Sunburst and Luminary -- An Apollo Memoir by Don Eyles (video)

Buy the book from the Amazon link on the right side of the page >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

There is so much great stuff in this 2018 video.  I am definitely going to buy the book.  This is another of those things that reminds me (a hardware guy) of the importance of software (Sunburst and Luimary were the names of two programs that Eyles wrote to enable the LEM to land on the moon).  

-- Asked about one of the biggest ancillary contributions of the Apollo program,  Eyles immediately says, "integrated circuits."   They used three terminal NOR gates.  Lots of them. 

-- They never had a hardware failure in the Apollo computers.  Demonstrating a classic troubleshooting technique, when they discovered what they thought was a hardware failure, they ran the program on another computer.  The problem was also there, so they knew there had been no failure on the first machine. 

-- The LEM simulator was very cool. 

-- Eyles' ability -- in two hours -- to write the code for the automatic landing program that Astronaut John Young was asking for, then have it flown on an Apollo mission to the moon was very impressive. 

Thanks to the MIT Museum for posting Don's talk.  And thanks to HackADay for alerting us to it.

Also, take a look at this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi4h04ZgQsQ

And this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmAc7t7tAlc

The Si4730 Radio Chip (Luddite Alert!) (video)

I have misgivings about this.  Hack-A-Day presents it as a DIY radio project and wonders if this might be the modern equivalent of the crystal radio projects of days-gone-by.  But notice that the "build" video focuses mostly on building the box.  The electronic "building" of this radio mostly involves plugging in two chips, or two boards with chips. My questions are: 

1) When this project is finished, who REALLY built it? You, or the Si4730 manufacturer?  

2)  After you've "built" this thing, would you have the same sense of accomplishment that you get from an analog, discrete component project?  Or even from that crystal radio?  

Of course, to each his own.   This is all for fun.  Have fun with the Si4730.  But today I'll be working on my Hallicrafters S-38E. 

https://hackaday.com/2020/02/12/all-band-radio-uses-arduino-and-si4730/

Life in the Fast Lane: Potato Semiconductor Chips

Even I, with my luddite tendencies and analog preferences, have recently bumped up against the speed limit of 74 series logic chips.  The Si5351 chip in the I and Q VFO for my phasing receiver will run up to 160 MHz.   But the 74 series inverters and flip flops that I have attached to the output don't seem to want to go beyond about 120 MHz.   Our old friend Thomas LA3PNA tells us how to break this speed limit:

http://www.potatosemi.com/  

Be sure to go their "Milestones of 74 Series Logic" Page.

I like their explanation of the brand name: 

De-mystifying a chip -- Looking inside the 741 Op-Amp

Inside a 741 op amp, showing the die. This is a TO-99 metal can package, with the top sawed off

This is really cool and potentially life-changing for radical fundamentalist ludite homebrewers.  As our readers will know, my big objection to the use of integrated circuit chips is the fact that these little black boxes are in fact often, well,  little black boxes.  We don't know what is going on in there.  It seems to me pointless to shy away from the use of large black boxes (the extremely complex "radios" that dominate the amateur airwaves today) only to fill our homebrew rigs with smaller black boxes. 

But when we crack one of these boxes open and take a look at the transistors, resistors, and capacitors formed on the substrate, then diagram it all out,  I think the fog of mystery is blown away by a refreshing wind of insight and understanding.  We saw this happen on a much smaller scale when someone cut open an SBL1 mixer, but that wasn't an IC.  Ken Shirriff has now done this with the venerable 741 Op Amp.  And he did it with a hack saw.  Bravo Ken.  I can now in good conscience uses 741 op amps in my rigs.    

http://www.righto.com/2015/10/inside-ubiquitous-741-op-amp-circuits.html

Sparks from Ron Sparks: The Grand Pooh Bah and Gilbert and Sullivan; SDR, Ned Ludd and Blaise Pascal

 

Hi Bill,

Thanks very much for the mention in your tenth anniversary podcast!  It is great to know I am embedded in internet history even though I am not that important.

I enjoyed listening to you and Pete on the recent Soldersmoke Podcast.  I really got a kick out of the various discussions and thought I would weigh in.  I am sure you have heard someone say "Well actually...", so here are a few from me

• Grand Pooh-Bah is, as you say, a Flintstones character, but it is not the the origin of the term. It actually goes back bit more than a century.  The original character was named Pooh-Bah and was Lord High of nearly everything.  He appeared in The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan in 1885.
• There really are a fair number of non-software experiments that can be done with SDR.  My first SDR was a set of boards assembled by Gerald when he was first starting Flexradio in 2002.  His plans were very much homebrew and were published in QEX July/Aug 2002.  My second SDR was a homebrew kit put together by Tony Parks, KB9YIG in 2005.  He still sells SDR kits as fivedash.com.  All this is very much home brew and does not rely on obscure hardware blobs.  Have a look at the schematic for the current softrock at Ensemble II Schematic.pdf.  It only uses "jellybean ICs".
• According to the Smithsonian magazine, "Despite their modern reputation, the original Luddites were neither opposed to technology nor inept at using it...A seemingly endless war against Napoleon’s France had brought 'the hard pinch of poverty,' wrote Yorkshire historian Frank Peel, to homes 'where it had hitherto been a stranger.' Food was scarce and rapidly becoming more costly. Then, on March 11, 1811, in Nottingham, a textile manufacturing center, British troops broke up a crowd of protesters demanding more work and better wages."  It was only later that they became associated with resenting the machinery.

I am also enjoying your discussion of the changes to our technology and how it affects hams and other technical people.  I came into electronics as a young boy and at that time transistors were just beginning to displace tubes as a dominant force.  I definitely remember the older techs saying, "These new transistor things are just sand-in-a-can; how can anyone know how a circuit operates with them."

About 12 years later when I was in college I heard exactly the same comment as "jellybean" Integrated Circuits (7400 and 4000) began to displace discrete transistors.  There was much musing about how the future would be one of just plugging ICs together and no design talent would be needed or developed.
Fast forward another 20 years and the microprocessor moved from Primary CPU, to cheap CPU, to PICs and Atmels.  Here came the same comment lamenting the loss of ICs that "we could understand" and "no more electronics is needed, just hook the blocks and write the software."

Now about 10 years from then we are seeing complete transmitter and receiver modules, zigbee, wifi, and many other Adafruit style drop-in modules.  I figure it is about time to hear that old saying once again.  You and Pete need to be careful as you dance about it, don't fall into the trap !

So in the immortal words of Blaise Pascal in 1657, "I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter."
Keep up the good work and great podcast!

73 de AG5RS, Ron

Finally! Dis-Intergrated Circuits! Discrete Component Op Amps!

That, my friends, is a discrete component version of the 741 op amp chip.  I like it!  No more mysterious miniature black boxes -- here's a "chip" that you can understand, troubleshoot, and modify.   Seven Forty Fun!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1208645775/open-analog

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

HB Chips! Discrete Component Version of 555 Timer

The world would be a better place if we could do more of this...  Thanks to David Cowhig for alerting me to this wonderful development. Details here:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/hands-on/build-your-own-giant-555-timer-chip


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20