Stabilising our Interfaces - 1985

The RS232C must be meaning something but we did not really care for the elongated form. We wanted to see what the hell was it all about since the PCL 653 apparently had a parallel port and our machines did not. So RS232C was the answer. We were told that Serial Ports(RS232C) are better of than Parallel ports in some way or the other which I am sure could be taken with a pinch of salt given the application we were talking about, but we sincerely believed in what was being bull dozed into our minds and that was that.
I think it was SV Prasad and Santosh Das from R&D who had come down to give us the dope on this small additional box that would work as the middleware (pardon me, current computer folks) between the typewriter and the clients PC.

The best part is that worked and to our enjoyment we could see that Wordstar commands were producing printouts on the electronic typewriter. In some ways this was also a bit of a beginning to the end…but the end was to come years later!!

However my first sale of a RS232C Interface box along with a machine was not for a PC to be hooked up. I had gone for this demonstration to CMC where the local R&D whizkid wanted to see if we could connect our thingy to his PDP-100!! He also wanted to see whether he could use the ET as a terminal for both input and output and ….my eyes popped when this fellow was jumping up and down with joy when he was keying in a command and the printouts were coming out. I showed a demo on the 332 but he finally bought a 102.which was OK with me. You see a parallel port (PCL) could never work as a input system too…and that was a clincher!! I did not go back to check how were they utilizing our machine there…but looks like for the time being then,,,it was allright.

So then came up these orders for separate interface boxes as well as typewriters along with boxes, though I could assure you that Chacha(YKC) had a lot of heart burn with these interfaces later on in life!!

Then came another innovation from the same stable in terms of Voltage stabilizers. I know for sure that some of the pieces did destabilize the power supply but over and all it was quite a seller and that was the first time when YKC saw himself seriously as a profut center. That Service Contracts later on pulled the organization was a great achievement in any case…but the beginning was important.

So we puny sales people, at least were increasingly getting dependent on our engineers for repeat business and new leads. We were sending less time on prospecting and more time on converting and that for sure was a boon to the organization.

In the middle of this one day GP told me that I had to leave Hyderabad and settle down in Vizag to start the office there. All this while Rajkumar used to visit Vizag and apparently the top honchos thought that let us send this rookie to fend for himself. So my first trip was with Rajkumar in AC 2 Tier Compartment of Godavari Express from Sec’bad station. A biryani from Alpha and then the train started at about 9 PM in the night. Next day morning was the start of another eventful period. All about this trip and later in the next episode. Till then … ADIEU!!