[vcf-midatlantic] June 11/12 Workshop - Who's Going? Whatcha working on?

[Jonathan Gevaryahu]

Would it make more sense to use optoisolators here? I'm a bit leery of 
connecting motors/mechanical controls with an independent psu and a 
decent amount of induction directly to a c64 userport for fear of having 
the CIAs or other more irreplacable chips let out their smoke if the 
motors are at the end of their range.

On 5/24/2016 10:57 AM, Dan Roganti via vcf-midatlantic wrote:

> ​oh hey, I almost forgot, I still have the ​SVI-2000 robot arm if you want
> something else for the HOPE exhibit or the NYC MakerFaire.
> http://www.theoldrobots.com/images58/Robotarm-w1.JPG
> But I'm not sure if I can find the cartridge, it plugs into the C64 User
> Port. But it's very easy to make, all it was is a 4028 decoder with a row
> of output transistors. They get switched on/off by the software
> ​ and it connects to both joystick ports on the robot arm​
> . Personally, on something this slow I would use relays to keep it Retro.
> Nothing like hearing the clickity-clack on vintage hardware :)
> Because the bipolar transistors just suck up power away from the robot
> motors. So it runs slower than normal. This was originally made to use a
> pair of the popular joysticks, such as the Atari or C64, so it had direct
> power to the motors. If you want to masticate on it further, then Mosfets
> are the best. I could whip up this cartridge on wknd. Just have to find a
> case later. Oh and bring extra batteries, they go fast on a busy day.
> I don't know if you can find the original software, but they have one here
> http://csdb.dk/release/?id=122345&show=summary
> and here [german]
> http://retroport.de/Hardware_P-Q.html
> If you like, I can ship it, just have to find a big box at work, we have
> plenty of foam too - I'll just pick it up the next time I visit.
> I used it once at the Science center many years ago as a robot excavator
> inside a Martian landscape diorama. The martian rocks were painted chunks
> of styrofoam, and the dumpster rover was painted white with Nasa insignia
> decals. The kids had a ball.
> Dan
>

-- 
Jonathan Gevaryahu
jgevaryahu at gmail.com
jgevaryahu at hotmail.com