telexforum

Hi all,

I chanced upon a reasonably priced Hasler (GB) Telex 3600-3 on eBay and, not having seen any similar PC telex interfaces for sale recently, I decided to shoot first and ask questions later. I understand this is a PC telex adapter, apparently similar to Deutsche Bundespost's TTX 11. It came without any documentation or software, and I've had limited success (to say the least) in making progress with this device. I'm hoping to tap into the collective knowledge here.

The device was originally designed for connection to BT's network. Labels on the inside indicate quality testing was completed in 1986, and the software EPROMS carry version information labels showing the same year. This date is consistent with the BABT green circular approval label. A search for the approval number turned up empty. The only identifier on the back plane, other than the serial number, is the type 3600-3.

The line interface is not mounted on the main board. It is mounted in the top cover and...

Hi All,

I have been building some systems here for loan to Museums in the UK, one of the problems for I-Telex in the UK is the lack of Double Current signalling as an Off The Shelf solution.

UK specification teleprinters are generally found with a 3 wire double current or V.21 signalling system - the Analogue Card takes care of the latter, and with a UT55A converter it is possible to run a DC machine with V.21 interface, however these modules are rare, and ones that do exist often need a lot of component level repair and refurbishment - not something that all UK enthusiasts are completely happy to do.

There have been some versions of the DC interface card designed by Fred over on the Sourceforge pages, but most were concept ideas, or prototype designs, as such not tested fully.

Henning and Fred are still working on the latest version of this interface card.

Being a little impatient, last year I worked with Jeff Angus, to come up with an external solution - this will allow UK...

Hello dear I-Telexers,

Allow me to briefly introduce myself. My name is Volker, I am german but have been living in Spain since my childhood. I currently live in Benalmadena near Málaga in southern Spain.

So, the international I-Telex community has a new member. I am currently waiting for delivery of my I-Telex system, but I have managed to connect my teletype (a spanish Siemens T-1000 with double current) via PiTelex, and it will be operating 24/7 for testing.

The I-Telex number is 48822 sama e , and I appreciate and will answer to any received signals.

You can write to me in English, Spanish, French, Catalan and of course in German. I am also able to understand (but not answer) in Romanian, Dutch and Italian.

A good start of the week to all, and best regards.

Since some weeks we have a service available at number 787878, where you can get the current weather and a 24h-forecast for more than 4000 airports worldwide.

Unfortunately the user interface was in German only. But now there is the same service available also in English under 787879.

We think, that it is much better while demonstrating teletype writers to visitors, guests or friends to see the printed text in a language you understand and for an airport in your vicinity.
The weather reports are created and distributed globally in a standardized format called METAR (METeorological Aerodrome Report) and TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast).

If you look for „METAR“ or „TAF“ at wikipedia.org there is a very good explanation of their syntax and content.
A METAR is generated only for airports, if there is a weather observer or an automatic weather station available. Usually that includes the major international airports and the regional ones. Plus military airfields.
All airfields around...

Hey telexlovers
Bought an old siemens t100 on ebay kleinanzeigen.de, it is missing a cable at the back, see picture. Any info pinout etc ?.Any one that have a cable with connector that i can buy ?.
Thanks
Gruss
Fredrik - Denmark
PS you can t100Stecker.jpg reply i german I understand.

Or better titled: how I use Johannes' software to connect to the serial i-telex port.

My i-Telex boards are in the basement far away from my PC. And my preferred PC is a mac and is upstairs. I wanted to send and receive i-Telex messages over serial and avoid the mistake of sending lines that are too long via telnet. And I was intrigued by all of the extra very useful features in his program.

I have his program running in Windows 10 running on my mac using VMWare. In this windows 10 computer I am also running com0com to create virtual com ports and also com2tcp which then routes the com traffic from the virtual port over my local network.

Then I have a raspberry Pi that is running ser2net, which is the linux equivalent of com2tcp. The raspberry PI has a USB connection to an USB/RS-232 connector to a null modem cable to the i-Telex TW39 special board.

It is working well.

Paul

I’m finally back in Austria again. I will be setting up a teleprinter and a new I-Telex station here. The teleprinter will arrive hopefully tomorrow. Details to be provided once I have the machine.

I am really starting from ground zero. If this were in the U.S. it would be easy!

I brought with me basic tools, wire, multimeter and such. I will be ordering a soldering iron from reichelt because mine would not work in Europe. I’ll be ordering I-Telex boards from Henning ASAP and begging and borrowing other things no doubt.

I need to get a small rack enclosure and the necessary extra items beyond just the I-Telex boards. Does anyone have a shopping list or list of part numbers for Reichelt to make ordering easier?

As a new person (pease be nice), and a native English speaker who is trying to learn the technical German words, terms and abbreviations, what do FS, LS, and FSG stand for? I will guess that FS means fernschreiber.

This forum is full of abbreviations. It took a while for me to reverse engineer WR and ZV but I eventually got it.

It is funny to see some of the German words translated into strange English words. My favorite for the moment is “Walzendosen” which translates to roller boxes! :llach: I think it is called a jack in America, although the 1/4 inch jack used in the United States is much less sophisticated.

Is there a wiki or a post somewhere that defines all the acronyms and translates them to English? If not, I might start one!

Paul

Morning all,

Some of you will know that the English telex system is a little different to the German Single Current system - over this side of the channel our machines use Double Current signalling.

This presents a problem in two areas

1, The need for a Double Current interface

2, The need for a Double Current FSG (Known as a signalling unit)

Problem 1 has a solution in place - Fred has a prototype.

Problem 2 is more difficult to solve.

Because nearly all of the machines that are available or are in private hands in the UK were used for RTTY, the signalling unit was discarded - no need for them when hooked up to a terminal unit for radio.

There is some information available that covers the earlier signalling units - for things like the Creed 7B and that sort of machine - this relies on a lot of relay logic to control the line and motor circuits.

I have looked into the possibility of recreating these signalling units using off the shelf parts, two problems become immediately...

Had a trip to the stores today, forgot I had this.

So, any experts here know much about the TSG 40 - Looks to be a telegraph signal generator.

With many thanks to Jan for the supply of the rather excellent front panels my I-Telex system is now fully dressed.

As soon as I have my next TW39 card, and an Analogue card, this system will be complete. TIme then to build the second one :)

Thanks Jan - you have saved me hours of measuring and drilling.

Sean

Hello all.
My name is Tomas Larsson, living i Sweden.
I have just aquired an old Teletype model 3321.
The problem I have is to identify what unit I really have, since the Electrics differs quite a lot from the drawings/images I have seen i various documents.

There is 4 circuit bords in slots, with edge contacts, in front of the circuitbords there is a transformer.
The Molex contacts, number 2 and 3 are un-populated, i.e the whole contact house is missing.
Position 1 seems to connect to external data, and number 5 to two switches on the face-plate (actually 4 switches but only 2 is connected).
The circuit bords are marked as follows, starting with board closest to the front:

Board #1 Teleprint BS 230 Connects with a header contact at the bottom
Board #2 Teleprint BS 263 Connects with a header contact at the bottom
Board #3 Must be powersupply for reader etc
Board #4 Teleprint BS 270 Connects with a header contact at the bottom
There is allso a small board mounted upside down in the...

Hello. Sorry to speak in English, but is the only forgein language that I know. I'm curios, in countries like Italy, France, Switzerland, West Germany, Great Britain, U.S.A. in the '70-'90's there where any telex subscribers at home, meaning private persons having a telex machine at home. ;)
For Germany (West, reunified) I found subscribers list called Amtliches verzeichnis der telexteilnehmer, but I didn't managed to see the contain of any of it.

A short film about the Rugby Radio Station.

Some Teleprinters in the film

IMG_20191026_190709_555.jpg

Seems I have another machine for the collection

This is a BT Merlin Super Cheetah.

I have all the original documentation, and service manuals, and this is a complete system, Keyboard, and printer

Works on V.21 for line connection, so I need to figure out how to get this onto I-Telex

It's a pretty soulless thing, but nice to find a British Electronic machine that might just work.

The PSU is full of lovely Rifa Dragons, so there will be little testing until I have replaced these.

Hello all,

I found these relays on eBay, and they look to be Telefone/teleprinter types - I have purchased a couple to play with.

Just putting them here if they are of interest to anyone - given their history, and coming from Military stores I rather wonder if they are used in something like the T100?

Cheers
Sean

NEWS FROM TELEXMUSEUM PRAGUE

Hi everyone.

My name is Danila (Dan is fine as well), I am Russian guy living in Estonia.

Just got three machines for our Computer History Museum in Tallinn, Estonia (note that I am just a donator there, not official representative).

Two machines (SEL LO 3000 and T1200BS) are already exposed to public. Should be working. Have not connected anything yet, meanwhile.
Both were obtained from some official institution shortly after USSR collapse for the private collection. Were not used for 1991-2018. Bought from private collection recently (last week) and moved to the museum already.

Note Russian signs and keyboard of T1200BS. Lorenz even has original packaging still.

T1000S got from some ex-military facility. Kept in storage room from 1991 with no use. Was exposed on local auction and bought 2 months ago.

Some photos are attached.

Ok, here is my little collection.

Machine 1 : Teletype model 33 ASR
Got this machine somewere late '90 from Belgium, it is pretty complete with stand, chad box, copy holder and dust cover.
It needed some cleaning and lubrication at that time, nowadays just a bit of light machine oil on the usual spots.
This machine is connected to my PDP-11 using a current loop to RS-232 converter.

Machine 2 : Siemens T100 in grey plastic housing (late '50's - early 60's?).
Got this machine midd September 2018 and has currently a stuck keyboard. May need a little repair, or just some proper
lubrication in the lower section of the machine.

Machine 3 : Siemens T68f in grey-ish coating.
Got this machine today and is very clean inside, as if it has not been used a lot (judging the internal counter).
This machine either prints text only or does both, depending on moving a litte lever under the little cover.
It kame with a (sort of) FSG, just 2 switches and 3 buttons, nothing else. The plugs are...

Just wondering what this is - It has a couple of ADO8 sockets on the rear.

Cheers
Sean

Hi all,

I'm restarting a Siemens T.Send.61 tape reader but I get a lot of reading errors even after the motor speed has been adjusted.
I asked help on Greenkeys mailing list without success at that time.

Would anyone have the service manual or at least the reader's contact setting procedure ?

Some pictures here:

Thanks in advance

Bertrand

Hi All,

Taking a break from the 444 for a while - it needs a safer and less space consuming way of providing line current.

So I have started to make my own power supply.

I have rewound an old transformer I had laying around here, and have started converting some old panel meters I had laying around.

The transformer started out in life as a 9-0-9 V unit, after dismantling the transformer and unwinding the original secondary - from doing this I could calculate the number of turns I needed to give me the required output voltage.

700 turns later, with a centre tap at 350 turns, and the secondaries are completed.

I include a picture of the first meter for the +80v supply - will put up more pictures as soon as I get the time.

Cheers
Sean

Seeing as there is quite an English following building up here now, I thought I had better join my fellow countrymen in machine choice.

So, please welcome the newest addition to the team - A Creed 444.

It is just a bit heavy!

I shall need to figure out what I need to do to make it work now - But not on I-Telex just yet - will get the machine running smoothly locally - looks like it needs a good service!

I shall need to find a manual. but that will probably be far easier than getting one for the FS220 :)

Cheers
Sean

Does anyone here have experience of printing answerback code wheels?

Thanks to Alf, I have a complete unused set for my 444, but before I go and destroy a perfect model, I wondered about getting some spares made?

3D printing seems an obvious choice, having never had anything to do with it, it is a viable solution?

Cheers
Sean

Hi All,

I have some interest in I-Telex from the secret nuclear bunker at Kelvedon Hatch - is there any English documentation I can take to them, to see if I can persuade them to get some of their 100 or so Teleprinters back on line?

I am in discussion with the owner, and he wants to know more - I am guessing anything that happens will be down to me to manage and sort out, but hopefully an interesting challenge.

Cheers
Sean