zxguesser

zxguesser , vor einem Monat an Random Englisch

I'd like to say it worked first time, but then I'd have no explanation for staying up until 4AM soldering...
First all-up test of the new feed auto start/stop circuit with the rest of the machine actually connected was successful though 😅​
#meccano #hellschreiber

A complicated mechanism prints text onto ticker tape. The ticker tape begins moving automatically at the start of the message, and stops again shortly after the message ends.

zxguesser OP , vor 10 Tagen

The Meccano Hellschreiber is suddenly getting a load of interest again, which reminds me that I still haven't done a proper write up sorry!
Someone uploaded a little bit of video of it in operation at the show though:
https://youtu.be/7IEC_TuKrok?feature=shared&t=572

zxguesser OP , vor 10 Tagen

One further improvement I made for the show that I've not talked about yet was changing the felt ink roller for one made of ribbon (velvet ribbon specifically, with the fuzzy side inwards).
That improved the legibility further as it's reduced the over-inking issues I was having, but more importantly felt fuzz was constantly accumulating on the print spindle.

zxguesser OP , vor 9 Tagen

Oh no, Hackaday have spotted it now! 😁
I shouldn't have procrastinated for so long on documenting it 😅

zxguesser OP , vor 9 Tagen

Here's a photo of the improvised thread cutting machine I used to cut the printing spindle. Shown with a spare spindle in the "chuck".

The cutter is a bit of 4mm drill shank with something approximating a cutting geometry ground onto the end with a rotary tool. It is spring loaded into the work, with a depth stop on the rear to set the maximum depth of cut.

Turning the handle rotates and translates the workpiece in the correct relationship to generate the thread pitch, and the starting position was repeatedly reset to remove all but the double-helix needed.

Also a bonus photo showing the print mechanism more clearly, and the final print quality achieved 😀

The printing mechanism of the Meccano Hellschreiber machine, with the ink roller raised to show the print element. The paper tape contains the message "hello to everyone from Hackaday".

zxguesser OP , vor 9 Tagen

And while I'm at it, a couple of photos to show the construction of the character drum.
41 wheel flanges (one for each printing character, plus a slip ring contact) have the paint removed from their outer diameter, and are bolted together in a giant stack.
The pixel pattern for each character is encoded by patches of kapton tape.

A close up of a section of the character drum showing the shiny metal of the Meccano wheel discs with a pattern of translucent yellow tape applied.

zxguesser OP , vor 9 Tagen

Here's a photo of the whole machine taken at the Meccano show, that's a bit more presentable than my cluttered dining room table.

zxguesser OP , vor 9 Tagen

@scruss I've never even made a contact via the computer. I could never find any activity, and it's only since doing this project that I've found there's weekly nets and activity nights etc! 🤦‍♂️

zxguesser OP , vor 9 Tagen

@scruss I tuned in this Sunday and could hear the signals, but by the time I'd got fldigi installed on the shack PC and figured out the sound card settings they'd gone. I might even get the machine hooked up by next week, now that all this attention's given me a kick up the behind to get on with it 😅

zxguesser OP , vor 9 Tagen

@scruss I was intending to tune in to the net and lurk quietly while I tinker about to get the machine printing signals off air to begin with. There's a strong chance that all my crude comparator circuit will do is detect band noise and print a solid black stripe heh.
If only there was a hellscreiber beacon 😆

zxguesser OP , vor 8 Tagen

@DrHyde 🤣
I love Clickspring. And do not have one millionth of his patience. 😆

robert , vor 8 Tagen an Random Englisch

So glad I have been procrastinating upgrading the distribution on my one server with a public facing sshd port*. OpenSSH has remained old enough to not have the current flaw..

(* non standard port, which at least avoids most of the port-scanning script-kiddies.)

zxguesser , vor 8 Tagen (Bearbeitet vor 8 Tagen)

@robert heh. I just logged into my Pis to check whether they were up to date... Didn't need to wory what with the sshd being from 2022 😄

Gammitin , vor 19 Tagen an Random Englisch

A little Saturday retro computing 'hack':
Usb floppy drives from places like Amazon, only write HD 1.44MB disks, have you ever wanted to write a DD 720k disk on a modern computer easily, without something like a Greaseweazle?
Get yourself a Dell MPF82E, it has a USB port

image/jpeg

zxguesser , vor 17 Tagen

@Gammitin also the Dell FDDM-101 which looks to be the same thing

philpem , vor 22 Tagen an Random Englisch

The Parable of the Special Part

Jones and his manager Mr. Smith were in a design review meeting.

Jones was a bundle of pure enthusiasm: "The new Metroencabulator is the best we've ever made!"

Smith was unmoved. "Why do you have 19 different M3 bolt lengths, and why are some custom?"

"That's just how it is, sir," Jones said. "We need those sizes to reach the design goals."

"Jones," replied Smith, "There is plenty of room to drill these holes deeper. Then we can use all standard size bolts!"

zxguesser , vor 22 Tagen

@philpem we have a Gala Tent marquee where the steel tubes for the roof are several different lengths, by a cm here and there, for no good reason.
We've colour coded all the tubes and joiners with rings of different coloured PVC tape, and helpers still manage to put it together wrong. 🤦‍♂️

Wonderstar , vor 25 Tagen an Random Englisch

I’m tempted to complain about magazine publishers deciding that they should ignore conventional page widths and go “NOOOO! We want our beautiful publication to be just very slightly wider and longer than everything else so that it stands out more” but then I realise that actually i used to write for a few magazines that did just that, so perhaps I shouldn’t moan too much. 🙂

zxguesser , vor 25 Tagen

@Wonderstar see also: sheet music

Wonderstar , vor 25 Tagen an Random Englisch

Getting deep into scanning and digitizing things at the moment. Perhaps a realisation that there is no future in holding on to things and never being quite sure what would be “the best thing” to do with them, in “the best way.” … Certainly starting to fell that the best way is whatever way gets the stuff processed as quickly and painlessly as possible - any part of the process that slows things down or is too painful to do hundreds of times a day, just becomes a roadblock.

zxguesser , vor 25 Tagen

@Wonderstar perfect is the enemy of good, and a slightly rough archive is a billionty times better than not available because there might be a better quality way 👍