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Teletype Model 35 - Worth it?

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bsd64

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Aug 5, 2019
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This teletype has been available on e-bay for at least a month, and no one is bidding on it:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/226019320272

At some point, I want to get a teletype - and was thinking about the ASR33, but after watching curiousmarc repair his, I was a little worried about the amount of expertise that went into getting the rather fragile looking and complex 33 working. I might be better off waiting for one that is in known working condition.

As far as I know (which isn't much..) the model 35 is better constructed than the "popular" ASR33. So, I was just wondering why no one seems that interested in this teletype. Is it the price, or is it obviously broken or missing something? Maybe just the size and 'pick-up' only. Just wondering if there were any obvious red-flags.
 
Because it is a veritable monster in weight and size. It does have lots of configuration options and you can (reportedly) have great fun with figuring those out :->.

It's also the follow-on to the Model 32, being a Baudot machine. Not ASCII, like the Model 33. Baudot may not be on your wish-list?
 
Actually, if it is Baudot, it's particularly valuable because it's one of the very few (perhaps only) Baudot machines that can generate an @. (And, depending on the Baudot variant, perhaps several other characters not actually in the Baudot character set.)

It would also be rather interesting for the circuitry they'd be using to make a keyboard layout designed for ASCII (e.g., the 1-bit differences between all the number keys and their shifted punctuation characters) work for Baudot.

Oh, and all that's not counting Ctrl-K generating "VT," Ctrl-L generating "FORM," and the like! (Which rather combine the two points above.)
 
bsd64 said:
This teletype has been available on e-bay for at least a month, and no one is bidding on it:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/226019320272

At some point, I want to get a teletype - and was thinking about the ASR33, but after watching curiousmarc repair his, I was a little worried about the amount of expertise that went into getting the rather fragile looking and complex 33 working. I might be better off waiting for one that is in known working condition.

As far as I know (which isn't much..) the model 35 is better constructed than the "popular" ASR33. So, I was just wondering why no one seems that interested in this teletype. Is it the price, or is it obviously broken or missing something? Maybe just the size and 'pick-up' only. Just wondering if there were any obvious red-flags.
Click to expand...
I saw a Model 35 for the first time circa 1974. I thought "What a boat anchor!" compared to the svelte (in relative terms) Model 33. The staff at the computer center I was visiting pretty much universally felt the same way.

However, even then I knew there were better printing terminals out there. When I got to manage my own computer center in 1976, one of the first things I did was not renew our Model 33 leases with RCA Service Co. as they came to term. Instead, I bought LA36 DECwriter II terminals. Unfortunately, until I had a whole set of 4, the LA36 units had to run at 110 baud because the 4-port multiplexors had only a single baud rate selection for all four ports. So the LA36 were marked as "fast" and "slow" units until all the Model 33s were gone. I put keycap blocks under the baud rate switches so the wrong baud rate couldn't be selected.

By the time the LA120 came out, most of our users preferred video terminals. The LA120s were mostly used as system consoles because DEC support at the time required hardcopy consoles.
 
I have a 33 and I can assure you it has not needed another overhaul since the last I one I did in 2013. Unless you plan to use your 33 as per what Teletype expected (2 hours a day, 3 days a week) you shouldn't need to be digging into a 33 too often to perform adjustments or maintenance.

35's are nice but they're massive. These are the kind of things you put in the living room or spare bedroom and you don't move them.
 
bsd64 said:
This teletype has been available on e-bay for at least a month, and no one is bidding on it:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/226019320272

At some point, I want to get a teletype - and was thinking about the ASR33, but after watching curiousmarc repair his, I was a little worried about the amount of expertise that went into getting the rather fragile looking and complex 33 working. I might be better off waiting for one that is in known working condition.

As far as I know (which isn't much..) the model 35 is better constructed than the "popular" ASR33. So, I was just wondering why no one seems that interested in this teletype. Is it the price, or is it obviously broken or missing something? Maybe just the size and 'pick-up' only. Just wondering if there were any obvious red-flags.
Click to expand...
Ok so a few things. Its not working. Description says "This machine is not tested, as is." its not even clear if its complete.
I feel the model 33 is simpler. This thing has a type block which needs moving up and across. Mechanism looks horrid. 33 has cylinder. Turn and lift.
Lots of folks have 33's so you can get help fixing them.
Its huge.....
... its over priced. I would say $250 might be nearer the mark....
 
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The 35 KSR is about half the size of the ASR. It's still considerably heavier than the 33.
 
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