Shuttle Teleprinter - Part 1: a 59 lbs TTY in space, what gives?

[@WOFFY-qc9te]

It must be April Fools day...... As someone who has spent many hours running these things to hear the shuttle had one on board is mind boggling. How much fuel was needed to launch that. Nice to see such an interesting object.

[@JosiahGould]

I think Ken said it cost about $1.5 million in weight cost each launch.

[@WOFFY-qc9te]

@@JosiahGould Thanks I missed that, I still can't understand what is so hazardous about a thermal paper printer or fax. A Thermal printer is not noisy so they would have to box it in for sound proofing even so why could they not put a circulation fan to keep things from thermal overload and treat the paper with bromine to retard fire. They mentioned Apollo 1 in the report but that was an oxygen rich environment, another dumb decision. Noise becomes a problem so the box the printer in only for it to have cooling issues. But that is NASA and they spend too much time doing workarounds instead of evolving. Thanks for the correction. Thanks I missed that, I still can't understand what is so hazardous about a thermal paper printer or fax. They mentioned Apollo 1 in the report but that was an oxygen rich environment, another dumb decision. Noise becomes a problem so the box the printer in only for it to have cooling issues. A Thermal printer is not noisy so they would have saved all that trouble even so why could they not put a circulation fan to keep things from thermal overload and treat the paper with bromine to retard fire. But that is NASA and they spend too much time doing workarounds instead of evolving. Thanks for the correction.

[@douro20]

About a decade ago I almost bought a very technologically backwards Datametrics army thermal printer from the mid-1980s. The reason I didn't buy it is because I couldn't find a way to power it. To tell you how backwards the design was, it had a board full of TO-5 transistors just to drive the elements of the Gulton line printhead inside- and this was a 1980s design! The modernised version of the same printer uses an off-the-shelf Citizen driver IC and printhead.

[@gvii]

In its defense, it has seen a few years, lol. These little tidbits from the space program are always fascinating. Looking forward to see you all getting it back up and running again.

[@R.Daneel]

That whistle was painful! I hope you can exclude it for the next one ;-) Great video even though I switched to CC at t the end.

[@LoftBits]

A sound from the past... That sped up FSK sounds like the tape "turbo mode" for the 8bit ZX Spectrum!

[@dustinsmous5413]

One of my foster brothers was on a few shuttle missions! The technology was dated when they made it to orbit, but it was extremely reliable! It reminds me of the Russian Globus. If it works, don't change it!

[@dustinsmous5413]

I have a book he gave me talking about the, at that point, *future* space shuttle. If I can find that book, I will happily let you all scan it in for inclusion in a future doodley-doo!

[@OmegaSparky]

@2:08 You know, the Navy sure does like their boat anchors. 🥁

[@slincolne]

It certainly looks like a prototype device - the label stating 'Class III Not For Flight' on the inside is probably an important clue :-)

[@wtmayhew]

I remember the army-portable version of that printer. I worked in a communications lab and we had one around to check the equipment we were developing. It was notable because it could meet military EMI radiation requirements and it could do 60 uA current loop while standard Teletypes were 60 mA. The low loop current was intended to help reduce EMI emissions. At the time, the US military standard was 45.45 Baud Baudot 5 level code 60 WPM. The printer could handle up to 1200 BPS, and I don’t remember if it was switchable to ASCII.

[@ptonpc]

People forget, the engineers etc were not idiots. It did the job it needed to do.

[@joshbodner4834]

Those FSK tones made my cat go nuts

[@CuriousMarc]

We went nuts too…

[@alexsuykov]

The chain drive for the drum speaks tons about the design priorities for this thing.

[@slincolne]

You have cats that understand 600 baud NASA RTTY ? Amazing (I bet they can't do FT-8 though ) !

[@vanlife4256]

I used to service those during my military service

[@Tailss1]

That was actually satisfyingly nerdy, interesting they had one of those on board the shuttle. I wonder if it had problems? Those FSK tones interested my cat 😂

[@bborkzilla]

I love the reading room of the Library of Congress. I spent a lot of time there in the 1990's

[@Benabik]

I'd like to suggest a notch filter to cut out the FSK tones while testing. They're kinda painful when turned up enough to hear you clearly.

[@APWaddington]

Oh I was hoping this one may show up for restoration

[@knowledgeengine]

Love your videos on space tech!

[@wtmayhew]

1.5 million dollars in expendable resources to launch this printer! Wow, those messages were valuable indeed.

[@darrylr]

The USA's Industrial Military Printing complex at work.

[@shaun9054]

you guys are my heros

[@timwilliscroft9615]

An Epson MX-80 (commercially available in 1980) would have saved at least 18kgs. if they only got 600 baud, then the MX-80's 80cps would be quite adequate. And more important; Green bar printout -- in space. All that extra room could have been used for a decent little modem. (Let alone that a thermal printer plus an automatic fire-extinguishing system would still be lighter than than the TTY. ... and I'm not mentioning that the shuttle operates in a vacuum... just put the printer in the airlock. Problem solved.)

[@sundhaug92]

Would probably be harder to cerrtify though

[@wtmayhew]

The MX-80 was a real workhorse. It was slow as molasses, but ran forever. It did have a serial board option from Epson too. This shuttle teleprinter would have been quite a bit faster than the MX-80. We had the Army version with keyboard in the lab where I worked. I wonder how cartridge ribbon of the MX-80 would do in zero G? The Army model uses standard Underwood style ribbon spools snd it probably would have been easy to cobble up a ribbon with some kind of space certified low VOC ink. The Army printer also uses roll paper which takes up less storage space than pin feed paper. Another candidate would be an Okidata Microline (forget the model). It was the standard reservation printer in just about every hotel up to about year 2000. It used the same Underwood style ribbon spools and was faster than the MX-80. I believe it is about age contemporary. The Okidata could do pin feed; I don’t know if it could do roll paper.

[@drv8086]

Another great video 👍🏻

[@p.j.wilkins1321]

I'm 13 seconds in... I bet Ken will never even begin to figure this thing out 😊

[@aaditsharma8823]

big fan bro

[@KMcKaig72]

It seems wrong to say, but I'm looking forward to the mechanical disasters, can't wait for the next video!

[@TechGorilla1987]

@2:05 - I, too am from the Navy and I am also extremely heavy. Wait, what?

[@FredPilcher]

24kg!!! Damn! Surely they could have lightened it! Regardless, this is within my ability to comprehend. :D Wonderful work!! Can't wait for the next installment,

[@penguin44ca]

They did! No case, half a frame no keyboard most of the ac parts.

[@SnakebitSTI]

24kg is the "lightweight" version lol

[@wtmayhew]

I remember these. Our lab had one. The case and keyboard weigh almost as much as the mechanical chassis.

[@markgreco1962]

Wow!!! Next you need a fax machine

[@Lemon_Inspector]

It's like a mechanical cicada.

[@hackbyte]

Uuuh .. new toys! ;)

[@Atomshamradio]

Very cool

[@SubTroppo]

So I'm assuming that the astronauts couldn't take shorthand.

[@Georgy-fg3bg]

My God! Each launch of this bizarre thing cost the Americans $480,000! I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that the electricity in the space shuttle was generated by a coal-fired steam engine.

[@lwaldron9745]

Why not a daisy-wheel printer?

[@ferky123]

Because then you need a computer that can decode the signal and have something that can take all the vibrations from launch. The teletype already has that.

[@purepix_fr]

can't wait for the next. vous êtes de fabuleux barjos 😍😍😲😲

[@ROBOTRIX_eu]

[@danielpeck6269]

👍🏻

[@worfrozhenko4032]

gov't efficiency,

[@patrickgrochowy]

Please disable these autotranslation-crap. The german title and the german audiotrack are unbearable. And if you cannot dissable these crappy autotranslations, please urge KZbin to stop setting these up as defaults.

[@CuriousMarc]

I agree. I can’t turn them off on my side, and I have complained to KZbin.

[@foobargorch]

nooo not the muzak... i can't watch any of the videos since you started using that track, it gets stuck in my head for days driving me nuts... ;_;

[@vladsnape6408]

The background music was too loud, annoying and unnecessary.

[@CuriousMarc]

But this hasn’t been enough time for you to even watch the video!?

[@RealWorldPolice]

@@CuriousMarc The levels are fine. Great video, as always!

[@vladsnape6408]

@@CuriousMarc I did watch the video. The information was interesting, it was only the music that was annoying. Perhaps I am very used to documentary KZbin channels that have no background music and perhaps I am not the demographic you are aiming for.

[@Atomshamradio]

This 59 pound pound tellatype machine will we weightless in space got to figure that if it was a small box 📦 or whatever it probably wouldn’t work properly and this machine is a tank also from the military standards from shocks and abuse this machine will take it on it’s a heavy duty machine not a cheap plastic toy machine it’s comon sence