Got IBM 5251 display terminal

soviet9922 · 11 Jan 2018, 04:05

Hi guys got this nice ibm 5251 terminal, including the keyboard.
See some videos on youtube that says that this keyboard is the best ever so i'm thinking on purchasing the xwhatsis adapter on ebay.
This really deserve the trouble ?

Histogram · 11 Jan 2018, 04:12

Yes absolutely worth it or if your not feeling it I would gladly take it if your hands. I’ve been looking for one for a while but they are thin on the ground.

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FXT · 11 Jan 2018, 05:10

Wow, excellent find. Make sure to get the xwhatsit with the solenoid driver.

__red__ · 11 Jan 2018, 05:39

You should test the terminal functionality before you butcher it. A full working 5251 terminal goes for four figures.

seebart · 11 Jan 2018, 07:43

soviet9922 wrote: This really deserve the trouble ?

YES !

Thanks for sharing.

soviet9922 wrote: See some videos on youtube that says that this keyboard is the best ever so i'm thinking on purchasing the xwhatsis adapter on ebay.

That's relative, I'd spend some time here instead of retardotube and find out.

Cattus_D · 11 Jan 2018, 09:10

Wow, what a great find! Best of luck - I hope that you do restore it!

OldIsNew · 11 Jan 2018, 14:11

Nice! Looks to be in good shape too - doesn't look all rusted up like a lot of these boards seem to be!

vometia · 12 Jan 2018, 11:54

Interesting terminal, one of the first I used. I don't recall too much about the keyboard after all this time other than its "clunker", I mostly remember the terminal for its weight: two of us could barely move the thing!

DustGod · 12 Jan 2018, 14:15

soviet9922 wrote: See some videos on youtube that says that this keyboard is the best ever so i'm thinking on purchasing the xwhatsis adapter on ebay.
This really deserve the trouble ?

Well, you have the luck to have one on hand so... You can try it and decide if it's worth it.
(The conversion is very easy.)

I can't spell.

soviet9922 · 12 Jan 2018, 22:07

The switches seem to be clean at least they don't feel scratchy, the terminal weith a ton hauling it to my hause was a pain.
Tried to reanimate the terminal but seem to be death maybe i will repurpuse it as some kind of fallout temed terminal

, im currently testing to hook the monitor inside the terminal to a vga video card using an adapter i build.

Already ordered the xwhatis adapter going to try this beast.

vometia · 12 Jan 2018, 23:21

I'm not totally sure how useful it would be as a terminal: it's one of those IBM twinax things, isn't it? I don't even recall exactly what ours was connected to, maybe an IBM System/38 or something like that. I vaguely recall something that looked like a chest freezer which was probably the beast in question. And yeah, don't try to pick it up by yourself, you probably won't be doing it a second time.

I always thought the ADM3a terminals we used at college seemed the closest to the Fallout world, especially with those classic DEC systems at the other end.