USB Typewriter

[delish]

I'm glad that device convergence and device divergence are happening at the same time.

I've said this here before, but I cannot recommend highly enough Alphasmart's Neo. 700 hour battery life, sunlight readable display (!), made in America, no moving parts 'cept for the keyboard (i.e. durable), plug-and-play USB, thirty US bucks on eBay[0]. Check out the Dana for a bigger screen and Palm apps (!).

[0] ebay search for alphasmart: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m5...

[julian_t]

I've got an old Psion Series 5 that someone gave me... fantastic for taking notes, and one of the best keyboards I have ever encountered on a pocket-size device.

[sanoli]

I still use my Alphasmart Dana. I'd use the Neo, but they never released a model with a localized keyboard for my country. They used to do it with the previous models, so I have a model 2000 and a 3000 with portuguese keyboards. I still use the 3000 sometimes, but the keyboard on the Dana/Neo is just awesome to type on. Anyway, for a writer, the Neo is great. You take it on a trip and never have to worry about charging it. The keyboard is, like I said, one of the best you'll find, very durable (made for schoolchildren). Plus, not as ugly or as expensive as the Hemingwrite (man, that thing is ugly!)

[joshuapants]

Interesting. Way back when in one of my classes someone was using one of these to take notes. Now I know what it was, thanks.

[derekp7]

I had an idea once to hook up a solenoid with a weight attached to it to the inside of an old Model M keyboard, and have it activate on each keystroke. That way I can turn my all-to-quiet Model M into something that sounds like a good old fashioned Selectric typewriter.

[kevin_thibedeau]

Still would need a margin bell which, incidentally, the IBM Displaywriter provided along with more typewriter-like keys.

[endgame]

I emailed a typewriter-collecting friend who expressed concerns about the platen getting dirty or damaged with conversions like these. Is there a way to avoid that?

[arh68]

Darn, I was hoping this would be nearly the opposite invention.

Is there a USB teletype out there? I'm trying to imagine something that converts keystrokes over USB to ink-on-paper. Not a full-blown printer w/ PostScript, just inking one letter at a time, manual carriage return, etc.

[moron4hire]

Do you specifically want the swinging bar slamming the paper, or is it more about the sound? If it's just the sound, you might look into a daisy-wheel printer of some kind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_wheel_printing

Brother had a series of word processor machines that were basically DOS PCs with an extremely simple icon-based UI, an amber CRT (or later a B&W LCD), and a keyboard/printer housing that included a floppy disk drive. I bet you could hack one of the data buses on one of those things without too much effort.

[DanBC]

HN user Animats restores old teletype machines. Here's a writeup.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9084788

http://www.aetherltd.com/refurbishing15.html

[sitkack]

I had an idea for something like this, it would be like a daisywheel typewriter from the early 90s.

http://www.typewritersupply.com/brother_printwheel.JPG

But it might just be easier to use a parallel linkage, two small steppers and a 500 mw laser diode. Although not faster.

Not sure how much power a mems mirror could take, but it might speedup writing fancy glyphs.

[Vexs]

Hm. This might not be hard with modern digital typewriters, or at the least receipt printers. Electric typewriters have fairly standard keyboards, it wouldn't be too hard to put a transistor across the switches.

Now, mechanical typewriters.... that could be tricky. You'd need some heavy modification and some strong motors or solenoids.

[slayed0]

It sounds like you're describing a typewriter. Where does the difference lie?

[andrewfelix]

I had a similar idea, but utilizing a microphone instead that listened for the subtle tonal differences in each key strike.

To the naysayers: Typewriters have all sorts of appeal beyond visual aesthetics. Just because it doesn't appeal to you personally, does not make it a silly thing.

[crimsonalucard]

What kind of appeal does it have other then aesthetics?

[GhotiFish]

> but utilizing a microphone instead that listened for the subtle tonal differences in each key strike.

How accurate is that?

What if paper crinkles slighly, or a deformation in the roller doesn't keep the paper tight?

[AbraKdabra]

Taking the mechanical keyboards concept to a whole new level.

[RankingMember]

Can you imagine how muscular your fingers would get from using this as your primary work keyboard?

Or how quickly any coworkers within earshot would want to kill you?

[zyxley]

Coworkers? Don't be silly.

What you do is take it to a coffeeshop for typing on your iPad.

[6stringmerc]

Point one: Yes, a manual typewriter is an incredible workout and actually enhanced my finger strength for guitar playing by a noticeable margin. Also, accuracy is of supreme importance. As I'm fond of saying, "there's really no delete key on a typewriter" because while there is a way to white-out errors, there's a certain gratification in creating an full page of text without scars. Mmmm.

Point two: That's why I don't have a mechanical keyboard here at work, even though I want one. When rattling out words at 150 WPM or so, it would sound like a string of black cat firecrackers going off...I'd enjoy it immensely, but alas, it's not to be.

[teddyh]

Reminds me of this old thing: “The Guy I Almost Was” by Patrick Farley: http://electricsheepcomix.com/almostguy/

[spc476]

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3029144

[rootbear]

I've thought in the past of how I might turn my grandmother's Underwood No. 5 into a terminal. Now I can just get this! As for all of the hipster references, I'm don't know much about that subculture but I can say that an Underwood No. 5 computer terminal is Steampunk heaven. Just the thing for my Analytical Engine!

[stox]

We used to have devices to convert typewriters into output devices. I never thought about going in the other direction.

[Luyt]

I remember having a daisy-wheel printer at the office. It gave nice, crisp, typewritten and kerned output. Much better than the matrix printers. (This was before laser printers became commonplace).

[johntaitorg]

I went to the site, looked at its many impressive pages, went to Youtube and left a joke, came back to site, came to HN comments and finally clocked it wasn't all a sophisticated joke.

Big shout out to all the other Alphasmart people here though!

[TeMPOraL]

Damn it, someone already commercialized what was my idea for a personal gift... I even have a typewriter waiting for me to get around modding it...

But anyways. Cool execution of the conversion kit. I like that.

[yoanizer]

I don't understand how people would want to invest in this. But that's just me.

[dspillett]

Its a gimmick. A toy. A silly play thing. A nostalgia trip. Some or all the above. People spend more money on less useful things all the time!

> But that's just me.

Exactly. I'd not buy one or invest the tie into making one either, but I don't assume that because I don't like it nobody else will/should.

[moron4hire]

Enough people have wanted them that Jack had to raise his prices several times to try to lower demand enough that he could fulfill it himself. He actually only ever wanted to sell the kit, but people kept throwing money at him to make the full conversion that he couldn't say no. He told me once even he didn't understand why people would pay so much for the things.

[wbsun]

Ohhh, the good old days :)

[_b8r0]

For the hipster who thinks hemingwrite.com is too mainstream, perhaps?

[DanBC]

Some people just like typewriters.

I can find my typewriter, load an envelope, and type a name and address much faster than I can open the word processor and then print that name and address to a sticky label (or an envelope if I'm brave enough to risk a jammed printer).

I've been working on my hand-writing so it's not as important now as it used to be.

[moron4hire]

USB Typewriter predates Hemingwrite.com by a few years. Source: I know Jack Zylkin personally, sitting next to him at the same hackerspace while he built several of these for clients.

[Sanddancer]

Different people have likes and dislikes about how they turn ideas into paragraphs. For some, it's a visceral thing; keyboard feel sucks. For some, it's a ritual thing. Sitting down, setting everything up just right, and working. Workflow is, and should be, a personal thing.

[STRML]

The Hemingwrite looks just like the Alphasmart that delish posted above, just for 14x the price. What a bizarre product.

[vacri]

If they were going to look that plastic, they should have steered away from trying to be retro.

[ofcapl_]

with this gadget my hipster level will reach over 9000!

[datsun]

This is every hipster's dream