Well I reckon the idea of replicating the 9010a base unit with a PC is cool. If you reckon it'll pay for itself in reduced testing time then you have a great excuse to have some fun doing it! I have ideas to replace the whole lot with a home made computer running a H64180 processor (supercharged 12MHz Z80), an LCD dot-matrix screen and a multi-tasking Forth operating system, as I used to design and program them for a living. That's what I call fun! However, I've wanted to do that for about 4 years, since having a CatBOX to play with for a year, so it's a long term project. I hope you do do it, as it's my hobby as well and it's gives me something to talk about to Mike Coates et al when we meet up :-) Cheers, Phillip Eaton
-----Original Message----- From: owner-techtoolslist@www.flippers.com [mailto:owner-techtoolslist@www.flippers.com]On Behalf Of John Robertson Sent: 27 February 2002 16:38 To: Kev; techToolsList@flippers.com Subject: Re: Replace the 9010A base with an IBM Parallel port?
I have chatted with Fredric about porting the code over and he is going to help me with the original BASIC compiler software (he's getting permission to send me a copy) so I can figure out the structure to enable it to be ported to something like Liberty BASIC...
John :-#)#
At 08:31 AM 27/02/2002 -0500, Kev wrote:
I think that combining the pods with the modern computer would be a useful addition to the techs bench. There are still LOTs of these out in the real
Agreed, but I'm not the guy to build it either....
world as well you know....many of them are fixing things other than old video games. I suspect that so many of them turn up for auction is the frustration with the time curve of using them effectively.
Hmm, I wonder about this. I found some fluke stuff in aviation repair shops but I too wonder how many people really use these things. It seems that most of the units are sitting on test equipment resellers shelves still trying to be sold for a PREMIUM. Guess they are waiting on the modern computer replacement too.
It is just an intellectual toy, fun, but is it worth the time? I still think it is, but I can't write software effectively....but I'm going to keep poking at it in my spare time...one needs a hobby after all...
Perhaps porting Fredric's code to the IBM is the best solution...not an enormous amount of time, and a few new cool tricks.
Agreed. If I could just get that Freq Counter function going (I haven't heard from Fredric, has anyone lately?).
I'm still a excited about modifing the existing scripts (ex Asteroids -> Battlezone) and writing a script for Donkey Kong essentially copying the existing script formats.
Kev