Subject: Where have all the Selectrics gone?

From: "Mike Ross" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat May 24 17:31:31 2003

IBM made a bunch of printer terminals based around the Selectric typewriter 
- 1052, 2740, 2970 etc. Look in any old copy of BYTE, and you'll also find 
several vendors were selling 3rd party terminals based around IBM 
Selectrics, often converted for ASCII/RS-232c operation, as teletype 
alternatives.

Where have they all gone? (I appreciate, from what I've heard, that many 
folks who used them in anger would reply 'I don't know, I don't care, good 
riddance!') Early DECwriters are not uncommon. Teletypes are (almost) ten a 
penny, ASR33s show up frequently enough on ebay, I have several.

But the only Selectric based unit I've *seen* in over ten years of 
collecting is a 2970 Reservation Termainal (see 
http://www.corestore.org/2970-1.jpg ) which I was offered a year or so ago. 
It needs a fair bit of TLC, and it's a print-only device; it can receive 
data from a host and print it, but not send anything back from the keyboard.

I'd love to get a bidirectional equivalent to use as an 'authentic' terminal 
for a 360 emulator I work with... any clues? Can anyone recommend a 
Selectric repair shop? No way I want to try to fettle something THIS 
mechanically-intimidating myself!

Mike
http://www.corestore.org

---

From: Tothwolf <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat May 24 19:29:00 2003

On Sat, 24 May 2003, Mike Ross wrote:

> IBM made a bunch of printer terminals based around the Selectric
> typewriter - 1052, 2740, 2970 etc. Look in any old copy of BYTE, and
> you'll also find several vendors were selling 3rd party terminals based
> around IBM Selectrics, often converted for ASCII/RS-232c operation, as
> teletype alternatives.
>
> folks who used them in anger would reply 'I don't know, I don't care,
> good riddance!') Early DECwriters are not uncommon. Teletypes are
> (almost) ten a penny, ASR33s show up frequently enough on ebay, I have
> several.

Well, I have one sitting in storage. I'm not sure of the model though.

> http://www.corestore.org/2970-1.jpg ) which I was offered a year or so
> ago.  It needs a fair bit of TLC, and it's a print-only device; it can
> receive data from a host and print it, but not send anything back from
> the keyboard.

Mine also needs some work. I believe it is some kind of modified terminal,
and was used as a printer on a TRS80 Model 1. I also have the custom
interface box that connects the two.

> I'd love to get a bidirectional equivalent to use as an 'authentic'
> terminal for a 360 emulator I work with... any clues? Can anyone
> recommend a Selectric repair shop? No way I want to try to fettle
> something THIS mechanically-intimidating myself!

The original owner of my Selectric also gave me a service manual for the
Selectric line, but I don't think it exactly covers the unit I have. Most
likely, it covers most of the mech, but not the exact same configuration.
The part number of the manual is S241-5615-3 and lists these models on the
cover:

IBM "Selectric" Typewriter (7XX)
IBM "Selectric" II Typewriter (8XX)
IBM Correcting "Selectric" II Typewriter (8XX)
IBM 96 "Selectric" Typewriter (9XX)

-Toth

---

From: "Ed Tillman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 3 08:28:24 2003

I dunno where they all went...  In my case, I had a competing Smith-Corona
daisy-wheen typewriter with a female DB9 attachment on the back that hooked
into my first Realistic (tv monitor) computer, and made a right fair LQ
printer.  I gave it to my daughter 9-10 years ago, and it seems to have
disappeared since then...

Cheers

Ed/San Antonio, TX, USA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Ross" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 05:29 PM
Subject: Where have all the Selectrics gone?

> IBM made a bunch of printer terminals based around the Selectric
typewriter
> http://www.corestore.org/2970-1.jpg ) which I was offered a year or so
ago.
> I'd love to get a bidirectional equivalent to use as an 'authentic'
terminal

---

From: [email-masked] (Tony Duell)
Date: Tue Jun 3 09:02:06 2003

> daisy-wheen typewriter with a female DB9 attachment on the back that hooked

This reminds me,...

Somewhere I have an electronic tyewriter, It's portable, battery operated 
(!), and has a Centroinics port on the side so you can use it as a 
printer. The mechanism? A wide-carriage (8" or so) version of that little 
ballpoint pen plotter that we discussed recently, you know the 
CBM1520/CGP115/etc one). One odd pen i have for it once contained 
white-out type correction fluid and and could be used to erase characters 
from the output (!).

-tony

---

From: Ethan Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 3 09:08:06 2003

--- Tony Duell <[email-masked]> wrote:
> printer.

I think the plotter mechanism for the workslate was also battery powered.

> The mechanism? A wide-carriage (8" or so) version of that little 
> CBM1520/CGP115/etc one).

Nice.

> One odd pen i have for it once contained 

Wow!  That'd be a cool pen to have.  You could put colored paper in the
mechanism and use it for "white" (if it didn't flake off).

-ethan

---

From: [email-masked] (Tony Duell)
Date: Tue Jun 3 09:10:51 2003

> > ballpoint pen plotter that we discussed recently, you know the 

Well, the print quality wasn't as good as a 'real' typewriter, on the 
other hand this thing is pretty light, and IIRC there's a mode for 
drawing pie charts, etc (!) which are not easy to draw on a normal 
typewriter.

It's an interesting toy,  I guess. But I'll stick to my real, mechanical, 
manual typewriter for filling in forms, and the laserprinter for word 
processing :-)

> Wow!  That'd be a cool pen to have.  You could put colored paper in the

I'm pretty sure it's long since dead, and I have no idea where you'd get 
a replacement. IIRC, there were 2 tubes of pens that came with the unit 
-- one had the conventional black, blue, green, red ones, and the other 
had the correction pen and 3 others (possibly a special one to write over 
the correction fluid?)

The dust cover for this unit had clips inside to hold 2 tubes of pens, I 
think.

Of course I've opeened it up. I think almost all the work is done by a 64 
pin 6803-type microcontroller. There are also some power driver circuits 
for the stepper motors, etc. Not much else inside.

> mechanism and use it for "white" (if it didn't flake off).

I don't think it was as fine a tip as the normal pens.

-tony

---

From: John Lawson <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 3 09:13:35 2003

> white-out type correction fluid and and could be used to erase characters

  I had one like this - by a company called Silver-Reed. It was fine if
you liked everything to look like it was plotted - as opposed to
typewritten.  And, the little pens tended to 'weep' and leave random
blobs of ink and streaky smears.

  But it was Cool to watch it work, especially when hooked up to my old
Kaypro 2.

  Cheers

John