In the first post I mentioned the dag was missing from the monitor, so while the tube is out, lets give the monitor some attention…
Continue reading “At&t 513 Terminal, Part II”At&t Model 513 Terminal, or Teletype 56D, or…
Talk about an identity crisis! I recently stopped by the swap meet at System Source, a computer museum just outside of Baltimore, Maryland, where I picked up this eighties masterpiece of a terminal. This…style terminal I believe is known by many monikers. This actual unit is labeled an At&t “513” on the front, and “Teletype 56D” on the back. (At&t bought Teletype Corp and often branded some of their final products with At&t nomenclature.) This unit was likely paired to an At&t Definity PBX, and simliar units could also be At&t 4425 as well as many other models (likely only minor firmware tweaks between them).
Posted on it was a sign that basically mentioned it was a “barn find”, and as such, no guarantees on it working, or ever working. As I’m a glutton for punishment, naturally I bought it. (I know the seller and he gave me a good deal on it).
Let’s see what’s inside…
Continue reading “At&t Model 513 Terminal, or Teletype 56D, or…”Update on #mactanic
So, not sure if I actually ever posted it here, but around March of 2022, my nephew brought over a Mac Plus he found at a flea market. It only took a glance to see that this thing had…issues…considering the noticeable dirt/rust I could see in the floppy slot. Opening the thing revealed the real story – that this thing likely spent a decent amount of time in someone’s flooded basement, or perhaps even a pond somewhere. Literally! The internal steel frame was so rusted it was literally crumbling.
Other than the plastic case itself, the only salvagable part, oddly enough, was the motherboard. At least I thought so “for science”. Can a motherboard that spent serious time under water ever work again?
Continue reading “Update on #mactanic”Diving into the Dovetron MPC-1000R Mark II RTTY Terminal Unit
Sometimes you see something that just…you HAVE to have it. Especially if it scratches an itch regarding the interest of the week: RTTY and Teletypes. Earlier this year, I came across the Dovetron MPC-1000R(ish) Mark II and thought it looked so bad ass that I had to have it. It would add a RTTY cross display to my setup as well as maybe add some features? Anyway it came packed well, so lets dig into this thing and see what a nightm..fun time we’ll have with it.
Continue reading “Diving into the Dovetron MPC-1000R Mark II RTTY Terminal Unit”ADT-233 Update – Coupler Connected!
Well that was…easy! Yesterday I posted about my unusual Teletype ASR-33, and mentioned that I saw an unused connector stuffed into the UCC…
Continue reading “ADT-233 Update – Coupler Connected!”Teletype ASR-33..er…Anderson Jacobson ADT-233
So yeah, after a 16 hour round trip last year to acquire a Teletype ASR-33 that has since been patiently waiting for me to drum up the courage to disassemble and fix the keyboard, I recently acquired ASR-33 #2, however although this one is more or less an ASR-33, its branded as an Anderson Jacobson ADT-233, and has an interesting feature…
Continue reading “Teletype ASR-33..er…Anderson Jacobson ADT-233”Telephony Home Lab Part 2 – Mistakes Were Made
SO…buying any kind of old computer gear or technology can either be considered buying collectibles, or throwing money into a fire pit. In other ways its all about the experience; nobody is buying a $4k Altair to run Crysis; they’re buying $4k video cards. Since I’m not sure how collectible an old PBX will ever be, I’m considering it the latter, so the idea is to minimize the amount of spend as much as possible. That said, sometimes it makes sense to look at the big picture and try to find something that best fits your needs wants, instead of trying to find “the cheapest stuff possible”.
Why a Merlin PBX? In Part 1 I mentioned that I saw a ton of Merlin stuff get scrapped back in my childhood days, and the 1980s retro-futuristic (or perhaps space-age) look of the hardware has me on a nostalgic kick. In addition, after reading up on the Merlin stuff, I find it has some relatively interesting features, including the ability to “live behind another PBX” (like Asterisk), and handles a venerable plethora of connectivity, including POTS, T1/PRI, IDSN (including BRI!), and supports several generations of phones from the old space-age devices to 90s-rific Avaya 44xx series phones. So long story short, I wanted one for both nostalgic reasons, as well as even a few practical-ish ones. There are MANY MANY other PBXes, some of which may even fit all my actual needs (see my notes below regarding ISDN), but for now I just wanted a Merlin.
Read on to find out what I ran into buying/building an old PBX. These nuggets can be applied to other things in life as well, and I’m humble enough to admit my fumbles. Buckle-in as this is a multi-part…part.
The Devil is in the Details – Research EVERYTHING.
Telephony equipment varies a LOT when it comes to standards, and even devices that LOOK similar, from a similar era and even the same company, may not be compatible. For example, At&t made a variety of those space-age-looking phones, that while looking identical, some were not compatible with the Merlin systems; they were for the Definity family.
Telephony Home Lab Part 1.1 – Use cases and Justification
Before I get into the mistakes made part, let me take a moment to talk about the telephony home lab, what my thoughts/ideas were behind it, and why I chose to include a vintage PBX into the mix (short answer – because I felt like it).
In some cases, IT people like myself often run “home labs” (or homelabs if you prefer), basically small (sometimes not so small) IT setups in their home, partially just to tinker and have fun, partially to learn or TRY things , and sometimes providing useful services to the household in the process.
Continue reading “Telephony Home Lab Part 1.1 – Use cases and Justification”Telephony Home Lab – Part 1 (featuring the At&t Merlin Phone System)
Well, after December 2020 was quite a doozy of a month, December 2021 said “hold my beer” and blew away whatever crappy stuff was happening in 2020, to the point where for the first time in my life (since I can remember), I actually did not celebrate Christmas with my family. More on that later, but long story short despite having more projects than I know what to do with, my ADD brain led me to hyperfocus on telephony; something that I hold dear to me as exposure to most of ma bell’s refuse (equipment, phones, switches, computers, etc) in my childhood is what led me to technology in the first place. I had access to a ton of gear (even just seeing some of it) through a family friend that owned a recycling plant near my uncle’s house, and got to bring home some stuff like old phones (2500 sets) and tinker with them.
One thing I distinctly remember were many “Merlin” phones; and of course getting a nostalgia kick, I found a couple “analog” Merlin phones that had that silver/sleek 1980s futuristic look I remember, with membrane buttons and the At&t logo.
Continue reading “Telephony Home Lab – Part 1 (featuring the At&t Merlin Phone System)”DEC DecPrinter I (LA180)
I got this as part of a package deal with some other things recently, and figured I’d detail my experience in messing with this printer and troubleshooting some issues with it. Buckle in and let’s get started!
