IBM 3277 Display Terminals and Keyboards

emdude · 29 May 2016, 02:23

After seeing an interesting Craigslist find on the Mechanical Keyboards subreddit, I felt compelled to check my own local classifieds. I could not believe my luck when I found these three gems; a lot of IBM 3277 Display Terminals with accompanying Beam Spring keyboards. I am still reeling by how incredible this is, this certainly has to be my best find yet!

These initially belonged to someone who worked at some Chevron offices which were closed at some point and subsequently had housing built on the properties. After he passed, they fell under the ownership of his son, whom I purchased the terminals from.

According to Wikipedia, they are the original IBM 3270s, the IBM 3277 Display Terminal Model 2, circa 1972. They were "dumb" terminals that were designed to communicate with IBM mainframes. Please correct me if I am wrong, but they came with the earliest of IBM's Beam Spring keyboards. A working terminal from Wikipedia:

Sorry for the potato pictures! I am actually away and had arranged for the terminals' owner to drive up to my house and drop off the computers. I'll be returning in a few weeks and will spend some time cleaning up the terminals. More pictures to follow then!

Pictures of the keyboards:

Some other non-keyboard-related photos:

Spoiler:

Edit: Minor corrections

photekq · 29 May 2016, 02:27

Amazing find! Congratulations. Do you have plans for what you'll do with these beauties? Will you convert one of the keyboards for use with a modern PC?

If you ever decide you don't have a use for all 3, I'd love to give one a home

Invisius · 29 May 2016, 02:45

Wow, what a great find. Would be really cool if the terminals actually worked, they look to be in pretty decent shape inside even though the panel's missing. If you want to sell either of the terminals or keyboards, I'd be up for a new project too.

snuci · 29 May 2016, 03:19

Those terminals are awesome. I have been on the lookout for one of these for some time so congratulations on finding not only one but three of them! Very nice.

Abstractions · 29 May 2016, 03:24

Geat find, I can understand your enthusiasm!!! Like the others said, I am interested in a project too (though I live on the west coast, so I could bear the shipping).

emdude · 29 May 2016, 04:07

Thanks guys, I definitely plan to work on one of the keyboards! I am not quite sure what I'll do with the other terminals just yet, but I'd certainly like to give them all a good cleaning once I return in a few weeks.

Redmaus · 29 May 2016, 04:40

I would love to have one as well if possible.

Amazing find!

ramnes · 29 May 2016, 08:38

Well done! Post more pictures once cleaned.

Khers · 29 May 2016, 09:03

Wow! That's quite an amazing score! Congrats!

Halvar · 29 May 2016, 09:22

Congratulations, what a great discovery! If you ever try to sell them, I hope you find buyers who are interested in keeping a whole terminal and not just the keyboard.

emdude · 29 May 2016, 09:27

I hope so too! It would be a shame to have the keyboards part with their original machines!

ramnes · 29 May 2016, 09:30

emdude wrote: It would be a shame to have the keyboards part with their original machines!

Yeah, definitely! Those screens are so useless.

lot_lizard · 29 May 2016, 14:52

I would have been geeking out a bit walking up with the son to the storage locker (or whatever) to know you're about to see something pretty special. That's the fun stuff... amazing find, and can't wait to see how it all turns out. And TOTALLY agree, you can't split with those terminals. They are fantastic as well

livingspeedbump · 30 May 2016, 17:45

so insanely jealous. holy cow what a find.

alh84001 · 30 May 2016, 19:49

Yes, jealous. But in a good way

. Can't wait to see them cleaned and put to use. Is that rust on them or just plain old dirt?

emdude · 30 May 2016, 21:24

I think it's just dust and grime. The displays look like they have a spot or two of rust inside of them. But then again they have been sitting in a garage for a few decades. I'll just have to see for myself when I get back!

seebart · 30 May 2016, 23:35

As you know this is a MAJOR find emdude, we need pics for our wiki when you're ready. Really cool you have the whole terminals! Congrats!

emdude · 30 May 2016, 23:49

Oh certainly seebart, I'll definitely take tons of photos during the disassembly process. This is quite exciting, can't wait!

terrycherry · 31 May 2016, 05:53

Great action! Please keeping update. Could you take more keyboard?

andrewjoy · 31 May 2016, 10:16

Can the old IBM terminals be put in simple serial mode ? Or are they an IBM specific protocol

seebart · 31 May 2016, 10:21

I think terrycherry is asking for more pictures which emdude has already said he will take, this should be some piece of work emdude! Three of these, jeez! But you can be sure to make one perfect since you have all the spare parts you need. This will be a hihglight for many of us, take your time and make it right! I'm not sure if we have anyone here at DT who has experience with these terminals? Good luck. Being IBM they still have docs on file:

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgece ... rk_261.htm

Just gooogling these and found some pretty nice pics of the compact 3277, man I'd love to own that.

http://terminals.classiccmp.org/wiki/in ... 77_Model_1

pr0ximity · 31 May 2016, 13:04

Quite the find emdude! Congrats, looking forward to seeing them cleaned up in the hands of a proper owner

I really like that layout on the boards, quite a bit more ANSI-is than other beamsprings.

snuci · 31 May 2016, 13:11

andrewjoy wrote: Can the old IBM terminals be put in simple serial mode ? Or are they an IBM specific protocol

I don't believe so. IBM terminals like this use the TN3270 protocol that was pretty specific to IBM big iron. I did some work with TN3270 by "scrapping screens" as is mentioned in the Wiki article. I had written one of the first Web based higher education registration systems in C on Sun Microsystems hardware. It was quite a kludge but it worked.

emdude · 31 May 2016, 20:42

seebart wrote: I think terrycherry is asking for more pictures which emdude has already said he will take, this should be some piece of work emdude! Three of these, jeez! But you can be sure to make one perfect since you have all the spare parts you need. This will be a hihglight for many of us, take your time and make it right! I'm not sure if we have anyone here at DT who has experience with these terminals? Good luck. Being IBM they still have docs on file:

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgece ... rk_261.htm

Just gooogling these and found some pretty nice pics of the compact 3277, man I'd love to own that.

http://terminals.classiccmp.org/wiki/in ... 77_Model_1

Thanks for the link to those docs!

I am hoping all three boards will be in good enough condition that I won't have to sacrifice any of them. The compact 3277 looks pretty sweet, a space saving version of the keyboard, so to speak.

pr0ximity wrote: Quite the find emdude! Congrats, looking forward to seeing them cleaned up in the hands of a proper owner

I really like that layout on the boards, quite a bit more ANSI-is than other beamsprings.

Yeah, I was surprised by the layout myself, it looks quite usable for a beam spring!

emdude · 13 Jun 2016, 05:29

Okay, quick update, I have returned home and took some time to try out the 3277 keyboards. And wow, what an exquisite, fantastic feeling, I can definitely tell why people sing praise of beam spring keyboards!

I will try to post more photos of the keyboard and its internals later this week as I do a teardown..

y11971alex · 17 Oct 2016, 15:25

Any updates?

emdude · 17 Oct 2016, 17:13

y11971alex wrote: Any updates?

I made a separate post about the keyboard here.

y11971alex · 17 Oct 2016, 17:48

emdude wrote:
y11971alex wrote: Any updates?
I made a separate post about the keyboard here.

Ah, sorry. I had forgotten that I posted in it