[GreenKeys] Fwd: Re: FTGH Mite keyboard

[Ethan Blanton]

Duncan Brown wrote:
> Someone on the list acquired the M150 last summer. Did you ever get it
> working?

That was me.  It "works" in that it (usually) can send loopback to
itself when placed in local mode, but I have been unable to get any
RS-232 out of it.  I had to table it due to work, but I hope to get
back to it soon.

Its keyboard is mechanical.  It has code bars underneath the key
levers much like a Model 28.  When the keys are depressed, they engage
beveled surfaces on the code bars at each key lever position to push
the code bar left or right according to whether the bit in that
position should be a mark or a space.  The code bars are plastic.  I
do not immediately recall if I could see what the code bars engage to
encode the bits.  It is certainly not a similar style of keyboard to
the one that started this thread!

The printing mechanism is quite interesting, and has a tape that runs
between reels to move the print head mechanism back and forth across
the page.  There are solenoids that actuate opposing tension wheels to
shove the tape slightly right or left depending on the bit pattern
that has been decoded, placing the appropriate portion of the print
head at the printing position (behind the page, as I recall?).  This
lateral adjustment plus a rotation to one of six faces selects the
character, and a hammer strikes it onto the paper.  It seems like a
clever mechanism, but (at least in my unit) sometimes it gets bound
up.

I'll get it all photographed and documented at some point in the
hopefully not-far-distant future.  I have been unable to locate MITE
documentation (which I would desperately like to have, to figure out
how to get signals in and out of it!), although I do have a brochure
that I will scan and make available, as well, at some point.

As far as how long Mite was in business, I don't recall if I found any
specific date codes this is almost certainly a
1970s design.  It has substantial electronics on printed circuit
boards, including a modem with an audio coupler interface that accepts
a WE Model 500 handset.

I've attached a couple of photos.

Ethan
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