Linux on a 70's Typewriter | IBM Selectric II → Teletype Conversion

Поделиться
HTML-код
  • Опубликовано: 19 июл 2023
  • Found a IBM Selectric II typewriter in the trash and decided to convert it to connect to a computer. Managed to take a whole bunch of pictures and short videos, so I had to make a full video about it. It's not quite the same as an IO Selectric or IBM 2741 but you're probably not going to find one of those in the trash these days.
    alnwlsn.com
    My first attempt from a few months back:
    • Solenoid'd IBM Selectr...
    Link to 3D files and firmware:
    - github.com/alnwlsn/videos/tre...
    Scripts I made to use ChatGPT and browse the web:
    - github.com/alnwlsn/scratchpad
    Live Captions Linux application:
    github.com/abb128/LiveCaptions
    • FUTO Fellowship progra...
    The Soviet's "Selectric Bug"
    - www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/b...
    A pile of other links that were sourced for this project. Many of these are either public domain or CC.
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Sel...
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Sel...
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Sel...
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Sel...
    - selectric.org/selectric/index...
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_274...
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_274...
    - www.curiousmarc.com/mechanica...
    - vintagecomputer.ca/escon-sele...
    - blog.bruchez.name/posts/ibm-m...
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepho...
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepri...
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepri...
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepri...
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepri...
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepri...
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Sys...
    - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT_Co...
    - line-mode.cern.ch
    - hackaday.com/2023/04/11/ibm-s...
    - info.cern.ch/LMBrowser.html
    - • Exploring Rare Centuri...
    - • 1969 IBM Mag Card Sele...
    - • 1982 IBM Memory 100 Ty...
    - • Commodore 64 & Typing ...
    - • IBM Selectric Typewrit...
    All further material that I personally produced for this project I herby license as (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Комментарии • 126

  • @alnwlsn
    @alnwlsn  Год назад +53

    One thing I forgot to mention in the video is that if you're going to try this yourself, you should pick better solenoids. The ones I uses are just barely powerful enough for the job, and if you power one of them for any longer than a few seconds, it will heat up and melt. Even if not driven to melting, the increased temperature changes the coil resistance, which changes the pull force, which throws off the timing. I feel pretty lucky that I was able to get it working as well as I did.

  • @CuriousMarc

    Wow! Your visual explanation of the Selectric is the best around. Brilliant. You made a Selectric IO all by yourself, self contained, without hurting the machine a bit. Brilliant! Your demos are brilliant too. Impressive!

  • @UsagiElectric

    Insanely awesome work! I have a Selectric Composer I really want to modify into a data terminal for the Litton minicomputer, and this will be an awesome guide for the inevitable hurdles I'll have to overcome.

  • @neiloconnor9349

    Pretty cool. Avis Rent a Car was the first RAC company to computerize first reservations, then counter operations. The first computer was, naturally, a modified IBM Selectric. I started with the company in 1984 when they were already on the 3rd generation system, with standard IBM 3270 terminals. In 1986 I transferred to a licensee operation in Binghamton, NY, which had no computer. On a cold rainy day in April, I drove across half of NY to Jamestown to pick up an old Wizard I system, which consisted of the gray cabinet, the Selectric, the logic (computer & modem) unit and the cabling that connected them all. It was great to be connected to the world again. Sadly, Avis stopped supporting the older units within a few months, and we returned to analog operations.

  • @demtron

    The other biggest advantage is that there was not moving carriage to knock over on your desk!

  • @siroyiryuu

    This UNIX, Not Linux.

  • @FreejackVesa

    I remember walking into an office/computer lab and the noise was just insane. The hard moulded plastic keyboards clacking away, the typewriters, the dot matrix printers. We have it good today!

  • @annadenaro9919

    Are you self taught?

  • @jcdowen
    @jcdowen Год назад +5

    One of the best channels in this genre on RUclips, just wait until the algorithm picks this up.

  • @grantbanstead1971

    Didn't I see this on Star Trek? They made a typewriter voice activated and the earthling freaked out and shouted "Make it stop!" which it typed out.

  • @WickedScott

    It looks like the typewriter was assimilated by the Borg.

  • @TimoNoko
    @TimoNoko Год назад +37

    This was everybody's dream machine in 1976. I even had a professor who wanted my thesis to be printed by real typewriter and not by a computer, because that would be cheating.

  • @honkhonk8009
    @honkhonk8009 Год назад +37

    imagine justputting a shit ton of tensor cores and VRAM into a typewriter, running an LLM on it, and just airdropping it in the 1950s.

  • @ralphliu34
    @ralphliu34 Год назад +7

    Holy shit, I knew that this was possible in theory - but WOW, it's so cool to see an electromechanical system hooked up to a selectric to ALLOW it to connect to a computer!!

  • @TheRealHucasys
    @TheRealHucasys 21 день назад +1

    Fascinating. I'm 54 and my dad used to work at IBM as an accountant, so as a child I got to see those first huge computers that took up a whole wall, the ones that used punch cards to interface with them, you know? Years after I also remember when he had a terminal at his office that was connected to the main computer, I guess, I was too young to understand. Him and his work mates used to refer to their terminals as "my machine" , as in "send the info to my machine" lol , crazy stuff. It was kind of a typewriter connected to a black and green text screen. Years after he did have a laptop to do part of his work on, which he still refered to as "my machine" lol

  • @johnm2012

    That discarded ribbon at the end reminded me of a

  • @MLX1401
    @MLX1401  +16

    I love Selectrics and this is one totally awesome project 😁

  • @MonkeyUnit

    By the power vested in me, I grant you the title of King of the Nerds for one month. Absolutely fantastic project and video. Subscribed.

  • @gregercolano8032
    @gregercolano8032 Год назад +6

    Amazing project and really nice job on those custom parts! A big undertaking.

  • @8bitwiz_
    @8bitwiz_ Год назад +8

    It's nice to see a modern Selectric conversion. Things have come a long way from the days of the TV Typewriter Cookbook.