Original TV Typewriter

[Paul A. Pennington]

    Michael Holley wrote:

> I have added more information on Don Lancaster's original TV Typewriter to 
> my web site...

    Nice job, Michael, as usual.  You always do a good job cleaning up your 
scans for publication.  My copy has a bunch of my notes and corrections, 
which of course is more valuable (to me) than a "new" copy.  This brought 
back a lot of memories for me.

    I built one of these from scratch back in 1975, just over a year after 
the article was published.  I still have copies of my letters ordering all 
the parts, made with a real typewriter and carbon paper (remember that?). 
My letter to SWTPC ordering the PC boards came back marked "not available." 
Bummer -- I had already ordered the parts.  Being a resourceful young Army 
staff sergeant, I made the boards from scratch by making copies of the 
artwork in the booklet on transparency film, and then making photographic 
contact prints to get a negative.  Another contact print onto photo 
sensitive PC boards, some etching, and voila -- PC boards.

    I actually got this working, and used it as a terminal to talk to my 
Motorola 6800 "D1" evaluation board.  Worked for several years before I 
graduated to a video card in my SWTPC computer.  "Working" here means 16 
lines of 32 characters.  At 300 baud, it took 37 seconds to fill the screen.

    What a long way we've come.

    Paul Pennington
    Augusta, Georgia