hardware

Posts in this category are intended to provide information on the technologies, mostly old technology, that were used to create the processors, imagery and sound. I should be excused if I include personal memories around the hardware and it’s construction; it is done as an attempt to provide history as well as the pure technology. I apologize in advance for my poor hand at drawing schematics, my scribbles were originally only intended for my eyes.

Many of of the chips used to create the early image processing tools are outdated which limits the usefulness of these schematics.

I seem to have a small repository of schematics as Rich Brewster left me with most of his own documentation including the work he did for the ETC (I have some of the originals to what is also in the ETC archive). I also have what I documented working with David Jones and others. As I might become overwhelmed by the time it takes to scan the paper, this process might be slow.

However obsolete, I will only post schematics for those circuits that are in the public domain or for which I have permission to post which for now will not include any Jones modules.

Three Channel Jones Colorizer

video synthesizers

Though I always intended to build a colorizer, boards were in short supply, and I managed fine colorizing by patching subcarrier into video rate VC inputs of various modules - mostly my keyers. This was a lean approach. On a recent trip to Owego Dave Jones revealed he had 3 channel boards on a shelf along with the last RGB board. He generously gave them to me, as long as I actually built the colorizer. Considering Dave's designing a new and improved Eurorack version of the colorizer, the value for these older boards is limited, especially considering the large form factor.

read more

Completion of Modification of Jones Keyer

video synthesizers

Images of completion of modifying Jones keyer. I replaced the comparator and associated logic circuit with a differential amplifier - one of my last MC-1445s. I struggled with getting as much gain out of this circuit as I could. The gain is still not high enough but it's a start. A tricky part was the logic for on off and normal reverse. Thanks to Dave for help.

read more

Hacking a Vectrex

Vectrex

A couple of years ago I hacked a few Vectrex's, 3 for a colleague and one for myself. Here is a simple documentation of how I did it.

From Wikipedia:

read more

Jones Frame Buffer Prototype

custom hardware, video synthesizers, image processing

While working for the Experimental Television Center I built the first four Jones Frame Buffers with David. Pictured here is the one I built for myself. The first few buffers where built into the same card racks that were ubiquitous at the ETC at that time, later David rewired most of the buffers into newer larger boxes. This one might be the only one that stayed in the old rack.

read more

Tagtool

Tagtool

When I was last in Berlin Ilan Kitan introduced my wife and I to Mathias Fritz. Mathias is part of a team who mixes art and corporate mapping installation projects and in the process they developed the Tagtool, which they made available as a DIY project. Mathias had his Tagtool Mini with him and the four us played for a while. A very fun tool, it made an impression so I decided to build one. If nothing else it's a great video tool for the kids to play with.

read more

Pages