Model ASR33 Teletype
Model ASR33 Teletype
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A friend of mine has an excellent condition Teletype Model 33 ASR that I've built an 110 baud 7-bit current loop adapter with an auto-on power relay. We've used it to read paper tapes and as a serial console for a Raspberry Pi. The bit encoding and timing is purely mechanical with a rotor very reminscent of the forty year older Model 15 Teletype.
Overview
The Teletype Model 33 is an electromechanical teleprinter designed for light-duty office. It is less rugged and less expensive than earlier Teletype machines. The Teletype Corporation introduced the Model 33 as a commercial product in 1963 after being originally designed for the US Navy. There are three versions of the Model 33:
*the Model 33 ASR, (**A**utomatic **S**end and **R**eceive), which has a built in 8-level punched tape reader and tape punch;
*the Model 33 KSR (**K**eyboard **S**end and **R**eceive), which lacks the paper tape reader and punch; *the Model 33 RO (**R**eceive **O**nly) which has neither a keyboard nor a reader/punch.
The Model 33 was one of the first products to employ the then new ASCII code. A companion Model 32 used the more established five-level Baudot code. Because of its low price and ASCII-compatibility, the Model 33 was widely used with early minicomputers.
Print head
Selector bars
Very similar to the design of the Model 15 teletype.
Paper tape reader
The paper tape punch is visible in the background.
Teletype Retrocomputing Raspberry Pi Papertape 2013