Chuck is so old

On Mon, Jul 23, 2018 at 3:13 PM <[email protected]> wrote:

> If I had nothing but time, I would build a relay based finite state
> machine to be the calculator.
> It would probably take a relay rack or two of relays.  Even super tiny pcb
> mount relays would take some considerable room when you are chaining up
> half adders etc.
>
> I think some guy did this and built an 8080 CPU with relays.
>
> Back when I was considerably younger I enjoyed the sound of a North
> Electric relay panel interrogating a phone line to figure which person on
> the party line was making the call and then sending the digits via MF
> tones.  You could diagnose the health of the machine by the sounds.
>
> *From:* Dave
> *Sent:* Monday, July 23, 2018 1:38 PM
> *To:* [email protected]
> *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] OT Nixie tubes
>
> Dont get too complex until you have a functional calculator :)
>
> Sounds like a fun project vs my Galaga upright arcade restoration :)
> I also came across some Gas Filled 4x12" Displays that are dot matrix.
> They use 94V to power the Element.
>
>
>
> On 07/21/2018 04:04 PM, Chuck McCown wrote:
>
> Yes, I just found a source of old typewriter keys.  I think I will connect
> them to microswitches for a nice tactile feedback.
>
> Analog volt meter showing the capacitor voltage.  Will probably need a
> voltage doubler to get up to the 180 volts needed for the nixie tubes.
>
> Things start to dim, crank the crank a few turns.
> Do I want to use cloth covered wire and solder terminal sockets.  At some
> point PCBs will have to be used.  So I will probably get lazy and make a
> PCB for everything.
>
> Be fun to have some kind of mechanical annunciator showing the sign of the
> exponent.
>
> Prepper calculator.  (Probably a raspberry pi in its heart).
>
> Maybe use a telephone ringer bell to announce the result.  I could add
> some delay with the nixie tubes scrolling through the digits and one by one
> stopping on the digits of the solution.
>
> *From:* Chuck Macenski
> *Sent:* Saturday, July 21, 2018 2:50 PM
> *To:* [email protected]
> *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] OT Nixie tubes
>
> Old silver and black typewriter keys. Think Enigma machine...
>
> On Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 3:28 PM Chuck McCown <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I must be nuts.
>> I am working on a calculator project that uses nixie tubes for a display.
>>
>> I want to use a telephone magneto to charge up a cap to run the thing.
>> Kinda a steam punk RPN HP type of calculator.
>> I am stuck on what to use for buttons.  I am thinking elevator buttons.
>>
>> Large oak case.  Just crank it for 10 seconds and then do  your
>> calculation.
>>
>> I am also conflicted as to how many buttons.
>> Square and square root for sure.
>> Undecided about log, trig functions and whether or not to have scientific
>> notation.  I think I will.
>> How many digits to display?  Probably 5.  Engineering mode only.  3 dot 2
>> display.
>> Also considering multiple lines to show 4 levels of the stack but I doubt
>> I will actually do that.
>>
>> The question is: will I ever finish this thing?
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