Photos of memorabilia from decades ago.
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Audio Equalizer Think back a couple of decades to a time when audio equalization was done with analog components, not a function call in DSP code. Then think back a couple more decades to a time when an equalizer was a studio item and couldn't be bought at Best Buy. Audio quality was marginal back then, so an equalizer was really important. That is the origin of this hand made graphic equalizer. |
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B7971 Nixie Boards I bought eight of these boards with alphanumeric nixie tubes from Burstein Applebee in about 1976. In 2017, I’m looking into making some of them into a clock. |
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Light Processor Board The Light System was developed by Child, Inc. in the late 1970s in Lawrence, KS. It was one of the first raster computer graphics systems. I worked at Child Inc., on developing the hardware of this system. It was licensed to Applied Dynamics Inc., in Ann Arbor MI, and Child Inc. moved there to help put it into production. I didn’t move, but stayed in touch with the group, and later purchased a bare PC board of the production version processor, planning to build an amazing computer based on the TI 9900. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TMS9900). I installed the parts, but never completed a full system before the computing world moved in different directions. |
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Music Display The Music Display produced color vector graphics, driven directly from music. It was built around a round color CRT salvaged from an abandoned TV studio in the basement of Hoch Auditorium. |
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Original Speaker Selector This relay board was hand etched in ferric chloride, after applying the resist with sharpie pen. It is double-sided, which is difficult to do manually. Through-hole vias were done with bits of wire soldered on both sides. |
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PC in SaraCap case The SaraCap was a medical capnometer (measuring CO2 content of respiration) developed by Applied Resources (later PPG Biomedical) in the late 1980s. I used the metal case to build a PC. It originally housed a TARGA, which was an early graphics board, providing 24 bit per pixel color. I took a few photos for posterity before putting it in the trash. |
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PCB Drill This drill was constructed from a vacuum cleaner motor, with a transformer to step down voltage. It used relays to implement electromagnetic braking to give it fast start and stop time, making drilling many holes faster. The drill bit was at the end of a flexible shaft, requiring a steady hand. This is a final photo for posterity, before putting it in the trash. |
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RX-3 Auxiliary Display I drove a Mazda RX-3 in college. I instrumented it with a variety of sensors that were displayed on this auxiliary panel that I mounted on the top of the dash. This is all that is left. There was a front faceplate with legends and colored with squares of Roscolux gels. There was also a digital clock using incandescent 7-segment displays that adapted their brightness to ambient light levels (using something like these http://www.decadecounter.com/vta/articleview.php?item=1124) |
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