Teardown: Olivetti ET-110 typewriter

[Fezder]

Hey all, i noticed this typewriter at flea market for 2€, lable said also condition=? (untested) so i thought, what the hell, its only 2€, there's gotta be something of value in there, and I'm too curious to pass this cind of opportunity to pass. when i got home, no fellas, sorry to disappoint you but i couldn't resist to turn it on first before breaking her apart. Well it turned on ok, BUT surprise, ERROR light lit up after initiation checkup. Hmm, wonder what's problem. I opened it up, and found pencil head that obstructed writers horizontal movement. now it worked like charm, followed even my typos....and it wouldn't type when ''machine'' room was opened, i noticed small micro switch. Nice!. and, as you can see from pictures, well at least i'm surprised how much logic and stuff is/was inside this ''beast''. considering all these components, there was also couple stepper motors too, quite big actually, this was indeed worth 2€, without forgetting educational purpose too . but, that's all chit-chat for now, please comment, in positive or negative way, roses have spikes if you know what i mean

[ddavidebor]

the old time when italian electronic was something...

[PA0PBZ]

I wonder why it has a battery backup, can't imagine it has a text memory without a display, so just for margin and pitch setting?

[ivan747]

I got something like this. Smith Corona brand. Too bad it uses torx screws and I can't undo them because I haven't got anything that fits. I also have a more mechanical Brother typewriter. It's electric, not electronic. Basically it consists of an AC motor that aids you when you press the keys so you don't have to press very hard. I really like the feeling of typing on it. I also have a manual Royal Quiet de Luxe. All of these were found in my grandma's storage. My grandfather was a diplomat so I assume he did use these a lot.

I even got the ink ribbons for all of them. If you are interested in taking apart any of these (except the Royal) please do tell.

[GeoffS]

Brings back a few memories of working for Olivetti in the mid 80s.
They were big in standalone WP systems, with and without an attached screen. They also made a lot of banking equipment and point of sale stuff.
The design and electronics were beautiful unlike the software.
I found the same with Honeywell Bull when we had UNIX systems from French and Italian factories. The Italian machines were designed for service and you could any single part with a one tool but the French ones required not only specialised tools but the necessity to dismantle the whole server just to get at one small part. The French software was solid whereas the Italian stuff ...

[Fezder]

the old time when italian electronic was something...

yeah, i'we heard the same thing. all italian stuff nowadays is like curse, i dont know about else, but in dishwashers, they break pretty easily. at least when i was working on local household machines service, almost every time something broke up, it had ''made-in-italy'' stamp on it .

[Fezder]

I wonder why it has a battery backup, can't imagine it has a text memory without a display, so just for margin and pitch setting?

yeah, i wondered the same thing, but, i noticed it did keep margin/pitch setting as setted in previous use. surpisingly well, batteries are leaked 1.2v in series, i mesaured them and they showed 2.4v, so not that badly leaked.

[ddavidebor]

the old time when italian electronic was something...

yeah, i'we heard the same thing. all italian stuff nowadays is like curse, i dont know about else, but in dishwashers, they break pretty easily. at least when i was working on local household machines service, almost every time something broke up, it had ''made-in-italy'' stamp on it .

Nooooooo i'm not speaking about electronic product.

I'm speaking about electronic industry...

[Fezder]

oops, my bad .

[amyk]

CPU appears to be an NEC Z80 clone. I think I see a Mostek MK3882 CTC, HM6116 2KB SRAM, a mask/OTP ROM of some sort, and an EPROM.

If you're thinking of project ideas, you could turn it into a dumb terminal.

[Fezder]

CPU appears to be an NEC Z80 clone. I think I see a Mostek MK3882 CTC, HM6116 2KB SRAM, a mask/OTP ROM of some sort, and an EPROM.

If you're thinking of project ideas, you could turn it into a dumb terminal.

hmm, yes you saw right from the photo. too bad thought, i havent done anything with any cind of ROMs whatsoever programming, only 40 and 74 series analog ones. dumb terminal? could you tell more?

[free_electron]

This is pretty old...
I see chips with the old SGS logo, chips with the thomson logo ( the regulator chip has the thomson star on it ). And mostek....

All that stuff is now STmicroelectronics.

The big pentawatt packages are probably l268's or l6204's...

[Fezder]

This is pretty old...
I see chips with the old SGS logo, chips with the thomson logo ( the regulator chip has the thomson star on it ). And mostek....

All that stuff is now STmicroelectronics.

The big pentawatt packages are probably l268's or l6204's...

Yes pentwatt ones, (i presume those at heatsink?) are indeed L268's

[free_electron]

Correct. The pnes on the heatsink. Actually pentawatt refers to a 5 pin to220 like the tda2003, l200 etc... There is a heptawatt as well , that has 7 pins. Some national semi switchers are in that package. When they widened up the package to accomodate for even more pins they simply kept the pentawatt name to designate a vertical, heatsink tab package resembling a to220.

[Fezder]

hmm, interesting . i mean it .