Any info on an ICOT ICOBUS 757-14????

[DistantStar001]

I recently got an Ico Icobus dumb terminal, model 757-14, and I know nothing about it! Even the All Mighty Google has pretty much failed me, as the only reference to it was a single ebay listing for the same unit (minus the keyboard) for more than $900. Somehow, I don't think they're going to get it.

In any case, Mine appears to be complete (if a little scuffed). The keyboard is a foam/foil, so the pads will need to be replaced. Also, the contacts on the PCB are exposed copper. So tarnish is an issue. Additionally, the screen has some burnin that isn't visible in the pictures. And that's it! That's all I know about this thing! Has anyone ever seen one before? Have a manual they can scan? Schematics? Know how to connect it to something?

 

[Chuck(G)]

Unless I miss my guess, it's a very dumb airline reservations terminal.
See:

https://imgur.com/a/6PEft

And https://sds.sabre.com/xtranet_access/glossary.htm

 

[DistantStar001]

Unless I miss my guess, it's a very dumb airline reservations terminal.

Interesting! And Thank you! However, mine lacks the American Airlines badge. Also there is another port on the back, for a "slave" something? The one on eBay has this port too, also it appears to have had a badge at one time as well:

757-14 ICOT TERMINAL, ICOBUS CRYSTALINK VIRTUAL TERMINAL SYSTEM | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 757-14 ICOT TERMINAL, ICOBUS CRYSTALINK VIRTUAL TERMINAL SYSTEM at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

I tried turning it on, and got the same "SYS UNAVAIL" screen as well. The good news is that the screen is clear and bright, So I don't think I'll replace it. I'm guessing that there would be little point, as extended use will probably lead the same burn pattern. However this is the first time I've had a green phosphor with screen burn. This also means that aside from the keyboard, the only repairs I need are cosmetic.

Anyway, any idea just how dumb this thing is? And what kind of software/hardware I'd need to connect to it? As it stands, I have a 25 to 9 pin serial cable and a few USB serial adapters. I also have two Apple //e's with SSI Cards and I believe my 5160 has a serial connection as well.

If I get the keyboard working, I'd like to see what I can do with it. Maybe put a small single board 8-bit computer in it that could run a simple version of BASIC, or emulate the original flight booking system. I also have a spare Raspberry Pi if that could work.

 

[DistantStar001]

OK! More good news. With a few exceptions, the keyboard seems to be working!

 

[Chuck(G)]

ICOT was involved in POS and other similar ventures, including airline reservations. Bitsavers has a bit on a 3270 protocol converter to attach to dumb async terminals. here.

ICOT purchased the POS division of Lexicon in 1987 and was bleeding cash fast. They sold off the important parts of the business to Verifone (still in business today).

I hope this gives you a better picture of what area of business ICOT was in.

 

[DistantStar001]

ICOT was involved in POS and other similar ventures, including airline reservations. Bitsavers has a bit on a 3270 protocol converter to attach to dumb async terminals. here.

ICOT purchased the POS division of Lexicon in 1987 and was bleeding cash fast. They sold off the important parts of the business to Verifone (still in business today).

I hope this gives you a better picture of what area of business ICOT was in.

Overall, yes. And much of this makes sense given the dates. Digging into my keyboard, all the date codes place the manufacture date at around 1985 (although the encoder was dated 84). So I'm not surprised by the applications this terminal would have been used for. Still, it doesn't tell me what the capabilities of this particular terminal are.

The information you posted on the 35X and 36X systems ICOT produced describes a system designed to interface with any number of third-party hardware (terminals and computers alike). This tells me that it likely used standardized connections. If true, then it likely means that the 757-14 Terminals, produced the same year as the posted publication, would likely share the same standardized connections to maintain compatibility.

I've never owned a dumb terminal before, so I'm not entirely sure how to use them. I've seen videos of people connecting them to Linux and Windows servers, and using them as command-line interfaces. I also know they were the principal user interfaces for mini-computers and large main-frames. And I know that some were restricted to proprietary hardware and software. And this is what I want to know about this terminal. Is it proprietary or generic? Can it be adapted to interface with a computer I already have? What do the people who still own these do with them? And more to the point, since my unit seems to be fully functional, what can they be used for now?

 

[tradde]

My bet would be proprietary due to the "SYS UNAVAIL" message. It's looking for a specific system to connect to. Most dumb terminals don't care. But I know nothing about this so may be totally off base too.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Heck, take it apart and suss the workings out. 80s terminals tend not to be overly complex.

 

[DistantStar001]

OK. So here's the logic board:

I have to be wrong about this, but there appears to be 256k of SRAM and a Fujitsu clone of an Intel 8088 processor, with an aditional 64k on the side. That's better than my Compaq Portable.

My guess is that whatever passes for an opperating system on this thing are located in tbe ePROM bank in the lower right of the picture.

There were two daughter boards I forgot to take pictures of, but I'll gett them as soon as I can. They were mounted in the lower left. One over the 8088, which plugged into the header and empty socket, and the other on the side of the cage and connected via two ribbon cables to the two rows of pinheaders on the bottom.

Interestingly, I do recognize tbe 6845 video chip from my Commodore PET. So I guess, maybe a mini PET could drive tbe CRT? I don't know... I'm still trying to figure out what I'm looking at.

 

[DistantStar001]

OK. Got the daughter boards.

 

[Chuck(G)]

It seems as if the forum software is clipping/reducing your main board shot to the point where I can't make out the part numbers. Can you host it somewhere and link to it?
The fact that a CRT is using (if you're right) an 8088 points to something other than a dumb terminal--and quite possibly proprietary software. But I can't say for sure until I can make out some of the fine details on the photo. I can make out a NEC 7201 MPSC, which is a strong indication that the interface to the terminal is sync, not async.

 

[DistantStar001]

It seems as if the forum software is clipping/reducing your main board shot to the point where I can't make out the part numbers. Can you host it somewhere and link to it?
The fact that a CRT is using (if you're right) an 8088 points to something other than a dumb terminal--and quite possibly proprietary software. But I can't say for sure until I can make out some of the fine details on the photo. I can make out a NEC 7201 MPSC, which is a strong indication that the interface to the terminal is sync, not async.

Sorry, my iPad is my camera, so the quality isn't the best. Here are some closer images of the board. The Part Numbers should be readable now.

 

[DistantStar001]

A better picture of the lower left of the board:

 

[Chuck(G)]

Thanks, the detail helps.
Here's what I see. The 8088 of course, and the 8259 interrupt controller and the 6845 CRTC. I see 16 2Kx8 SRAM chips in one corner, which puts 32KB memory, probably for program use by the 8088. There are 8 sockets for EPROM adjacent to the SRAM array. Below the EPROMs, I see 3 more 2Kx8 SRAMs (6KB) and a 2816 EEPROM just below those. (possibly for configuration setup?). Roughly adjacent to the 2816, there's a MB7118E bipolar PROM (256x8). In the area of the 8088, there's a 14.7456 MHz crystal, which is a bit different from the 14.318MHz on the PC, giving a clock of 4.9Mhz for the 8088. That small board has a TR1863 UART, nothing special.
Moving left, we see a NEC D7201 MPSC, which points to a synchronous connection of some sort. Below that is an 8253 timer and two 8251 USARTs. I suspect that the 8253 serves as a baud rate generator for the 8251--and quite likely for the D7201.
To the left, there's a DB25 connector, which is connected to an AM26LS31 and AM26LS33
differential line drivers/receivers. Aha--now we know what the D7201 is for--some sort of networking connection to that DB25--which is obviously not RS232C.
Moving left along the bottom edge, there's a DA9 connector and a bunch of TI 75150 dual line driver 8-pin packages and a 75154 quad line receiver. Could well be the RS232 connection on the DA9. That 20 pin header with two shunts on it is a mystery--could be configuration for the DA9?
I see three XCOs, but can't make out the frequency on any but one.

Moving up the board from the XCOs, there's a Harris HM76161-5 2Kx8 PROM. Moving right to the 6845 CRTC, we see two EPROMs, probably for character fonts and another 2Kx8 SRAM, which is probably used as a downloadable character font generator. To the right of the 6845, there's a small 24 pin EPROM (2716?), possibly another font ROM. Moving right, we see a Xicor X2212 256x4 NVRAM. More configuration data?

That's what I see. Bottom line, this is a terminal that has very specific interfaces and probably a fair amount of internal complexity. It'd take a fair amount of rework, I think, to be of general use. It would not surprise me to discover that this is a 3270 type terminal.

 

[DistantStar001]

Thanks, the detail helps.
Here's what I see. The 8088 of course, and the 8259 interrupt controller and the 6845 CRTC. I see 16 2Kx8 SRAM chips in one corner, which puts 32KB memory, probably for program use by the 8088. There are 8 sockets for EPROM adjacent to the SRAM array. Below the EPROMs, I see 3 more 2Kx8 SRAMs (6KB) and a 2816 EEPROM just below those. (possibly for configuration setup?). Roughly adjacent to the 2816, there's a MB7118E bipolar PROM (256x8). In the area of the 8088, there's a 14.7456 MHz crystal, which is a bit different from the 14.318MHz on the PC, giving a clock of 4.9Mhz for the 8088. That small board has a TR1863 UART, nothing special.
Moving left, we see a NEC D7201 MPSC, which points to a synchronous connection of some sort. Below that is an 8253 timer and two 8251 USARTs. I suspect that the 8253 serves as a baud rate generator for the 8251--and quite likely for the D7201.
To the left, there's a DB25 connector, which is connected to an AM26LS31 and AM26LS33
differential line drivers/receivers. Aha--now we know what the D7201 is for--some sort of networking connection to that DB25--which is obviously not RS232C.
Moving left along the bottom edge, there's a DA9 connector and a bunch of TI 75150 dual line driver 8-pin packages and a 75154 quad line receiver. Could well be the RS232 connection on the DA9. That 20 pin header with two shunts on it is a mystery--could be configuration for the DA9?
I see three XCOs, but can't make out the frequency on any but one.

Moving up the board from the XCOs, there's a Harris HM76161-5 2Kx8 PROM. Moving right to the 6845 CRTC, we see two EPROMs, probably for character fonts and another 2Kx8 SRAM, which is probably used as a downloadable character font generator. To the right of the 6845, there's a small 24 pin EPROM (2716?), possibly another font ROM. Moving right, we see a Xicor X2212 256x4 NVRAM. More configuration data?

That's what I see. Bottom line, this is a terminal that has very specific interfaces and probably a fair amount of internal complexity. It'd take a fair amount of rework, I think, to be of general use. It would not surprise me to discover that this is a 3270 type terminal.

Thanks for all this! It's unfortunate that this likely won't make for a good general use terminal, but it would still be nice to get it to work with something.

On that note, it seems I managed to stumbol into a options menue. I decided to try and figure out what the daughter boards do. So I tried removign them. The small board over the 8088 appears to be fro keyboard input. At least that's what I'm assuming since removing it disables all input form the keyboard. The second one that was attatched to the side of the cage proved more interesting. Detatching the two ribbon cables caused the terminal to boot into a "Line Mode." There were several menues



Obviously, I can't do much with it. At least not untill I can fully refurbish the keyboard. No "RESET" appearently means no exit from the menues. Still, it's something different.