18 Dec
2008
18 Dec
'08
4:19 p.m.
The earliest I have seen so far is a
Sherwood FM tuner ca. 1977 that uses an RCA 1802 (e.g.
http://atlanta.craigslist.org/ele/927622156.html).
Bit of trivia. That tuner was designed and built in Milwaukee by a
company that a friend of mine worked for. At the time, several of
his friends built units up from leftovers from the production run.
18 Dec
18 Dec
6:29 p.m.
At 06:19 PM 12/18/2008, Al Kossow wrote:
Draco was in Milwaukee? Interesting!
It's probably in United States Patent 4122395.
http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/4277785.html
Patent says Grafton (northern suburb). PDF manual, including block diagram:
http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/Sherwood.pdf
- John
The earliest
I have seen so far is a
Sherwood FM tuner ca. 1977 that uses an RCA 1802 (e.g.
http://atlanta.craigslist.org/ele/927622156.html).
Bit of trivia. That tuner was designed and built in Milwaukee by a
company that a friend of mine worked for. At the time, several of
his friends built units up from leftovers from the production run. 
7:30 p.m.
New subject: Sherwood Micro CPU/100 / was Re: Rockwell PPS-4 info (was 8008 v. 4004...)
Al Kossow wrote:
I should have made a better deal with my friend: fix one, keep one.
Apparently they are rather valuable now.
John Foust wrote:
The earliest
I have seen so far is a
Sherwood FM tuner ca. 1977 that uses an RCA 1802 (e.g.
http://atlanta.craigslist.org/ele/927622156.html).
Bit of trivia. That tuner was designed and built in Milwaukee by a
company that a friend of mine worked for. At the time, several of
his friends built units up from leftovers from the production run. Patent says Grafton (northern suburb). PDF manual,
including block diagram:
http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/Sherwood.pdf
Interesting to see, although it was 11 years ago I worked on them.
I RE'd the schematic for half of it if needed. It was interesting to see the
1802 with all it's support in there when I first opened them up.
8:44 p.m.
New subject: Sherwood Micro CPU/100 / was Re: Rockwell PPS-4 info (was 8008 v. 4004...)
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 10:30 PM, Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> wrote:
I had no idea there was a tuner from that era with a microprocessor,
but they picked a fun one. What does it do? Run the digital display?
-ethan
> The
earliest I have seen so far is a
> Sherwood FM tuner ca. 1977 that uses an RCA 1802 (e.g.
> http://atlanta.craigslist.org/ele/927622156.html).
Interesting to see, although it was 11 years ago I worked on them.
I RE'd the schematic for half of it if needed. It was interesting to see the
1802 with all it's support in there when I first opened them up. 
8:49 p.m.
New subject: Sherwood Micro CPU/100 / was Re: Rockwell PPS-4 info (was 8008 v. 4004...)
From what I read: it not only 'runs the digital
display' but allows you to create a dictionary associating the frequency with a
station's call letters. Rather slick, for the era.
________________________________________
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of
Ethan Dicks [ethan.dicks at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 8:44 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Sherwood Micro CPU/100 / was Re: Rockwell PPS-4 info (was 8008 v.
4004...)
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 10:30 PM, Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> wrote:
> The
earliest I have seen so far is a
> Sherwood FM tuner ca. 1977 that uses an RCA 1802 (e.g.
> http://atlanta.craigslist.org/ele/927622156.html).
Interesting to see, although it was 11 years ago I worked on them.
I RE'd the schematic for half of it if needed. It was interesting to see the
1802 with all it's support in there when I first opened them up.
8:54 p.m.
New subject: Sherwood Micro CPU/100 / was Re: Rockwell PPS-4 info (was 8008 v. 4004...)
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 11:49 PM, Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> wrote:
>From what I read: it not only 'runs the
digital display' but allows you to create a dictionary associating the frequency with
a station's call letters. Rather slick, for the era.
That is slick. I still don't have any gear that does that (but I've
seen car stereos that must be getting that sort of info over the air).
-ethan
9:26 p.m.
New subject: Sherwood Micro CPU/100 / was Re: Rockwell PPS-4 info (was 8008 v. 4004...)
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 11:49 PM, Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> wrote:
From what I read: it not only 'runs the digital
display' but allows > you to create a dictionary associating the frequency with a
> station's call letters. Rather slick, for the era.
From what I can determine, it's up to the user to
determine the call
letters (the display supports 4 characters) and the
corresponding
frequency. I'm not clear why a microprocessor would be the best
choice for this. Did the programming survive power outages?
In a way, this reminds me of some 1930's radios with pushbutton
selection that allowed the user to write the station call letters on
a slip of paper and insert it next to the button. Most of the prewar
Zeniths had 8 preset buttons; the Sherwood only has 4.
Some other radios without presets simply printed the name of each
station at the appropriate place on the dial.
Cheers,
Chuck
11:15 p.m.
New subject: Sherwood Micro CPU/100
Ethan Dicks wrote:
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 11:49 PM, Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> wrote:
It was fun to play with for a bit once they were working, of course you can set
in whatever four-letter word for a station you wish. The alphanumeric
display uses LED dot-matrix units, so it's a much nicer display than
the usual 7-segment types.
There's also a slide-rule tuning display of a row of LEDs to keep those who
couldn't make the transition to pure digital in one jump happy [*].
Capacitive touch-sensitive buttons for presets and scanning using 555 timers
as the sensors, along with an optical rotary tuning knob.
The 1802 handles all this and calculates the factor to load into the PLL
divider for the synthesised tuning.
Various other technical features. It's something of a tour-de-force of 70's
technology/electronics design, although the actual physical construction leaves
something to be desired, (IMHO).
The downside is that all that stored state (presets, frequencies, call letters)
required batteries to hold the CMOS memory, and of course they used NiCd's,
mounted on the main power supply board. And of course they leak. The units I
worked on required significant rebuilding.
[*] I remember the consternation the transition from analog to digital clocks
caused in the mid-70s. Many people seemed to have difficulty with it and were
somehow concerned that it might 'change our perception of time'.
>From what I read: it not only 'runs the
digital display' but allows you to create a dictionary associating the frequency with
a station's call letters. Rather slick, for the era.
That is slick. I still don't have any gear that does that (but I've
seen car stereos that must be getting that sort of info over the air).
11:18 p.m.
New subject: Sherwood Micro CPU/100
Well, it did. My nine-year-old daughter has a hard time with me telling her it's
"a quarter to nine" when it is, in fact, 8:42. The convenience of rounding is
something I'm working to help her appreciate. There's a practical side, too: when
I'm trying to get her ready for school in the morning, she'll cling to the useless
fact that she has "three more minutes" before it's time to go, during which
she can supposedly write a sonnet, create a work of art, and find her socks, shoes and a
suitable coat. 'Perception of time', indeed.... -- Ian
________________________________________
[snip]
[*] I remember the consternation the transition from analog to digital clocks
caused in the mid-70s. Many people seemed to have difficulty with it and were
somehow concerned that it might 'change our perception of time'.
5853
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8 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
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aek＠bitsavers.org -
cclist＠sydex.com -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca -
IanK＠vulcan.com -
jfoust＠threedee.com