Olivetti/Programma 101/Revive/LetterSandroGraciotti 20120709 2127

Olivetti Programma 101

Dear mr Naur,

let me first congratulate you for your achievements on the P101 programming; by the way at the same time you were challenging your classmates on computer programming, our boys in italy were studying greek and latin: that may have some relationship to Italy's present economical problems.

As far as the 101 is concerned we have brought back to working conditions several P101 in the museum workshop but we have never attempted a remote assistance. We do have some documentation of the 101: a functional description, schematics, connectors etc.; all this stuff is the result of a reverse engineering effort of a member of the museum group, whose authorization will be required for providing you with said documentation.

During summer the museum lab is closed so any activity may begin only in september/october. Unfortunately we do not have a step by step guide on how to open and work on the 101, also because the museum staff includes the electronis and the mechanical designers of the 101 (mr Garziera and mr Perotti). Our experience so far tells us that in all cases it is necessary to replace most of the transmission belts (the P101 has a significant mechanical structure): some are "o rings" and some are belts with a non standard step. A second problem likely present is the the old grease locking the keyboard mechanism, trying to dismantle the keyboard mechanism should NOT be attempted, cleaning with alcohol usually works. The keyboard encoding microswitches (they are on the bottom of the keyboard) are another sore point creating a lot of problems. The electronics is usually the smaller of the problems.

I believe that, starting late September, we may try to provide you with some assistance utilizing e-mail and/or skype for showing you how to proceed.

That is all for now on my side, let me know if I can be of help keeping in mind that I do not have access to the museum and the documentation for the next two/three months.

Best regards, Sandro Graciotti