I’m told that if Selectrics aren’t already factory-wired as terminals they’re not especially easy to convert… and if they are, of course, they’ll speak EBCDIC rather than ASCII and you’ll need to do code conversion. Good luck!
(I missed my best opportunities to pick up a Selectric surplussed from an IBM site.)
My first impression was “nice texturing on the control panel and floor, but you couldn’t spend the polygons to make the curve of the console look passably smooth?”
Thanks!
To be honest I grabbed the typewriter first because I liked it and then had the Idea to convert it. I was thinking along the lines of somehow just using the switches in the keys themselves and connecting them to the electronics of a modern keyboard or maybe an arduino or whatever. But I’ll have to take the IBM apart first to see if that’s feasible. And before I do that I’ll have to fix this and that on my bike. We’ll se - if this project really works I’ll be showing it off here.
It’d be proably easier using the IBM as a printer. I dimly remember working on a homemade (not by me) CP/M machine using a daisywheel typewriter as a printer with a TTY driver. But I’ll never go back there, promise.
The original Selectric was a fully mechanical device, with a rather clever mechanical implementation of a coding and D-to-A converter system to map the keys to appropriate rotation and tilt angles of the typeball. So there may or may not be any switches already in there.
Actually, you won’t be a ‘new user’ for long:
http://meta.discourse.org/t/what-do-user-trust-levels-do/4924
Those scientists held underground rave parties, so that they could stick it to “The Man”. Hence the control room looks like ballroom. True Story. Also - orgies, cocaine and kinky physics.
We Canna do it captain, she’ll fly apart!!
Okay, I’ll bite. Please expand on ‘kinky physics’, especially the kinky bit.
Kinky physics is when you learn physics through BDSM. Bondage, whips and latex all in the name of science.
Well, technically… Chains, locks, pulleys, restraints, spreaders, ropes, etc., that’s more mechanics than physics, but okay. The rest is mainly psychology, biology and sort of medicine.
Granted, friction coefficients are something to keep an eye on. Rope burns are a bitch and carpet burns take forever to heal.
Seems you know a lot about it. Past time of yours?
Well, you don’t hang out in a goth disco every weekend for a couple of years without meeting lots of interesting people.
Huh. I thought goths were too busy applying make-up and doing depressive selfies.
That was mid-1980ies to late 1990ies aka my wild years. And on the continent.
You’re all grown-up. I was only born in mid-80s. Also, I’m not American.
Braniac, is that you?
If I really was, I wouldn’t be on BBS.
Or in other fringe communities. (Thank you, I really didn’t have any great need to know about the sounds an electric guitar makes when used to paddle someone.)
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