3174 Terminal Controller

[Dave McGuire]

On Jun 4, 2007, at 5:30 PM, Mr Ian Primus wrote:
> Well, this has been one of those ideas that has been
> at the back of my mind for a long time - I would like
> to interface one of these IBM terminals I have around
> the house to something. Anything. I was thinking about
> an emulated mainframe on Hercules or something.
>
> But the thing that brings this to the foreground in my
> thoughts is that today I had to troubleshoot a
> 3174-51R at a customer's site. This thing is
> connected, via a rather unusual cable, to a Cisco 2500
> series router, so that means the 25 pin connector on
> the back must be some form of X.25 or something like
> that. I know that the fellow at corestore.org has been
> able to get a real IBM terminal to telnet into an
> emulated system via a terminal controller with built
> in ethernet (although I have never seen one).
>
> Anyone done this before? What do I need to hunt for? I
> now have one piece of the puzzle that I was never able
> to find before - the manual for the 3174-51R. Now the
> terminal controller's operation can be deciphered.
> But, of course, I don't have the 3174.

   I'm working toward doing the same thing with my P/390.  I have a  
3174-61R with a token ring interface, but no Ethernet.  The other  
thing I lack is the firmware disk for the 3290 plasma terminal, which  
is what I'm trying to get running.  The 3174 downloads that into a  
3290 when it (the 3290) powers up.

   Anyway, your -51R can take a token ring interface if you can find  
one.  That might be easier than setting up a synchronous serial pipe  
to a Cisco.  At least you could get an Ethernet switch that can  
bridge to token ring...I might wind up going that route since my main  
switch here is a Cisco Catalyst 5000, for which token ring cards are  
dirt cheap.

   What sort of IBM terminals do you have?

             -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL