About to start up Lo15C, first time in a long time

[PaulHeller]

I know the forum translates my english to german (thank goodness because this also goes the other way around so I can read all the postings written in German!). This message is written in english and has some german words for the technical terms where I am trying to learn if those are the correct terms. Please excuse any choice of wrong German words if I don't have it correct.

Greetings.

I have a Lorenz 15C in the big cabinet. I am located in the United States. I was told some of the history of this machine by a credible source. But I only have the story from when it arrived in the US. It was moved here by a German company (I don't know the name) and was to be used by the US offices of that company. I was told, and have little reason to doubt, that it was never used once it arrived. It does look like it was used before it arrived because the type faces are dirty, or maybe it was used for testing when it was here. I looked to see if there is some kind of running hour meter on this machine but there is not, unless I cannot find it.

I do not know the date it was moved to the US but it was certainly many years ago.

I am familiar with the Teletype Model 15 and I normally soak entire typing units in a degreaser to clean them up. This model is much more sophisticated with a lot of plastic covers and electrical contact switches and such, so I am not going to do that. I did a surface cleaning for now and will pull it out at a later date and clean it as best I can on the bench. For the moment I'd like to see if it works.

I did find two oil traps and put plenty of oil in them, as well as oiling all the felts I was able to find. I am not sure if I missed any. Certainly those oil traps are a very big improvement from the Model 15! They make it easy. Are there more than two?

I am going to power it up and see what the answer back says. Henning gave me a replacement for the motor capacitor and that has been installed. He said under no circumstance should I even try to start it without that.

Here is how I wired it:

Mains from the house goes to a terminal strip in the back of the connection panel, then to the Beleuchtung Netzspannung. I have no idea what that is for. I plugged the mains cable coming from the Beleuchtung Netzspannung into the control panel at 4 Netzspannung. The line connection comes from the telco socket into the cabinet, into the same terminal strip in the back of the connection panel and then to a connector. I think this is called a Schwachstromstecker ???. I plugged this connector into the back of the dial unit -- Fernschaltgerät??

Coming out of the Fernschaltgerät is a line cable (Schwachstromstecker) and a mains cable. I plugged the mains cable from the Fernschaltgerät into the top right socket of the connection panel and the line cable from the Fernschaltgerät into the top left because these two sockets were labeled Fernschaltgerät.

That leaves the TTY line and mains cables. I plugged the TTY line cable into the connection panel where it says 3 Blattschreiber. I plugged the TTY mains cable into the mains socket on the back of the Fernschaltgerät.

Is my wiring correct?

I have an industrial power supply that will supply 240V at 50Hz clean power. The output voltage is adjustable. I'm going to start with very low voltage and bring it up slowly towards 240V. I'm going to start with only the Fernschaltgerät (dial unit) and left the TTY connections unplugged.

If nothing blows up, I will then try it with the TTY connections.

Do you have any suggestions before I put power to it?

Thanks for any advice or guidance!

Paul

[PaulHeller]

Update. I was able to get the TTY working in local mode! I found a third oil trap and filled it up. There is a counter on the keyboard. It reads 2440. Not sure what the units are. But clearly it is not close to zero.

Next step is to give it a good test and get on i-Telex with it.

If anyone wants to tell me that I've made the connections incorrectly, just let me know.

Paul

[FredSonnenrein]

Hi Paul,

although i don't habe a Lo15 "at hand" now, i try to help a bit...

I have a Lorenz 15C in the big cabinet. I am located in the United States. I was told some of the history of this machine by a credible source. But I only have the story from when it arrived in the US. It was moved here by a German company (I don't know the name) and was to be used by the US offices of that company. I was told, and have little reason to doubt, that it was never used once it arrived. It does look like it was used before it arrived because the type faces are dirty, or maybe it was used for testing when it was here. I looked to see if there is some kind of running hour meter on this machine but there is not, unless I cannot find it.
[/quote]
AFAIK the Lo15 don't have a running hour meter.

I am familiar with the Teletype Model 15 and I normally soak entire typing units in a degreaser to clean them up. This model is much more sophisticated with a lot of plastic covers and electrical contact switches and such, so I am not going to do that. I did a surface cleaning for now and will pull it out at a later date and clean it as best I can on the bench. For the moment I'd like to see if it works.

I did find two oil traps and put plenty of oil in them, as well as oiling all the felts I was able to find. I am not sure if I missed any. Certainly those oil traps are a very big improvement from the Model 15! They make it easy. Are there more than two?

More important than the bearings is the proper REMOVAL of all old and sticky grease at sliding parts.

I am going to power it up and see what the answer back says. Henning gave me a replacement for the motor capacitor and that has been installed. He said under no circumstance should I even try to start it without that.

Here is how I wired it:

Mains from the house goes to a terminal strip in the back of the connection panel, then to the Beleuchtung Netzspannung.

It's the mains power supply for any illumination of the printing area. The illumination is automatically switched on together with the printer motor by the Fernschaltgerät.

I plugged the mains cable coming from the Beleuchtung Netzspannung into the control panel at 4 Netzspannung.

What do you mean with control panel. THe Fernschaltgerät?

The line connection comes from the telco socket into the cabinet, into the same terminal strip in the back of the connection panel and then to a connector. I think this is called a Schwachstromstecker ???. I plugged this connector into the back of the dial unit -- Fernschaltgerät??

Coming out of the Fernschaltgerät is a line cable (Schwachstromstecker) and a mains cable. I plugged the mains cable from the Fernschaltgerät into the top right socket of the connection panel and the line cable from the Fernschaltgerät into the top left because these two sockets were labeled Fernschaltgerät.

That leaves the TTY line and mains cables. I plugged the TTY line cable into the connection panel where it says 3 Blattschreiber. I plugged the TTY mains cable into the mains socket on the back of the Fernschaltgerät.

Is my wiring correct?

Sounds good, although i am not sure about the internal cabling of the (wooden?) cabinet.

In general the wiring shall be as following:

Mains: From power outlet to the Fernschaltgerät input, from the Fernschaltgerät output (in most cases also a regular socket) to the TTY machine (and maybe in parallel to the illumination).

Signal line: From the i-Telex to the Fernschaltgerät input (normally a plug), from the Fernschaltgerät output (a circular socket) to the TTY.

I have an industrial power supply that will supply 240V at 50Hz clean power. The output voltage is adjustable. I'm going to start with very low voltage and bring it up slowly towards 240V. I'm going to start with only the Fernschaltgerät (dial unit) and left the TTY connections unplugged.

If nothing blows up, I will then try it with the TTY connections.

A good strategy for old equipment.

Do you have any suggestions before I put power to it?

Thanks for any advice or guidance!

Because the Fernschaltgerät switches the main power it could happen that the Fernschaltgerät switches on the TTY motor only if the mains voltage is high enough. So i would try to firstly test the Fernschaltgerät and after this connect the mains power of the TTY Motor to your industrial power supply directly. So you can check the motor function also beginning with lower voltages.

Kind regards,

Fred