Teletype

Internet connected Teletype using Arduino Uno + Ethernet shield

Contains two web clients + email client + web server

Every 5 minutes, connects to the AP/Reuters RSS server and gets the latest news.
Every 5 minutes, connects to email server and gets new email messages
Provides web server for instant text printing

Video: Teletype on Vimeo

Wagner

Glue some gears to it and call it steampunk :slight_smile:

It's a great idea! Congratulations!

Way cool, but I wouldn't run it too much, MTBF on those was about 40 hours I think :smiley: The field engineer that repaired our ASR-33s joked that they should have been designed with a crankcase so they could operate bathed in oil.

Repairing teletype and some crypto equipment was my job in the Air Force from 1966-70. Really enjoyed them but they did require a lot of preventative maintenance to keep them running well. Main challenge was getting through the tech school, if you failed two weekly tests in a row you flunked out and became either a cook or a air policemen. :wink:

They would have us disassemble major sections of the machine and they would put them into a paper bag, shack them up and then have us put it all back together and demonstrate the machine operating OK. Written tests was memorizing all the individual part names in every section, and a spring wasn't named a spring, but rather for example a "code bar latch lever spring'.

Lefty

I also heard that the guy that designed the beast in the first place went insane :wink:

Could it be this guy?

The guy lived an impressively long life!

This is a Teletype model 15; it was built sometime between 1930 and 1963

My machine was used on a radio station in Baltimore up to 1982; the paper that came attached to it had a piece of news that I was able to date to February 1982.

It was all locked up. After disassembling the major parts and degreasing everything, replacing the motor ball bearings, greasing, oiling and adjusting according to the original service manuals, it worked just fine.

I’ve made a current loop power supply for the 160V, 60 mA required for the machine solenoid coil; this loop is controlled by the Arduino as a serial output, running at 45.5 bps, Baudot 5 bit code.

The firmware periodically checks for news reports at Associated Press and Reuters RSS websites, converts the text from XML ASCII to Baudot and prints it.

The code also checks for new email messages at a particular POP email server and prints it as well.

There is also a WEB server that can be accessed by the computers/phones at the same network. It provides for instant printing of texts.

Wagner

Very nice Model 15 restoration. Looks very clean, and the new nameplates look great!

I've restored a few of those machines. Here's one: Steampunk Telegraph Office operations.

I recommend the Reuters RSS feed for this sort of thing. The AP cuts off their messages after some number of words. Reuters at least gives you complete sentences.

We receive SMS messages, through a complicated scheme involving Twilio and a web site, and format them as steampunk telegrams.

How do you generate the 160v (which is kind of high) 60mA supply?

Hi nagle, Thank you

Please find attached the inverter drawing.

Wagner

WMello:
Hi nagle, Thank you

Please find attached the inverter drawing.

Wagner

We have 3 of these in a museum, we would like to enable them to print, would you provide details on the implementation? particularly the Arduino to TTY serial interfacing..

Thanks

Chris

Are you still trying to make this happen?

I got my Arduino to run my ASR33

Its 110 Baud

Greg