Some promising news on getting the LGP-30 up and running. With all systems stable, I
tightened the head spacing on the three timing track heads (using brass 0.001" feeler
gauges though I may have to go closer). This has resolved 'hanging' when hitting
Start; it actually appears to execute for a cycle before toggling back to Stop for each
press of the Start key. Of course without being able to see what's happening, it's
likely just 'executing' garbage, but it's a solid first step.
In Manual mode, keystrokes from the Flexowriter now trigger a Stop/Compute toggle for each
key entered and status neons on the flip-flop cards are registering unique bit patterns as
each comes in.
I put the scope on the (rebuilt) clock generator card and we have good 'T' and
'T-bar' signals propagating, but still haven't licked the 'digital
display' issue. After further probing, the display began to stabilize and the single
line expanded into the proper 3 for Counter, Instruction and Accumulator, and eventually a
bit pattern emerged for the Instruction. No signs of data yet for Counter nor Accumulator,
and there is an extremely pronounced 'throbbing' and visible refreshing.
Here's a video:
https://youtu.be/Nhya46V-l70
System timing looks spot on (top trace), but I also see some 'throbbing' when
putting my scope on any of the three timing heads which seems a little strange to me
(example on lower trace). Here's a quick vid:
https://youtu.be/JjRKDWVUyjA
One thought is that the timing and short register heads are still too far off the drum
surface for a solid signal, purely conjecture at this stage. -C