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If it gets the job done, it gets the job done. One of the CNC machines in our workshop was controlled by a MicroVAX until recently. Did what we asked it to.
by lb1lf 7y ago
If it gets the job done, it gets the job done.
One of the CNC machines in our workshop was controlled by a MicroVAX until recently. Did what we asked it to.
- mac_was 7y agoExactly what I wanted to post.
- crtlaltdel 7y agoyeah worked with a win3.1 box for a long time that was never shutdown on purpose (on a ups and we had back up generators). we ran midi tests of our hw with it. it was shutdown permanently in some time in 2010.
- tambourine_man 7y agoThe problem is when it stops doing its job. How much are Apple II parts? How easy is it to find people with the know-how? How much do they charge? How about 10 years from now? Long term tech is hard. We haven't had time to figure it out yet.
- Aloha 7y agoThe Apple II is one of a few computers that you could build a brand new one from parts if needed, they're not complex machines.
- boznz 7y agoor run on an emulator
- Aloha 7y agothe article makes it clear that you need to interact with special cards to control the exhibits
- rdc12 7y agoThat problem could probably be solved using an FPGA (or even simpler tech)
- emilfihlman 7y agoGiven the specs, an AVR could do it.
- sehugg 7y agoHow easy is it to find people with the know-how? How much do they charge? I'd think you'd find dozens of qualified volunteers willing to work pro-bono to keep a Apple ][-powered museum running. How about 10 years from now? You'd find slightly fewer.
- stunt 7y agoStill safe to leave the old stuff running if they get the job done and you don't want to add any new feature to it. And make sure you build your new stuff on a future proof platform. It really depends on the roadmap.
- tombert 7y agoI do worry that the power consumption might be far too high for the amount of value you're getting out of it. I mean, a Raspberry Pi Zero probably has more computing power than an Apple II, while using a small fraction of the power. You could probably retrofit the software to work relatively well on an Apple II emulator on the Raspberry Pi, for that matter. Increasingly I've been getting a bit worried about these "it gets the job done" mentalities; are the environmental externalities actually being properly accounted for?
- vogre 7y agoThe cost of rewriting the software will surpass any energy costs of the working solution. Not to mention crafting the new hardware and utilizing old computer will harm ecology too.
- tombert 7y agoWell, as I said, potentially an Apple II emulator might actually do the job depending on what the software is doing. This might be a fun thing to compute the numbers on.
- vogre 7y ago> The Apple II personal computer was introduced in 1977. One of its features was a compact, fanless switching power supply, which provided 38W of power at 5, 12, -5, and -12 volts Unless you are using Apple 2 emulator on Raspberry Pi, you won't get any modern computer working on 38W. Actually it has less power consumption than a lightbulb that is needed to light up the room where it stands.
- petra 7y agoAren't newer CNC machines much more effective,and slowly replacing older machines ?
- forgottenpass 7y agoCNC is a way to control a tool, and the tools that can be controlled are so wide ranging that it's weird to talk about the efficacy of CNC, rather than the capabilities of the tool you're controlling.
- xyzzyz 7y agoMany CNC machines in operation are retrofits of WWII era manual lathes and mills. There are so many of those still in existence, and the demand for small scale machining is so small in the US these days that the market for high quality machining tools have effectively segmented into huge modern CNC machining centers worth hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, and many decades old refurbished tools for small scale, simple one offs and hobbyist tools.
- HeyLaughingBoy 7y agoSometimes, sometimes not. CNC (as someone noted) is just a control mechanism. For some use cases, the cams and levers of a World War II-era Screw Machine are faster and far more cost effective than a new, or even used CNC mill/lathe. There are shops out there that will buy up old automated machine tools and dedicate each machine to a particular setup or product that they make in bulk. That 60 year-old hunk of cast iron and steel might have cost an eyewatering sum when it was new, but because CNC is all the rage now, it's available for the cost of scrap now and it may still be as precise as the day it was built.
- tenebrisalietum 7y agoRight there is the problem with a lot of newer things. It does things other than what you ask it to, like upload telemetry, consume your bandwidth to deliver advertisements, or reboot for updates.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]