Original TV Typewriter

From: Paul A. Pennington <paulpenn_at_knology.net>
Date: Sat Jan 15 22:27:07 2005

    Michael Holley wrote:

> I have added more information on Don Lancaster's original TV Typewriter to
> my web site...

    Nice job, Michael, as usual. You always do a good job cleaning up your
scans for publication. My copy has a bunch of my notes and corrections,
which of course is more valuable (to me) than a "new" copy. This brought
back a lot of memories for me.

    I built one of these from scratch back in 1975, just over a year after
the article was published. I still have copies of my letters ordering all
the parts, made with a real typewriter and carbon paper (remember that?).
My letter to SWTPC ordering the PC boards came back marked "not available."
Bummer -- I had already ordered the parts. Being a resourceful young Army
staff sergeant, I made the boards from scratch by making copies of the
artwork in the booklet on transparency film, and then making photographic
contact prints to get a negative. Another contact print onto photo
sensitive PC boards, some etching, and voila -- PC boards.

    I actually got this working, and used it as a terminal to talk to my
Motorola 6800 "D1" evaluation board. Worked for several years before I
graduated to a video card in my SWTPC computer. "Working" here means 16
lines of 32 characters. At 300 baud, it took 37 seconds to fill the screen.

    What a long way we've come.

    Paul Pennington
    Augusta, Georgia
Received on Sat Jan 15 2005 - 22:27:07 GMT