[GreenKeys] Fwd: Re: FTGH Mite keyboard

Wed Nov 4 11:03:37 EST 2020

We had an MDS installation at our plant for timekeeping. I got to know the 
tech who serviced it. Our system had to be 'updated' every morning, a few 
minutes after the Midnight Shift punched in. The 'time clocks' talked directly 
to the MDS box in a locked room. Someone from Timekeeping would be 
there to 'zero out' the tape and put another tape in its place. Some messenger 
would take the tape to Dearborn where Ford had their World Headquarters, 
that saw to the printing of paychecks, etc. 

The keyboard went bad and had to be replaced. I asked the 'tech' what would 
become of it. (This was in the early years of the home computer developments) 
He said it would be scrapped as opposed to repaired. 

I asked him if my trunk could be the 'scrapping place'? He laughed and said "Yes". 
We met in the parking lot when he left and I got to take it home. 

It had four rows plus a few randomly placed keys and each key had TWO WIRES 
leading to a wide edge connector on a PC card. They were teflon insulated wires. 
All white and no ID. I rang out all the wires and put on some miniature adhesive 
numbers about 6 inches from the ends of the wires I unsoldered from that card. 
I made a chart cross-referencing the wire numbers to a particular keyswitch. 

This was before I had my IMSAI kit and later gave it to a friend who found a way 
to use it with his IMSAI. For reasons I never discovered, he removed all of the 
wires and started from scratch, connecting it to his MIO board for direct entry of 
'stuff '. He did not scrap the wire. He eventually gave it back to me. I still have 
about a dozen of them hanging over a pipe. I use one every few years, it seems. 

73, 

Ralph 

- - - - - - - - 

From: "Duncan Brown" <duncanancy at earthlink.net> 
To: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Wednesday, November 4, 2020 10:35:10 AM 
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Fwd: Re: FTGH Mite keyboard 

Nick, 

Your thoughts that the keyboard might be for a MDS data entry system 
makes some sense, except for the fact that this 3-row keyboard is 
definitely designed for 5-bit use! 

With the "HERE IS" button, it was probably going to be used in a 
TWX/TELEX system. 

Have fun, 

Duncan 
K2OEQ 

PS: I haven't been on RTTY recently because my TT-98 bound up and I have 
it all apart trying to see what the problem is. 

On 04-Nov-20 07:53, Nick England wrote: 
> Putting on my deerstalker cap - 
> The manufacturer was Colorado Instruments, which became part of Mohawk 
> Data Sciences in 1971, hence the MDS on the ID tag. Mohawk built data 
> entry systems to replace keypunches (e.g. key-to-tape). 
> I'll go out on a limb here and hypothesize that this "MITE" label 
> might mean something like Mohawk Integrated Tape Entry...... 
> 
> 
> Colorado evidently built custom keyboards for data entry systems 
> From an earlier industry directory 
> Colorado Instruments, Inc., Garden Office Center, 
> Broomfield, Colo. 80020 / 303-466-7333 / *C 65 
> Digital data acquisition systems (special purpose, 
> designed to meet customer requirements) 
> and computer data entry keyboards 
> (C-Dek) / S 25 / E 1961 
> 
> Colorado had several patents for keyboards - e.g. 
> https://patents.google.com/patent/US3751612A/en 
> 
> Nick England K4NYW 
> www.navy-radio.com <http://www.navy-radio.com> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Nov 3, 2020 at 11:13 PM Robert Nickels <ranickel at comcast.net 
> <mailto:ranickel at comcast.net>> wrote: 
> 
> On 11/3/2020 9:05 PM, Duncan Brown wrote: 
> > MITE was alive & making electronic portable terminals in the early 
> > 1970s. One was the "Model 150" and there were mentions of it in 
> > Computerworld in 1972-73. 
> 
> Sometime in the mid-70s we acquired a couple of MITE printers (RO 
> type) 
> from a source that a co-worker knew when they both worked at Courier 
> Terminal Systems in Phoenix. I think they used some kind of parallel 
> interface that was integrated with the terminal logic and turned 
> out to 
> be too much trouble to mess with for the purpose we had, which was 
> printing test results in the factory. All I remember is they were 
> squatty and HEAVY! 
> 
> Some good pics of the AN/UGC-41 here: 
> http://www.decadecounter.com/vta/articleview.php?item=128 
> 
> 73, Bob W9RAN 
> 
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