Did anybody do stuff for DEC-20?

[gsteemso]

It is after all right up there with "May the 4th be with you" as far as punny days go.

I myself spent the day learning how to extract data from vintage (and recreated semi-vintage) PDP-10 archive tapes, with the goal of recovering needed files from the TOPS-20 tapes archived at Bitsavers. (That in turn was prompted by the need for certain system-standard MACRO-20 files that did not come with the source code to the TOPS-20 FTP software, which I want to modernize [i.e., bring up to date as of 10-20 years ago rather than 40]. It's very tricky to use the "current" version from most places, as it does not know about PASV [for getting through firewalls].)

I have not actually completed the program I'm writing to do the extraction work for me, but I do know what it's doing and it's only a matter of time.

Has anybody else got anything to share?

Gordon S.

[B 9]

I finally bought a UNIX keyboard for my DEC VT340+. It's the rarely seen (but not particularly valuable) LK 421. Unfortunately, it turns out "Unused" on eBay doesn't mean "New". I'm going to have to return it because it looks like it was stored with the keys held down and now they don't pop up. 

—b9

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[gsteemso]

I take it the keys can't be re-sprung in any reasonable manner?  It doesn't sound like there are that many of those keyboards out there to choose amongst.

On Dec 25, 2024, at 1:35 PM, B 9 <hack...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/seattle-retrocomp/CAG1tPesz8QTvC_AeL7bhCTBptzqh69aUBX5AJV4OX5d4R4T5%2Bg%40mail.gmail.com.

[B 9]

On Wed, Dec 25, 2024 at 5:52 PM gsteemso <48bits...@gmail.com> wrote:

I take it the keys can't be re-sprung in any reasonable manner? 

“Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”  — Google's AI (Artificial Inanity?) suggested email response.

Photos online seem to show the mechanism as just a rubber sheet which I don't think is in any way fixable or even replaceable. 

It doesn't sound like there are that many of those keyboards out there to choose amongst.

I'm not so sure I even still want one after feeling the terrible mushiness of the keys (the ones which weren't obviously borked). I had expected the DEC LK-421 to be about as good as my LK-201 keyboard, maybe even better since it wouldn't be as old. Not only was there no "snap", they bottomed out in a way I can only describe as the tactile equivalent to being "acoustically dead". I hope this isn't a representative example of the LK-421 since I like the form factor and layout, but personally I think I'm going to look around for an old "Happy Hacker" keyboard that I can stuff an Arduino inside to teach it to speak DEC's peripheral protocol.

Happy New Year, everyone!

—b9