Vt180, whats the story here?

From: Lawrence LeMay <lemay_at_cs.umn.edu>
Date: Fri Oct 29 20:17:10 1999

>
> > First a short summary, Something I have been giving for
> > awhile, I got a free Vt180 terminal. AT least Thats what It says on
> > the front. but on the back on the nameplate it says its aa Vt100-AA! I
> > am wondering if the AVO and the Secondary Processor part (STP) was
>
> Quite possibly. You can add the AVO to any VT100 (and it remains a VT100
> IIRC, although doubtless the suffix changes). And then add the STP (or a
> graphics option or...)

A VT132 is a VT100 with AVO. There are no other differences.

A VT125 is a STP board that is also called a Graphics processor board.

I happen to have a VT100 series Technical Manual. Also a VT640
manual (also known as a Retrographics board).

-Lawrence LeMay

>
> > added later on. It works GREAT as a vt100 but I have ran into a few
> > brick walls trying to find a EK-vt100-UG Vt100 Users Guide. I can order
> > it from Digital/Compaq for $25 but I rather not dip into my grocery
> > money for a technical manual. I have not found out anything on how
> > to set the printer up on it. or how to use the Vt180 part of it. or
> > for that matter, how do I RIP that OUT! if I cannot get a boot disk
> > for it... its worthless anyway. Here is my questions. Please help me
> > best you can here:
> > 1. what is Advanced Video Option (AVO) and how do I use it?
>
> Physically it's a daughterboard on the VT100 logic board that contains
> some extra video RAM, etc. It allows you to have 24 rows of 132
> characters, extra text attributes, etc.
>
> Unless it's faulty, leave it in place. It can do no harm, and in general
> it makes the VT100 work like most modern programs expect a VT100 to
> behave.
>
> > 2. If the STP is the VT180 part how do I REMOVE it! *if I want
> > plain Vt100, while maintaining AVO)
>
> I believe the STP _is_ the VT180 processor.
>
> I am going to guess a bit here. My guess is that the STP connects to a
> paddleboard that goes into the edge connector on the VT100 logic board.
> This is a very clever piece of DEC design -- the contacts on this edge
> connector are designed to touch if there's no PCB inserts. By so doing
> they connect the VT100 logic to the RS232 connector on the back. By
> inserting a PCB you can intercept this connection, allowing the VT100
> terminal to talk to the STP and also the STP to talk to the host via the
> RS232 connector.
>
> A second guess is that if you remove the PCB from this edge connector,
> the thing goes back to being a normal VT100.
>
>
> [...]
>
> > 4. What is the Graphics option? can I still get one? is that
> > for bit mapped graphics? howis it used? can the graphics be used via
> > Linux with graphics display utility or a plotting program (gnupplot).
>
> DEC made a thing called a VT105, which is a VT100 with a 'waveform
> generator' board in it. This was a 'graphics' terminal, but you could
> only display 2 points in each vertical column (or all points _below_ one
> of those points). It was thus ideal for drawing graphs or barcharts but
> not a lot of use for drawing anything else.
>
> There were 3rd party graphics cards as well. One that I remember was
> called a 'retrographics'. They normally emulated a Tektronix 4000 series
> terminal on the (raster-scan) VT100 display.
>
> As to whether linux can drive them, well, both of the above were
> controlled by control sequences sent over the RS232 port, which
> obviously linux can do. As to whether gnuplot can do it, well, I would
> think it could drive a Tekky 4000 (since most things can...), but I doubt
> if it can do the VT105.
>
> No idea where you get either of these boards, either...
>
>
> [...]
>
> > 6. who has the sticker (in sticker form) that goes on the
> > bottom of the vt100 keyboard showing the setup B screen and I/O toggle
> > possitions.
>
> >From the left :
>
> Block 1:
> Scroll (0=jump, 1=smooth)
> Autorepeat (0=off, 1=on)
> Screen (0=dark background, 1=light background)
> Cursor (0=underline, 1=block)
>
> Block 2:
> Margin bell (0=off, 1=on)
> Keyclick (0=off, 1=on)
> Emulation (0=VT52, 1=ANSI)
> Auto Xon/Xoff (0=off, 1=on)
>
> Block 3:
> Shifted-3 (0=#, 1=\pounds)
> Wrap around (0=off, 1=on)
> New line (0=off, 1=on)
> Interlace (0=off,1=on)
>
> Block 4:
> Parity (0=odd, 1=even)
> Parity (0=off, 1=on)
> Bits/Char (0=7bits, 1=8bits)
> Power (0=60Hz, 1=50Hz)
>
>
> [...]
>
> > 8. Since it has Composite In and Composite out. Does it have a
> > built in genlock allowing me to at least use the Vt100 to do titling
> > and captions; then sending the output to a second Video Recording
> > unit. if titleing is not possible, what is Composite video IN for??
>
> There is no genlock, the VT100 has to be the sync generator.
>
> Composite out is what you expect -- a composite feed to an external
> monitor, etc.
>
> Composite in is strange. You first have to extract the sync from the
> composite out socket, and lock an external video source to that. You can
> then feed the output of that video source into the composite in socket,
> where it will be displayed on the VT100 screen, overlayed with the text
> from the VT100 itself. But notice the external source is synced to the
> VT100 and not the reverse.
>
> > While we are on the issue of DEC stuff. Who has the full list
> > of the Control Codes for the Rainbow 100's terminal mode? How come
> > when I fire up CP/M Modem7 or 8? I can use the Previous Screen/Next
> > Screen keys and yet in the ROM Vt100 emulation Neither key works? Is
>
> PResumably the Modem7 program is rather more user-friendlt than the one
> in ROM... Next/Prev screen were not VT100 features, AFAIK, so I guess DEC
> didn't see any need to make them work with the built-in VT100 emulator.
>
> -tony
>
Received on Fri Oct 29 1999 - 20:17:10 BST