On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 1:19 PM, Paul Berger <phb....@gmail.com> wrote: > On 2016-01-29 12:28 AM, Ethan Dicks wrote: >> I was just gifted with an IBM 3101-12 ASCII terminal... > > I did a quick google search for 'ibm 3101' and among the hits was a manual > on archive.org, www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/31xx/ there are two manuals one > of which is the "Terminal Description" that seems to have plenty of > information about the data stream.
I quickly found GA18-2015-3 ("An Introduction to the IBM 3101 Display Terminal") last night. The more useful one is GA18-2033-2 ("IBM 3101 Display Terminal Description"). Figure 2-12 on pages 2-20 through 2-23 have the full command set. It appears to be nominally VT52 compatible (ESC-A through ESC-D for cursor movement, ESC-H and ESC-Y for 'home' and 'set cursor address'...) The 3101 command set has plenty of additional commands, and does not implement a few of the full VT52 command set, but as soon as I get the terminal all cleaned and checked out, I can probably tell the host I have a VT52 and get some useful results from it. > The protocol is unusual at least the mod 12 is one of the character mode > terminals supports RS/232 and current loop. Yep. Saw that. I might use the current loop (I have a few devices that support it), but at first, RS-232 is quite handy. > The weak point is the keyboard, > the key modules have a leaf spring in them that flexes every time you press > a key and they break. Good to know. > The good news is almost every IBM keyboard from that > time uses exactly the same key module so spares may not be hard to come by. > When I was servicing machine with this type of keyboard more than 30 years > ago, I carried a dozen spare key modules in my trunk all the time. Very good to know. Thanks for the tips on the keyboard! Unfortunately for me, my friend who dropped it off couldn't find the keyboard ("it's in the basement...") so I won't be able to make much progress until I get that. -ethan