Just bought this on eBay. Needs a little TLC, I hope the ROM chips aren't bad. Looks like it needs re-capping, plus maybe a few other things.

Posted by WirtThePegLeggedBoy@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 24 comments

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MooCChao@reddit

I used one of those at my first professional programming job, in the 1980s. It was attached to a AT&T 3B1 that we all shared. Miserable terminal. Eventually, when they decided it was just too difficult to use, the boss gave it to me. I had it kicking around for a couple of years until I let my GF (now my wife) throw it from a 2nd story window onto concrete. Every once in a while, I remind her that these have become slightly collectable.

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PA-MMJ-Educator@reddit

That looks to me like a “dumb” terminal, not a PC. Is that what you want?

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WirtThePegLeggedBoy@reddit (OP)

Yep. The idea was to set it up and connect it to a "modern" pc, to type in commands to do home automation stuff. So I can pretend I'm a wealthy evil mastermind from the 70s.

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thetacticalpanda@reddit

Can you give examples of that kind of aesthetic? The ones I think of often are Cosmo's lair from Sneakers and the home/office of the American bad guy from Last Crusade

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WirtThePegLeggedBoy@reddit (OP)

Thinking on it, I could only recall off the top of my head the military guy from Return of the Living Dead, Leslie Nielsen's character in Creepshow... after that it's just an amalgamation of minor characters from TV shows from the 70s and 80s as well as any parodies of the Bond movies.

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Stzzla75@reddit

There's got to be one of those chunky key dumb terminals in the WOPR room in War Games.

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nmrk@reddit

Crystal Peak, Terminator 3.

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nixiebunny@reddit

You will have a hard time typing in commands with all those missing key caps.

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m-in@reddit

I like the way you think!

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michaelpaoli@reddit

Looks like it needs re-capping

Yeah, ... like replacing missing key caps. I have a few terminals ... I don't think I'm missing key caps on any of 'em.

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nmrk@reddit

You can probably find suitable replacements for the entire keyswitch.

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compu85@reddit

It looks like the deflection yoke has slipped off the neck of the tube.

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WirtThePegLeggedBoy@reddit (OP)

I wonder if that's the case with the image. The yoke has what looks like a cable clamp at the narrowest part and it felt secure, but I may be wrong.

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nixiebunny@reddit

The yoke should be slid up against the tube funnel.

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stevekohls@reddit

I miss my 1520 so much! Would love to find one again without spending scalper prices

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RottenSalad@reddit

I am a sucker for any all-in-one terminal or computer. What a sweeet find! A real beauty.

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nmrk@reddit

It generates characters of some sort on screen, and it has no obvious signs of CRT phosphor rot, although it has some serious underscan problems. I refuse to mess with CRT tubes and their high voltage so you're on your own there. But it looks worth restoring.

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glenstarmix@reddit

You're a brave person even thinking about powering that on without examining the caps.

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WirtThePegLeggedBoy@reddit (OP)

Caps looked good, I had everything open before firing it up. PCB looks bubbly/delaminated so I don't think it was stored in a friendly environment, but it's the least-dustiest piece of 40+ year old equipment I've ever seen. Clean as a whistle.

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