wierd_w

In my case, it was mostly programming Makino 4-axis trunions, and a few leadwell 3-axis mills. Been a long time since I have done it though. I have a 3D printer, and it does G-code, but I have not tried to manually get it to get up and dance. It might be fun to do it some day, but I have not had the motivation.

The 486 mom bought when I was a wee lad came with an epson color impact printer of this stripe. It was a 4 color ribbon alright. Rather than ballpoint pen, I used "Stamping ink" for self-inking rubber stamps, and a cotton swab. Eventually the fabric would wear out though.

I do not keep an immaculately clean workspace, so no, I wont be doing that. Also, I dont have a lot of disposable income to be obtaining old treasures with, nor the storage to hold onto them after getting them working again. If he lived close by, I would be more than happy to help him out if he wanted though. If somebody wants to send me some old treasure for restoration, I would happily do it though. Just send return shipping in an envelope or something. That offer is available for 8-bit guy as well. I would happily repair his antique IBM workstations for him.

I see... Thank you. I can accommodate that.

A well designed macro library with calls (which you CAN do in gcode) would shrink the total gcode size tremendously. One such use I have seen, is the inclusion of a macro to handle matrix transformations, so that more easy to understand motions can be programmed on a multiaxis mill. (Motion relative to the tool tip, rather than relative to the table, as the actual gcode coordinate system is.) Another I saw was for a simple 3 axis machine, to cut letters. Each letter had a macro function, and could be called with a relative start position, and a macro function ID for that letter. The issue with those old CNC machines though, was that they might not have enough actual RAM to contain a lot of macro routines.

I am updating the models for these tonight. Omega, I need clarification; Did you cut it close to the wall like this-- Or Like this -- ??? I need to know where to cut. The area you want padded out to have landings for rubber feet does not have enough room for a full 1". The feet you have are closer to 3/4". That is what I have added.

No, the tomy tutor is almost a clone of the 99/4A The expansion port is missing some important signals, and the cart port is wired differently. Recent disassembly work of the Tutor's bios, indicates it is based on the TI source code for the 99/4A. It uses the same CPU, VDP, and sound chip.

Sounds ready for an injection attack to me... Better served by a local python script.

The cartridge slot has a few very important lines that are different. Mostly voltages.

You mean 10base2? Had to use it at a few network installs we did because it had longer cable restrictions than 10baseT. I would always be forthright about the signalling bottleneck it imposed, but they never seemed to care as long as the printers and fileshares worked. I only ever used it except to bridge very distant switches that could not have a repeater put between. (Such as between hangars for aircraft) . I sometimes wonder what they replaced it with. Or do you mean something more exotic and IBM specific, like Twinax?

easily done for those feet.

Ahh, the venerable "Pain stick". Remember that episode of TNG when Worf wanted some really badly for his birthday but was too shy to ask?

Are his balls supposed to be dangling out like that? Racy!

It looks like he's trying to get something from a vending machine to me... Maybe the game is about how vending machines steal all your money, and fail to dispense product? Wouldn't that be a twist?

I have a bad habit of over-engineering things, but then again, I like things to stand up to (ab)use. Thin walls tend to not favor such things, especially with 3D prints. There's plenty of meat there to take some hits. Port cover? Should be doable...

It may need to be widened; Not sure if it will fit all arbitrary USB cables. If you make adjustments, let me know. Also, I take it you had no real issues fitting the speech+shield? I was able to fit the hardware I had on hand when doing the design, so I presume it just dropped right in? (Having hardware to test fitting with resolves nearly all of these kinds of snags.)

I am glad you are happy with them; I tend to be too critical of my own work, especially when I do a project for somebody else. (Own worst critic, et al.) I insist on as close to perfection as is possible when the work is for somebody else. (For my own needs, as long as it holds the hardware I am happy. Duct tape and bailing wire is fine. ) If you can, give me a guestimate on how deep you made the recess for that chip.

Let me know what kind of rubber stripping you get. As-is, it looks like I need to consider moving the back post back a good 2mm in addition to the thick notch I took out of it, for the TIPI+32K car. That chip really is very inconveniently placed. (And you really need a bigger display Omega. you are gonna get myopia looking at that tiny little thing.)

I see that the color is "Too pink"-- Needs to be grayer... Ok, I will look for more grey PLA in the future.

The lettering was made kinda deep to be backfilled in that manner. Use crystal clear 2 part epoxy, and some kind of opaque pigment powder. Dob the recess full, allow to cure, then sand it flush. Also, since I have invested tremendous amounts of time with sanding (and experiments with sanding)-- Really, don't sand with anything rougher than 400 grit to start, then work through 600, 1000, 2000, and then 3000 grit papers. You will get something that rivals injection mold plastic, in terms of shine.

Print speed a little high? What color are you going to fill the letters with? (You can get titanium dioxide white pigment powder, which would make 2 part epoxy opaque white. Then you could fill the letters and shape profile lines with that, and it would stand out bright. Alternatively, you could fill with aluminium powder, then polish the surface afterward to get a metalic fill.)

"O.o" is an emoticon, for a person giving a boggle eyed look, out of confusion. Think "Spock eyebrow raised", but less "curious, captain", and more "Whaaat?" For the second, programming is cool, because you put something into a computer, and it performs an action for you. Chemistry is similar, once you understand it. Molecular self-assembly is damned awesome; It's a damned superpower. That's exactly what 2 part resins are doing, and all you have to do is mix them together. It's amazing shit, every bit as much as getting a crafted bit of logic to do complicated computations for you. The "I dont find chemicals interesting" is the same kind of pedestrianism that most end users have vs programmers. Once you get past the "But it's totally different things!" bias, you see it really is not different things at all. It's fundamentally the same thing: Understanding how something works, sufficiently to control and then affect a desired outcome, from a simple set of initial conditions. It's the same "Drive". Most people approach computers the same way you are approaching "the chemicals". They know it's a thing, and that some people are into that, but they dont really have any interest or drive. That's why they are content to use a McPackaged computing platform, like an iPhone, where somebody else has done all that interesting and fun stuff for them. They have no interest in making things for themselves or others, or showing other people how to make or do fun things. The computer technology crowd however, is very much into those kinds of things. Given that the two are fundamentally just different manifestations of the same kind of drive, I often wonder why there is not more overlap. And lastly-- Resin is harder, stronger, and does not split/crack the same ways that 3D prints do, AND you get the benefit of being able to mass produce things on the cheap, with minimal investment in kit. A good understanding of the chemistry of the medium will let you make parts in an assortment of materials, textures, and degrees of rigidity/toughness to suit your intended application, by controlling what additives you mix in. Basically, Fabrication is cool-- Be it software fabrication, or hardware fabrication. The same buzz exists for both.

It's not quite enough conductors to fully pull off, but if the wires in the DB50 cables are twisted pairs, just use the alternate conductors for each pair as a ground. Then it will work more like an 80 conductor IDE cable, and have better signal fidelity. Say, prioritize address and data lines for the "twisted with ground" status, and let the ones that dont need that level of isolation be twisted with something else.

Chemistry *IS* technology bruh. O.o If we ever get programmable matter, it will come from chemists. The idea here though, is to demonstrate how the leap from "3d printed prototype" to "quality resin" is really just a few hours of work. (assuming you have a good workspace.) The cool factor of a 3D printer is being able to design digitally, and produce a real object fast. Once you have the real object, you can mass replicate it easily. That's the point here. Making cool stuff for your computer hobby also overlaps with sexy enclosures and such. It feels real good to make something that looks as good as it works. I want to share that feeling.

*sigh* I may end up doing that, but I get the feeling that if I do, I will just end up being "The guy that can do that!", rather than being what I set out to be, "The guy showing how easy it is, to spread ability, and improve the community." Really, the materials involved have a lot of overlap with many tech-heads. Lego bricks, Fun rubbery substances, and making neat shit. You can get all the needed kit from Amazon (or any number of other retailers)-- The most expensive bit is a vacuum pump to make sure the resin cures without bubbles in it.