[GreenKeys] Taking orders for USB/Teletype Interface Boards

Sat Mar 30 19:49:11 EDT 2019

Hi all,

Thank you for the immense interest! This is excellent. Feel free to keep sending me your requests for those who see this later. I will respond to each of you individually to confirm, but I don't quite have time at the moment.

There were some good questions people had about these that I want to address for all to see.

 * Are these bare boards or assembled?
   * These are fully assembled, functioning boards. They will be assembled by Seeed Studio. Almost all the components are SMD, so it's nice and compact. There is no purchase of components or assembly required on your part except to wire it up in series to your current loop and teletype and plug it into your computer.
 * The design in your YouTube videos doesn't look at all like the board layout at heepy.net, and you imply that the design for this group buy is not exactly the same-- are you doing the design seen in your videos?
   * Long story short, that version of the board in the videos is NOT what you'll get. You'll get an SMT version almost exactly like what's seen on the heepy.net link. The design seen in my videos is a functionally equivalent, through-hole version of the design at heepy.net assembled manually by me with much advice from Eric, the original designer (he's advised on this version as well). This SMT version is almost exactly what's seen on heepy.net-- the original from 2016-- but the lower optoisolator and TVS had to be swapped out because the original ones are no longer manufactured. This required me to move things around by a few millimeters. A few of the other components are probably a bit different than the original, but they wouldn't be noticeable and have similar or better tolerances. I've attached the current gerbers and Eagle files for any interested parties-- I don't think they'll change at this point.

-
Jordan Spencer Cunningham
teletype.net

On Sat, Mar 30, 2019, at 4:48 AM, Jordan Spencer Cunningham wrote:
> Hello friends,
> 
> I will be doing a manufacturing run of the USB <--> Current Loop boards after Eric Volpe's design <http://heepy.net/index.php/USB-teletype>, and I will be taking orders for anyone who wants one or multiple. Use these to interface your heavy metal machines to modern computers and exercise them more than they otherwise would be. See some machines in action with these boards at https://nerdology.org/youtube. Every teletype-related video there including the RTTY ones shows my machines being driven by these boards.
> 
> I should be able to ship the boards to you for no more than *$35-$40* per board, which covers the board, continental U.S. shipping, and any shipping/packing materials I need to invest in. I might be able to do it for less, but I will get things finalized and let you know.
> 
> *Please email me off list with the number of boards you'd like so I can gauge the overall interest and know if I should order more/fewer boards.* Even if you already emailed me before about this, please do so again just in case I lose your previous message from last year.
> 
> Let me answer a few questions people may have ahead of time; more details to come:
> 
>  * I'm outside the continental US-- can I make an order?
>    * Absolutely-- shipping will probably be higher, which I will deal with on an individual basis.
>  * When will the boards be ready?
>    * I'm hoping to ship by May, 2019. Maybe June if I'm slow.
>  * How will funds be collected?
>    * I'll probably set up an account with Stripe or Square to make it easier on myself, though I'm happy to take payment via PayPal or Google Wallet as well.
>  * Will [X] teletype work with this board?
>    * Any 5-bit machine running on a 20ma/60ma high voltage current loop should work. 300 baud should be easily attainable-- possibly much higher speeds.
>    * ASCII machines should work, too
>  * Is a power supply included?
>    * No. You'll need your own PSU with appropriate current limiting resistors to power the loop. I've used a prebuilt one from China that has served me very well driving multiple loops at once. There are other options, too.
>  * Will this work with [X] computer?
>    * I'd recommend investing in a Raspberry Pi to be your teletype controller, but any computer with a USB 2.0 or better interface should work, including but not limited to ones running Linux (any *nix, really), MacOS, and Windows.
>  * What software do I need to use it?
>    * Pretty much anything that can manipulate a serial interface. There are a number of options that should work, or you could roll your own. I will probably write up some details on the range of options when I get a chance. I have been rolling my own for a while-- it's not quite user-friendly enough that I'd want to release it yet, but I'm working on making it public.
> -
> Jordan Spencer Cunningham
> teletype.net
> 
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