Another new T1000 owner looking to get online

[zippysticks]

Hello folks.

Great to see such enthusiastic support for these old machines.

I have just acquired two ex-Royal Navy T1000 based machines (TGN4) that seem to be in reasonable operating condition - they power on and operate in local mode with functional tape punch and readers.

My eventual aim for these machines is to get them connected to each other and/or the outside world.

Whilst appearing identical, one of the machines has a clip installed on the carriage return/line feed key (enter key) to prevent it being depressed. This appears to be easy to remove but I wondered if anyone knows why this might have been installed ?

I'm also looking for some components to complete the machines.

Does anyone know a source for:
1. A chad collection box for the punch
2. The paper roll holder spindle
3. New ribbons as the installed ribbons have long since dried up.
4. An AD08 plug to allow me to attempt building an interface for the unit. These machines came with an additional Amphenol type 10 pin connector fitted - I have no idea yet where it connects internally to the machine.

Thanks everyone.

Ian

[zippysticks]

Hello Ian,

unfortunately i only have an information for number 3 for you.
This should be the right ribbon: https://www.buero-marquardt.de/shop/art ... bmaschinen

Kind regards,
Michael

[zippysticks]

Spare parts like the box or the roll holder are very rare. Are the both holder arms still there and not broken?

You need a Group 1 color ribbon like the one in die link.
You can try to reactivate the ribbon with a bit of oil if you don´t get a new one.

A "ADO8" plug you can sometimes find at ebay.

Basti

[DF3OE]

Hi Ian,

all available in my "warehouse". But the British machines are VERY special and there is no documentation for them available yet.

[zippysticks]

Hello Ian,

unfortunately i only have an information for number 3 for you.
This should be the right ribbon: https://www.buero-marquardt.de/shop/art ... bmaschinen

Kind regards,
Michael

Thanks for link Michael.

[zippysticks]

Hi Ian,

all available in my "warehouse". But the British machines are VERY special and there is no documentation for them available yet.

Thanks for the reply. I have been dismantling both machines for cleaning and have also managed to find a helpful contact in the Royal Navy museum (where they have a connected working system). Will see if I can get sone of the documentation from the museum.
I understand from reading this forum that many of the differences from 'standard' relate to the external interfaces for the machine. I'll see if I can extract all the interface boards to see what connection options I can take.

By the way, do you have a link to your 'warehouse' are the items I'm looking for for sale ?

Thanks

[zippysticks]

Spare parts like the box or the roll holder are very rare. Are the both holder arms still there and not broken?

You need a Group 1 color ribbon like the one in die link.
You can try to reactivate the ribbon with a bit of oil if you don´t get a new one.

A "ADO8" plug you can sometimes find at ebay.

Basti

Yes, the holder arms are in place.
The seller unclipped them before shipping the machines to me. I presume they are easily snapped off and lost.

I think that I could probably use a simple dowel for now to sit in the arms and support a roll of paper.
If I get time, I can probably 3d print the chad waste holder by copying one from another machine.

[M1ECY]

Hi "Zippysticks"

I have the TGN4 here as well, currently in need of more repairs.

I also have a TGN1 and TGN2 in for repair for a museum in North Wales.

Firstly it is important to understand that the "British T1000" that we find here today are very different to the German T1000 - Sure, the printer mechanism, and driver card is the same, the Power Supply (240V) is the same, and the mechanical parts are interchangeable.

The Interface cards - STT and LAT are very different - These are almost certainly similar to RS232 - as soon as I find the time I will get one back on the bench and try to confirm this.

I have been looking for some years for information, even going direct to the Royal Navy via a freedom of information request - the sad truth is that information is just not held for these.

I have spoken with Ken at the HMS Mercury Communications Museum, some years back, and with some help from the guys based at HMS Collingwood, they were able to get their TGN machines working with the original RATT interfaces. Sadly with Collingwood now closed and in packing cases, I fear that getting access to whatever limited information that exists will be difficult. - I have the details for the previous Curator of Collingwood - Will see if there is anything I can do to help there.

Generally, the same advice for the T1000 is true for the TGN range - These are in some cases 35 years old now - there are many 10uf Tantalum capacitors on the main board that fail short circuit, and some lovely little 4.7uf capacitors on the printer driver board - these also fail, and if left unchecked will end up with certain fire damage to the PCB. Eventually these will cause further damage, so if you have not overhauled the machine, then I would suggest you do - electronic spares are not easy to come across, and buying machines for parts is an expensive hobby.

Henning is the best source of mechanical spares for these machines - Sadly the parts you require would mean my breaking viable machines to help.

Perhaps you can share a bit more information about your situation - always nice to meet another Telex enthusiast in the UK.

Cheers
Sean

M1ECY

Communications & Electronics Museum Trust.

[zippysticks]

Hi Sean

My name is Ian by the way......and based in West Sussex.
I'm more of a vintage computer nerd and collector than a radio guy although I do have a couple Teletype machines hooked up to some of my computers.
Aged and failed capacitors are something I'm used to dealing with so I'm happy to spend some time purging them all.

I just can't resist a challenge and these two machines need to get online.

One of my machines is complete (although the paper spool centre is currently a pice of wooden dowel) The missing chad box on the 2nd machine I can live without as I don't have to punch very much and have another machine for that. When I get around to it I'll probably 3d print the box.

I have some paper and tape on order now too and now have a good steer on ribbons from this forum too.

I'll probably spend some time with a scope on the interfaces after Easter - have you figured out what the pin-out is on the 10 pin Amphenol connector yet ?

All the best.

[M1ECY]

Thanks Ian,

Okay, so in computer use these may well just need a level converter - though I think you will find 8 bit RS232 will confuse these 5 bit machines - but this is just a software issue for whatever you are driving them with. There are some odd "Standards" that seem to be used - in the case of ex RN equipment the signalling interface can be all sorts of crazy - +6- 0- -6 volts is very common for the later electronic stuff like the TGN range.

I have not gone very far with the data connection with these machines (there are a lot of Telex Machines here, and all take a lot of ongoing maintenance)

I have a TGN1 sat on the floor here next to me - the interface connector has a 6 core cable that would originally have run to "Interface Unit Teleprinter (NSN 5815-99-537-7995) this is another item that no information exists for - I may try a couple of other sources I have for information - The British Army used these interfaces as well.

If the interface connection is of a similar specification to the TGQ (Siemens T1500) then there will be 1 pair that are a paper alarm, one pair that are for TxD and the other pair for RxD.

I will see if I get some spare time this week to delve a little deeper.

Cheers
Sean