[Coco] What are you tankful for this Thanksgiving?

[Gene Heskett]

On Thursday 22 November 2018 12:04:47 Neil Cherry wrote:

> On 11/22/18 11:29 AM, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > On Thursday 22 November 2018 09:10:09 Neil Cherry wrote:
> >> On 11/22/18 12:13 AM, Aaron Davis via Coco wrote:
> >>> i blame myself for starting your 1802 habbit.
> >>> --------------------------------------------
> >>> On Wed, 11/21/18, Melanie and John Mark Mobley
> >>> <johnmarkmelanie at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>    Subject: [Coco] What are you tankful for this Thanksgiving?
> >>>    To: coco at maltedmedia.com
> >>>    Date: Wednesday, November 21, 2018, 4:55 PM
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>    I am also thankful for the RCA 1802
> >>>    microcontroller.
> >>>    I am running the Emma 02 emulator for
> >>>    the 1802 "Membership Card".
> >>
> >> I have half of a very odd 1802 system called a Dage MC-3. I managed
> >> to dig up the 1992 Radio Electroncs articles on it. But while
> >> playing I wanted to use an emulator since I'd not worked with the
> >> 1802 before.
> >>
> >> I found a Javascript COSMAC ELF emulator that was broken, told the
> >> author and he responded: "No it wasn't" (???) So I copied it down
> >> and went about patching it up. I put it here and at the moment I
> >> can't recall how to use it.
> >>
> >> https://ushomeautomation.com/Projects/SimElf++/index.html
> >
> > Thats a CosMac Elf?  Looks almost homemade.  The CosMac Super Elf I
> > used at KRCR-tv was a made pcb, and had a 6 digit display, so both
> > the address and the data at that address were displayed. Had a space
> > at the top edge for an s-100 socket to be soldered in and a hex
> > keypad with 4 extra keys. This board probably doesn't have some of
> > the functions in hdwe that the emulator expects to be present.
>
> I think that's an image of the DIY from the Radio Electronics (Popular
> Electronics?) article from the 70's. I know the VCF (museum) in Wall
> NJ has a couple of different 1802 systems. I think one of them looks
> similar.
>
> https://wikivisually.com/wiki/COSMAC_ELF

Interesting, but I am surprised it doesn't have a page, or picture, of 
the Super ELF, which was the board in a book that I started with, 
advertised in the electronics rags of the day intended for the hobbyist 
market. A well designed case that resembled a miniature cash register 
was available, along with a $400 4k static ram board for the s-100 bus, 
a multiple socket s-100 expander. I bought all 3 and a couple vector 
breadboard cards to make the rest of the connections needed.
>
> >> It works pretty well and I'll probably revisit it at some later
> >> date to clean up it a bit more. I do recall having the 'serial
> >> terminal' working. It still has several bugs.
> >
> > Do you have a copy of its manual, the MPM-201C? About 122 pages, has
> > all the internals, and a list of the op-codes in both hex and
> > nemonic shorthand for an assembler I never had.
>
> I didn't know about that manual. Archive.org has it so I'll grab the
> PDF.
>
Good, it will save me pulling the staples and scanning mine at 300+ megs 
a page.

The pdf may have been generated from an OCR'd scan at too low a 
resolution, so if theres any questions caused by poor OCR, yell and I'll 
get that page for you again.

> > Today of course its all on hard drives, many terabytes of them. And
> > the 5 second pre-rolls needed to get stuff in synch with those early
> > machines, the "ballistics" is now 20 milliseconds. Time marches on.
>
> I think you'd be shocked at some of the things that are still being
> used. I know of electronics from the late 1800 just now being replaced
> (hard to get parts) and computer mini's from the 80's being replaced
> (hard to get parts). New control systems aren't like toaday's COTS.
> Though management does seem to think you can just replace it with a
> Windows machine (yikes).

And he's a manager? He's probably an MBA too. Change the locks, invite 
him out, and lock the door. And call in an accountant to check the 
books, they might be steaming from the cooking.

Take care Neal.

-- 
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>