[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV9_25N21eM]
Before we begin, let us soothe those first dreaded thoughts. No, the commodore was not destroyed in the process. They can simply clip the 16 wires they added to interface the keyboard and be back to stock. Breathe a sigh of relief, and enjoy the twypper, a twitter wall made from a commodore SQ1000.
[Alex] needed to make an interesting project for his companies Openspace/hack day. A friend, suggested a twitter wall, and that’s when [Alex] got the idea for a typewriter. After a quick search, he found oomlaut’s typewriter. They didn’t let that deter them from making their own version though. They found a nice fully functional commodore SQ1000 and began hacking. Ultimately they simply decided to use an Arduino to short the key switches to simulate typing. There are all kinds of details on the necessary steps to get the typing to function absolutely correct on the project page. Over all it was well done and we’re happy to see that it can be undone just as easily.
Glad to hear they didn’t ruin it!
I’ll try not to be overly negative, as this project seems to accomplish what it set out to do, but I’m having trouble seeing what differentiates this from the TwypeWriter and really sets it apart from the others.
TwypeWriter: typewriter controlled by arduino that essentially prints an rss feed as it is updated.
Twypper: commodore64 controlled by arduino that essentially prints an rss feed as it is updated. Webcam and projector used to show an image of the device and its output on a wall.
Very nice writeup on this project. Goes into a lot of specifics that are ignored on the other link.
Rube Goldberg move over. A wifi lappy bridging ethernet to a micro controller that reads a RSS feed and sends it to a typewriter which outputs a hardcopy which is recorded on a video camera which displays it on a wall. All that for inane twitter chatter.
Twitter is garbage. Nice hardware though.
This is pretty cool. I like the idea that it puts the tweet on paper with that neat clackity clack. I dunno about other geeks, but there’s a special place in my heart for things that make typewriter sounds, especially when linked to modern network stuff.
I don’t get the whole “TWITTER SUCKS LOL YOU SHOULD HATE IT TOO” posts on here… Why are you complaining about a simple, semi-hackable interface?
How hackish. I would have simply found a old teletype and simply echoed the text out a serial port to it from a linux box. I miss that old thing, it was how I got online back in the early 80’s… My upgrade to a Wyse 30 was amazing!!
@farthead
Funny you mention teletype, my dad has been hacking at one for a while and recently setup a script to have it print out all twitter messages his account receives.
http://twitter.com/iteletwit
Makes me think of fringe. Always love a old twist on new tech.
Waste. Of. Paper.
Someone finally brought the telex machine into the 21st century.
Twitter is some ways is much better than blogging. I love to Twitter my everyday activities on my friends and relatives.
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