Finished assembly of the IBM 1130 Console Printer (1053) emulator box

COMPLETION OF BUILD OF IBM 1130 CONSOLE PRINTER (1053) EMULATOR

I soldered the signal wires between the second SMS Paddle Card junction PCB and the Arduino. Four output wires run to the relay module,  which switches power from a third SMS Paddle card delivering 48V and 12V power from the 1130.

My initial connections to the Arduino used wires soldered onto header strips but it was too hard to control shorting side to side since the arduino has a double row of sockets. I then picked up a shield that plugs onto the Arduino and provides screw terminals for all the connectors. This gave me a more secure and reliable interconnect.

Given the tight quarters inside the box, I had to do a trial fit of the six PCBs (relay module, two junction boards, display board, BCD/LED converter and Arduino) to select the locations to mount everything. The display board and its converter mount on the inside of the top (face) plate, of course, stacked on standoffs.

Board stack for 7 segment displays and BCD decoders

The other four had to be arranged around the bottom in convenient locations and installed on standoffs from the bottom of the box. I needed a trip to Anchor Electronics to pick up the mounting hardware before I could wrap things up. I probed each SMS paddle connector and verified its destination inside the box. 

Boards installed and wired up inside the box

Before the final close of the box I plugged it into a PC and fired up PuTTY to check out some functions. The five pushbuttons on the faceplate and the digital display were easy to check. I also did some tests using jumpers on the paddle cards to trigger various 1130 signal inputs - actually using spare sockets I own into which I plugged the paddle cards.

Box closed up but not yet labeled

I was able to fire print cycles (printing .), line feeds, plus exercise the front panel buttons. I will need to wire this up to sockets to be able to present valid combinations of inputs for the other characters - only certain combinations of T1, T2, R1, R2, R2A and R5 are valid and my logic tosses away invalid codes. Perhaps I will do this on the weekend.

I will do some cosmetic improvement of the placement of the buttons on the faceplate - widening the hole and gluing them down to make them align better. Labeling of the button functions using my label transfer technology will complete the cosmetics of the unit. This work will occur at a future date.