VT100 "emulator" for Terminal

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Ken Hansen

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Mar 22, 2024, 12:17:31 AMMar 22

to PiDP-8

I'm putting together a PiDP-8 kit tonight/tomorrow, and in preparation for it I just put this kit from Tindie together and wanted to share:

https://www.tindie.com/products/petrohi/geoffs-vt100-terminal-kit/

The kit is 100% thru-hole parts, and given the build instructions provided, I was able to assemble it in about an hour. It was a nice, straight-forward build. I've built two, and both worked on first power-up.

It outputs 640x480 VGA video, and uses a PS/2 keyboard. This is a great use for older low-res LCD display, and who doesn't have an old PS/2 keyboard lying around?

I suspect the serial port can be connected straight to the serial port on the GPIO pins, or it can be powered off a USB port. As a bonus, it also has a USB-serial interface on the board, so, with a USB B to A cable, I *believe* you could power the board AND establish a serial terminal session over the single USB connection. I intend to test that when my PiDP-8 is built.