VC404 The Standard

From: Lawrence Walker <lwalker_at_mail.interlog.com>
Date: Tue Jul 21 02:35:56 1998

> In message "VC404 The Standard", lwalker_at_mail.interlog.com writes:
>
> > One of my recent curbside finds is a machine put out by a Canadian company
> >based in Waterloo Ont called Volker-Craig model vg-400. On the front it has a
> >title VC404 The Standard.
>
> I also have a 404, discarded from a university lab many years ago.
> These terminals seem to have been popular in university student
> terminal rooms because they were relatively cheap. I seem to recall
> that the company founders were ex-University of Waterloo people.
> I've seen 404s not just in Canada but also in Britain, where they were
> the standard terminals on a university Vax system I once used. So I'm
> not too surprised Tony has a tech manual. (Actually, I wouldn't be
> surprised if Tony had a tech manual for Noah's Ark :)
>
Ain't it the truth . : ^ )) And likely the only person in the world with it's
actual dimensions ! In cubits !

> >It has a k-b attached with ribbon cable
>
> Unfortunately the keyboards were not that robust and after a few
> generations of students pounding away on them, the keyboard or the
> ribbon cable often became unreliable.
>
 Yeah, I chopped the cable to get rid of a length of frayed edge but it's still
repeating keys. Hopefully when I replace the cable it will be stabile.

> >In the back it
> >has a 25 pin RS232 connector, a BNC labelled "composite video" ,2 switches :
> >one 3-pos.to configure parity the other "Transparent on off"
>
> That video connector on the back was useful for hooking into a big
> classroom overhead monitor so a whole class could learn from observing a
> terminal session.
>
 That one really baffled me. I wonder if there were other uses or was it
designed for educational purposes ?
                             
> These terminals are very helpful for debugging RS-232 communications.
> The "transparent" switch on the back lets you choose to display all the
> ASCII control codes (eg, instead of performing a "line feed" it displays
> a little LF symbol).

 It gets more interesting all the time. I ran across a program on Jeff
Armstrongs Rainbow 100 page (he maintains a RB FAQ) that allows
you to use a terminal hooked up to a Windoze box to access the Inet.
It's called STERM but needless to say I haven't tried it yet. Sounds like
there might be a lot of uses for this box.
 
> Larry, I don't have any tech docs but I do have a thin user manual.
> About all it tells you is what the special control codes are to clear
> the screen, move the cursor, etc. Still, it's the information you need
> to run Wordstar with it! E-mail me with your snail-mail address
> and I'll run off a copy for you.
>
> Regards,
> Arlen
>
> --
> Arlen Michaels
> Nortel
> Ottawa, Canada (613) 763-2568 amichael_at_nortel.ca

 That would be great ! Will do.

ciao larry
lwalker_at_interlog.com
Received on Tue Jul 21 1998 - 02:35:56 BST