plotter work on SAC Interface: new board, GUI enhancements

SAC INTERFACE FOR ADDING PERIPHERALS TO THE 1130

Testing new board and Vivado toolchain results

I used a file set up to load a small area of core, ran it and checked to see if the proper locations were set as they should. Everything worked as expected and I now have the new fpga board up and ready for further progress.

Restructuring the GUI

My current design is a main window that has menus, a dark gray background and emulated lamps similar to the 1130 control panel. It will have several rows of information.

The first row consists of 16 digits, 0 to 15, that represent the state of the B register. Below each nibble, one hex character will be shown making it easy to move between absolute bit positions, binary values and hex values.

The next row (3) displays T clock and X clock values from the SAC interface, that is T0, T2, T4, T6, X0, X2, X4 and X6 as these are the only ones brought out from the 1130.

Row 4 will display the six interrupt levels IL0 to IL5 and a Cycle Steal indicator.

Row 5 has the remaining system status conditions displayed - Clock, Phase A, InhibitCS, XIOE1, ParityStop and Reset.

One menu, Devices, will display a list of devices as icons, allowing any combination to be activated or deactivated by selecting the icon in the list.

The File menu will offer the ability to stop the application, plus open or create actions for files for the various peripherals, but is intended to grow over time to support logging files and other tasks as needed.

I envision a window showing all the files that are available in the main data folder - with a nice icon for card decks, printer listings, disk cartridges and core contents. This will allow the user to drag and drop a file from this window onto one of the peripheral windows, causing the file to be mounted/opened if the device has no current file. This is in addition to the File menu and device oriented button methods.

Any activated device will display its own window with buttons and indications specific to that device. For example, it will allow PC files to be opened or created for virtual/mirror devices, request a Boot from a card reader device, or load a PC file as a virtual 2315 disk cartridge. The user can press an Open button or select the open from the File menu by clicking the menu or using a hotkey combination.

I began coding up the Model classes to hold the state and behavior of the 1131 and the various peripherals. These will be interrogated by the View components to display on the GUI. The Controller component will drive the transactions between the fpga and Python, trigger the View components if there is a change in state, and update the Model components.

Restoring Calcomp 565 plotter and converting it to IBM 1627

I will take the drum to an auto body repair shop, Service King,  that claims to have expertise in repairing aluminium car parts. Hopefully they can restore the cylinder to near-original condition, after which I can do any filling of low spots to get a smooth drawing surface.

If the original drum can't be repaired, there are two options I have been thinking of. First, I can cut off the end inch or two of the current drum, where there is no dent, form a new center section and get this rejoined. Second, I can laboriously remove all the pin-fed paper pins from the current drum, build a replacement drum, drill holes for the pins, insert a threaded rod into all of the removed pins and fasten them to the new drum.

Neither of these are appealing options, with the first a bit more attractive than the second. I would need to add a filler over the joins but this is not very difficult. The more difficult problem will be in making the join of three aluminum sections.

I decided to create an interim pen assembly, using a new solenoid with a make-shift pen, which I can mount on the plotter temporarily to test function. Later, I can have the proper parts machined that matches the Calcomp unit cosmetically as well as functionally.

I have the manuals and other data I need for the restoration and testing of the plotter. I did have to buy a 19 pin cannon female connector in order to connect my restored plotter to my interface electronics. Others have reported paying over $125 for the connector, but I found a new-old-stock connector on ebay for $33 including shipping.