Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Interacting with the running Apollo Guidance Computer using DSKY

Testing the DSKY substitute

We hooked up the DSKY substitute to the Apollo Guidance Computer and verified that all the lights, displays and keys worked properly. We now have a physical manifestation of the interface used by the astronauts to interact with the computer.

Video of DSKY working with AGC

Testing Ben Krasnow's electroluminescent panel

Ben (Applied Science YouTube channel) came over with the EL panel he built to NASA specs and we worked to interface it to my DSKY substitute. After a bit of work, I got it mirroring the display on my DSKY as the AGC ran various Apollo era software.

Video of Applied Science electroluminescent panel used with AGC

It was great to see a real electroluminescent display providing the output from the computer. Realism of the interaction took a step up.

Using the DSKY with the AGC

We ran several portions of the Apollo 11 LM mission, using the DSKY to interact with the Luminary 99 flight software that flew in the spacecraft. This included calculating the rendezvous burn after ascent from the lunar surface and of course the powered descent down to the surface. No 1202 alarms for us, because we didn't have a simulated Rendezvous Radar feeding pulses to overload the computer.

2 comments:

  1. Those embedded pics are a tease (clicking on them just gives you thumbnails with a PLAY icon) - I would love to actually see the videos.

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    1. Sorry - actual videos uploaded and linked now. They played when I tried them, which unfortunately didn't work for everyone else.

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