Wow... What can I say, other than congratulations! Never figured my Quadrapod's logic schematic would lay the foundations to someone being inspired to build a CPU and winning a major science fair...

I guess all I can say is awesome!

Ironically, I've been making logic circuits using the tools in the PS3 game Little Big Planet 2. A number of people have created ALUs, and one individual has assembled an entire computer. I'm playing with the logic to try to create a calculator, and personally, created some very nice LED dot style decimal and hexadecimal displays in game.

My latest hobby has been vintage calculators. My favorite is a SCM (Smith Corona Marchant) Cogito 240SR. It has NO chips at all. It uses DIODE RESISTOR logic. It uses transistors only for inverting, buffering, and flip flops. Transistors are not even used for AND and OR functions! It's memory is nothing more than a piece of VIBRATING wire (bits are encoded by a transducer as twists in the wire that travel in a wave to the other end, where they are read). I only found this thread because I was looking at discrete component logic threads!

Small world I guess! Haha!

As for the "safety" issues... There aren't strong enough emoticons to capture half the intensity of my eye roll...

If they want to wine that much, buy a panel of plywood, some 2 bys that are wide enough to encompass the height of your CPU, and screw the plywood to the 2 bys to form a box. Cut a gap in the wood and mount a cooling fan if this is a requirement for your CPU, drill some ventilation holes, and then place a piece of plexi or lexan over the top. You can hinge it or screw it down. Serviceability vs cost, it's your choice. This way, it's fully enclosed, and no one can whine. The materials probably can be found for relatively cheap.

If it's only specific cables or wires that they are complaining about, go to an auto parts store and ask for the stuff that they run auto wiring through to keep it protected. A salvage yard is another, more cost conscious option. You're looking for those ribbed plastic tubes that have a slit down their length that auto wiring is run through. They handle engine compartment temperatures, and with a couple clip rings or a few zip ties will enclose any long runs of wires. If anyone complains, tell them if GM, Chrysler, and Ford are OK with using the material to safely run wiring, they can too. You can also roll ribbon cable to fit larger diameter tubes, and no cutting or resoldering of the cable is required.

Anyway, good luck and congrats!
Whoa, Richfiles? THE Richfiles that inspired so much of my early calculator hacking and modding at least a decade ago? If so, it is a great honor to have you here, and I'd love it if you would Introduce Yourself in the appropriate thread. I'm interested to hear that you've been experimenting with game-built logic in Little Big Planet, since I know that some of our hardcore Minecraft enthusiasts do the same thing in Minecraft. Good calls on the safety concerns. And that sounds like an absolutely ridiculous calculator; I'd love to see some more details and teardown photos if you ever get a chance to post a thread about it.
Also of interest in the realm of building computing devices in simulation environments not intended for such, there's the fluid computer in Dwarf Fortress, and I saw a project some time ago in which someone was designing a PC terminal with Wiremod (mostly an exercise in getting the peripherals to communicate with the CPU unit in a useful fashion).
That Dwarf Fortress computer looks ridiculously cool, although I don't understand what all the symbols mean. Smile Nifty on the Wiremod thing too, although I wouldn't mind seeing the project itself.
Oh, if there is a final photo of the complete CPU, I'd absolutely love to see it! I'll dig through the old posts, just incase It's hidden somewhere in there.
richfiles wrote:
Oh, if there is a final photo of the complete CPU, I'd absolutely love to see it! I'll dig through the old posts, just incase It's hidden somewhere in there.
The latest photos that I see in this topic are of the board and sockets in this post, but I might have overlooked something.
Wow, I didn't know anyone was interested in video! Very Happy I DO have a video of this years one. Just the decoding part though. There was a few kinks in the functionality. I'll try to remember to tape the old one working.
Link:
http://youtu.be/faC6Lg2svTw
adept wrote:
Wow, I didn't know anyone was interested in video! Very Happy I DO have a video of this years one. Just the decoding part though. There was a few kinks in the functionality. I'll try to remember to tape the old one working.
Link:
http://youtu.be/faC6Lg2svTw
Referring to the video description, how did you burn yourself? I hope from a soldering iron rather than voltage.
No, I touched a transformer with some damaged insulation and burned my thumb with the resulting voltage. I'm lucky I didn't fry myself (for good...) So, did you like the video?
  
Register to Join the Conversation
Have your own thoughts to add to this or any other topic? Want to ask a question, offer a suggestion, share your own programs and projects, upload a file to the file archives, get help with calculator and computer programming, or simply chat with like-minded coders and tech and calculator enthusiasts via the site-wide AJAX SAX widget? Registration for a free Cemetech account only takes a minute.

» Go to Registration page
Page 6 of 6
» All times are UTC - 5 Hours
 
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

 

Advertisement