French Minitel - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Tractorfan · 18th May 2009, 10:16 pm

Hi all,
I picked up a Philips Minitel2 unit for just 1€ at a flea market. It powers up & seems to work OK and I was wondering if it could be used without any subscription. (Only snag is that it's password protected.)
Or would it be better as a source of bits for other projects? Any other learned folk on here found a use for these gadgets?
Had a look on Wikipedia & it says that the minitel service is still up & running in France. Otherwise I know nothing about it. Any ideas

Cheers de Pete

julie_m · 19th May 2009, 7:02 am

If nothing else, it's a 40x25 display terminal with a non-standard charset featuring embedded attribute codes and a built-in 1200/75 baud modem.

I have some memories of using a Minitel in France a long time ago, when you sometimes used to find them attached to payphones in bars and restaurants. 36 15 nom was the equivalent then of www.nom.com .....

To give you an idea how long ago it was, I was paying for the calls with Francs!

Steve · 19th May 2009, 11:59 am

If you can follow French, there's information here about driving it from a linux box - http://furrtek.free.fr/index.php?p=crea&a=telinux

There's also a working demo here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qDQiClePE8

Steve.

ben · 19th May 2009, 1:09 pm

In the recent scrapyard challenge electronics event in Paris, they found one - Harold schellinx has an interesting paragraph on it in his write up of the day.

18th May 2009, 10:16 pm	#1
Tractorfan Dekatron Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: St. Frajou, l'Isle en Dodon, Haute Garonne, France.(Previously: Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, UK.) Posts: 3,184	French Minitel Hi all, I picked up a Philips Minitel2 unit for just 1€ at a flea market. It powers up & seems to work OK and I was wondering if it could be used without any subscription. (Only snag is that it's password protected.) Or would it be better as a source of bits for other projects? Any other learned folk on here found a use for these gadgets? Had a look on Wikipedia & it says that the minitel service is still up & running in France. Otherwise I know nothing about it. Any ideas Cheers de Pete __________________ "Hello?, Yes, I'm on the train, I might lose the signal soon as we're just going into a tunn..."

19th May 2009, 7:02 am	#2
julie_m Dekatron Join Date: May 2008 Location: Derby, UK. Posts: 7,735	Re: French Minitel If nothing else, it's a 40x25 display terminal with a non-standard charset featuring embedded attribute codes and a built-in 1200/75 baud modem. I have some memories of using a Minitel in France a long time ago, when you sometimes used to find them attached to payphones in bars and restaurants. 36 15 nom was the equivalent then of www.nom.com ..... To give you an idea how long ago it was, I was paying for the calls with Francs! __________________ If I have seen further than others, it is because I was standing on a pile of failed experiments. Last edited by Dave Moll; 19th May 2009 at 2:45 pm. Reason: fixed broken link

19th May 2009, 11:59 am	#3
Steve Tetrode Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK. Posts: 91	Re: French Minitel If you can follow French, there's information here about driving it from a linux box - http://furrtek.free.fr/index.php?p=crea&a=telinux There's also a working demo here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qDQiClePE8 Steve.

19th May 2009, 1:09 pm	#4
ben Dekatron Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Madrid, Spain / Wirral, UK Posts: 7,499	Re: French Minitel In the recent scrapyard challenge electronics event in Paris, they found one - Harold schellinx has an interesting paragraph on it in his write up of the day. __________________ Regards, Ben.