14 Apr
2016
14 Apr
'16
8:19 p.m.
On 2016-Apr-14, at 7:50 PM, Bill Sudbrink wrote:
(On the north-west coast here - bit of a trip to there).
Brent Hilpert
(Well it was pretty quick from when you mentioned it here.)
I had assumed that you came across a hobbyist unit built in the 70's and was repairing
or completing it.
Sounds like that's incorrect - this is a new build from scratch?, including the
printed circuit boards?
I had actually wondered from years ago whether the design ever did work reliably, or
whether it might be the sort of magazine project where 1 in 100 might function, e.g. say,
the memory chips were an iffy proposition as image sensor. Very pleased to see one work.
(The one I assembled I had to return to the owner after assembly, we tried it one
afternoon with his IMSAI and/or with the scope interface as I recall, but after that it
was out of my purview.)
Wow, (that was quick), great job to get one of
these working.
Thanks. Quick? Actually, I've been working on it for several
years. The assembly was fairly quick. If you have all of the
parts in one place, a competent solderer should be able to build
it in a few hours. (I finally get
to see an image from a Cyclops camera - never
did from the one I assembled.)
Looks even better live. Come see it at VCF East. 
15 Apr
15 Apr
4:21 a.m.
Brent Hilpert wrote:
I had assumed that you came across a hobbyist unit
built in the 70's and was repairing or completing it.
Sounds like that's incorrect - this is a new build
from scratch?
Yes, for certain definitions of "new" (more below).
including the printed circuit boards?
Yes, I used "toner transfer" to make the board. The
board is made from the original art in the article.
Back to "new"...
The copper clad board that was used is from a piece I
bought in 1977 to make a memory addition for my OSI
C1P. The IC sockets were recovered from an old board
where all of the ICs had 1974 date codes. The chips
used have date codes ranging from 1969 to 1976, The
Sprague Atom cap (the orange one) is not only the same
type as the one in the article pictures, it has the
same data and batch code "USA7413H". The other two
electrolytic caps are the right make and physical size
(Mallory TT) but unfortunately had to be "restuffed".
The ceramic caps and the resistors are all from parts
assortments I've had since at least 1979 (except for
three 0.1 pf caps). The lens is the same type, 8.5mm
Elgeet Magnaview. The chassis is a bit of a "hack".
It was originally a used TenTec JW-8. I could not
find a new or even used JW-6. The only difference
between the two is 2 inches of width. I trimmed the
lid and had a new bottom made. Etc, etc...
This project has been more scavenger hunt than technical
I guess. I wanted to make it as "right" as possible.
I had actually wondered from years ago whether the
design ever did work reliably, or whether it might
be the sort of magazine project where 1 in 100 might
function, e.g. say, the memory chips were an iffy
proposition as image sensor.
It worked pretty much as soon as I powered it on. The
only problem I had was a "duh" moment. The CYCLOPS
outputs 0 volts for pixel off and -12 volts for pixel
on. The Z input on my scope wants 2 volts for intensity
off and 0 volts for intensity normal. After finally
RTFMing and a helpful email from Dr. Walker (the designer)
an external power supply and a couple of resistors
solved that problem.
Bill S.
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hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca -
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