[GreenKeys] 232 COM port to TTY - Mighty-Mite to the rescue!

[Bob McConnell]

Randy or Sherry Guttery wrote:
> Duncan M. Brown wrote:
>> You can drive a AN/TGC-14 (TT-297, -298, -299) and probably the UGC-38,
>> -40, -41 series "Mighty-Mites" all most directly from a computer's COM
>> port; only one component is required!
> 
> Keep this up and you're going to give "big iron" a bad name! ;-)
> 
> I've always been intrigued with the Mites since I first saw one in 
> Norfolk, VA in 1971.  I was looking for a 28, and heard about some guy 
> who ran a communications shop in Norfolk who had some tty gear. He 
> didn't have any 28s - but did have a couple of Mites, I was impressed 
> with how small they were - and that "tuck away" keyboard was just super 
> slick. Of course he wouldn't part with any of his, and it was a couple 
> of years until I found my first 28.  Which was just as well - don't ask 
> me how the heck I planned to move the thing as I moved five times during 
> that time - and only had "military assistance" moving on the last one... 
> a Mite would have been far more practical. But in the early 70s they 
> just weren't that common (in civilian hands).
> 
> Never seen one "available" since... it's "second" on my wish list anyway 
> (a Klein TT-179 or it's sibling being first).
> 
> Good info to know, though - a lot easier to carry to the computer than 
> the 28!

You know, I never did find the "Made by Mattel" label on any of those 
things. But that's what I always thought about them. A few were 
installed on my destroyer (NFIT) during the last overhaul I was involved 
with. I was glad I didn't have to repair them.

I believe the last production runs were bought out by a startup that 
later became Black Box Corp. They wrapped a black plastic clam shell 
case around them with a parallel TTL interface/ASCII translator board in 
the base and sold them as Black Box Printers. A lot of guys with Z80 and 
8085 computers bought them up as computer peripherals. It was pretty 
easy to use them with CP/M and other early 8-bit systems.

Bob McConnell
N2SPP