Liberty Freedom One Plus (was Re: My GE Terminet 300)

From: Brent Hilpert <hilpert_at_cs.ubc.ca>
Date: Mon Aug 30 15:38:24 2004

Philip Pemberton wrote:
> I've just picked up a Liberty Electronics BT1430A0 CRT terminal. RS232
> interface (two ports), 12" CRT with amber phosphor, three keyboards (one
> working, two for spares) and very minor screen burn. From what I can see in
> the ROM dumps, there's a self-test screen and there appears to be a
> full-screen Setup option, in addition to the setup option that only uses row
> 25 (%DEITY knows how to access it though). Took a while to find the Magic
> Incantation (tm) to make it store the current setup - you press F3 to enter
> setup, navigate with the cursor keys, SPACE changes the value of the
> currently selected option, then Ctrl-F3 saves the settings and F3 closes the
> Setup tool. FWICT, the actual "model name" for the '1430 was "Freedom ONE
> Plus" (found that in the ROM dump). Does anyone want to stick the ROMs on
> their site for the sake of archiving them?
> Now if only I could find a way to reduce the amount of 50Hz EMI the terminal
> spews out. My Mitsubishi CRT monitor's picture gains a rolling black bar
> whenever the terminal is switched on - even though it's a good 6" away. Set
> the refresh rate to 75Hz (from 60Hz) and the picture starts shimmering.
> Anyone got some spare mumetal? :)
>

I have the manual for the Liberty Electronics Freedom One Plus CRT terminal, albeit for a slightly different model # of terminal: BT1431A0).

The manual mentions a couple of keyboard options, one uses an explicit "SETUP" key to get into setup and one uses the SCROLL-LOCK key to get into setup, the manual doesn't mention use of F3 to get into setup (?). Getting into full-screen setup should be accomplished with Shift-<setup>, where <setup> is whichever setup-entry-option you have. The behaviour is somewhat unusual in that it doesn't display the full-screen setup until you *release* the shift key and may be why you haven't discovered it.

Once you get into full-screen setup:
  - Shift-F1 goes into a self-test and displays the firmware version (Version 02.6, Keyboard 04.3, Copyright 1986 on mine)
  - Shift-F3 presents some other self-test screens
  - Exiting self-test modes is accomplished with *right*Shift-Break ("soft reset")

Ctl-<setup> saves setup, as you discovered.
Ctl-Shift-<setup> restores default config.

There are several emulation modes (some Wyse, Televideo and ADDS models and ADM-31).

I'm using the terminal as a console for a minicomputer and something I have found useful is that the printer/aux port can be set into 'bi-directional' mode, making it possible to connect another computer to the second port for transparent downloading and uploading between the two computers without having to switch cables or requiring a switch box.

If there is some particular info you need from the manual let me know.
Received on Mon Aug 30 2004 - 15:38:24 BST