zxguesser

zxguesser , vor einem Tag (Bearbeitet vor einem Tag)

@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 😄

zxguesser , vor 10 Tagen

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

zxguesser , vor 15 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. 🤦‍♂️

zxguesser , vor 18 Tagen

@Wonderstar see also: sheet music

zxguesser , vor 18 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 👍

zxguesser OP , vor 20 Tagen

Further examination shows that all the right-facing XORs are incorrect, but there's a left-facing one with the correct symbol. 😄

zxguesser OP , vor 20 Tagen

@mfraz74 there's a good possibility I'm going to re-draw the whole thing. It's a very poor scan so I already had to draw in some illegible component and pin numbers

zxguesser OP , vor 20 Tagen

@penguin42 the teletext adapter cheese wedge. Part of the framing code detector.

zxguesser OP , vor 19 Tagen

@nemo20000 I suppose being Acorn I should have said "west"

zxguesser , vor 24 Tagen

@nina_kali_nina I've built a printer from scratch, but it's an electromechanical contraption not directly related to computery things and not exactly a convenient form-factor.
(though watch this space, I still have loads of ink and I've been Having Bad Ideas for future projects after watching too many teleprinter videos... 😳)

https://oldbytes.space/@zxguesser/112507889200685155

zxguesser OP , vor 29 Tagen

Now I just need to implement some actually useful code at both ends 😅

zxguesser , vor einem Monat

@lpbkdotnet I am extremely familiar with this swearing off of over-complicated projects/demos, until the next one.

zxguesser , vor einem Monat

@philpem @rc2014 spectra-strip klaxon! 🌈

zxguesser , vor einem Monat

@robert @philpem
I'm confident that by 2026 vbit2 will have databroadcast capability... Whether I've thought of a use for that by then is a different matter of course 😅

zxguesser , vor einem Monat

@robert @philpem For all I know @citifax might still be making decoders 😆

zxguesser , vor einem Monat

@robert @philpem I recently discovered that libzvbi doesn't actually work which is slightly irritating and has set my project back a little

zxguesser , vor einem Monat (Bearbeitet vor einem Monat)

@robert @philpem thankfully it'll happily give me raw packet data so I can just implement my own version until such time as I can get a patch into libzvbi if that's even possible (someone does seem to have taken over maintenance recently so 🤞)

zxguesser , vor einem Monat

@philpem @robert we ought to be able to do something on a Beeb too. Though that might involve me learning some 6502 which I made no progress with last time I tried 😬

zxguesser OP , vor einem Monat

Aaand just like that it's all over for another year.
Wasn't in the top five, but apparently my machine did "quite well" in the modellers' vote. I certainly saw a lot of folks trying to surreptitiously copy "Feldfernschreiber" onto their voting card this morning, so was starting to worry I might end up on stage shaking hands with the deputy mayor 😆

zxguesser , vor einem Monat

@Dtl judging by all the posts I've seen this week, is the answer "half of the people going to EMF camp"? 😆​

zxguesser , vor einem Monat

@Tomhodson @Dtl I won't be at EMF, but I'm off to a Meccano exhibition tomorrow, and have similarly done nothing about getting my stuff ready until this week.
Something about nerd brains only working when there's an impending deadline...

zxguesser , vor einem Monat

@Tomhodson @Dtl (I also spent the past half hour editing a Simpsons screenshot for a shitpost because that's a wise use of my time and not a procrastination activity at all... 👀​)

zxguesser OP , vor einem Monat

and works just the same for messages sent from the keyboard too 😁​
This is by far the best I've ever had the printer working. I cut a new print screw and re-designed the tape path slightly the other day.

zxguesser OP , vor einem Monat

@penguin42 everyone always mentions the enigma 😆​
Dividing a disc/cylinder into 26 in Meccano is beyond my ability, and I've learnt my lesson about not building anything with a billion electrical contacts for a while!

zxguesser OP , vor einem Monat

@penguin42 I semi regret building the accurate QWERTZ layout, as it's hard enough to type at exactly 2.5 characters per second as it is, without someone hiding the Y key 😄​

zxguesser OP , vor einem Monat

@penguin42 lots of swearing, and dropped washers...
It's a very tight sandwich of perforated strips and washers and spacers threaded onto rods. Built just wide enough for the nuts/bolt heads of each keybar to clear the next.
I'll attempt to get a photo, but it's all fairly dense inside

zxguesser OP , vor einem Monat

@penguin42 I intend to do a full write up with lots of photos on my website some time this summer before it gets dismantled.
I'm also hoping to get on air and try to make some contacts with it if I can interface it with the rig (and the motor doesn't wipe out the whole band with RFI 😅​)

underside of the front of the Meccano hellschreiber keyboard. It is a densely packed stack of key bars with lots of nuts and bolts which almost collide.

zxguesser OP , vor einem Monat

@penguin42 it's essentially clone of the original machine, within the limits of Meccano parts.
Just a slight simplification of having a single rocking contact rather than two separate parts.
Otherwise it's pretty much what's shown in the excellent diagrams at https://www.nonstopsystems.com/radio/hellschreiber-the-feld-hell.htm
I could never have built it without that website

zxguesser OP , vor einem Monat

@penguin42 similarly a different arrangement of gears, but all worked out to the same overall ratio for the critical relationship between character drum and print screw.

zxguesser OP , vor 3 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 3 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 2 Tagen

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

zxguesser OP , vor 2 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 2 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 2 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 2 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 2 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 2 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 einem Tag

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

zxguesser , vor einem Monat

@mattgrayyes This makes me want to play with my dot matrix again. 😍​
They're fiddly, but I do love printer escape sequences. It's so satisfying the way you can send some bytes down a wire and double struck italic text just happens.
Sending a PDF to modern printer is convenient, but it's so ESC 4 ESC G boring 😀​

zxguesser , vor einem Monat

@Unixbigot @jwalzer @g7vkq @revk
I did exactly that to add a drive select line crossover to my Spectrum +3 motherboard