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What to do with a data terminal

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cobracon

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Mar 15, 2012
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Michigan
Well I never used a data terminal back in the day, so here is my question. What can I do with a Panasonic KX-d4930v data terminal in todays world? I really do not know what to do with this thing.

Robert
 
Well, I'd probably use it as a debugging terminal for some of my projects. Alternatively, you could fit it with a small microcontroller module and use it as a computer.

Or you could sell it.
 
Great ideas. This terminal also has a built in printer and modem. Back in the day could it have connected to a bbs?
 
cobracon said:
Great ideas. This terminal also has a built in printer and modem. Back in the day could it have connected to a bbs?
Click to expand...
I'm not the one to answer that, but suspect it wouldn't have built in dialing software.

What you can do, to fool around, is plug it into the modem on a DOS box and type back and forth. Perhaps even use it as a text intercom between the kitchen and the workshop. hehehe
 
I used to keep a Hazeltine 1500 in my living room 20 years ago, I had a external modem connected to it and had memorized most of the local bbs's I called.
Just turn it on and type ATDT(phonenumber), and enjoy the bbs message forums. The main computer was in my bedroom running my bbs.

(Actually at that time, I think I had a 286 running the main node and a compaq portable running the second line, connected using 10 Base2, and running a networking software called network/os. Boy that was a slow setup on the second node..)

Later,
dabone
 
Personally, I like Chuck's idea of using a microcontroller module. Heck, you should even be able to use it with many of the CPU trainers (after you've built them, of course)
 
Connecting it to unix machines to run them headless is a popular choice. Yes one could use it for a bbs but you would probably call the number, then have it spliced in to pick up the connection, or like some terminals they had the coupler on the terminal so you would set the phone down on the unit and call that way. It was also used sometimes (the printer only units) by government agencies that required write only logs or to dump system logs to the printer/terminal. One early day security concept was logs on disk can be modified and lost, printed logs are write only and unless they walk off secure. It was also common for dialing logs or call received logs.

Anyway, you could put it on the bay ;-) Watching a few of your items right now btw.
 
So when you guys talk about microcontrollers, do you mean like the basic stamp by Parallax? Also could I use this with my micromint z8 or my Little board setup?

barythrin: Thanks for watching them. The Atari Porfolio has 27 watchers already :) I'll be listing more stuff next week.
 
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Definitely the boards you already have should work--they've already got serial I/O. I'm not familiar with your particular terminal--some have external RS232 input, else you may need to wedge in an RS232 level-shifter.

You could also make a BASIC Stamp work. There are many, many possibilities.

And don't forget that a lot of DSL modems have (undocumented) serial I/O as a command-line console if they're running some flavor of Linux. Heck, I've got a DTV converter box with a DE-9 on the back for serial I/O. The output from it is kind of interesting.

Bottom line is that it could be a useful tool.
 
My vote would be to use the terminal as a serial console hooked up to a Linux machine.

And, once that is working, move it to do the same task hooked up a to a Xenix machine. :D And after that is done, post a picture so we can award you your rightly deserved bragging points!
 
Hmmm Just thought of an interesting use for the terminal. Just need to know if you think it will work. I recently received a TI S1500 server from Terry. We do not know if it works or not. I do have the HD and the server minus the front cover. Ok so the question. Do you think I could use this as a terminal for that system? As of right now I have no Monochrome or CGA monitor to use on it. Also no TI Terminal. Would really like to see this thing fire up. Here is a link to the info about the server.

http://www.home.unix-ag.org/engel/ti/

Thanks
 
terminal connectors / ports - RS232, Coaxial, etc.

terminal connectors / ports - RS232, Coaxial, etc.

I'm trying to get a understanding of the types of connectors / ports used on vintage terminals and how one would connect them to other machines.

There seems to be a two varieties:

1) RS232 serial port - which looks like a DB-25 pin connector on the terminal, which you can typically connect to another computer via a null modem DB-25-to-DB-9 cable.

2) Coaxial port - this looks to be a proprietary interface type, which I think can only connect to the computer system made for that terminal, correct?
 
I have an IBM 3174 controller with a Token Ring interface and IBM CO-AX connected screens. These can be used to connect to the Hercules emulator, or to LINUX boxes using Telnet. Sorry the pictuire is a bit fuzzy. 3174.jpg
 
jonnymacuser said:
I'm trying to get a understanding of the types of connectors / ports used on vintage terminals and how one would connect them to other machines.
There seems to be a two varieties:
1) RS232 serial port - which looks like a DB-25 pin connector on the terminal, which you can typically connect to another computer via a null modem DB-25-to-DB-9 cable.
2) Coaxial port - this looks to be a proprietary interface type, which I think can only connect to the computer system made for that terminal, correct?
Click to expand...
In the systems I worked on in the eighties, terminals were scattered throughout a building, connected to centralised terminal controller racks.

The 'intelligence' of terminals varied considerably. There were 'dumb' terminals such as VT220s, and 'intelligent' terminals (with 'dumb' and 'intelligent' being subjective). What terminal you could use on a particular mainframe depended on the mainframe's requirements. So for example, IBM mainframes typically required terminals that used IBM's 3270 protocol - the cable/connector types varied, but the upper protocol had to be 3270.

One system I worked on sent digital video (proprietary) to the remote terminal (proprietary) via coax. So there was always digital video on the wire, except for small designated periods where the terminal was to send any keystrokes to the controller.
 
I used to have a couple of Fujitsu terminals--each terminal used a pair of rather oddball biaxial connectors (a regular screw shell, but with a "D" shaped recess for one conductor.
 
Anybody know what kind of interface the Wang VS terminal uses?

http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/WangVS100.htm

Can you hook this up to a linux box or other computer? I've seen a picture of the back of the machine, and read some material on the 'net that seems to say it has dual-coaxial cable connectors in back. Is that a proprietary interface, reserved for only hooking this terminal up to Wang mainframes?
 
jonnymacuser said:
Anybody know what kind of interface the Wang VS terminal uses?

http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/WangVS100.htm

Can you hook this up to a linux box or other computer? I've seen a picture of the back of the machine, and read some material on the 'net that seems to say it has dual-coaxial cable connectors in back. Is that a proprietary interface, reserved for only hooking this terminal up to Wang mainframes?
Click to expand...

I can't answer directly about the Wang interface, but the coax connectors were generally used for thinnet, which is ethernet through coax. There's lots of old ethernet cards with that connector so it should be easy to set up a Linux box with that. The cabling was 70 ohm (like video) so readily available.
 
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