[GreenKeys] My Model 33 ASR

[Rob Jarratt]

That is some perserverance! Nice work!

Regards

Rob

> -----Original Message-----
> From: greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net <greenkeys-
> bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Troy Peterson via GreenKeys
> Sent: 08 July 2022 12:07
> To: Greenkeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: [GreenKeys] My Model 33 ASR
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> I was ready to declare my 33 ASR project finished.... But alas it seems owning
> one of these beasts is a never ending project.... In any case, I obtained my
> unit in a partially disassembled state back in January.  As a vintage computer
> enthusiast I had wanted an ASR-33 for a very long time... this one came from
> someone in a Facebook group who himself had obtained it from an estate
> sale of a ham. He said it was completely in pieces when he received it with
> the keyboard totally apart. He tried to re-assemble it as best as he could but
> wasn't able to get the keyboard to actually move... The rest of the machine
> was very dirty and seized
> 
> and the case had a lot of cracks in it.. Sadly I didn't really take too many
> 'before' pictures to show..
> 
> Upon receiving it and tearing it down I discovered that the master reset bar
> was missing from the keyboard...  Fortunately the previous owner had a look
> around his shop and was able to find it and mail it to me... But advice from
> this list was that was a major issue and may be almost un-fixable.... However,
> with a lot of help (and a spar non-working keyboard to use as a reference)
> from Wayne I was able to get it back together with all of the springs
> intact...  Then I discovered that the code-bars were in the wrong order...  But
> I eventually go that sorted. I cleaned and polished every key, and hosed
> down the inside of the machine with distilled water to remove the congealed
> grease... re-oiled it, fixed the motor fuse, a blown power resistor and broken
> trace on one of the pc boards and various other bits... Got a new hammer
> from Rob Jarratt, an aluminium faceplate from David Tuney, and a whole
> bunch of other odds and ends from Wayne... and it's all done and working,
> including both remote and local mode. Here's a video of a file being sent
> from my computer over an RS-232 to current loop converter.
> 
> https://youtube.com/shorts/kib_07AqcEk
> 
> A huge thankyou to eveyone on this list for all the help with this project! You
> are an amazing community.
> 
> There is just one thing... After moving it from my shop to my desk now the
> current loop connection is only receiving data from the computer and not
> sending.. I suspect a wire has simply come loose..  And I don't think my tape
> punch is properly aligned with the case still as the plastic buttons don't quite
> hit the right places on the real metal buttons.... and I've now lost the
> "Release" plastic button into the inside of the case.... and also now it seems
> my tape punch is no longer punching the sprocket hole... It was working
> perfectly fine before I moved it the 15 paces from my shop to my office and
> now it isn't... I
> 
> need to open it up again and resolve all these issues again...... I guess this
> sort of thing is par for the course with one of these.
> 
> Cheers,
> Troy.
>