Bill, 

    I would really like to get involved in this. Actually, what I want to
do is build a system that basically looks like some kind of module thats
been salvaged from an ENIAC or something of the sort. I want it to be
black, heavy, ugly, and scary all at once. My plan as of right now is to
make a rack-mounted unit. I plan on fabricating some plate metal for the
face that I can paint black, or possibly powder coat for durability. One
of the major stumbling blocks of making my system look old is the cdrom
drive. The plastic tray that slides out just wont have the same effect
hence my search for a cdrom that loads without the tray. I want to cut a
slit in the plate metal to accept disks. A slit in the front panel isn't
too bad. It can still look old and ugly that way.
    The other major problem of course for me has been the gauges. I don't
have the skills to build a D-A converter that will run the CPU meter and
the RAM consumption. Those are the 2 major problems I have run
into. Everything else is simple: the old toggle switches and amber lights
aren't a problem. I could use help with the other stuff. I agree with
you: I am kind of a "boat anchor" fan. I like my computers and gear to
look like computer gear, not like a breadmaker. 






On Thu, 19 Apr 2001, Bill Layer wrote:

> Me a-gain,
> 
> On Thu, 19 Apr 2001 10:23:53 -0500 (CDT)
> jethro at yaron.org wrote:
>  
> > It is interesting. Writing a daemon to do that should be easy, if you
> know how 
> > to access the card... heck, have a shellscript dump /dev/whatever into
> it.
> > 
> > I like the idea of analog gauges showing RAM/swap/CPU status (: 
> > 
> > rings up another question: where do you find really cool gauges...
> 
> Take a look at the equipment I *used* to help design & manufacture and
> leave that little issue to me :)
> 
> http://www.atma-sphere.com/m60.htm
> 
> Only issue, those round gauges bought new are big bucks... around $75.00
> each. The cool part, is that they are the EXACT same part that the
> manufacturers made in the 1920's. I made sure of that. We'll need to try
> and get a lot off of the surplus market, or pull from used gear to suit
> the individual application. One good source is Fair Radio Spares catalog.
> Also, locally there are Ax-Man and Dexis... but it would be hard to get a
> useful quantity of matched parts from either.
> 
> I'm actually quite psyched about this, who wants to jump in on it?
> 
> Heh, I could even write a little firmware for a Microchip PIC uC and build
> a serial (USB?) version. The new PICs have on-chip 8/12bit DACs. Shiver.
> 
> 
> 
>                            -.bill.layer.-
>                           
> -.those who are talking don't know, and those who know aren't talking.-
> 
>            -.frogtown.-     -.minnesota.-      -.u.s.a.-
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-- 

   "It's pretty hard to stop a man who eats his toast every morning."