3270 Terminals

[80186Terminal]

Hello World,

I recently saved a group of terminals from being scrapped, and while I have next to no knowledge of hardware, they were too cool for me to let them get destroyed, and since I generally enjoy tinkering I hope to be up to the challenge. So far Ive cleaned up and slightly mended what stuck out as the jewel of the group, an IBM 3290, and while I don't have anything set up to communicate over coax, it powers up without letting the smoke out, and the code in the bottom left(I'm guessing a status/error code) changed when I plugged in the keyboard, so I'm calling it a success thus far. I then took aim at one of the CRT terminals, but I've had trouble identifying it. It has both AT&T and Memorex Telex labels, and appears to be built around an Intel 80186. As a side note, there were also some neat keyboards with a magnetic trapdoor switch, and I'm rather happy to have assisted in having them documented for what may be the first time on the modern internet, though I was basically just a middle man and the hard work was done by a member of the mechanical keyboard community who has been very kind, cool, and helpful as I've gone on this journey.

I have hundreds of questions I've yet to answer, but I'll start by asking if anyone can help me identify exactly what this terminal is and if possible where I might find some documentation/manuals. Attached are a few pictures of the as yet unidentified terminal. Any information you'd be willing to share would be appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

Best,

A

 

[80186Terminal]

Quick update: It's alive.

 

[snuci]

I then took aim at one of the CRT terminals, but I've had trouble identifying it. It has both AT&T and Memorex Telex labels, and appears to be built around an Intel 80186.

I have hundreds of questions I've yet to answer, but I'll start by asking if anyone can help me identify exactly what this terminal is and if possible where I might find some documentation/manuals.

Do you have pictures of he outside of the terminal and keyboard? Sometimes they are re-badged so it's helpful to see the whole terminal, front and back.

 

[Al Kossow]

Hello World,

I recently saved a group of terminals from being scrapped, and while I have next to no knowledge of hardware, they were too cool for me to let them get destroyed, and since I generally enjoy tinkering I hope to be up to the challenge. So far Ive cleaned up and slightly mended what stuck out as the jewel of the group, an IBM 3290, and while I don't have anything set up to communicate over coax, it powers up without letting the smoke out, and the code in the bottom left(I'm guessing a status/error code) changed when I plugged in the keyboard, so I'm calling it a success thus far. I then took aim at one of the CRT terminals, but I've had trouble identifying it. It has both AT&T and Memorex Telex labels, and appears to be built around an Intel 80186.

MTX (Memorex/Telex) bought the coax product line from AT&T

You probably have a AT&T 6591 terminal. You may also have the establishment controller.

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/telex/MCS_6500

Pictures of what you have would be helpful.

The phone jacks on the controller mean your terminals use AT&T "Standard Serial Interface" which is anything but standard, in place
of the coaxial cable that IBM used.

 

[80186Terminal]

Do you have pictures of he outside of the terminal and keyboard? Sometimes they are re-badged so it's helpful to see the whole terminal, front and back.

Here is the one picture I have access to at the moment, though it may not be very helpful. I actually have a few different terminals, but this is probably the most common in the collection. The logic board under this particular CRT has a parallel port, and I believe it's the only one of it's kind in the group, so I connected it to one of the other boards instead as a safety precaution.
Throwing in a picture of the 3290 just for fun.

 

[80186Terminal]

Thank you for pointing me to the resources. When I get the chance, I'll sit down and attempt to confirm the identity, and I'll try to get more pictures up soon, though as far as badges on the 186 boards I believe all are shown in the previous post. I was wondering about the setup since there are 3179s(Model 000, which I'm not finding much info about) and then these, which don't have the coax port. I'm sure learning at least two protocols will be fun.