Trevor Flowers has a tiny computing obsession. To be clear, it’s not the obsession that’s small — it’s the computers themselves, which Trevor painstaking recreates in miniature to look — and even function — just like their full-size counterparts.
Trevor’s work can be seen all over Mastodon, as well as in Mountain View’s Computer History Museum. But the lilliputian marvel that caught our eye was a 1/3 scale replica of the 1978 DEC VT100 computer terminal, complete with functional Teensy 4.1-powered keyboard! Thanks to Teensy’s USB HID (Human Interface Device) capabilities, the diminutive DEC’s typing apparatus can be used with any modern computer, although it is intended to be paired with an SBC, like the Raspberry Pi, which can be concealed in the terminal’s case. A 3.5″ 640×480 TFT display provides sufficient resolution to emulate the VT100’s 80×24 character mode.
A pager motor inside the keyboard provides haptic feedback to give users confidence that their keystrokes were recognized, and USB serial allows the LEDs to be controlled by the connected SBC. More information about the project can be found on Hackaday, and a wide range of tiny art machines, from TRS-80s to NeXT workstations to Cray 1 supercomputers, can be found on Trevor’s web site. If you don’t have space for a tiny retrocomputer on your desk, you can also support Trevor’s art on Patreon, or by commissioning your own custom piece!
