Digital VT520

[DanielT]

Today a friend of mine made me a really nice surprise.



The old company where I used to work decided they don't need a lot of "garbage" so this beauty was in a pile on the way to be trashed. My friend knew I loved this little thing so he rescued it and brought it to me
The funny thing is that this is the exact same terminal I used years ago, it still has the display name I have configured :d If you look at my avatar you will know
I loved to use this terminal and I think I have configured a lot of servers using it even if I had a computer with a serial COM port.
Unfortunately the keyboard got lost or some idiot trashed it, who knows, but you can use a PS keyboard on this model. I think this is the last model produced, this one is dated 1998.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

It has 2 DB25 serial ports, printer port and the one looking like a telephone plug is an old RS432 MMJ if I'm not mistaken, and it was used for old Digital servers and HP TRU64 servers. I still have one cable for that, I have to dig it up

Spoiler:

I think I have also the manual for this beauty, have to find it.

[andrewjoy]

I need a serial terminal , i was looking at a wise one not long ago but i did not go for it.

I want to use it for my linux servers just so i can be old school

[DanielT]

Forget about Wyse, get the real McCoy - Digital VT
They're really awesome.

[Muirium]

Volker Craig made pretty sweet kit too.


http://deskthority.net/photos-f62/volke ... t7744.html

[andrewjoy]

it has to be green or orange phosphor for me need that vintage look.

As long as it will work as a virtual terminal for BSD and linux

[DanielT]

Found the VT510/520 manual and the MMJ serial cable

Spoiler:

I just ordered a RS232 to TTL converter and I'm going to hook up the VT to a Raspberry PI I just realized that I can use the SSK with the terminal

[andrewjoy]

You should sue a terminal Model F or a beam-spring for that retro feel . Can the Pi not do RS232 ? i was sure it could as some of the GPIO can be used for it ? Or is the terminal TTL ?

[DanielT]

Pi has TTL for the GPIO it's not RS232. I have a TTL cable for the Pi but it's USB

[andrewjoy]

ahh so you just need level converters, easy enough , and very cheap on eBay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAX3232-RS232 ... 1c52c10430

Having had to mess around with my router last night and find cables that reach my monitor and plugging a keyboard into it i need a terminal, a simple RS 232 cable would connect it to it easy enough , if i get one with multiple connections i can connect it to my nas as well if i need to do back end stuff, and ofcorse the pi that will be running my Uni-fi Controller if i can build it on ARM, need to get me one of them sweet AC access points, supports up to 4 networks PoE, Awesome! and a outdoor one for the garden

EDIT

Hmm may even try to build unifi on BSD then i can just run it on my router or on the NAS

[DanielT]

Yep, I bought today one just like that one in the link.
Uni-fi is a nifty piece of software, I have to read more about it. At this moment I can say I have a really complex datacenter at home:

Spoiler:

I have MGE 800VA UPS with network management card, a network managed power bar with 4 outlets, Cyclades TS400 console server with 4 ports, SUN Ultra10 workstation, Fujitsu external SCSI disk drive, SUN DDS4 external tape drive, DELL Optiplex 745 running my virtual machines, HP something for my NAS, raspberry pi with external USB SATA JBOD with 2 disks, a cheap switch (I have also a HP Procurve but the noise is unbearable ) I need to get something better. And now the VT520
I have a second Raspberry PI that acts as a gateway and VPN server, that one also sends SMS alerts in case something goes wrong at home ....

This is what happens when at work you do a shitty job, you star doing more interesting things at home

The rack is still work in progress, I have to change the wheels and add some cable managers for all those ugly cables.

[DanielT]

Oh, and I would love an IP KVM but those are so expensive.
I have also a spare Serial Server with one serial port, I don't need it so if someone is interested...shoot me a PM. It's a SENA PS110 http://pcmicro.com/sena/ps110/

[andrewjoy]

My rack is massively less impressive , it has a monster NAS with way more TB of storage that i will ever need running FreeNas as ZFG Guru is currently broken as all hell got almost 900MB/s out of it tho . A small mini ITX linux box for testing , a monster 2200VA USB ( that needs new batteries) and a HP printer, my router is currently mounted to the wall running pFsence, that is massive overkill as well who ever heard of a home route with 8 gig of ram and a 30GB SSD , mainly for web cache. My KVM is a simple affair , 4 USB ports and a VGA port and 4 outlets, its cool and all but i would prefer a console .

I also have a sunfire blade and a IBM x3655 but they use too much power, the x3655 is fired up when i need loads of power for a VM for testing or to throw up a game server for a bit as its got dual, 2 core xeons and 16 gig of ram . The idea of the sunfire was to make it the router ( as it has 4 ports ) but it uses too mutch power and is too loud.

I need a decent switch , i am replacing all the netgear in work with unifi switches soon so i will nab one of them .

UniFi is amazing we have 8 APs at the moment in work and they don't miss a beat, the switches are super good value for the money and when the security gateway is you know a working product i will replace pfsence in work with that for a full unifi solution.

At home i will have to settle for one AP and a crappy netgear switch. ( does anyone know if its possible to flash something better onto them ? and Pfsence is better at home IMO as i can use it for a monster web chase and to do all sorts of funky stuff . In works i want simple simple simple so when i am off my minions can handle it.

[andrewjoy]

Oh, and I would love an IP KVM but those are so expensive.
I have also a spare Serial Server with one serial port, I don't need it so if someone is interested...shoot me a PM. It's a SENA PS110 http://pcmicro.com/sena/ps110/

So its basically a serial to ethernet bridge ? How does that work ? give it an ip address and you connect to it via a console emulator and you get full console access ( not SSH)?

[DanielT]

You give it an IP address and basically you can connect any device to the serial port, like router, switch, modem, server and you can access the serial port via ethernet, I think this model supports only telnet but I might be wrong.
you do something like "telnet 192.168.1.201 7001" and you land at the serial port, it supports also extra authentication with user/pass . This is the way I have used it, but there are multiple uses, you can TCP enable a device that has only RS232 interface.
It's a nice thing for remote access to a router or switch console in case you fuck up
this is the full manual http://www.sena.com/download/manual/man ... v1.4.0.pdf , they don't cover all the features. It has also a basic web interface, snmp, mail and it's the size of king size cigarets package.

I have to fire it up to check for all the features, it's been sitting around since I've got the Cyclades.

It's also called a Serial Server, they are used also for POS and all kind of industrial applications.

[andrewjoy]

IBM series 1 on the internet ! Browsing deskthroity!

[DanielT]

IBM series 1 on the internet ! Browsing deskthroity!

I'm confused

[andrewjoy]

IBM series 1 on the internet ! Browsing deskthroity!

I'm confused

They have serial connections , use the converter to connect it to a lan and white a simple browser for it.

[DanielT]

Duh, I think I'm tired That would be cool
If someone is interested just let me know, it would be really cheap not the prices on eBay

[DanielT]

Just got the RS232-TTL converter, now I will be able to connect the VT520 to my Raspberry PI, just need to find some spare time to do it

Spoiler:

[andrewjoy]

awsome! cannot wait to see it. For me when i finally do get a terminal at least my NAS and firewall have RS232.

Can you get an RS232 switch so you can use the terminal like a KVM ?


EDIT

By the way i am interested in the RS232 to ethernet let me know the price

[DanielT]

Can you get an RS232 switch so you can use the terminal like a KVM ?

In theory this could work, for example with a Console Server, you hook-up the VT to the console and from there you can access each port. Some console servers support multiplexing on serial ports, this way you could get mutisession on a serial port VT520 can support up to 4 sessions. I have yet to test this with my Cyclades. It would be an interesting experiment.

[DanielT]

Finally I had the time to install the RS232-TTL adapter:

Spoiler:

And the nice console:

Spoiler:

It was a fun little project

[scottc]

Nice! That looks like lots of fun

[andrewjoy]

awsome!

Now you just need a green or amber picture tube so its easy on the eyes

[DanielT]

Thanks
I like it this way, I have a lot of memories tied to this VT, I have used it at my previous work place for over 6 years, and 12 years ago when I started to work with UNIX and stuff like that this is the first type of terminal I have ever used. So I'm very fond of it
It's really cool that I made it work with the raspberry Pi , I have to work on the serial cable a bit, need a gender changer for the DB9 connector, but I have already ordered it from eBay , I will have it next week, don't like using the 2 bulky DB9-DB25 to make it work. But it's nice, now I have console access