20 Sep
2004
20 Sep
'04
10:18 a.m.
On Mon, 2004-09-20 at 05:40 +0100, Tony Duell wrote:
I will ahve to dig out the Maplin docs. IIRC that one had a 20 pin ribbon
cable which connected to a Beeb user port (or to a input port card for an
Amstrad CPC...)
Yes, I'm not quite sure what I have with this bit of kit. UoSAT offered
all sorts of telemetry though, so presumably this thing's designed to
filter out some specific data...
That's a shame. There must be a lot of big and complex systems that
would make interesting museum displays which have gone the same way due
to lack of software preservation :-(
cheers,
Jules
Right. The Maplin one (Published in the Maplin
Magazine) used only the
user port IIRC.
I've got another one (decoder only) which looks very Maplin-ey. That one
just has a pair of SPDT switches on the front along with a meter marked
0-10, whilst at the back there's just power, and a pair of DIN sockets - The DIN sockets do sound Maplin-like, but I thought
they were on the
receiver. One linked to the decoder, the other to a tape recorder (you
recorded the analogue signals from the satellite, then played them back
into the decoder later on).
Yep, the Astrid receiver I have is exactly like that - there's some TTL
in it which is used to drive the computer's serial port, plus sockets
for hook-up to a tape unit for recording.
That's what makes this other box that I have odd - the Astrid receiver
includes the necessary logic for interfacing to the CPU, and this other
box doesn't seem to have enough I/O lines to be for complex data
aquisition (such as imagery) - but I can't imagine what it's doing that
couldn't have just been done in software on the host computer.
I'm sure all will become clear when I get the time to trace the
schematic out!
Maplin sold PCBs (with silk-screen overlay) and
printed case panels IIRC.
This could be a homebrew copy, or it might (more likely) be another
magazine project.
the board's semi-professional, in that it looks to be low-volume, but
the lettering on it is all nicely done as are the marking giving
component locations etc. (plus I notice that the front and rear metal
panels are properly earthed, and the soldering's all good). Smells more
like something built-to-order in a small workshop (as was typical for
all sorts during the home computer boom I suppose!)
> I do have
a 'real' weather satellite receiver system. It came from
> ic.ac.uk, and the bit I really wanted (and got) were the 3 I2S image
[...]
I'd forgotten you had that. Do you have
sufficient software to make it
do something as a complete system if a suitable VAX were found, or has
Alas not. I got the I2S driver tape I think, but nothing more :-(