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Vintage Computers Any vintage computer systems, calculators, video games etc., but with an emphasis on 1980s and earlier equipment. |
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21st Nov 2022, 4:11 pm | #1 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Isle of Man, UK.
Posts: 102
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Sperry Univac Terminal
Hi all,
I have been given an old 1981 Sperry UTS 20 and network multiplexer, both power on and seem to "work". However I don't have a keyboard for the terminal. Would anyone have anything suitable please or be able to tell me how to wire one up? It uses a serial port, like the picture attached. Thank you, Nick |
22nd Nov 2022, 2:54 am | #2 |
Octode
Join Date: May 2018
Location: Northampton, Northamptonshire, UK.
Posts: 1,396
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Re: Sperry Univac Terminal
It's somewhat ironic that the keyboard is serial as well as the terminal, as the data could in theory just go straight from the keyboard to the RS232 ouput from it (and VDU display what's coming in). Although I suspect this terminal is a bit more sophisticated than early ones, and has a microprocessor that allows configuration via the keyboard.
And although the keyboard has a 9way D type? connector, it probably isn't normal RS-232 levels asynchronous serial that's on it. It may well be 5V levels synchronous-serial, with clock and data lines, like PC etc keyboards - In which case it may be possible to convert one of those (maybe an older type, with a DIL40 8042 uC, that may be able to be swapped for some custom firmware one if keyboard codes / data format is a bit different). If there isn't any good manuals etc. available for it - looks like these might be useful: http://bitsavers.org/pdf/univac/term...uide_Jun81.pdf http://bitsavers.org/pdf/univac/term...tion_Apr83.pdf (But can't find any detailed h/w details in these) then might need to take it apart to do some tracing of connections to the keyboard connector / see if these are labelled on the PCB, in order to work out how to make a compatible keyboard. |