I was in high school in 1974-1978. And our AV studio had a tv typewriter attached to the school tv monitors for daily announcements. It broke an my teacher asked me to look at it. I had all of Don's cookbooks and was learing digital logic. But I was not prepared for the serial memory architecture.. it taught me a lot.. poor solder joints and the board stack connectors made debugging difficult .. and the original builder had added genlock to sync to studio cameras for titling video.. long story lots of learning and memories .. I don't remember the actual problem .. but probably a bad solder joint or mechanical issue. The stack of boards made debugging difficult. Along with poor scopes of the day. This lead me to bud my own 6502 home brew computer in 1977 and start my journey. Glad to see you building one again!
I still have an SWTP audio amplifier that I assembled in the '70s! Back in the '70s I was in high school, and the TV typewriter overwhelmed me. Instead I bought a defective commercially built terminal at a hamfest and repaired it. Thanks for the video!
Fantastic project! I became aware of Don Lancaster's work when I studied the history of the Apple 1 video terminal while replicating it on an FPGA. Steve Wozniak's design lineage can easily be traced to the TV typewriter. And, I must tell you, just like I am impressed with the cool projects you are building, I am also absolutely flabbergasted by your Radio-Electronics magazine collection!
I noticed that too. It’s very similar to the Apple-1 video circuit and uses the same character generator. My Radio Electronics collection is not huge but I do have most of the issues that featured iconic devices. I’m just really into old tech and electronics.
In the summer of 1974, I made friends with a high school student who built that TV typewriter and brought it to the Connecticut State Science Fair. He said that the “cursor board was aptly named” because of how difficult it was to debug. It also turns out that the Molex connectors are a source of flakiness. Later, in high school, I built the TVT-2. With the 2102 static RAM and next generation design, the TVT-2 was much more reliable, but still sometimes flaky.
There is a whole section on “debugging the cursor” in the construction manual. I haven’t gotten to that board yet and I hope I don’t run into too many issues with it. I’m planning on building the TVT2 as well.
Artem love the new channel format and looking forward to the tv typewriter series. I have been wanting to dig into this project for awhile. Steve Leininger, the designer of the TRS-80 model 1, of which I own one, mentioned this project as an influencer on the TRS-80. Keep up the great work.
I lived in Phoenix at the time, just 27 miles from Don, and visited him meany times. He was 'way out their', (if you know what I mean)! But a very nice guy.
Very interesting project. Thanks for sharing! I loved these old magazines. I was a kid in the late 70s and was given a few boxes of old radio/electronics magazines . . .closest thing we had to browsing the web . . . lol
@@artemkalinchuk I had huge stacks of electronics/am radio magazine that I got ah hamfests in the '70s. I learned a lot from them. It was an awesome time, but it is so much easier to find components nowadays!
Fantastic video, congratulations for the channel and greetings from Italy! Who knows if one day you will think of making a replica of the Olivetti Programma 101 PCBs, it would be wonderful! According to many it was the first desktop computer in history back in 1965! I'm not lucky enough to have one, but I have a P603, a later variant from 1972 that also integrates a real teleprinter! I'm currently restoring it. These 70's machines truly instill a magical atmosphere for us vintage electronic enthusiasts!
Just look at that beautiful machine, you should be proud of yourself for making that, it's been a lot of work, thanks for sharing. Wouldn't it be something if someone could reproduce some of those prize editions of the magazines!
You’re probably right. I’ve actually already built most of it and the video works with a 4.5Mhz oscillator but it does have some distortion. At least it’s showing some sort of video and is good enough for testing.
@@colonelbarkeroh no! Did you make the boards? It’s unfortunate how a single component can make the entire project infeasible. As I mentioned, I did find the shift registers (I’m confident they will work) but, even if I had not found any, I would have improvised with other shift registers and a breakout board. Let me know if you need any shift registers. I have a few sets.
I was in high school in 1974-1978. And our AV studio had a tv typewriter attached to the school tv monitors for daily announcements. It broke an my teacher asked me to look at it. I had all of Don's cookbooks and was learing digital logic. But I was not prepared for the serial memory architecture.. it taught me a lot.. poor solder joints and the board stack connectors made debugging difficult .. and the original builder had added genlock to sync to studio cameras for titling video.. long story lots of learning and memories .. I don't remember the actual problem .. but probably a bad solder joint or mechanical issue. The stack of boards made debugging difficult. Along with poor scopes of the day. This lead me to bud my own 6502 home brew computer in 1977 and start my journey. Glad to see you building one again!
Thank you for sharing your story! That’s really cool.
I still have an SWTP audio amplifier that I assembled in the '70s! Back in the '70s I was in high school, and the TV typewriter overwhelmed me. Instead I bought a defective commercially built terminal at a hamfest and repaired it. Thanks for the video!
Fantastic project! I became aware of Don Lancaster's work when I studied the history of the Apple 1 video terminal while replicating it on an FPGA. Steve Wozniak's design lineage can easily be traced to the TV typewriter. And, I must tell you, just like I am impressed with the cool projects you are building, I am also absolutely flabbergasted by your Radio-Electronics magazine collection!
I noticed that too. It’s very similar to the Apple-1 video circuit and uses the same character generator. My Radio Electronics collection is not huge but I do have most of the issues that featured iconic devices. I’m just really into old tech and electronics.
In the summer of 1974, I made friends with a high school student who built that TV typewriter and brought it to the Connecticut State Science Fair. He said that the “cursor board was aptly named” because of how difficult it was to debug. It also turns out that the Molex connectors are a source of flakiness. Later, in high school, I built the TVT-2. With the 2102 static RAM and next generation design, the TVT-2 was much more reliable, but still sometimes flaky.
There is a whole section on “debugging the cursor” in the construction manual. I haven’t gotten to that board yet and I hope I don’t run into too many issues with it. I’m planning on building the TVT2 as well.
Artem love the new channel format and looking forward to the tv typewriter series. I have been wanting to dig into this project for awhile. Steve Leininger, the designer of the TRS-80 model 1, of which I own one, mentioned this project as an influencer on the TRS-80. Keep up the great work.
Thank you!
I lived in Phoenix at the time, just 27 miles from Don, and visited him meany times. He was 'way out their', (if you know what I mean)! But a very nice guy.
Awsome! I always wanted to build the Lancaster's TV Typewriter. Thank you.
Of course!
oh wow, I have to say first 10 seconds of video absolutely got me. your setup looks absolutely incredible!
Very interesting project. Thanks for sharing! I loved these old magazines. I was a kid in the late 70s and was given a few boxes of old radio/electronics magazines . . .closest thing we had to browsing the web . . . lol
I think the 70s was an awesome period for hobbyists. So many cool projects.
@@artemkalinchuk I had huge stacks of electronics/am radio magazine that I got ah hamfests in the '70s. I learned a lot from them. It was an awesome time, but it is so much easier to find components nowadays!
Fantastic video, congratulations for the channel and greetings from Italy!
Who knows if one day you will think of making a replica of the Olivetti Programma 101 PCBs, it would be wonderful! According to many it was the first desktop computer in history back in 1965!
I'm not lucky enough to have one, but I have a P603, a later variant from 1972 that also integrates a real teleprinter!
I'm currently restoring it. These 70's machines truly instill a magical atmosphere for us vintage electronic enthusiasts!
Thank you! I’d be glad to create PCBs for it if I could find the artwork somewhere. At least a high quality picture of an existing PCB.
Awesome video!!
Just look at that beautiful machine, you should be proud of yourself for making that, it's been a lot of work, thanks for sharing.
Wouldn't it be something if someone could reproduce some of those prize editions of the magazines!
Thank you! That’s why I have this channel - to reproduce them :-) and to share with others. Are there any specific ones that you have in mind?
@@artemkalinchuk The ones about early computer stuff is what interest me.
You're going to need that frequency specified. It's an NTSC thing.
You’re probably right. I’ve actually already built most of it and the video works with a 4.5Mhz oscillator but it does have some distortion. At least it’s showing some sort of video and is good enough for testing.
Fantastic....
No mention of Don Lancaster's book "tv typewriter cookbook"?
Maybe in the next video.
Nicely done. I had heard there were alignment problems between the boards?
Thanks. I think there might’ve been in the 70s if direct transfer was used. I made sure my boards were aligned.
@artemkalinchuk Fantastic. Great to hear. I have traced these boards out myself, but those shift registers made me abandon the project
@@colonelbarkeroh no! Did you make the boards? It’s unfortunate how a single component can make the entire project infeasible. As I mentioned, I did find the shift registers (I’m confident they will work) but, even if I had not found any, I would have improvised with other shift registers and a breakout board. Let me know if you need any shift registers. I have a few sets.
I wish you had built the original version of the keyboard, not the modern version -- i.e., with the homemade keyswitches.
I plan to do so in the future.
I Hate You, Because I Envy You LOL
Well done Brotha
Haha! Thank you!