deskthority

IBM 3174 system (3270 protocol) remote and local controllers for free, local pickup

Reposting some stuff from a couple years ago. I've traded away the actual beamspring keyboard awhile back, but the rest of the gear is taking up space in the bottom floor of my condo in the capital. I figured if you guys were willing to drive all the way down to Houston for a stash of IBM stuff, someone might want to make the drive out here for some free classic IBM mainframe gear.

IBM 3178-2 display (untested, side panels a bit wonky and missing a couple bakelite feet)
IBM 3174-1L local cluster controller. The original early 70's cluster controller. Connects directly to mainframe. Mainframe plugs are intact. They severed the cables to the mainframe instead of disconnecting them. Still has the original 3174 manual in mint shape.
IBM 3274-41D local and remote cluster controller with internal memory.
IBM 3174-61R mid-80's more compact cluster expansion controller. Lets you chain an additional 6 terminals to either of the others plus two floppy drives for storage.

I don't have any of the control floppies for programs. You might be able to get copies from other people in the vintage computing community.

Here's some old pics.







Tops are a bit dinged up from when it was originally all stacked up and loaded on a pallet from the UF lab it came from. Nothing I could do about it. I think they thought it was going to be scrapped.

Make sure you bring all the padding and tiedowns you'll need and I'll help you load it all up.

My only condition is if you drop by, you take it all. We can also hang out and play with a couple of my oddball weird keyboards while you visit if that interests you at all.

If the IBM 3178-2 display is still available I'd LOVE to come pick it up!

I already have a keyboard but have missed out on getting a working terminal to use it with - I am working on a project just now to build an open-source controller for these coax terminals and have that working with a 3483 InfoWindow but my dream is to use it with one of these terminals.

The Large Scale Systems Museum in New Kensington Pennsylvania would definitely be interested in hosting that system. Would anyone be able to keep this system safe in the mean time or arrange transport?

Update, the terminal display is functional.

oof, located in houston.

And they are gone. The first person who contacted me, a great guy from Austin, came and picked them up this morning for his open source 3278 terminal to PC project. I look forward to seeing that.

Sangdrax wrote: 14 Apr 2019, 19:17 And they are gone. The first person who contacted me, a great guy from Austin, came and picked them up this morning for his open source 3278 terminal to PC project. I look forward to seeing that.

Nice!

If anybody is interested in seeing the terminal from this collection working I've uploaded a couple of photographs to https://imgur.com/a/WmVxoGw.

In this case the "establishment controller" function that would normally be carried out by the various large boxes in the original photographs is being performed by some software running on the laptop with the Arduino and breadboard providing the coax interface to the terminal. So far I've only implemented VT100 emulation but I will be adding 3270 support soon (the later 3174 controllers would have also provided telnet connectivity to UNIX hosts as well as 3270 connectivity to mainframes).

Unfortunately the display tube is very dim in daylight or regular room lighting however with the lights out in the evening (see the final picture) and doesn't appear to have any other issues and is a lot of fun to use.

I'm planning on trying some basic cosmetic restoration and will post some updates if I make progress and there is interest.

Thanks again to Sangdrax for getting back to me so quickly and helping me with the logistics - I definitely learned a lot more about keyboards from meeting him and got some good restoration tips that I think will be useful in the future.

Any chance of documenting this? e.g. on Hackaday. My 3174's have dying PSUs...

Hi - funny you should mention this... there seems to be some interest on another forum also but I am waiting to get approved to be able to reply over there...

I plan to do a write-up but for now the software and hardware can be found at https://github.com/lowobservable/oec. Here is a more recent photograph:

https://i.redd.it/1kpbe3muvbz31.jpg

It is still a work in progress but can do TN3270 and VT100 emulation at least to where it is usable. Unfortunately the interface currently depends on two obsolete ICs for the transmitter and receiver - I hope next year to have enough time to learn enough electronics to replace that portion so there is no dependence on obsolete components.

oh my god so beautiful!!
I have the same keyboard but not the same screen: gorgeous!
BTW: would you be able to tell what is that font/character used there? is there any chance there is a truetype or similar of it? it's soooo nice!

tent:wq

The font is specific to IBM 3270 type terminals (and maybe other IBM terminals) - it has a couple of unique looking characters especially the 6 and 9s.

You can find it at https://github.com/rbanffy/3270font in various formats

ajk, howdy from Austin! This is great! Do you think you'll perhaps bring this to our next meetup or some other somewhat public event? I'm an ATX Hackerspace member, if you wanted to bring it by some evening I'm sure I could help work something out.

ajk wrote: 04 Dec 2019, 15:04 The font is specific to IBM 3270 type terminals (and maybe other IBM terminals) - it has a couple of unique looking characters especially the 6 and 9s.

You can find it at https://github.com/rbanffy/3270font in various formats

you are my hero! thanks!!! )
yes the 9 in particular is my favourite!!!

tent:wq