IBM 6094-010 "Dials" protocol?

[Ethan Dicks]

On Sun, Mar 25, 2018 at 1:31 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> and if anyone cares, I just listed three SGI IRIS dial boxes on ebay.
> they are just rotary encoders, the smarts were in the button box, which had a 68008 in it.

I went noodling around eBay and found a couple of types - one looked
like your auction with what you describe - 8 rotary encoders just
piped directly out to what appears to be a DB25 on the back that
clearly need an external box with smarts.  There's also another
variety with two vendors/case styles that appear to take serial and
+5V.

SN-921 (2.1mm barrel jack for +5V)
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Sgi_dialbox_sn-921_front.jpg

DANAHER CONTROLS Dials DLS80-1022 (+5V over DE9 serial cable - has
special Y-cable for power injection)
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/SGI_dialbox_DLS80-1022_front.jpg

I've been playing with the LPFK for years and I've been interested in
the dialboxes ever since I saw an early one on a VAXstation 8000 on
the show floor at DECUS.  I decided to pick up one each of the DLS80
and SN-921.  Should get to me in a week or so.

>>> https://github.com/hanshuebner/sgi-dialbox-usb/blob/master/dialbox.py

I'm going to test this code out when I have a dialbox in hand.  In the
meantime, I'm finding some of the common links to resources are now
dead.  I did find these on the Internet Archive:

eventio.py (quite similar to dialbox.py)
  https://web.archive.org/web/20070526101234/http://www.ysbl.york.ac.uk/~emsley/coot/mbox-2004-2005/att-0547/eventio.py

Configure_Dials_for_OS_X.pdf (from May 2005, mentions OS X 10.3.  Has
nice pics of the cables)
  https://web.archive.org/web/20060518153503/http://sbgrid.org/downloads/Configure_Dials_for_OS_X.pdf

SGI Dialbox to O2/Octane/etc
  https://web.archive.org/web/20071011031646/http://www.meadow.net/pinouts.html#sgidbox


I have worked with a number of devices that are powered by +5V via
their DE9.  Routinely, that's done by not connecting Pin 9 (RI) from
the host and injecting +5V into the device on its Pin 9.  I will be
checking my DLS80 for that once it arrives.  I've made my own Y-cables
from scratch, and I found a brand of USB Serial adapter in a large
2-piece plastic shell and modded those to inject USB +5V over DE9 Pin
9 to keep the cabling simpler.  Both methods work.

-ethan