Re: Replace the 9010A base with an IBM Parallel port?

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The motivation is, how to keep these old boards running with a minimum of
time invested. We get up to five boards a day in for repairs and anything I
can do to improve the throughput (about a month behind currently) would be
a plus. That's my motivation...not 2001 (very cute though, ROTFL).

I think that combining the pods with the modern computer would be a useful
addition to the techs bench. There are still LOTs of these out in the real
world as well you know....many of them are fixing things other than old
video games. I suspect that so many of them turn up for auction is the
frustration with the time curve of using them effectively.

It is just an intellectual toy, fun, but is it worth the time? I still
think it is, but I can't write software effectively....but I'm going to
keep poking at it in my spare time...one needs a hobby after all...

Perhaps porting Fredric's code to the IBM is the best solution...not an
enormous amount of time, and a few new cool tricks.

John :-#)#

At 03:40 AM 27/02/2002 -0600, Mark Shostak wrote:

> > Having a probe to enable a Guided Fault test routine is a great plus. Of
> > course, one could use a simple interface for a Serial Port as well, and
>one
> > could still use the probe's I/O features...
> >
> > An old (or not so old) notebook computer that is a complete test
> > fixture/burner is quite intriguing...sell your bases now while they are
> > still worth something ;-)
>
>And, with some speech synth s/w, I can see it now:
>
>"John, Please replace the AE35 AVG Controller, it appears to be
>inoperative."
>
>Followed some time later by:
>
>"What are you doing John? John?
>Why are you removing my G08 outputs?
>Stop... John. Stop. ...Daisy, Daisy...".
>
>Oy
>
>---
>
>Automated test would be nice. With the existing h/w (i.e. Fluke + pods +
>tape or serial),
>all that is required is script developement. For what we're discussing here,
>there is h/w
>development, s/w development AND script development.
>
>Again, it sounds fun and it would be nice to have, but can the effort be
>justified by the return?
>
>The people who can do this type of thing, can alreay fix the boards fairly
>fast as it is.
>
>I don't see the ROI. So what's the motivation? All I see is "fun", but that
>motivation dies quickly
>when the real drudgery hits.
>
>-Mark

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Received on Wed Feb 27 08:11:13 2002