4 Jan
2017
4 Jan
'17
11:02 a.m.
On 1/4/17 1:06 PM, Jon Elson wrote:
On 01/04/2017 09:03 AM, Klemens Krause wrote:
Previous messages suggested the LGP-30 drum was plated with nickel. If
there are amateur astronomers with a vacuum evaporator, it might be
possible to get them to adjust their setup slightly to vacuum
evaporate nickel on your drum, after refinishing the base. You'd need
a rig to slowly turn the drum while evaporating the nickel. Some other
research labs at universities might have the necessary equipment, also
- check with the Physics department (or electrical engineering).
Jon
Its very likely the plating was done using more conventional bath
electroplating.
Everything about the LGP-30 screams use of technology that was well known
and not expensive.
It in may ways resembles the PDP-8, linc, and others in the attempt to
minimize
the total hardware to get to minimal computing. Thing like FlipFlop
registers
and indirect addressing modes were left out to keep the total tube(and
diode)
logic to a minimum. A brief look at the manuals and circuits used makes it
clear to keep it small, minimize power, keep it as reliable as possible
with
tubes(valves) everything possible was left out. The 32nd bit missing (gap)
was to likely force a simple case of word end boundary (by oneshot time
out of multiple track coincidence).
From a make it run again the drum and its heads are only one pair of
issues to
be examined. The power supplies (dried out caps!) and coupling or
interstage
capacitor condition as well as general tube status plus the usual
problems with
wires and connectors including the 400 odd tube sockets.
Keep in mind that generation of machine was not so much logic level as
pulse
presence or absence to be a logical 1 or 0. So there were few places
that had
DC static states. The very next generation of tube and early transistor
machines
would have registers and static or quasi-static states.
As to the clock track its only issue is that the present electronics
does not
ever write it only reads it. So the only issue there is to use the
existing head or
a data head to write a new track and its only a matter of having enough
pulses
in the Drum rotation time and insuring the correct gaps if any. That
would be
trivial hardware to create and keep handy as it can be the very latest tech.
Allison
We both have analog recordings (from digitizing
scopes) and logic
analyzer dumps. So concerning the LGP-30, all relevant information
about the drum has been saved :-)
We have a second LGP-30 drum in our museum. It is damaged by water.
(large rusted areas, probably from water between heads and drum).
I'm dreaming to wash the brown oxide coating off with a solvent like
acetone, polish the drum and repaint it.
As magnetic paint I would try iron oxide from audio tapes solved in
acetone or some other solvent.
Perhaps one could ask an airbrush artist to do this.
Rumours say, that the drums originally also were coated "by hand".
Rewriting the timing tracks should not be impossible with todays
electronics.
There is another guy here in germany, who has a LGP-30 with heavily
corroded drum. That would be certainly interesting for him.