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A comment on The last generation of typewriter repairmen (2010).

Re:The last generation of typewriter repairmen (2010) by Multicomp on Friday April 23, 2021 @05:23PM (#26919355)
I have 3 manual typewriters (a cheap brother charger, Olivetti SV something, and a 1920s pain-in-the-neck to use), and 3 electronic typewriters (Brother ML something with single line display, IBM ActionWriter II, IBM Wheelwriter 2000). None of them have needed repairs, but when they do, I'm in trouble.

I constantly use the last one because its simple daisy wheel design and buckling spring keys that feel just like my IBM Model M keyboard (since the latter came from the former), but I have to admit it is a weighty, barely 'portable' typewriter.

One of these days I'm gonna make good on my threat to reverse engineer just enough of the PS2 protocol to mount a raspberry pi zero, some sort of small screen, and some rechargeable batteries inside the upper case margins of this keyboard so it can be a buckling-spring-powered Alphasmart with SD card.

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Re:The last generation of typewriter repairmen (2010) by zackbloom on Friday April 23, 2021 @05:28PM (#26919402)
There's a good video on how PS/2 works here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aXbh9VUB3U

It's pretty straight-forward. There are also pre-made kits for digitizing typewriters if that interests you.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The last generation of typewriter repairmen (2010) by Multicomp on Friday April 23, 2021 @08:06PM (#26920748)
Love me some Ben Eater videos. That's actually what made me realize that I've been thinking about doing this project long enough, and if he can build an entire breadboard computer, surely I can coax together a ps2-to-raspberrypi somehow :)

I will look into those kits, never heard of them before!

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Re:The last generation of typewriter repairmen (2010) by cocoafleck on Friday April 23, 2021 @11:30PM (#26922011)
Maybe I misunderstand your intentions, but PS/2 to USB converters are fairly standard devices from what I understand that are cheap, and available. No need for reverse engineering :)
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