet for data entry terminals
That one is in rather better condition than the (ICT-badged) one on a shelf in my bedroom....
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