[PiDP-11] Cadetwriter Announcements

[Dave Babcock]

To all,

The Computer History Museum's IBM 1620 Jr. project team has several announcements about Cadetwriter:

1)  Congratulations to Paul Williamson as the first person, besides our project team, to successfully build his own Cadetwriter.  We know that a number of people are building or planning to build one, but Paul is the first person we've heard from that has completed it.

    If you are building, or planning to build, a Cadetwriter, please let us know about it.

    Paul's WheelWriter 1000 seems to have a different version of the logic board and/or its firmware than the CHM WheelWriters. This exposed several issues that Paul diagnosed which led to changes in the Cadetwriter firmware that make it more robust.

2)  A new version (5R5) of the firmware is available with these important changes:

    -  Added support for semi-automatic paper loading.

    -  Increased the Interrupt Service Routine delay time to deal with overlapping column scans.

    -  Adjusted the timing of unshifted, shifted, and code characters.

    This firmware is available at: https://github.com/IBM-1620/Cadetwriter

3)  There is a new Cadetwriter message board at: https://cadetwriter.slack.com

    There are actually 5 channels available:

    -  Cadetwriter/announcements - for announcements of new versions of the firmware, documentation, hardware, etc.

    -  Cadetwriter/description - for a general description of Cadetwriter and links to resources.

    -  Cadetwriter/building - a discussion forum for those building a Cadetwriter.

    -  Cadetwriter/operating - a discussion forum for those using a Cadetwriter.

    -  Cadetwriter/suggestions - a discussion forum for proposed additions/changes to Cadetwriter.

    If you have interest in Cadetwriter, please register and participate in the discussion.

Thanks,

IBM 1620 Jr. Team

[Tom Lake]

I assembled interface 2.0 boards for five people and kept one for myself. So far I haven't heard back from anyone if they actually completed the project or not. As for me, my Wheelwriter is still in pieces on my workbench. I keep planning on installing the interface board but other projects keep popping up ahead of it. One of these days...

Tom L

[Randy E (OoMOR)]

Dave,

Do you know if this is or can be usable on a Wheelwriter 3500? I see one of these typewriters available in Los Angeles for what should be a good value...

Thanks, Randy

[Stephen Casner]

On Wed, 3 Jun 2020, 'Randy E (OoMOR)' via [PiDP-11] wrote:

> Do you know if this is or can be usable on a Wheelwriter 3500? I see one of
> these typewriters available in Los Angeles for what should be a good
> value...

I've not seen the inside of a Wheelwriter 3500, so it is hard to say.
I did pick up a Wheelwriter 35 Series II from a discard pile and
verified that our Serial Interface Board will work in it if the
connectors for the power cable and RS232 cable are changed to
right-angle rather than vertical mount. This is to reduce the overall
height to avoid interference with the carriage.

The photos that I see of the 3500 look similar to the 35 II but I did
not find any kind of Wheelwriter family tree or other reference that
would allow comparison.

-- Steve

[Dave Babcock]

Hello Randy,

So far, every different Wheelwriter that's been tried has worked.  So, I would be surprised if it couldn't be made to work.

Some WW's have had 1 motherboard and some had 2 boards in the typewriter, but since we connect in between the keyboard and typewriter electronics we're immune to those differences.  Some WW's have a different internal layout and our interface board has had to go in a different location and the power connector changed.  Some, like the 3500 have a wide carriage, but support is in the firmware for that.  Some, like the 3500 have a faster 20cps print speed.  The current firmware is set to print at 16cps but we're working on adjusting the timing coefficients for 20cps printing.  Of course, the higher models have a lot more features, but none of those are used by Cadetwriter.

Our team is available to consult if you go for it.

Thanks,

Dave

[richard...@gmail.com]

Greetings everyone,

A year or so back I built a Cadetwriter interface hoping to use it with an IBM Wheelwriter 30 Series II Model 6787, something wasn't quite right when I tried it and I put it to one side and forgot about it. 

Yesterday I dug it out again and loaded the latest firmware with the build option for 30 series and everything worked. The only problem this time saw that some of the flex connectors needed a bit of a wiggle to get them fully operational, I expect this was due to them being the alternative fine pitch flex cables. software in use is (v6R0 30II) I have tested it using the default USB interface and then on RS232 as well.

The mode 6787 is a little different from the versions described in the build guide, mine is a wide carriage version and it has two circuit boards and also a LCD display.

There is very little room under the keyboard for the interface card, Using a spare board I may build another with low profile parts to try and get a better fit. Everything is looking good so the next task is to properly fit the sockets to the back panel.

Looking forward to some authentic remote login fun, perhaps I'll connect it to my PiDP11 through a modem for a laugh.

Kind regards, David

[Michael Katzmann]

It seems that this is an electronic typewriter, not a terminal.

I see there is a hack to convert it into a terminal ... https://hackaday.com/tag/wheelwriter/

Michael

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[Stephen Casner]

On Tue, 11 May 2021, richard...@gmail.com wrote:

> Yesterday I dug it (IBM Wheelwriter 30 Series II Model 6787) out

> again and loaded the latest firmware with the build option for 30
> series and everything worked. The only problem this time saw that
> some of the flex connectors needed a bit of a wiggle to get them
> fully operational, I expect this was due to them being the
> alternative fine pitch flex cables.

I suggest that you buy a pair of the good flat flex cables with wide
conductors made by Wavelink as listed in the parts list. The folks at
Wavelink were gracious enough to make a production run of 25 sets to
hold as stock and I'd like to keep that business active. The ZIF
connectors on the WW 30 S II have a much narrower contact surface than
the LIF connectors on the WW 1000.

> The mode 6787 is a little different from the versions described in
> the build guide, mine is a wide carriage version and it has two
> circuit boards and also a LCD display. There is very little room
> under the keyboard for the interface card, Using a spare board I may
> build another with low profile parts to try and get a better
> fit. Everything is looking good so the next task is to properly fit
> the sockets to the back panel.

I have a Wheelwriter 30 Series II Model 6787-001 that I picked up from
a curbside discard pile. I put one of my old serial interface boards
into it just to see if it would work, and found that it did. The
installation was actually easier because I just needed to attach the
interface board to the plastic cover over the typewriter's logic
boards. I may have needed to drill one hole to fit the screw
spacing. See the attached photo.

As you note, the problem is that the vertically oriented power and
RS232 connectors would hit. My test used a Rev. 1.7 board that
doesn't have the RS232 circuitry, so no problem with that connector,
but for the power I used a couple of separate jumper wires that I
could bend over so they don't stick up any further than the connector
pins.

Both the 10-pin RS232 connector and the 2-pin power connector are
available as right-angle (horizontal) versions as well, which would
solve the height problem nicely. The only bad part is that for both
of them the index key on the connector would then be opposite of what
it is for the way I designed the vertical parts to be installed. That
means the mapping of signals to pins needs to be inverted, so if you
made cables to fit the board with vertical connectors and then plugged
them into a board with right-angle connectors the wiring would be
wrong. That would be particularly bad on the power connector!

I gave some thought to designing another revision of the board with
the connector orientation flipped so either the vertical or
right-angle connectors could be used, but then there would need to be
a different version of the instructions to go with that board and ...

-- Steve

[Stephen Casner]

[richard...@gmail.com]

Greetings Steve, thanks for the feedback, its very much appreciated.

I'll have to consider getting some of those custom cables although since everything is ok now I may have to pass on that. Would I have to import them into the UK?

At present I have the interface board squeezed in under the keyboard, I like the way you have yours placed on top of the board cover. I'll do that next time.

I have no plans to fit the alternative key caps on my machine and to accommodate this I am thinking of mapping the keys back to their standard codes to match.

I may also fit an external switch to revert to standard wheelwriter operation. One thing I would like to see would be for the menus to appear on a USB interface console with the terminal on the RS232. Another idea would be to allow changing over to wheelwriter operation by a menu command. Since I haven't used it as a typewriter this isn't a pressing concern and I don't expect I'll need to use the menus very often either.

I see mention of a users community hosted by slack.com but I have not managed to access, can you give some instructions how to get in. So far I have created an account with my gmail account but I cant see what to do next. Could you give me some instructions please?

I was spurred into action getting this going as I've just acquired a Wyse WY-185 terminal, it has the ability to communicate with a printer on a second channel - it even passes Cadetwriter  keystrokes through to the host application if required and does speed buffering at the same time. I plan to hook it all together with a modem on my PBX and get a login onto one of the DEC  simulations. At present I have it connected to a CP/M system.

I too was very lucky getting my Wheelwriter, it cost me £1 on ebay and came with a manual, a cover, a box full of new ribbons, and a spare wheel too. I have had to make a couple of adjustments to get it to print underscore characters but otherwise it seems ok. 

KInd regards, David.

[Stephen Casner]

On Wed, 12 May 2021, richard...@gmail.com wrote:

> I'll have to consider getting some of those custom cables although since
> everything is ok now I may have to pass on that. Would I have to import
> them into the UK?

I don't know what the international shipping and import requirements
would be. The country of origin would be USA.

> At present I have the interface board squeezed in under the keyboard, I
> like the way you have yours placed on top of the board cover. I'll do that
> next time.

I guess you must have tilted up the keyboard to its highest angle to
fit the serial interface board underneath?

> I have no plans to fit the alternative key caps on my machine and to
> accommodate this I am thinking of mapping the keys back to their standard
> codes to match.

I think the key mapping table would be easy to modify, but some of the
characters are not in the base 7-bit ASCII set. I suppose you might
be able to change those to emit the corresponding UTF-8 byte sequences.

> I may also fit an external switch to revert to standard wheelwriter
> operation.

I guess you mean a switch that effectively changes the jumper
settings. That would work, but remember that you need to power off
and back on in order for the jumper change to take effect.

> One thing I would like to see would be for the menus to appear
> on a USB interface console with the terminal on the RS232. Another idea
> would be to allow changing over to wheelwriter operation by a menu command.
> Since I haven't used it as a typewriter this isn't a pressing concern and I
> don't expect I'll need to use the menus very often either.

That's an interesting idea. I agree that I find that setting the
configuration through printing questions on paper and providing
selections on the keyboard is cumbersome (and wasteful of paper and
ribbon). It would be nice to be able to talk directly to the
Cadetwriter firmware for configuration over the USB serial interface.

> I see mention of a users community hosted by slack.com but I have not
> managed to access, can you give some instructions how to get in. So far I
> have created an account with my gmail account but I cant see what to do
> next. Could you give me some instructions please?

Go to https://cadetwriter.slack.com where you would register to join
the Cadetwriter workspace.

> I was spurred into action getting this going as I've just acquired a Wyse
> WY-185 terminal, it has the ability to communicate with a printer on a
> second channel - it even passes Cadetwriter keystrokes through to the host
> application if required and does speed buffering at the same time. I plan
> to hook it all together with a modem on my PBX and get a login onto one of
> the DEC simulations. At present I have it connected to a CP/M system.

This reminds me of something I did in the late 70's. My home terminal
for communication to the office was a TI Silent 700 hardcopy terminal
that printed on thermal paper and connected through an acoustic
coupler modem. I did not like wasting paper so I modified the 700
with a special cable inside that allowed me to interpose my IMSAI 8080
computer between the modem and the printer so I could run most of the
time in softcopy mode with display on a video monitor. When I needed
a hardcopy of something I could flip a sense switch on the IMSAI to
enable output to the printer.

-- Steve

[richard...@gmail.com]

Hi Steve, I have already registered with slack.com but I see no way to register with cadetwriter.slack.com, the web page has only a logon dialog but it does not accept my slack account. It looks like a closed group or something similar. I'm perhaps missing something obvious but I'm stuck.

I'm not too bothered about implementing the odd keys, I'd just like to move back the standard ascii like ones which have different locations on the wheelwriter keyboard. 

There are so many tables in the s/w I haven't spotted the one(s) to alter yet.

There are some nifty menu driving libraries for the arduino platform, perhaps one would be suitable for the cadetwriter settings. I've used something previously to edit eeprom settings, perhaps an interesting project.

A simple mod would be to redirect the existing menu to another serial device. Of course one good thing about the existing system is that it gives you hard copy of the current settings.

Yes I did have to lift the keyboard - more than I would have liked.

Kind regards, David.

[Stephen Casner]

On Wed, 12 May 2021, richard...@gmail.com wrote:

> Hi Steve, I have already registered with slack.com but I see no way to
> register with cadetwriter.slack.com, the web page has only a logon dialog
> but it does not accept my slack account. It looks like a closed group or
> something similar. I'm perhaps missing something obvious but I'm stuck.

OK, I tried sending an invitation to you from the Cadetwriter slack
workspace. We'll see if that helps.

-- Steve

[richard...@gmail.com]

Yes the invitation worked, thank you Steve.

I have made a start undoing the modified keyboard layout since I do not have an alternative set of key caps available. This is mainly working now but I'd like to be able to use the two unassigned keys on my wheelwriter (<>, and 3/2`') but I'm struggling to find their position in the matrix. It is now a useful terminal :-) Oddly there is no escape key on my keyboard, not on the Wyse WY-185 either.

Thanks, David.

[Stephen Casner]

On Sat, 15 May 2021, richard...@gmail.com wrote:

> I have made a start undoing the modified keyboard layout since I do not
> have an alternative set of key caps available. This is mainly working now
> but I'd like to be able to use the two unassigned keys on my wheelwriter
> (<>, and 3/2`') but I'm struggling to find their position in the matrix. It
> is now a useful terminal :-)

On my typewriter the only keys that don't match the computer keyboard
are:

- the key above TAB showing ° above ±
- the 6 key has ¢ rather than ^ in the shifted position
- the two keys to the right of P showing ¼ above ½ and [ above ]
- the return key is a backwards L shape so there is no | above \ key
- the , and . keys have the same characters shifted instead of < >

Your keyboards in the UK (both typewriter and computer) may be
different from mine.

> Oddly there is no escape key on my keyboard,
> not on the Wyse WY-185 either.

It's no surprise that the typewriter has no escape key because that
operation would have no meaning for the typewriter. But your Wyse
keyboard must have an escape key, usually at the left end of the
function key row.

-- Steve

[richard...@gmail.com]

This is what my keyboards look like.

Wheelwriter:

Wyse WY-185

I was fortunate to get a copy of the user manual with the terminal, it has a myriad of options I would never have guessed existed. I gave it a try with vttest and it passed nearly all of the tests. Sadly it doesn't do vector graphics.

[Stephen Casner]

David,

I see what you mean now. You have two more keys than we have seen on
the various Wheelwriter models here in the USA, so those would need to
be added to the keyboard matrix. If you look at the paper on the
inside floor of the machine, what Machine Type number do you see?
Mine is 6787-001.

I guess you would need to take a look at the matrix diagram (on github
at Cadetwriter/docs/wheelwriter/keyboard_matrix.xlsx) to find a
plausible open spots and try them. For example, I see two open spots
adjacent to Z that might be candidates for the <> key.

On the Wyse terminal keyboard I see "(Esc)" above F11. I wonder
whether that terminal was designed for a specific application rather
than as a generic ASCII terminal.

-- Steve

[richard...@gmail.com]

Hi Steve, 

I have tried enabling some of the commented out unused keys in the ISR_column_n functions and adding corresponding entries into ASCII_ACTIONS_FULL table without success.

I presume the keys are in the totally blank table entries and not the ones described as X33_022 etc. I'll have to go through the lot of get the program to tell me the keystrokes somehow.

Here is a photo of a plastic coated label on the floor of the printer, it says 6787 without a suffix.

KInd regards, David.

[richard...@gmail.com]

This web page has a map showing the positions of the extra keys: https://blog.nytsoi.net/2018/11/28/ibm-wheelwriter-usb-conversion

[richard...@gmail.com]

Thanks for your help Steve,

I have the two extra keys working on the ASCII terminal s/w now.

David.

[Stephen Casner]

I had not heard about that project before. He just did the easy part
(scanning the keyboard). As Dave Babcock can attest, sending fake
keystrokes to the main logic board to drive the printer is much
trickier.

-- Steve

On Sat, 15 May 2021, richard...@gmail.com wrote:

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