Unknown 12" Olivetti CRT

Hi, I just found this thing at a yard sale. It's a 12" Olivetti CRT. The only number on it I could find was 0003771 located underneath a unique kind of tilt mechanism on the bottom side.

It has a single cord with 9 pin connector, so I'm guessing this must be to provide power and video from what ever it hooks up to. There is also a threaded insert (wall mount maybe) and a single control knob on the back. Also a built in carrying handle on top. Not too heavy either 8 maybe 10 lbs.

I searched quite a bit for info on it but didn't come up with anything at all.

The reason I picked it up was because the tube itself looks pretty good, no dark spots, visible burn in or discoloration. I would like to try and power it up somehow an see if it lights up but I don't have a clue.

There was also a sticker on top from "Stewart's Business Machines, Gary IN". That's nearby for me, but it's apparently no longer in existence. Cash register, adding machine, CCTV maybe?

I just thought it was kind of interesting looking. Any info to satisfy my curiosity much appreciated.

-Tom

pics - http://www.welook4things.com/sub_olivetti_0003771.html

lisacox128 said:

Had not seen that before.

Click to expand...

Thanks and yeah I know. I searched forever trying to find something about this thing and didn't come up with zip. I tried text searching, image searching, ect.... and did that on several different search engines to boot, but no luck at all. It's beginning to look like I just bought myself a $5.00 doorstop... Oh well....

-Tom

CCTV? Yeah, video monitor was my first thought on looking at the pictures, but I'm not sure...those typically use BNC or RCA-type connectors. The German text of course simply refers to complying with X-ray shielding regulations (hence Röntgenstrahlung).

What is that rectangular piece of plastic below the German text, and to the right of the 9-pin DIN cable? Is it a button, a cap covering something (like an IEC power connector), or perhaps just a dummy plate?

Could it be part of a old viewdata/videotex terminal?

dreddnott said:

CCTV? Yeah, video monitor was my first thought on looking at the pictures, but I'm not sure...those typically use BNC or RCA-type connectors. The German text of course simply refers to complying with X-ray shielding regulations (hence Röntgenstrahlung).

What is that rectangular piece of plastic below the German text, and to the right of the 9-pin DIN cable? Is it a button, a cap covering something (like an IEC power connector), or perhaps just a dummy plate?

Click to expand...

I thought the same thing. (cover for power) It's actually a push button which releases the tilt leg for height adjustment. I also tried to remove the back cover thinking a look inside might uncover something, but it is locked in somehow. Only moves back about 1/2 inch and then stops. I'm going to try again later when I have some more time and look better at how it's designed. I didn't want to get too rough with it in a rush and break something.

Olivetti

Olivetti

Olivetti was doing business here in the states for a couple years. (Late 1980s)They primarily sold and serviced bankings computer systems. Their M30, M40 computer systems were commercial products, they had banking passbook printers, journal printers etc. The bought out a company in Irving TX called Docutel (manufacturer of ATMs) and TRW Customer service did most of Olivetti's field service. After a short time, they skulked out of the US market and returned to Europe.
As a senior instructor for TRW, I took an instant dislike to their products and thought of the M20, 30, 40 and the later Intel model as "Yugos" (Fiats built in Yugoslavia) because they were as relaible as a Yugo! When I sold/junked my 78 Buick, it had a complete "unmentioned" M20 system in the trunk. The Z8000 was a really decent processor but it was too late, everyone wanted an IBM PC!

That's interesting. Until I got this crt I wasn't even aware that Olivetti had ever made anything other than manual typewriters. Seems I'm learning something new here everyday! :D :D

Woodym1 said:

Olivetti was doing business here in the states for a couple years. (Late 1980s)They primarily sold and serviced bankings computer systems. Their M30, M40 computer systems were commercial products, they had banking passbook printers, journal printers etc. The bought out a company in Irving TX called Docutel (manufacturer of ATMs) and TRW Customer service did most of Olivetti's field service. After a short time, they skulked out of the US market and returned to Europe.
As a senior instructor for TRW, I took an instant dislike to their products and thought of the M20, 30, 40 and the later Intel model as "Yugos" (Fiats built in Yugoslavia) because they were as relaible as a Yugo! When I sold/junked my 78 Buick, it had a complete "unmentioned" M20 system in the trunk. The Z8000 was a really decent processor but it was too late, everyone wanted an IBM PC!

Click to expand...

Hi
I have 2 M20's and find them to be better built than the IBM's of that day.
They were better engineered and about the same in reliability.
The hard disk were not to great but the rest of the machine is well built
and is easy to repair as well.
It is a shame you didn't save the M20. I've had several collectors ask me
for one but I'm not ready to part with them.
I suspect that your memories were related to other high end machines
of the time and not the general consumer machines such as the IBM PC.
They were not a DEC or HP. I'd agree with that.
Dwight

Olivetti Computers

Olivetti Computers

Yes, perhaps I was a bit overly harsh re Olivetti computers in my earlier post. As I remember, I only conducted two M30, M40 classes. When they started pulling back, I moved into instructing service techs on the IBM Systems 36 and 38.
Olivetti had their problems and I think mainly because they went at the US market in a half-hearted manner. (there may have been background reasons of which I am not knowledgeable about) They purchased and gutted Docutel then closed it down despite the rather large installed base of Docutel series 5000 ATMs. (Almost every Texas 7/11 had one installed) The Olivetti M20 had very little working software at that time but as I pointed out in my previous post, The Zilog Z8000 family of processors was far superior to the offerings from Motorola, Intel et al, but everybody and his cousin was busy writing applications for the dinky little 8088... and the 6502. Still, the little PC from Boca Raton sure did turn the business on its ear!

Hi
The IBM PC was the major issue. It was cheaper and had the IBM
on it.
The M20 could have used a MMU but I think the timing was wrong.
They did try to keep the users from being too upset ( at least in Europe )
by creating the 8086 card that would plug into the M20. It had a version
of MSDOS but the bios and hardware were too different. I understand
that there were issues because the 8086 address on the I/O was
different than the 8088 as well.
I've been trying to locate software and wonder how much was
actually created. For development, I've located the assembler and
a really oversized PASCAL.
The assembler is restrictive. It seems to only support non-segmented code.
It creates code to run in the address window that split the data from the code.
I suspect that they didn't want to document the messy address decoder ROM.
I've not found anything on the address decoding. I've made tables to
show how the physical is arranged in the logical but it is confusing to
tell people about. It does need to be understood to be able to use
the debugger effectively. One needs to know where the code is loaded
to see it in the debugger.
Dwight

Well I finally found out what this CRT belongs to and even managed to acquired what appears to be maybe a complete setup. It's for an Olivetti ETV-240.

I asked a local office supplies sales rep. about the CRT and he not only knew exactly what it was, he was kind enough to give me an old stock one they had lying around. Included were two floppys, an extra daisy wheel, a couple of boxes of ribbons and some correction tape. No documentation though.....

As far as the drive goes, either the disks are blank/defective or the drive itself is non-functional. Looks like it runs CP/M and has an optional slot on the left for an additional floppy drive. Plus it also asks for a floppy or cassette when searching for media. Also there was a removable panel under the space bar which looks like it may have been designed to accept some type of other device. Looks too small for a tape drive. No idea what it is for. On the rear there is an attached power cord and the CRT connection, nothing else. I tried it in typewriter mode and all of the keys appear to work as well.

Anyway, I'm not really sure what the heck I'll ever do with it or if it's got any sort of vintage value, but at least the mystery is somewhat solved for me now.

Have a wonderful day everyone,

Tom

I may have a boot disk for an ETV-250 if you're interested.