FOUND A 3278 TERMINAL ON EBAY AT REASONABLE PRICE
I saw a terminal being offered on eBay which appeared to be reasonably complete other than it lacked the keyboard. For most people, without the keyboard this is useless which accounted for the relatively low price.
The keyboards used with the 327x terminals is highly prized by keyboard pirates, people who buy these to adapt them as a PC keyboard because of the better feel of the keyboard. They will separate keyboards from their terminals since they have no interest in the terminal itself. This results in a terminal without keyboard that almost nobody could use.
As a result historical devices like the 3278 are turned into scrap. Even mainframes, for example the IBM 4381, which use a special version of the 3278 as its system console, are make unusable without a functioning 3278.
I made an offer which was accepted for the 3278, offered by a respected volume seller in Canada who packed it up and shipped it off using UPS. It was projected to arrive on September 9th, although there may be customs delays and I might have to pay some nominal duty for the package.
PLANNED TO BUILD A INTERFACE CIRCUIT TO USE 3178 KEYBOARD
I could not find any schematics for the 3278 itself, but felt there was a reasonable chance I could get this working. The other issue which kept most people from buying this was the lack of the keyboard.
I have found enough information that I should be able to generate the proper signals to the keyboard cable for the terminal to believe the physical keyboard is attached and works. I also have a spare keyboard for an IBM 3178 terminal.
I believe I can build a device that will connect to the 3278 keyboard connector and have the 3178 keyboard plug into it. I can transform keystrokes and modify the signals to make this work. There is a mismatch between the keys available on the 3278 and on the 3178 keyboard I own, but I can pick keys to sacrifice, mark them as the intended 3278 key, and map the codes to produce the 3278 keycode when my chose 3178 key is pressed.
LOST OR DUMPED IN A RAVINE BY UPS CANADA
I watched the package move from its origin in Alberta to a warehouse in Calgary early on September 3rd. The tracking system marked this as waiting in a secure facility for resolution or clearance. After four days with no movement, I called UPS who assured me that there was no missing information needed for it to continue movement; it was just waiting for customs processing.
September 9th came and went with no change in the tracking. The seller contacted me and said that UPS told him that he should file a loss claim as it appears the package has disappeared. He told me that he has had several packages heading from Canada to the US disappear the same way - he speculated it had something to do with the tariffs.
One can imagine a mountain of ignored packages while UPS Calgary avoids dealing with confusing tariffs. Since these are assessed by US Customs staff rather than UPS, there is no reason they should avoid passing this along to Customs.
There could be a mountain of ignored packages while US Customs in Calgary is totally overwhelmed.
There could even be scenarios where employees annoyed at US tariffs and recent political actions are dumping packages going to the US.
Finally it could just be plain incompetence.
In any case, with the claim being filed by the seller, even if they find it they will not send it onward as insurance would now own it. I will get my purchase cost back, according to the eBay seller, but the 3278 is lost not only to me but to anyone interested in restoring it.
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