GREAT TO SEE PROGRESS!
Keep up the good work Cory!
yes, heads have to be close to work..
at least that is the way it was with the VRC drums for storage on the
GEPAC process control systyems
Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (
http://www.smecc.org)
In a message dated 2/25/2017 7:24:30 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
coryheisterkamp at
gmail.com writes:
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