What is the most amount of money you've spent on a computer or computer-related item?

[Kyle Owen]

On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 4:24 PM, Jon Elson <elson at pico-systems.com> wrote:

>
>>> I have a laser photoplotter I built a long time ago to make circuit
> board artwork.  It does 1000 x 1000 DPI via a raster process, wrapping the
> film around a drum.  After moving all the conversion software over to
> Linux, it occurred to me that it might not be hard to convert some raw
> pixel image format produced by one of the PostScript converters to the
> format for my photoplotter.  it was about a one hour exercise to get it
> working!
>
> Not exactly a one button operation to get images, what with all the
> darkroom processing, but I might use it some day.  I mostly use it now to
> make solder stencils for board manufacturing.


I have some circuit boards out of a 1980s Intergraph photoplotter, and I
could probably manage to get the laser and such from it as well. When it
was operational, it was also used to make PCB artwork.

I'd be interested in seeing some pictures of your photoplotter, if you have
a chance. Now with the idea of direct toner transfer with modern laser
printers, I can see bringing a darkroom into it as being a bit of a hassle.
But still, quite cool.

Kyle