bbenchoff.github.io

Portable Dumb Terminal

A product design for a palmtop computer. Effectively, it’s a dumb terminal like a VT100.

The design is centered around a single PCB containing microcontroller logic, RS-232 output, USB-C, battery circuitry, and a keyboard and display interface.

A Microchip SAMD51 microcontroller controls every portion of the device. As no display driver or parser for an ANSI terminal existed, I built them. The NT35510 TFT library controls the display and is capable of displaying 80x24 characters on screen. The parser library

Combined with the silicone membrane keyboard and injection molded enclosure, the portable dumb terminal is a complete product for sysadmins, engineers, and the small market of vintage computing enthusiasts.

More information can be found in my Dumb Terminal repository.

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