Despite not having one, you got the full mechanic’s creeper experience right out of the gate.

This brings back some happy memories of playing hang man and lunar lander on an old DECwriter 2 back in high school.   That was in the 70's and the start of my carrier in computers, a career that served me well and has led to a continued interest in retro computers even now.  Thanks so much for this little walk down memory lane.

"Modem control" is exactly what it says on the tin. It's the extra lines that modems need, that other RS-232 devices (e.g. terminals, printers, etc.) don't. The two that occur to me right off the bat are RI (ring indicator) and CD/DCD (carrier detect). There may be others.

300 Baud is luxury! I still remember how it felt when we upgraded from 110 Baud!

Brings back memories of early BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) over 300 baud / 300 baud. Also remember using Viewdata systems like Prestel in the UK over 1200 recv baud/75 tx baud, where I could type faster than I could send at only 75 baud over a dialup modem, or worse an accoustic coupler.

1:22 my high school shop class had those stools

I really happy to see you so giddy to get it working but Murphy's law says something's going to break I just hope you can record it so that we can see it

The Patreon list on this would be wonderful to see

Man, I havent seen one of those grey stools since High school...

I hope I am laughing with you but this is probably the funniest videos that you have made.

Around 45 years ago (iirc) I had a DecWriter LA120 with a DataSouth speed-up interface, an A4-sized PCB that fitted on the back of the vanity panel.
I got through a LOT of boxes of wide fan-fold paper doing 6502 development work with that driven by an Apple ][.  Happy days!

When you have to use a creeper to work on a computer peripheral. The good old days! 😅

Chair Desk Returns!

Fascinating video overall. 🤘

You should put the old cable in the writer, a lot of room in there, then you don't lose it and you have a spare of an unobtainable connector.

300 baud.  That's bringing back some memories.

Current loop is not older than RS232, it's actually 2 years younger.  RS232 has limitations as to how long the cabling can be.  Generally about 50-100 feet.  Current loop, however, can work up to 2,000 feet easily for the 20 mA version.  Higher currents can work even further.  It also has much better noise immunity and lends itself to easy isolation via opto-couplers, which are generally used in most implementations.

I always find it fascinating how you find the most obscure items for vintage tech on eBay. What are the odds the exact cable you needed would appear after all these years, in new condition no less!?

Nice to have the official kit, although rather surprised you didn't knock together a RS232 to current loop converter.
As for 'modem control features', that'll be being able to control RTS and DTR RS232 lines - these being originally intended to control a modem, not for serial flow control etc. that they get used for these days.

Push the DEC label clear to the other end up underneath for better protection.

Neato.