@paulrickards@mastodon.social
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

paulrickards

@paulrickards@mastodon.social

Artist exploring vintage plotters with modern code. Retrocomputing repair and collecting. Mixes the best of new and old. He/him #plottertwitter refugee #penplotter #c64 🏳️‍🌈

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

paulrickards, to genart
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

CMY Truchet tiles big arcs, plotted with a HP 7585B on 11x15 watercolor paper.

Detail from a pen plot of large concentric swirling intersecting and overlapping arcs of many different colors.
Detail from a pen plot of large concentric swirling intersecting and overlapping arcs of many different colors.

NanoRaptor, to random
@NanoRaptor@bitbang.social avatar

What are some numbers in your field that anyone else in the field would identify without even thinking about it, but folk outside may have no idea. Just the numbers, no explanations. Yet.

105 148 210 297 420 594 841 1189

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@NanoRaptor 110, 300, 1200, 2400, 9600, 14400, 19200, 28800, 38400, 57600, 115200

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@NanoRaptor 49152, 53280, 53281, 64738

paulrickards, to retrocomputing
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

maintenance today. My HP 7585B stopped responding over RS-232. Diagnostics revealed a problem with the interface card. Luckily I have a spare machine that can donate a new working card!

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

And it works! Here’s a video of the HP 7585B plotting a big arc Truchet tile design using three colors (yellow, cyan, and magenta) on 11x15 watercolor. Total time 1h15m.

Warning: sound may have loud clicks/taps!

Video montage of a HP 7585 plotting a design of large concentric arcs broken up by squares in cyan, yellow, and magenta. It performs tool changes to swap pens automatically.

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@tonymasiello Thanks! It's a beast of a machine. Extremely heavy, cast and extruded metal case and stand. First one I got in 2018 which I had to repair it (link to blog below). It developed a more serious issue that I haven't puzzled out yet so it's a parts machine for the moment. The second one I got a few years later.

https://biosrhythm.com/?p=2722

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@vga256 Yeah it howls! It's a single large fan. I've already had to replace the one in my EXL. I just got the exact replacement. Can it be replaced any any kind of fan? The plotter controls the speed.

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@tehstu It is remarkable that it works so well, especially considering it will change pens automatically and continue with the same prevision. It can also draw much faster than is shown here as well (I slowed it down to get good sharp lines).

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

And here’s the completed plot!

CMY Truchet big arcs unconnected variation on 11”x15” watercolor paper using a HP 7585B plotter from 1983 using #Python code.

#PenPlotter #GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt #Art #ArtForSale #Artist #ArtForSaleByArtist #NoAI #RetroComputing

Close up detail of a pen plot of tilted tiles repeating squares filled with overlapping quarter arcs of cyan, yellow, and magenta. The tiles are prominent with strong borders.
Close up detail of a pen plot of tilted tiles repeating squares filled with overlapping quarter arcs of cyan, yellow, and magenta. The tiles are prominent with strong borders.

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@harpaa01 It’s very mesmerizing to watch while it works. I’ve heard of those card kiosks but never seen one in person. Sounds like a good deal- you get a card plus entertainment! 😊

paulrickards, to retrocomputing
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

A Hayes appreciation post.

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@tech10 Yep, it was a serial date and time clock, used when computers didn't have a time of day clock on board.

I made an adapter board that turns it into a stand alone NTP clock.

You can read about both:

https://biosrhythm.com/?p=1546

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@therieau 😎

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@rickt137 Super cool! Those were the days. Were they individual modems are was it a rack mount box with multiple modems built in?

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@arcadeshopper That's the stuff right there!

sharewarewolf, to free
@sharewarewolf@bitbang.social avatar

EDIT: It's taken.
to a good home: One Amiga 500 with internal floppy drive and missing covers. I don't have the AC adapter for it. 🅰️
1/2

The underside of an Amiga 500 on a wood floor. The bottom and side covers are missing. The pins and some stickers are visible where the bottom cover should be and an edge connector that should be covered by the side cover. Some rust is visible on the bare metal that can be seen through the cooling slots.
A closeup of the silver sticker on the underside of the computer. The Commodore logo and logotype are at the top, then MODEL A500, POWER 5vDc @ 4.5A 12vDc @ 1A -12vD @.1A. Below that serial number, FCC info, and MADE IN USA. A faded sticker with 009 from a dot matrix printer is to the left of the silver sticker and a white sticker with green text to the right reads FINAL TEST BY 1
The right side of a dirty A500 in profile. The floppy drive and eject button are at the right of the photo.

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@sharewarewolf I'd love to give the Amy a new home here!

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@scott @sharewarewolf I just happen to be looking at my timeline at the right moment I guess!

sharewarewolf, to free
@sharewarewolf@bitbang.social avatar

to a good home: One Radius PowerView 0346/0347 SCSI video adapter.

The back of a dark gray case with two screw heads in the upper corners. Upper left is a barrel jack for power and a SCSI ID selector. Below those are Mac and PC video connectors. Two Centronix SCSI connectors are to the right.
The label on the underside, printed in light gray on the dark gray plastic. radius PowerView Model 0346/0347 5 Vdc 1.5 A, plus FCC information. Made in USA.

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@sharewarewolf Oh can I take that? Thanks!

paulrickards, to retrocomputing
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

This Python script will convert an ImageWriter II data stream/capture into a TIFF file. This was incredibly handy for running multiple tests without needing to actually print it on the printer to see the results.

https://github.com/shysaur/ImageWriter2/blob/2f34b9174de10b2a22d825854159468a5a3c45e2/TestOutput/imwii_sim.py

paulrickards, (edited ) to RaspberryPi
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

I’ve been rebuilding a installation that supports my classic Mac habit 😄

I used to use the awesome image which includes a ton of pre-configured software like . But it hasn’t been updated in a while so I used it as excuse to start from scratch.

I used this Pi Zero W as my starting point. HDMI video stopped working on it for unknown reasons. I added an Ethernet/USB hub hat and a 2 hat for devices.

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@eric AURP routing isn’t supported yet but hopefully soon!

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

I was able to tweak the output of the ImageWriter II prints from CUPS to be slightly better. I've updated the blog post.

https://biosrhythm.com/?p=2791

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

This animation shows the simulated output of CUPS ImageWriter II DitherPPI setting approximately from 2 to 31. After that, it changes to a more posterized dither and is the same for any larger value. You can see the dithering dots start very large and shrink down with each new value.

An animation showing subsequent values for the DitherPPI setting inside the CUPS iwhi PPD. The video starts as large halftone dots that slowly get smaller, eventually being clear enough to see that it's Margaret Hamilton.

mejs, to random
@mejs@mastodon.vladovince.com avatar

I can't wait to start this new project.

Inspired by @DosFox.

Boards courtesy of @paulrickards.

The beginning of an Apple Lisa.

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@mejs @DosFox Excellent! 🎉 Congratulations!!

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@mejs @DosFox How about the other issues like keyboard?

paulrickards,
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

@mejs I think your pin napping is right. Here’s my 25 pin to 8 pin miniDIN adapter for LocalTalk.

Did you swap the 25 pin serial port with the correct gender? The pin numbering will be backwards otherwise.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • thenastyranch
  • ngwrru68w68
  • tacticalgear
  • magazineikmin
  • Youngstown
  • khanakhh
  • rosin
  • slotface
  • InstantRegret
  • everett
  • mdbf
  • JUstTest
  • cubers
  • GTA5RPClips
  • cisconetworking
  • modclub
  • ethstaker
  • osvaldo12
  • Durango
  • normalnudes
  • tester
  • provamag3
  • Leos
  • anitta
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •