AN: LInks to Lancaster Classics Project Reprints...

[Don Lancaster]

Oh, no, I was way later than that. When I was in college in the late
80's I worked with some kit companies and often what I wrote got
published under some fictional names they used for their "articles".
Most of the circuits were not my design (although one was and even made
the cover - it was a pretty crappy UHF TV transmitter), I was just
casting about in the "technical writing" world, eventually I decided
that there were better ways to make a few hundred bucks (although I did
learn some lessons!)

I never did really comprehend the economics of the electronics kit
world. Maybe the companies I worked with didn't either - none lasted
very long, some not long enough for me to get a check!

Tim.

For several glorious years in the golden age (1965-1974), kit sales was
printing your own money, hand over fist.

Then it all suddenly turned to shit.

Causes? Aerospace dryup, so community colleges dropped their electronics
programs. (In EAC's case, the football team needed the money because the
subsidy of $37 per home spectator was not nearly enough). Offshore
production, so complete items now cost much less than their parts. Ham
radio becoming a ludicrous parody of what it once was. Stuff getting so
small a fumble fingered experimenter could not even pick it up, let
alone install it correctly. Megastores with nanomargins. Computers
getting so complex that nobody could understand all of them at once.
High school tech courses where getting stoned (both teachers and
students) was manditory. Stuff evolving so fast that repair was
unthinkable. Much less pricing differential between 1 and 1000 units at
the distributor.

But most of all -- Newly merged and acquiesed magazines thoroughly
fucking over their writers.

And, yeah, I am still pissed.

More at http://www.tinaja.com/glib/waywere.pdf

=====




--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
voice: (928)428-4073 email: [email protected]

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

 

[[email protected]]

Realistically most of the stuff published in that era (or any era!) was
pure drivel. It's nice to see that the good stuff has been preserved!
I still ocassionally refer to the TV Typewriter books...

Tim.

Speaking of which.... The follow on's to TV Typewriter, Cheap Video and
Son of Cheap Video, used a technique for generating video character output with
almost no extra hardware by "bit stuffing" memory and running a small background
routine on the uP.

The Sinclair 80 and 1000 used almost exactly the same technique for
video output.

I asked Don once which was the chicken and which the egg. Or whether
they both arose simultaneously without any cross fertilization. I never got an
answer. What do you think happened there?

Jim

 

[[email protected]]

But most of all -- Newly merged and acquiesed magazines thoroughly
fucking over their writers.

And, yeah, I am still pissed.

I think one publisher stood out from all the rest when it came to
treating his writers properly. That one was Wayne Green of "73" fame. He once
sent me a $150.00 check for a very short article and program I wrote for his
Commodore specific magazine. Its title was "Life (Conway's) for the Unexpanded
VIC 20".

I never got to see my name in print though. The Commodore 64 was
introduced about that time and VIC 20 articles were shoved aside in favor of
ones about the 64. Nevertheless, Wayne paid on acceptance and not when an
article was published. He was a sterling fellow and maintained a stable of
competent, happy, writers for a number of years until he succumbed to senility
and paranoia later.

Jim

 

[Don Lancaster]

Speaking of which.... The follow on's to TV Typewriter, Cheap Video and
Son of Cheap Video, used a technique for generating video character output with
almost no extra hardware by "bit stuffing" memory and running a small background
routine on the uP.

The Sinclair 80 and 1000 used almost exactly the same technique for
video output.

I asked Don once which was the chicken and which the egg. Or whether
they both arose simultaneously without any cross fertilization. I never got an
answer. What do you think happened there?

Jim

My development was totally independent and was based on getting video on
the KIM-1. I also suspect it was a few months earlier.

I never owned a Sinclair and certainly never reverse engineered one.

--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
voice: (928)428-4073 email: [email protected]

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

 

[Michael Black]

Speaking of which.... The follow on's to TV Typewriter, Cheap Video and
Son of Cheap Video, used a technique for generating video character output with
almost no extra hardware by "bit stuffing" memory and running a small background
routine on the uP.

The Sinclair 80 and 1000 used almost exactly the same technique for
video output.

I asked Don once which was the chicken and which the egg. Or whether
they both arose simultaneously without any cross fertilization. I never got an
answer. What do you think happened there?

Jim

You do realize it's Don himself who started this thread, so you might
as well address him directly.

The copyright date on the Cheap Video Cookbook is 1978. I think that
predates the SInclair stuff.

He even sort of hints at it in his TV Typewriter Cookbook, copyrighted
1976. The last few pages, as he traditionally did in his books, were
some comments about possible future work, including
"Can a single microprocessor such as a MOS Technology 6502 provide
all the timing and control for a standalone TVT?"

Though that doesn't mean the concept wasn't used elsewhere first.

Around the same time, you'd see articles about bootstrapping CPUs,
and that would use a similar scheme of jamming NOPs into the databus
so the address bus would increment so you could get into the RAM without
lots of extra counters. Again, I have no idea whether that concept
predated small computers.

Didn't the 1802 use a similar scheme for loading RAM without a bootstrap
ROM? I can't remember when the 1802 came out.

Michael

 

[Winfield Hill]

Michael Black wrote...

I can't remember when the 1802 came out.

Very early, I used it in, was it 1976? Hmm.

 

[Don Lancaster]

You do realize it's Don himself who started this thread, so you might
as well address him directly.

The copyright date on the Cheap Video Cookbook is 1978. I think that
predates the SInclair stuff.

He even sort of hints at it in his TV Typewriter Cookbook, copyrighted
1976. The last few pages, as he traditionally did in his books, were
some comments about possible future work, including
"Can a single microprocessor such as a MOS Technology 6502 provide
all the timing and control for a standalone TVT?"

Though that doesn't mean the concept wasn't used elsewhere first.

Around the same time, you'd see articles about bootstrapping CPUs,
and that would use a similar scheme of jamming NOPs into the databus
so the address bus would increment so you could get into the RAM without
lots of extra counters. Again, I have no idea whether that concept
predated small computers.

Didn't the 1802 use a similar scheme for loading RAM without a bootstrap
ROM? I can't remember when the 1802 came out.

Michael

Crucial to my cheap video stuff was a bizarre stunt that was extremely
6502 specific.



--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
voice: (928)428-4073 email: [email protected]

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

 

[Robert Latest]

On Sun, 21 Aug 2005 11:36:42 +1200,

in the not-too-distant future, it ought to be feasible to scan a book,
then automagically make the movie. Lots of artistic input of course, but
the bulk of the work should be able to be automated. I'm looking forward
to it, as there is such a wide body of literature to choose from.

I'd think that's exactly the way the Harry Potter films are made. The
books are nothing but a detailed, linear description of what things
sound and look like, and the language is simple enough for a primitive
parser.

robert (looking forward for my next long airplane trip on which i'll
read the latest novel)

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

On Sun, 21 Aug 2005 11:36:42 +1200,


I'd think that's exactly the way the Harry Potter films are made. The
books are nothing but a detailed, linear description of what things
sound and look like, and the language is simple enough for a primitive
parser.

IMHO, it takes quite a lot of smarts to condense a lengthy novel down
to a 100-120 page 'typewritten' screenplay.

robert (looking forward for my next long airplane trip on which i'll
read the latest novel)

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[[email protected]]

My development was totally independent and was based on getting video on
the KIM-1. I also suspect it was a few months earlier.

I never owned a Sinclair and certainly never reverse engineered one.

I wonder then if Sir Clive read your book before his design effort. Did
you ever look at his machine later? If so, just how close were the two
implementations?

Jim

 

[Don Lancaster]

I wonder then if Sir Clive read your book before his design effort. Did
you ever look at his machine later? If so, just how close were the two
implementations?

Jim

The biggest current application of my cheap video techniques, of course,
is the PIC Calibar.


http://www.tinaja.com/glib/muse120.pdf


--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
voice: (928)428-4073 email: [email protected]

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

 

[kinyo]

In as much as the topic covers old circuits, may I ask you guys if you
happen to have a copy of an old circuit of Lissajous Pattern Generator
which features some bit of complicated waves instead of the usual
simple sine waves?

I don't exactly remember the magazine but iirc, popular electronics and
it was published in the mid 70's. The circuit produces decaying waves
so the Lissajous Pattern appears to be more complex than the usual
multi-elliptical form. Iirc, it also provides a blanking signal for the
Z-input on the scope to eliminate a bright dot. The X and Y waves are
in sync, hence the pattern will appear steady, but some controls were
provided to manipulate the pattern into different shapes.

I'd really appreciate if anybody can send scanned pages of such article
or point where I can download them. I've been looking for the circuit
over the web for some years now but failed so far. This is the first
time I'm asking for help from fellow netizens in this quest. Maybe a
long shot, but I might just get lucky.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Michael Black]

In as much as the topic covers old circuits, may I ask you guys if you
happen to have a copy of an old circuit of Lissajous Pattern Generator
which features some bit of complicated waves instead of the usual
simple sine waves?

I don't exactly remember the magazine but iirc, popular electronics and
it was published in the mid 70's. The circuit produces decaying waves
so the Lissajous Pattern appears to be more complex than the usual
multi-elliptical form. Iirc, it also provides a blanking signal for the
Z-input on the scope to eliminate a bright dot. The X and Y waves are
in sync, hence the pattern will appear steady, but some controls were
provided to manipulate the pattern into different shapes.

I'd really appreciate if anybody can send scanned pages of such article
or point where I can download them. I've been looking for the circuit
over the web for some years now but failed so far. This is the first
time I'm asking for help from fellow netizens in this quest. Maybe a
long shot, but I might just get lucky.

Thanks a lot.

See Don Lancaster's "Active Filter Cookbook". On page 219 (in
the first edition, I don't know if the pages changed with the reprints),
in the section at the end on possible uses of active filters, he has
a section titled "Quadrature Art". That spells out the bassics.

The article you are thinking of was in Popular Electronics in
the late seventies, ie sometime between 1975 and 1980, and might have
even been on the cover. Used the same basic principal if I recall, though
I also seem to recall that they added something to modulate the Z axis.

Michael

 

[Don Lancaster]

In as much as the topic covers old circuits, may I ask you guys if you
happen to have a copy of an old circuit of Lissajous Pattern Generator
which features some bit of complicated waves instead of the usual
simple sine waves?

I don't exactly remember the magazine but iirc, popular electronics and
it was published in the mid 70's. The circuit produces decaying waves
so the Lissajous Pattern appears to be more complex than the usual
multi-elliptical form. Iirc, it also provides a blanking signal for the
Z-input on the scope to eliminate a bright dot. The X and Y waves are
in sync, hence the pattern will appear steady, but some controls were
provided to manipulate the pattern into different shapes.

I'd really appreciate if anybody can send scanned pages of such article
or point where I can download them. I've been looking for the circuit
over the web for some years now but failed so far. This is the first
time I'm asking for help from fellow netizens in this quest. Maybe a
long shot, but I might just get lucky.

Thanks a lot.

You are possibly referring to the quadrature art section near the back
of my Active Filter Cookbook.

Basically, you take an op amp state variable filter and apply bizarre
waveforms to it.

--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
voice: (928)428-4073 email: [email protected]

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

 

[kinyo]

Thanks a lot for the tip, Michael!

Your memory is better than mine. Yes it must be in later half of 70's
because that was the time I was actively into circuit building and yes
I was referring to Z-axis modulation and now you confirm Popular
Electronics magazine.

I am hoping that some old folk (like me) out there could possibly
resurrect his magazine/s to help out, scan a few pages ... etc. It
might be too much to ask but I still believe there are some real good
people (like you) who go out of their way to help without expecting
anything in return. They might even take the trip to some big library
if necessary, which I could only envy because my third world country
don't have such facility. I've searched my university's library
(reputedly the best in the country) for this in the past and failed to
find it ... Popular Electronics magazine isn't really popular in that
library

In the meantime I'll check out your suggestion to see what I can do
with it.

Thanks a lot!

Frank R.

 

[kinyo]

Thanks a lot, Don!

I've never owned any of your books yet but I have been familiar of your
articles in the past. I remember seeing your Cookbook in my favorite
electronics store so hopefully I'll see it again on my next visit (its
a 3 hour drive!).

Anyhow, that particular article in Popular Magazine (was it your
article then?) is the one I am looking for specifically because it is
where I got the circuit.

Regards.

Frank R.

 

[Don Lancaster]

Thanks a lot for the tip, Michael!

Your memory is better than mine. Yes it must be in later half of 70's
because that was the time I was actively into circuit building and yes
I was referring to Z-axis modulation and now you confirm Popular
Electronics magazine.

I am hoping that some old folk (like me) out there could possibly
resurrect his magazine/s to help out, scan a few pages ... etc. It
might be too much to ask but I still believe there are some real good
people (like you) who go out of their way to help without expecting
anything in return. They might even take the trip to some big library
if necessary, which I could only envy because my third world country
don't have such facility. I've searched my university's library
(reputedly the best in the country) for this in the past and failed to
find it ... Popular Electronics magazine isn't really popular in that
library

In the meantime I'll check out your suggestion to see what I can do
with it.

Thanks a lot!

Frank R.

The story (and all others) is readily available from http://www.umi.com/

--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
voice: (928)428-4073 email: [email protected]

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

 

[Keith Williams]

In as much as the topic covers old circuits, may I ask you guys if you
happen to have a copy of an old circuit of Lissajous Pattern Generator
which features some bit of complicated waves instead of the usual
simple sine waves?

In college (early '70s) I built a quadrature smiley face generator
(known as "Ozzie") for credit. It used a two op-amp quadrature
oscillator to generate the Lissajous and logic/amplifiers to shift it
around to draw the face/eyes/eyebrows/nose/mouth. It had a built in
intercom so it could "talk" to the kiddies at the Engineering Open
House. The mouth vertical signal was modulated by the amplitude of the
remote person (usually hiding in a darkened adjacent room above the
transom). It was a fun bunch of college credits. ;-)

 

[kinyo]

That's cool, Keith!

I'd be very interested to see the schematics if you still have it. I'm
sure, even 30 years later, that project would still amuse kiddies. This
time we have the capability to project the signals to a wall with toy
led lasers using mirrors, which i currently have. I do intend to use my
laser+mirror setup for the lissajous pattern generator ... and I have a
kid to amuse!

Cheers!

Frank

 

[JeffM]

kinyo wrote [without context]:

That's cool, Keith!
Frank

http://groups-beta.google.com/group...-on-Google+show-options+click-THAT-Reply-link