20 Mar
2002
20 Mar
'02
7:57 a.m.
Ethan Dicks wrote:
I have no solid knowledge of where this came from, but
from the
construction
techniques, it's a prototype, not a custom-engineered one-off. The
connectors are sawed in half for the (original equipment) I/O card,
and the DMA connector cable adapter is a sawed-up extender card from a
different bus with stripped ribbon cable ends soldered to the traces
(several of which have seperated due to poor technique). I have at least
three components which have fallen out and several broken wires, making
a full schematic impossible. It might be able to document enough to deduce
what it does, but not precisely how it does it.
The 980 was used as a process controller, AFAIK. This is probably some
custom interface to some data collection equipment and perhaps some
actuators for use in the school electronics lab. I doubt this came out
of TI, given how it's put together.
It wouldn't have to be TI, and my brother-in-law the electronics tech
would tell you that if that if the workmanship leaves something to be
desired, that's a sure sign of a college-boy engineer :-) (Or maybe a
pinch-hitting academic generalist? Nah.) So they might not leap forward
to take credit at this point, but that hardly means the design is
without merit.
I appreciate your position. It's not the parts themselves that matter as
much as the design in any case. A good, clear set of photos with
sufficient detail and resolution (ie. you can read part numbers) should
suffice to ward off entropy. Plus you are putting the components to good
use.
jbdigriz