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A USB Typewriter?

Posted by Cliff on from the reinventing-the-printer dept.

jashmenn asks: "In my search for a furthering of the arts combined with technology I recently had the idea of hooking up an electronic typewriter to my USB port. The idea is to eventually write a script that would automatically send the text of emails to be typed on the typewriter. Does Slashdot have know of resources I can use for combining new and old school technologies such as these?"

8 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. You want to use your parallel port by CAPSLOCK2000 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I've got an old electric typewriter that has a parallel port. It works just like a regular printer (text only). Seems like that's what you need. But if you're just doing this for fun, be my guest and hack up an USB connection yourself.

    1. Re:You want to use your parallel port by bhtooefr · · Score: 3, Informative

      Or, go the ridiculously easy route and get a USB to parallel adaptor.

  2. Why not use an old RS232 Teletype by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 3, Informative

    connected to a serial->USB converter?

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    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  3. Late model typewriters did this by Naikrovek · · Score: 4, Informative

    I remember in High School (1991) using typewriters that had a serial (maybe parallel) port on the back. you could hook them up to a PC and use it as an output device.

    Try looking for typewriters like this, the work is already done for you.

    If you're wanting an OLD 100% mechanical typewriter, ebay has those too. You'll need to create some USB trickery that accepts serial data and decodes it into individual characters. then sends a signal down a wire associated with the appropriate character, which you amplify and activate solonoids with. solonoids are about the only thing strong enough to fully stroke a mechanical typewriter key with any speed.

    Disclaimer: I have no idea how you'd do this.

  4. Re:Printer? by harrkev · · Score: 3, Informative

    You should get a microcontroller. Those suckers are tiny microprocessors with boatload of I/O. Most have some sort of A/D, too.

    You can program the microcontroller to read off all of its input port, and dump the data to a serial port. Then, you just have to make Linux open up a serial port and watch the data pour in.

    You could also use the microcontroller to drive things, too. Have the PC send serial data, and the microcontroller acts on it.

    Microchip makes some ones that are good for beginners, just add assembly or C. Parallax makes some that are programmed in BASIC. Fun stuff!

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  5. Re:I had one of these!!! by Muad'Dave · · Score: 2, Informative
    Not to reply to myself 8-), but check out this article. An excerpt:
    The more clever (IMHO) mod was to attach seven solenoids to the Selectric between the keyboard encoding mechanism and the print mechanism, to directly control the tilt and rotate. And two more for the carriage return and paper advance. This has the advantage that you can still use it as a typewriter without having to attach and remove the solenoid box, and it's potentially less expensive since it takes nowhere near as many solenoids. I seem to recall that Don Lancaster wrote a do-it-yourself article about this approach.
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    Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
  6. Re:Printer? by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Informative

    Circuit Cellar magazine is probably a good place to start for projects and ideas. Over the years, they've had quite a number of projects in that area ranging from the simple to the complex, and they probably have archive CDs fairly cheap.

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  7. Re:Printer? by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Informative

    Wups! Who put that extra dot there?

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    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.