Author Topic: Help identify: SMS gas plasma alphanumeric unit  (Read 579 times)

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Offline quarterturnTopic starter

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Help identify: SMS gas plasma alphanumeric unit
« on: December 18, 2019, 03:46:34 pm »
I acquired this a few years ago at a hamfest (see photos). It was built by Scientific Measurement Systems. I was told by the seller it was used to let a mainframe operator know which tape should be loaded on which drive. Anyone know what it actually is and how to interface it? The two connectors on the back are electrically linked - presumably to allow the displays to be chained. Of the six pins, two are ground and one is power. It seems to be OK with 12V. The connectors on the top seem like they'd be for lamps. They might be data inputs but it seems unlikely.

There's no CPU present on the cards. It appears to be all discrete logic doing whatever it does to the input and for multiplexing the display. I'm guessing the input must be something like synchronous serial due to the small number of pins. The rotary switches suggest it has a way of decoding its address.
 

Offline quarterturnTopic starter

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Re: Help identify: SMS gas plasma alphanumeric unit
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2019, 03:48:33 pm »
Here's a photo of the nameplate on the bottom.
 

Offline quarterturnTopic starter

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Re: Help identify: SMS gas plasma alphanumeric unit
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2019, 04:00:22 pm »
Oh wow... it intercepts some sort of IBM mainframe terminal/printer message: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=3792447.PN.&OS=PN/3792447&RS=PN/3792447

Yeah, it's probably going to be easier to just multiplex it myself via the existing HV driver board.
 


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