To LUGNET HomepageTo LUGNET News HomepageTo LUGNET Guide Homepage
 Help on Searching
 
Post new message to lugnet.technicOpen lugnet.technic in your NNTP NewsreaderTo LUGNET News Traffic PageSign In (Members)
 Technic / 16034
16033  |  16035
Subject: 
Re: Digicomp II
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:51:40 GMT
Viewed: 
11509 times
  
In lugnet.technic, Alexander Holroyd wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYi9sJkS19Q

Congratulations Brian, this is truly astonishing!

I'd love to claim full credit, but I really have to say I never would have
thought this was possible until I had read about the original. The patent for
the original Digi-comp II is really interesting - the one patent contains the
idea for both DCII & a related device that got marketed as "Dr Nim" (it played
Nim using binary ball logic - I've not built that one yet, but it should be much
easier).

I think I am beginning to understand how some
of it works...

Good - then putting together a video and working in all that text & narration
was worth it :).

...What does the lower layer do?  Is it just
concerned with 2's complementing and clearing
the accumulator?

Essentially yes. If you watch the video at 4:55, you can see a ball flip the red
"L" gate to the left, dropping into a hole, and then the top gate of the
accumulator *just* visible at the bottom of the frame "jumps" a little. The ball
moves down under the accumulator, striking a lower one-sided gate on each bit to
reset them to the left. The next ball in the video drops through the hole over
the mode switches, & you can see the first one toggle there. Under the mode
switches are full flip-flops (although there's some alternatives I've thought
of, as really all the mode switches must move together, so there's no critical
need to toggle them independently).

--
Brian Davis



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Digicomp II
 
(...) Quite so. But an all-LEGO implementation is still a remarkable achievement. The patent for (...) It would be great to see a version of Dr Nim too. This might also be more of a manageable project for those with limited time and resources! Then (...) (16 years ago, 10-Feb-08, to lugnet.technic)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Digicomp II
 
(...) understand how some of it works... What does the lower layer do? Is it just concerned with 2's complementing and clearing the accumulator? cheers, Alexander (17 years ago, 15-Dec-07, to lugnet.technic)

17 Messages in This Thread:







Entire Thread on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact

This Message and its Replies on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact
    

Custom Search

©2005 LUGNET. All rights reserved. - hosted by steinbruch.info GbR