Liberty Electronics: Freedom 100 Terminal Repair

Let's take a look at the Liberty Model Number BT1200A serial terminal. I have no idea if this terminal works, so let's power it up and do a little fault finding.
-- Video Links
Motherboard photos and ROM dumps for this terminal:
archive.org/details/liberty-1...
Freedom 100 Manual:
www.bitsavers.org/pdf/libertyE...
Photo of a "new old stock" Freedom 100:
i.redd.it/tcszkfs8x7661.jpg
Rebadged Freedom 100 used as the display/keyboard for the Morrow MD-3:
dunfield.classiccmp.org/morrow...
Support the channel on Patreon:
/ adriansdigitalbasement
Adrian's Digital Basement (Main Channel)
/ @adriansdigitalbasement
-- Tools
Deoxit D5:
amzn.to/2VvOKy1
store.caig.com/s.nl/it.A/id.16...
O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)
amzn.to/3a9x54J
Elenco Electronics LP-560 Logic Probe:
amzn.to/2VrT5lW
Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:
amzn.to/2ye6xC0
Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:
www.rigolna.com/products/digi...
Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens Flip-In Head Magnifier:
amzn.to/3adRbuy
TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)
amzn.to/2wG4tlP
www.aliexpress.com/item/33000...
TS100 Soldering Iron:
amzn.to/2K36dJ5
www.ebay.com/itm/TS100-65W-MI...
EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:
www.eevblog.com/product/121gw/
DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:
amzn.to/2RDSDQw
www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Logic-DS...
Magnetic Screw Holder:
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www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-...
Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)
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RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)
www.retrotink.com/
Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)
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Heat Sinks:
www.aliexpress.com/item/32537...
Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)
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--- Links
My GitHub repository:
github.com/misterblack1?tab=r...
Commodore Computer Club / Vancouver, WA - Portland, OR - PDX Commodore Users Group
www.commodorecomputerclub.com/
--- Instructional videos
My video on damage-free chip removal:
• How to remove chips wi...
--- Music
Intro music and other tracks by:
Nathan Divino
@itsnathandivino

[@chipacabra]

Seems clear to me that the CRT was left unused for too long and all the photons settled at the bottom of the screen, it just took a while for them to get stirred back up.

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

Do you mean the phosphor? Photons are always moving

[@thomasbonse]

@@amirpourghoureiyan1637 Nope definitely photons. 😉 Fortunately, Adrian didn't tip this on its side, otherwise the electrons would've fallen out. 😁

[@RetroJack]

@@thomasbonse I see you are a man of culture!

[@thomasbonse]

@@RetroJack I rarely make jokes, but when I do, I only make bad ones. 😳

[@mal2ksc]

The pixies had forgotten why they were angry. They needed to be reminded.

[@bramsoens1143]

Every scuba-diver knows of the legend and pionier of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

[@c0olcast]

Well said! I'm not a scuba-diver but I love documentaries and grew up watching and reading of him.

[@briansouth9325]

You mispelt Jacques custodian

[@organiccold]

@@c0olcast me too. Love it

[@Peugeot306]

@@briansouth9325 And you misspelled misspelled…

[@deamondeathstone1]

John Denver wrote him a love song! Well his ship Calypso actually, but details.

[@pauldourish]

Further evidence for the Jacques Cousteau link is that the sticker says "Calypso" which was the name of his ship.

[@Zerkbern]

I noticed that too.

[@badscrew4023]

Definitely is. And a swimming figure as its logo :)

[@Grinder2112]

I had one of those stickers as a kid, circa late 70s/early 80s. I think the Cousteau society was sending them out in donation solicitations.

[@badscrew4023]

@@Grinder2112 oh you may be right here

[@Julien987]

Thank you !

[@kilwala2242]

Linux has a terminfo entry for this terminal. export TERM="freedom100"

[@christiancarassai9540]

This bring me memories if a time when i connected an IBM terminal with spanish language cartridge to a pc with redhat, but terminfo had no definition for the cartridge extended chars, having to compile with an specific program for terminfo to get a new definition...

[@wbfaulk]

At 30:26 (among other places) you can see on his monitor that he's cd'd into /usr/lib/terminfo. He was trying to figure it out. Maybe the Raspberry Pi OS he was running has a stripped-down terminfo database?

[@knghtbrd]

@@wbfaulk yeah, he needs to install ncurses-term.

[@edgeeffect]

I think the Unix terminfo database pretty much has everything.

[@organiccold]

Adrian: get a mirror so you can see what the screen is showing while you working at the back of the CRT. Any tv technician have one on the workshop. Is a must have.

[@cee128d]

What do you want to bet that he will receive several in the next couple of Mail Call Videos.

[@proCaylak]

@@cee128d yeah, people are so generous to adrian. a big success on his side.

[@cee128d]

@@proCaylak Not just Adrian. I see that with a lot of the Retro computer and the Car Revival KZbinrs .

[@organiccold]

Haha it will happen lol

[@a.p.gerlach7136]

Cheers Adrian, relating to your sticker: The RV Calypso is a research vessel for the oceanographic researcher Jacques Cousteau, equipped with a mobile laboratory for underwater field research. The ship is named after the Greek mythological figure Calypso :-).

[@crayzeape2230]

The sticky stuff under the anode cap is dielectric grease/HV insulation grease and is meant to be there. Without it, you can end up with the anode arcing out from under the cap if you get a dust buildup in the vicinity of the cap.

[@hjalfi]

I love these old terminals --- they're so satisfying to use. One thing you can do with them these days is to mount a Raspberry Pi or similar SBC actually inside the case, powered off the internal 5V supply, and then hook it up to the serial port, for a completely non-destructive sleeper Unix system. Regarding the keycaps: you don't need to replace the switch, only the plungers. You might be able to 3D print a new plunger, although the tolerances could be too tight. If that fails, I bet you could 3D print an adapter part with connects to the broken plunger.

[@lisandro3614]

Classic capacitor reforming in the end, and the terminal looks amazing. As for the stems, 3D printing is probably your best bet, using one of the good switches as a model. I believe Tech Tangents did something like that for his HP86...?

[@retrolabo]

Those stems can be 3d printed. I have some if you are interested

[@jacksat2252]

You have the right age, Adrien We all saw those underwater documentaries and adventures off Jaques Cousteau and his ship the Calypso in the late 70'ties early 80 'ties when we were children. No internet or Wiki then.

[@BertGrink]

I remember those very well 😀

[@MrMe4444444]

I had a window decal like that in the 70s

[@ultrametric9317]

The labels are always jacked up because an asset tag was slapped there, and removed when decommissioned (stolen - heh).

[@mal2ksc]

@Robert F Film crews that need props?

[@ultrametric9317]

@Robert F :) No idea. Same person who steals yogurt from the fridge :)

[@williamharris8367]

@Robert F People are stupid. I once watched someone try to get online (at a public library) using a microfiche reader. Shockingly, the absence of a keyboard did not stop him.

[@ketturi]

Usually those vertical hybrid IC:s have critical capacitors near them, just like in many integrated audio amplifiers. When those go out, the amplifier starts to have weird issues. I think it just had been sitting so long that those capacitors needed a bit time to reform, there is (usually) nothing else that can go out (except dirty pots) that does not result in complete vertical collapse. I love how simplistic these old terminals are, if you can find service manual you can understand them completely, and even without it they are pretty easy to work with.

[@The_Studioworkshop]

You can’t reform these types of caps. (Where has that come from btw?) As mentioned to someone else, you’ll find it’s likely just oxidisation on the scan coils plug etc... the problem presented itself as a frame/vertical collapse, which is what it was, but with an odd wrap around issue. This could’ve been because the brightness was too high! I’ve seen it happen

[@ketturi]

@@The_Studioworkshop Reforming may be a bit wrong word, but in aluminium electrolyte caps thin oxide layer on electrode can broke down that causes capacitor to go electrically leaky. When power is applied oxygen is generated when water in electrolyte breaks down, and that somewhat self-heals the cap (also increasing the pressure and causing physical leaks), but that does not make it magically new. They are bad and dried and should be replaced none the less.

[@jurviz]

I love all these old terminals. I especially love the idea that you could quite easily hook something like this into any of the world's fastest supercomputers right now and meaningfully control whatever protein folding or deep learning they're running.

[@Adam-McG]

Those exact key switches can be found on Apple IIe keyboards. Those long stems you have are actually uncommon. The white switches are used on large keys like shift, but you can use a black switch without issue.

[@zitt]

Y not use a dremel to shave the long stems ... that should work; I'd think.

[@alerey4363]

14:57 that's right ; in many service manuals (apple all-in-one CRT models for instance) it clearly states that if you're going to put away the open CRT you must loop the anode and cathode with a cable to prevent charge re-build

[@jameshearne891]

When the monitors were made they used a high voltage Silicone grease on and around the anode cap to reduce the high voltage tracking across the glass.

[@randyab9go188]

I have seen that in a few cases too where the manufacturer use silicone grease around the anode cap, but I have also seen those caps deteriorate on some New Old stock flybacks. Some plastic just gets that sticky as it gets older. I have some older RCA branded monster like speaker cable that the plastic insulation is deteriorating in the exact same way. It is also causing the copper cable inside to turn green!

[@thomasbonse]

Just sounds like a silicon based dielectric grease, you can pick it up at Menards and Lowe's for under $10, cheaper if you can find the smaller tubes, then under $5.

[@joe--cool]

I'd advise against WD40 with rubber. It's mineral oil content might dissolve natural rubber. Silicone Spray might be better (but since it's sticky that might already be on there).

[@randyab9go188]

Check for a 2.2 - 4.7uf non-polarized cap in the vert. output for high ESR. They go bad frequently and cause some of the same symptoms you are seeing.

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Great tip!

[@caseymulcihy89]

Happy July the 4th! I'm excited to see that you have "repaired" this. I really appreciate your comments. I have this exact terminal and just repaired mine last month. The vertical linearity was off, the top 4 lines of text were off the top of the screen and the bottom half looked just fine. After extensively investigating every electrolytic capacitor for high ESR, all caps checked out good. I wasn't expecting that. I read the maintenance manual for advice on how to fix this. No good advice in the manual. All I did, was to "recalibrate" the pots at the top of the video board. The maintenance manual does not even mention these pots, or what they do. My terminal is working fine now.

[@ericcarrozzo5846]

Some terminals depending on the option will an echo for typing. I used similar terminals to talk to DMS-100 telephone switch and datageneral mainframes. It does take me back. As always great video

[@pipschannel1222]

Hey Adrian, Nice video. Love the old school terminal! The sticky goo on the anode cap is dielectric grease (which may have gone bad after nearly 40 years ;-) ). It put there to to avoid HV arcing due to dust and moisture ;-)

[@dadrad]

This is really cool. I love seeing vintage terminals connected to Linux computers!

[@mdofxds]

Thanks for the nice video, Adrian! I often watch your videos while doing some repair/restoration too :) The issue with vertical deflection is more likely because of the "tired" caps. The deflection current has sawtooth waveform in normal. Looks like the power rail was unable to supply enough current in the end of deflection current ramp, and we got that "rollover". Also I noticed that bad caps have tendency of temporary "self-repair" because of warm-up. Sometimes I use that fact to check them by heating with a soldering iron or a fan and watch if the device behavior changes.

[@kevinwright7931]

The Cousteau Society is about Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau is the father of underwater sea exploration. You have a piece of history there Adrian.

[@luked3172]

Most of the CRT's that Adrian pulls apart looks like a scary nightmare on the inside, but this one looks very pretty, I must say. I like it. :)

[@jensschroder8214]

In the old company we had terminals for the warehouse. The whole picture was built up with ASCII characters. Press 1 to put things in storage. Press 2 to get something from the warehouse. Press 3 to search for something. Press 4 to get inventory. Press 0 up one menu. Tab, Tab, Enter. It was all very easy. Because there are no longer any real terminals, we ended up with Linux computers and laptops with terminal emulation. In the office there was the server where all data was stored and the backups were made.

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

So it was still accessing the back-end via text mode interface but just using emulators. Funny. There is something to be said about how quickly you can move around in a text interface. Just requires a steeper learning curve.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@adriansdigitalbasement2 I’ve also seen a lot of POS terminals just running a terminal emulator too, hooking up to the same store inventory etc as in the 80s and 90s :) but on much newer hardware! This stuff seems to be more common than anticipated in various sectors

[@mrfrenzy.]

This kind of ASCII mode interface is still used in some big rental car chains and airline checkins. Users connect with windows based terminal emulators to the server.

[@jameshearne891]

You might be able to fix those keyswitches by drilling a small hole down the centre of the cross on both sections and pressing in a stainless steel pin. Then glue the 2 halves back together, the pin should reinforce the joint and make it strong enough.

[@thedungeondelver]

A short (5-8mm) length of paperclip wire would do the trick.

[@decidedly_retro]

Probably best to switch it to ADM3A emulation as termcap/terminfo should have that as standard (assuming that the Linux people haven't removed the definitions). Re: Cousteau Institute, that's Jaques Cousteau, the famous under water explorer who made lots of films in the 1970s. His ship was called Callypso. John Denver wrote a song about it.

[@michvod]

Device was sitting for 25-30+ years. The capacitors lost their "forming", the aluminum oxide coating on the plates inside the cap. Usually the caps will reform in the matter of seconds, but if a cap is connected to a power supply rail though a resistor (like 100K or more), it will sometimes take even long time to reform it. To check if reforming was successful, leave the device turned off for about a month, then turn it back on and see if there is again problem at power on :)

[@LeftyLabs]

I have a Commodore 1902 monitor that a friend gave me that hadn’t been used in a couple decades. When I got it, vertical deflection was a mess. The screen couldn’t be expanded past about the middle 1/4 of the screen with lots of distortion, but as an experiment, I powered it on for a couple hours a day for about a week. Eventually vertical deflection returned to normal and has been fine ever since.

[@Clavichordist]

I worked for Visual Technology from 1980 to 1987 and fixed their V200s which were similar to these. Visual was famous for their emulation and mostly emulated DEC terminals throughout their product lines. Seeing this terminal brought back some good memories of working on fun electronics. Visual used Z80s for their terminals and I learned so much about the circuits, PIO, SIO and peripheral chips. Later they promoted me to field service and I got to work on the much old Ontel products which were really complex but fun too. You did give me some flashbacks when you opened up the terminal. I got zapped quite a few times from the residual charge still in the CRTs after disconnecting the cap and discharging the tube. One day I got zapped and ripped the back of my hand inside the chassis. The zap didn't hurt so much as it startled me and I yanked my hand reflexively and caught the back of my right hand right at the middle knuckle and had a bloody mess as a result.

[@skonkfactory]

If you can CAD up replacement stems I can print them for you on an SLA printer, like I did for akbkuku.

[@redace001]

He's got a SLA printer... I found this already CADed : www.thingiverse.com/thing:4556405

[@skonkfactory]

@@redace001 I don't believe he does? Anyway, those are too long.

[@redace001]

@@skonkfactory Easy to adjust the model if they are. 😎👌

[@draggonhedd]

Definitely bad or old caps. They got some life back in em after being powered on again. It'll probably work fine for a while as long as you keep it on and running it. But you will need to replace them eventually.

[@lauram5905]

Yeah, watching enough shango066 has taught me a lot about how vintage* caps can reform, but I've never seen "modern" electrolytics do that (Edited to correct my statement)

[@tiporari]

@@lauram5905 Shango's the man. Even modern electrolytic caps can "reform" though they won't last. He usually resurrects them for short term use. If you intend to keep and use these, recap and reflow all solder joints.

[@ct92404]

@@tiporari I could do without Shango's nutty conspiracy theories, and the fact that he NEVER cleans anything and just leaves dirt and mouse crap on electronics.

[@tim_buck_too9126]

@@ct92404 You must not have worked on electronics in an industrial setting. If you think mouse turd is an issue, you'd die if you got to see some of the stuff I have had to work on over the years. No one gives a crap what the components look like when in use. As long as the gear is working, that is all that they care about.

[@ct92404]

@@tim_buck_too9126 When you're "restoring" vintage electronics, it matters. Oh yeah, that's right Shango calls it a "resurrection" to try to cover up for how he does a half-ass job with everything. It's sloppy, lazy, and pathetic. And that's not to mention his bullcrap conspiracy theories he rambles about all the time.

[@thedungeondelver]

LIBERTY and FREEDOM on July 4th! Thank you, Adrian!

[@jasejj]

The first place I worked at (British Rail (or at least its successor), the source of your Local Systems Arche/Vixen motherboards) had several of these dumb terminals (different brand but very similar right down to the CRT stand) dotted around, tied via ISDN modems to the mainframes, and were used if the WAN failed and the SNA terminal emulation software was thus unavailable, to allow developers access in for emergency maintenance etc, as late as 2005 (its possible they're still around today!) . They were getting very long in the tooth by then, having been in service for well over 20 years.

[@NikkiWrightVGM]

The CRT must have really Rubbed Out to make everything so sticky :P

[@megaglowz8540]

How rude.. . . . . . . What ya doin later....lol

[@thomasbonse]

Well, what else was it supposed to do? It was practically in solitary for years.

[@minty_Joe]

I see what you did there. ;-)

[@VincentGroenewold]

Stems? 3D printing to the rescue! :)

[@mattelder1971]

I was going to say the same thing. Should be relatively easy to model them and print them. Just need one of the good ones for reference.

[@mal2ksc]

It would also be possible to make a new set of stems that have Cherry MX mounts on top, if he wants to use a modern but retro-looking set of keys.

[@jlfrodsham]

@@mal2ksc Whoa... neat idea. Now the ol' brain bucket is whirring with possibilities!

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@mal2ksc modern Dasher or Dancer SA caps perhaps… if he has a set I guess

[@mal2ksc]

@@kaitlyn__L The character set probably wouldn't line up. I would imagine that any key set would have to be made specifically for a terminal -- maybe _this particular_ terminal. But someone may still have already done it.

[@joe.tiziano]

This video does not suck, have a awesome 4th July Adrian.

[@Lee-il5kc]

Iirc that goo is a dielectric grease to keep the high tension from arcing to the tube coating. I always put new on if the old is too goopy and/or has migrated away from where it's supposed to be.

[@elmestguzman3038]

Nice repair I wish I would have know about the WD-40 trick when I was working on TV repair in the late 90s. Regarding the Cousteau society sticker. There was a research center in Norfolk VA from 1980 to 1996. That center was relocated to Chesapeake VA and it still active to this day. Thank you for the content it is super interesting keep it up!!!

[@Saavik256]

I have a micro from my childhood (yeah, I'm a young whipper-snapper born in 1985) that has a keyboard with very similar look to this. :) Another awesome video, Adrian.

[@DSP107]

Although this's been a "quick money" case 😜, it's always rewarding to see a good'ol procedure-driven repair attempt. Go on like this! We old technicians like things this way! 👍

[@noland65]

I wouldn't be much surprised, if "Freedom 100" mode was VT100 emulation (less license).

[@knghtbrd]

Not even close. (I checked.)

[@noland65]

@@knghtbrd Thanks for checking and coming back on this. (However, it would have been quite a marketing move.)

[@WilliamAndrewPhilipBodie]

Adrian: i got 2 channels so i don't have too much time to make video's. Me: really ? it's like he is making 4 time's more. than before :-)

[@Adam-McG]

Word’s that’s end’s with’s S’s don’t’s all’s get’s apostrophe’s.

[@WilliamAndrewPhilipBodie]

@@Adam-McG i'm German so i don't know nor do i care :-)

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

@@WilliamAndrewPhilipBodie You should care.

[@LightTheUnicorn]

Always nice when electronics do the repair work for themselves if you ask me! Very nice little terminal!

[@badscrew4023]

Cousteau and Calypso in one statement? It's definitely that Cousteau.

[@larrywilliams8010]

32:26 Channeling Eric. Awesome

[@RudysRetroIntel]

Excellent as always! Been looking for a terminal for some time however too expensive

[@misterkite]

I have two terminals that were fairly affordable. One is a Dec VT320 that I paid $199 for. It's pretty great and highly recommended. The other is an IBM InfoWindow II that I paid $150 for. This one is a mixed bag. It has a real buckling spring IBM keyboard, but it doesn't support VT100.. so unless you have an AS/400 or System/36 server, it's pretty useless.

[@RudysRetroIntel]

@@misterkite VT100 is what I'm looking for as it works with just about anything. Unfortunately, living in Canada makes for expensive delivery and afraid that if not packed perfectly it will become recycled plastic:(

[@one_b]

That terminal is the perfect main control for Liberty Prime from Fallout. Needs a Robco Termlink simulator. :)

[@floydfix420]

You need a 3d printer. Make your own plunger stems! I've said it a couple of times out loud before I realized you can't hear me! Thanks for the videos. Keeps me motivated to do my projects

[@bradnelson3595]

This is how it should be. Things fix themselves. That's a tough skill to teach, Adrian. But I think you've made some headway. :)

[@InssiAjaton]

The sticky stuff is PLASTICIZER, used to soften certain plastics. The shroud of the HV connector is a typical example of that softened plastic.

[@peterg.8245]

Thanks Adrian for making me feel young. That monitor was “born” a couple weeks before me. (16Feb83)

[@roaddan01]

The Calypso was Jacques Cousteau’s team exploration boat.

[@Jody_VE5SAR]

I thought you secretly sprayed some Deoxit into the adjustment pots to clear that up. :-)

[@DanPellegrino486]

I'm always afraid anything that fixes itself is soon to break again in short order. Not that this is mission critical so I'd call this a success either way. Great work as always.

[@Starchface]

Indeed. I prefer a reliable failure than something that "fixes" itself. You can't fix it if it's working.

[@Vermilicious]

Nice and bright. Also clean, neat interiors. Freedom, oy!

[@HudsonGTV]

The switches that keyboard uses are what is commonly referred to as an SMK Vintage Linear. The Kaypro II uses the exact ones you need.

[@badstate]

I love that terminal. I want one.

[@clivejones5880]

I think you answered your own question here. :-) The unit sat unused for years and the dielectric properties of one or more of the electrolytics had changed and the capacitor(s) reformed after being exercised for some time. Sometimes this works fine but other times the capacitors may be borderline.

[@santonucifora]

The screen "out of wack" may have been oxidation on the screen control knobs. The knobs are super-sensitive and can change without touching them. A little Deoxit will usually fix those pretty quickly and result in a more stable picture. Might be worth a shot next time you have it open or for a possible other repair in the future.

[@alexenochss]

a few thoughts.. you could pull the stems from the keycaps.. and superglue them back together OR take one of the stems out and see if someone can make a mold of them OR maybe even send a stem to someone that can 3d model them to spec and have it 3D printed if your worried about the super glue option coming apart you could always take a needle and embed it inside both the top and bottom half of the stem and glue them together with the needle in it to give it more sturdyness i recently needed to repair a tandy 1000 keyboard which has some fujitsu leaf spring gen 3 keys and the break key was litterally missing the stem so after asking around the net and finding no one with any i looked at the keyboard closely and realized while the space bar has a stem in it..it doesnt actually HOLD ONTO the stem like the rest of the keycaps..rather the springing mechanisms on the outsides of the spacebar are what it holds in place..so the stem for the space bar was just acting as a spacer to press the key... quick grab of a piece of plastic and a dremel later i swapped the stem to the break key and stuck a piece of plastic that was the same height width of the stems in the space bar location and it works theres literally no way to tell unless you take the keyboard apart ..i do wish it were original (so if you happen to have an extra please let me know LOL) but im glad its fully functional again above all

[@TimmyJoe633]

My gran had a Panasonic TV in the 80's with that same boxy on screen font, seemed so hi tech at the time 😄

[@geoffquickfall]

Looks like the electrolytics reformed over time. If so, may be sometime in the future it will require some new ones on the screen PCA. Of course, typed this just before you mentioned the reforming cap!

[@Lee-il5kc]

I'd adjust the linearity then the vsize. And clean those pots. I bet those couple of electrolytics in the vertical deflection section self healed a bit once power was applied for a while. That's a really great terminal. I am a little jealous. ;D

[@retropuffer2986]

Nice Terminal!

[@enzito_sdf6978]

wow i love the font this thing uses

[@bikkyghaisai7692]

Jacques Cousteau was a famous filmmaker who did make documentaries of the sea and nature around the sea. On wikipedia I see that he passed in 1997. He was the "david attenborough of the 1980's and '90

[@TechTimeTraveller]

Morrow had a version of this terminal for their MD3 computer system. Exact same terminal with their own badge. Been looking for one forever.. just have the computer and keyboard.

[@user-gt8ql9vp1b]

The "goo" or "grease" from silicon degrading (which is what that cap on high voltage cable looks to be made of) can be washed off with dishes liquid soap. The regular soaps, either solid or liquid, just can't dissolve it well.

[@frugalprepper]

I still keep my RS232 Breakout box in my networking tool bucket. Haven't used in over 10 years though!

[@kd5byb]

Coolest RPi interface terminal EVER.

[@marksterling8286]

I really miss the original serial terminals, VT200 was my all time favourite.

[@jeanstp4522]

Yea, the lucky ones got the vt200. Me, I got stuck with the dirty second-hand vt100...

[@maxtornogood]

I'd like to see it turned on again later to see if the termnal's "self-healing" repair maintained itself...

[@donaldburns7378]

I owned a Freedom 100 back in the '80's. I had to modify it to make it work correctly at 19,200 and the factory tech supplied the method. Perhaps an early production version? In one of my many moves it was damaged and recycled. I might still have the manual somewhere, but that might take lots and lots of searching to find.

[@nukelauncher95]

Haha! In my opinion, all keyboards should have a "rub out" button!

[@mattsword41]

A gangster terminal ;)

[@frozendude707]

They all do, but the British English to American English translation is "backspace", but i think it is delete on this one :P

[@mal2ksc]

@@frozendude707 There is also a "BACK SPACE" key. So RUB OUT must do something different.

[@frozendude707]

@@mal2ksc Yeah, on most keyboards with that working it seems to be the same as backspace or whiteout, but not here, delete would be my guess.

[@mal2ksc]

@@kaizenneko725 If you had a _nice_ typewriter, it would switch to a white ribbon and then type the same character you're rubbing out.

[@sa3270]

Nice to see the CRT problem fixed itself. Couldn't you cut the key stems to the necessary height?

[@draggonhedd]

You could probably plastic weld some cross stems back onto the switches in the system. or do some careful dremel work on the apple switches to continue the cross pattern further down on the stem, and then cut it shorter.

[@KennethSorling]

It's so bittersweet when intermittent faults 'fix themselves'. On the one hand, hey, no more problem! OTOH, it's so unrewarding not knowing what was wrong and why, and what went right and why.

[@TeionM83]

I love those faults that you start to debug and they fix themselves.

[@thomasbonse]

They scurried away while he was tracking them down. 😁

[@PeterHaida]

Happy days watching Jacques Cousteau documentaries during the 1960s & 1970s on his boat Calypso.

[@garethfairclough8715]

Cousteau might be the diver & submariner, especially given the image on that sticker and it stating Norfolk Virginia (large port & naval base there, iirc).

[@edgeeffect]

Good Baud rates, plenty of emulations (even though no ANSI, no VT100)... nice terminal!

[@dormcat]

Number 25 of Ren'ai Road ("Jen Ai" was an older-styled Wade-Giles transliteration) Sections 2, 3, and 4 in Taipei were all rental office buildings so it could be located in any of them; Section 1 was the dormitory of NTU hospital. The company is likely long gone.

[@jespermller6956]

Please do a video explaining how a terminal works, how to connect, what is the protocol, and so on...

[@JasonHalversonjaydog]

could you trim down the stem on that switch to shorten it a little bit? it looked like it had a little extra length below the key where you could cut some off and the key would still fit, but i don't know

[@evensgrey]

I've heard of some electrolytic capacitors doing this. If they're left unpowered for a long time, they can depolarize. When you power the device on again after many years, the capacitors will repolarize after a while. The problem is it's a race between the capacitors repolarizing and exploding, so sometimes a device will pop the caps instead of coming good again.

[@samuelcolvin4994]

Is that why my 8-track deck blew a cap across the room?

[@evensgrey]

@@samuelcolvin4994 If it had been sitting, unpowered, for a long time, it might be. Of course, if your player had sat unused for that kind of time, I wouldn't put much hope in your tapes being any good any more, either. (The lubricant required for the tape to slide in the spool dries out, and the tape normally breaks at the splice. I've seen this happen to 8-track tapes.)

[@samuelcolvin4994]

My tapes interestingly enough were fine, they'd been played a lot, the machine was a Bigelow brand 8-track deck, and it launched the casing of the cap the size of my thumb across the room and an inch from my face, fun times! I think I ended up replacing like 30% of all the parts on that thing

[@samuelcolvin4994]

Oh yeah I've replaced a zillion of those splices,

[@evensgrey]

@@samuelcolvin4994 Unfortunately, it turns out caps are remarkably easy to build in a whole myriad of ways, but most o the ways you can build caps turn out to have at least one way of going off bang or some other catastrophic failure mode. I understand the old waxed paper ones like to just burn up. If the casing for the device that happens in happens to be made of celluloid, you've got some potentially really interesting events going on right there on the workbench.

[@Aruneh]

Next mail call Adrian unboxes a giant mainframe.

[@KennethSorling]

I feel short-changed on how you got the raspberry pi to 'talk' to the terminal through the serial port. Is there a linux command which pipes console I/O through serial? And how does serial comms work through USB? Did the connector cable have 25 pins, or did you have to attach a 9-pin to 25-pin adapter? I'd likt to have seen a little on that. Thanks for this video, nonetheless. I love old dislplay hardware like this.

[@JVHShack]

@Adrian If anything, you might look into employing your 3d printer like Shelby did for his HP machine.

[@rlgrlg-oh6cc]

maybe move switches from some rarely-used keys (Print, rub out?) to the ones you would use?

[@pelgervampireduck]

Custeau made documentaries about the ocean, the marine biology, that kind of stuff. His boat was called "the calypso". what I don't have a clue is what is that thing and what can you do with it. at first I thought it was going to be a not-PC computer, like a Tandy, Adam, or the british one. I'll have to google what it is.

[@kaitlyn__L]

It’s a terminal, it receives plain text from another computer and displays it. Later existed “graphics terminals” but this isn’t one of those. You could plug it into a Raspberry Pi or a modern desktop with the right software options set up and access their text mode command line (like Cmd in Windows or TTY/Terminal Emulator in *nix). Those windows with text inside are emulating a terminal like this, and that’s all this can do. LGR has a video on a DEC terminal from a couple years ago too. Old terminals are fascinating!

[@wbfaulk]

It's part of the 68-hundred series, not the 68-thousand series. Not sure if that was just misspoken or not, but, unlike Intel, Motorola decided to make their new microprocessors *not* backwards compatible with their old ones, thus the split between the 6800 and 68000 series. (9:30)

[@Renville80]

I wonder if what you’re looking at is ‘ringing’… I had a bunch of monitors that had cracked fly back cores and which caused ringing and horizontal fold over. I’m pretty sure that’s vertical fold over that we’re seeing.

[@crayzeape2230]

If the key-switch stems are ABS, you can weld them with acetone.

[@tstahlfsu]

Your capacitors reformed as it warmed up :-D

[@williamorangeofjuice7804]

its dielectric grease on the anode cap they use it as a seal.

[@kztech1319]

Is it possible for one to superglue the broken stem back together? Or is there still pieces missing

[@AndrewTubbiolo]

You'll have to look thru any online Jaques Cousteau documentaries to see if you can see one of these terminals in the background.

[@pgodwin]

What's the HV probe used to discharge the CRT?

[@jeromethiel4323]

All electrolytic capacitors have issues with "forming." When they are de-energized for a long time, they stop being capacitors (I.E. de-form). But once you re-energize them they will "re-form" the dialectric. Unfortunately if you are not careful about it, the capacitor can fail.