Congrats! Tape data loading onto the drum! That’s quite an achievement. It’s really neat to see the data build up on the track at the pokey speed it’s read in from the tape. Such a relaxing computing pace.
Thank you! Interestingly, what we're seeing on the scope is incrementing four words at a time, so that's actually 116-bits being transferred over at a time, which is decently fast!
As a highway engineer, even my modern computing equipment often struggles with road grading terrain models and leaves me pulling my hair out (Microsoft + Autodesk + Bentley is a recipe for chronic ulcers) so I have all the more appreciation this thing was doing it (probably more reliably) 70 years ago.
You have the best ability to convey complex computer jargon that I could never understand on my own. I appreciate you saving historical items like this and sharing. Many thanks. Always enjoy watching you.
Thank you so much! The G15 is quite a complex system, even something as simple as loading in paper tape data is a fairly difficult system to understand, so I definitely wanted to take the time and explain it as clearly as I could!
@@UsagiElectric I assume it helps a lot that you are familiar with both the principles of operation for vacuum tubes and already designed and built a small, primitive computer with them.
Unfortunately it can't. I spoke with David when he was at Systems Source removing the good drum from the Bendix they have on display. I said the very same thing, "I cant wait for it to print out 'Hellorld'." David said it cant, since the Bendix is a numerical computer only. It can't do alphanumerics. Therefore no letters. The closest he could get would be printing images of the Hellorld letters. I hope he can get that far.
I am 62 years old. Despite that fact, I have experience with a Mach 3 computer, which of course had tubes. In particular, I did a binary add with the adder circuit of one, back in the late 70s. It was interesting as the "accumulator", a set of neon bulbs, changed with every bit change of the additives., two sets of switches. It had hundreds of tubes, and was very bright and took a while to warm up, I am pretty sure just the adder circuit ran thousands of watts.
That single scope shot made the entire input system click in my head and really helped me understand what was going on! Also, it was just super cool to see the data push around the drum line!
First let me say: Lloyd, you are a bloody legendary hero to keep coming to restore this old beast from your working days back to life and we totally appreciate you! Grats Dave! PLEASE keep focus on this machine until it's 100% rather then cycling through projects if possible (and if Lloyd's schedule allows) because it's SO close I am all but dancing on my toe-tips here. I cannot believe how invested i've gotten into seeing the Bendix run, it's worse then with the Centurion that got me hooked on your channel in the first place, LOL.
He does need to wait on other people too, plus he needs to get some mental breaks to work on something else or this thing can burn him out a bit. I'm glad it's getting more attention lately, though! Bendix is like the new Centurion, the big project, and after that we can get on with a new big overarching project while the others get to be the fresh air between.
Lloyd is absolutely a legend! I have a trip planned to Pittsburgh coming up in about two and a half weeks, so the Bendix will be on hold during that trip, but I am going to try to get another episode in before I go. I think the very next episode might be on the diode tester since I'm quite amped up about where we are on it!
Back in the 80's I worked for a large photocopier company and ( starts with X ) was sent to a month-long training course on one of our large production machines. This was my introduction to computer logic and this machine was discrete component logic. there were some IC's and lots single devices these monitored dozens of switches and sensors monitoring paper movement and different functions throughout the machine. It was absolutely overwhelming, but we had good instructors and good training material and we got through it. This stuff is complex , tip of the hat to you guys for figuring this all out.
Fascinating. For some reason UA-cam dropped this in my feed. It’s wholly unrelated to anything Ive ever watched (unless restoring old tractors and boats is a connection…) So naturally I didn’t understand a word you said but still found it mesmerizing that a machine like this could show signs of life and that you know how to coax it to function.
Absolutely fantastic. I was quite Skeptical that it would ever live again, "Bit more then you could chew" type of thing. But you and the community has shown, there is bite to that bark. I am in awe!
Excellent work. Won't post any spoilers here, but your solutions to problems are innovative, and, more importantly, _functional._ Well done, both of you!
I've been watching a lot of this and I'd like to thank not just you but Mrs Bunny and all the little bunnies. There's a lot of sacrificing going on making these videos for us and working on this hardware. And I want you to know it's greatly appreciated. 😊
Just started computer sciences in university, hearing about these old vacuum computers and actually seeing them work is two completely different things! Love the video, can't wait to see this bendix execute a program... Keep up the great work!
Looking at those cards jogged an old memory... I'm pretty sure I encountered one of these machines way in the back of a desert junkyard in the early 1990s. Man, if I could just go back in time and have another look
I enjoy watching your adventures. I don't have the love for these kind of machines.... but I always enjoy a good fix-up. It encourages me to keep at it.
@@UsagiElectric That's not just 10 years! You look like you're in your early 20s almost when clean shaven and in your 50s or later when you're about to shave lol
Pretty cool to see each hurdle being tested, troubleshooting and repaired. This machine is what brought me to your channel. Looking forward to seeing it compute again. Thanks for the videos. I’m also looking forward to your Diode testing video
Human ingenuity is simply amazing, this takes me back to when i was 9 and pulled apart my TRS-80 to see how it worked lol , my father was none to happy but it kept me from his power tools 🤣🤣 this computer is a work of art.
Seeing the blocks of bits march across the scope as they were shifted onto the number track gave me goosebumps. It's incredible that you've even gotten this far on a machine that is pushing 70 years old! You're a restoration legend, and Lloyd is too for contributing his first-hand experience with this machine! I can't wait for the next video.
That's incredible. What a beautiful machine. Nice job getting this far. And I know what a mammoth task it was just to film and present this video. Thanks!
Regards from Spain! As a tube amp builder, is a pleasure to see people like you interested in this kind of stuff, Congrats for your channel dude. Best wishes!
Great work. Keep at it - retro computer enthusiasts and computer historians will love to see this piece of computer history read tape and be alive again. We thank you for your efforts.
What an awesome contribution to computing history! We get in such a hurry for.the latest, greatest thing that it can be easy to fail to preserve things like this... but it was so important to human history, so getting it to work is fantastic.
With a function generator, a resistor and your scope, you can create a curve tracer for the diodes. It may be that the breakdown voltage on the bad one is very low. BTW: I have found that a 1N5711 works OK as a replacement for a 1N34 in some circuits. The signals you have a large enough and slow enough that it is likely that the details of the diode don't matter much. The BAT41 is a 100V diode. I think you are only running about 25V on those diodes so that should be OK A conventional silicon diode would likely work for you if you need a higher voltage part
AWESOME!! Now all you need to do is to restore a Tektronix 575 curve tracer and test the diode under load! (This only uses 1/4 the number of vacuum tubes that your Bendix uses!) Good luck!!😁
Wow wow wow, thought I'd be one of the first to say congratulations, been following this with interest from the start, now I'm watching the full video.
Undoubtedly, your most interesting and captivating video yet. I'll watch again to verify what I thought your troubleshooting was actually fully going. EXCELLENT. Any video where the viewer gets to burn his or her brain energy/thoughts is my kind of video. Reminds me of 3:00 AM nights when I was with DEC and trying to get a system going. No sleep and running on just coffee and a scope probe !!!
So happy. This was quite a journey to kickstart the ghost in this machine, fantastic. High five to all of you for sure for not giving up. Can't wait when actually calculate something with that thing.
This is quite an odyssey! But I'll follow your Bendix exploration as long as it ever may take. This machine has something incomparable to it. You're doing a fascinating and invaluable job by restoring this machine, your patience and resilience are admirable! All the best of luck to you and your mates and family!
🎉 Nice! Maybe the diodes are bad in the sense that their breakdown voltage has decreased to something lower than the one they need to block. So the meter's low voltage test doesn't trigger the failure.
or gone too resistive/leaky in reverse, germanium diodes do have more reverse leakage current than silicon anyway, this wont show up on a multimeter diode test, you need a 'semiconductor analyzer' like a Peak dca55/dca75
As an electrical engineer...I would love to see you at some point get this to the point of performing the differential equations calcuations you mentioned in the beginning of the video! Even a relatively "simple" one would be amazing to see!
In the early '70s my parents had a Bendix washing machine combined drier, it was enormous, I asked my mum about it, she said it was the best machine she ever had, when it broke though it was hard to source parts in the UK and so she got rid of it, none of the usual manufacturers did a combo machine and so she had to buy both a washer and a drier.
Seeing the values populate on the drum and being read back correctly was just so awesome I wished there was a double-like button. What a thrilling experience. Well done!
You can construct a junction tester with nothing more than a stepdown transformer & a resistor that feed the X-Y function of a scope. A Germanium diode will have more of a slop to the knee, as germanium junctions are more leaky than silicone, but you can test a good GE diode & use that for comparison to determine which ones are bad.
Just gotta say, I love the editing in the crosstalk between Dave and Future-Dave. You are approaching Jedi level Youtubing skillz. The self-deprecating comments are fun, too. 'Uncoordinated monkey' had me snorting my coffee.
Thank you for again an exciting episode. It feel like a real thriller to me, with a positive ending every time. I love you man, and am looking forward to the new episode every sunday. Thanks again!
So cool to have friends in museums 😁 It's amazing to see such stuff for the first time ever, and in working condition to boot I have only seen mainframe emulators but this is the real deal, old school
A good way to check diodes is with a device called an octopus. They are dirt cheap and can be made with a couple resistors. They hook up to a scope in xy mode. Variable results with new scopes but work great with CRT scopes.
If you cannot find an exact photo diode you could put a fiber optic cable in its place and run it to another location where you can then use some other photo diode that is larger.
Not a bad idea. You should probably hide that construction behind the metal case, to keep the original appearance intact. But it would definitely solve the size problem, and you could use the more available versions of light-sensitive Germanium diodes.
Gotta love the archeological scratching of “YOU WANNA BET?” from a former technician next to the block labeled “CLOCK TRACK (PERMANENT RECORDING) TIMING TRACK” on the drawing.
I would place the new photo-diode on the sprocket channel and move the sprocket diode to bit 2. That way you have 5 identical data channels and you only need to adjust the sprocket bias to be different and it will then cause all the data bits to behave the same way.
Congrats! Tape data loading onto the drum! That’s quite an achievement. It’s really neat to see the data build up on the track at the pokey speed it’s read in from the tape. Such a relaxing computing pace.
Thank you!
Interestingly, what we're seeing on the scope is incrementing four words at a time, so that's actually 116-bits being transferred over at a time, which is decently fast!
@@UsagiElectric That's faster than our dial-up in 1996. lol
@@electronashyes - good catch that was funny 😂🎉
I got a good laugh out of the "You Wanna Bet?" that someone wrote on the schematic at 21:28. So cool to see this coming back to life!
I imagine that was added after someone wrote to that track
I put that shot from the manual in specifically because I found that hand scribbled note hilarious!
funny and also so cool to suddenly see humanity in the schematic 🎉
As a highway engineer, even my modern computing equipment often struggles with road grading terrain models and leaves me pulling my hair out (Microsoft + Autodesk + Bentley is a recipe for chronic ulcers) so I have all the more appreciation this thing was doing it (probably more reliably) 70 years ago.
Diaper = diagnostic program for easy repair. This one wins the "catchy acronym in the IT industry" award easily.
I thought it was a silly name until I saw the acronym, then I immediately loved it, haha.
@@UsagiElectric nearly as good as the WIPL ? and others for the centurion ?
It catches all errors and stops them in their tracks. Does it catch and prevent memory leaks, though?
Adding a program to it to dump out core drum memory to the typewriter could be funny. The dumper that uses a ton of paper.
@@UsagiElectricFitting for when the Bendix $h1t$ itself.
You have the best ability to convey complex computer jargon that I could never understand on my own. I appreciate you saving historical items like this and sharing. Many thanks. Always enjoy watching you.
Thank you so much!
The G15 is quite a complex system, even something as simple as loading in paper tape data is a fairly difficult system to understand, so I definitely wanted to take the time and explain it as clearly as I could!
@@UsagiElectric I assume it helps a lot that you are familiar with both the principles of operation for vacuum tubes and already designed and built a small, primitive computer with them.
I've never seen someone so happy about a loaded diaper.
😂😂😂
Wait till it purges 😁
A loaded diaper means internal stuff is working!
@@UsagiElectric 🤦♂️
@@UsagiElectric I think he meant a loaded diaper, literally
"...anyone else restoring a Bendix G15..." I'd say that is a pretty rarefied group! 😁
You can probably count the number of us on one hand, haha.
@@UsagiElectric
@@UsagiElectric So debate in the community means you are feeling divided?
@@UsagiElectricthere was presumably a time when you could count the number on zero hands, so 👍
@@UsagiElectric Using only thumbs? Fascinating project!
1:21 no, the correct question is, obviously, "Can it play Doom?"
Great minds think alike
Pong? The players must feed in the next move by paper.
@@afberglund2764 Might be able to play chess that way.
The Bendix is by far my favorite of all your vintage machines. Getting closer to fully operational! I can’t wait to see it print out “HELLORLD”.!
Unfortunately it can't. I spoke with David when he was at Systems Source removing the good drum from the Bendix they have on display. I said the very same thing, "I cant wait for it to print out 'Hellorld'." David said it cant, since the Bendix is a numerical computer only. It can't do alphanumerics. Therefore no letters. The closest he could get would be printing images of the Hellorld letters. I hope he can get that far.
Me too! Been waiting for this great day! Congrats.
@@georgestephens2593Then I wonder why it even has a teletype for the interface? Would it just print out a code with numbers whenever it responds?
It might be able to punch a paper tape that you could then take over to a Model 15 Teletype to read to produce alphabetic characters.
I like the steam driven all mechanic Bendix.
I am 62 years old. Despite that fact, I have experience with a Mach 3 computer, which of course had tubes. In particular, I did a binary add with the adder circuit of one, back in the late 70s. It was interesting as the "accumulator", a set of neon bulbs, changed with every bit change of the additives., two sets of switches. It had hundreds of tubes, and was very bright and took a while to warm up, I am pretty sure just the adder circuit ran thousands of watts.
Congratulations! When I saw the data build up on the drum through the oscilloscope, I gasped!
Yes, that was awesome!
That single scope shot made the entire input system click in my head and really helped me understand what was going on!
Also, it was just super cool to see the data push around the drum line!
I know right? It was like the midcentury equivalent of a progress bar, so cool!
THIS is the kind of UA-cam content I really enjoy
what's the meme...
"Can it run Crisis?!?"
awesome piece of history
First let me say: Lloyd, you are a bloody legendary hero to keep coming to restore this old beast from your working days back to life and we totally appreciate you!
Grats Dave! PLEASE keep focus on this machine until it's 100% rather then cycling through projects if possible (and if Lloyd's schedule allows) because it's SO close I am all but dancing on my toe-tips here. I cannot believe how invested i've gotten into seeing the Bendix run, it's worse then with the Centurion that got me hooked on your channel in the first place, LOL.
He does need to wait on other people too, plus he needs to get some mental breaks to work on something else or this thing can burn him out a bit. I'm glad it's getting more attention lately, though! Bendix is like the new Centurion, the big project, and after that we can get on with a new big overarching project while the others get to be the fresh air between.
Lloyd is absolutely a legend!
I have a trip planned to Pittsburgh coming up in about two and a half weeks, so the Bendix will be on hold during that trip, but I am going to try to get another episode in before I go. I think the very next episode might be on the diode tester since I'm quite amped up about where we are on it!
Back in the 80's I worked for a large photocopier company and ( starts with X ) was sent to a month-long training course on one of our large production machines. This was my introduction to computer logic and this machine was discrete component logic. there were some IC's and lots single devices these monitored dozens of switches and sensors monitoring paper movement and different functions throughout the machine. It was absolutely overwhelming, but we had good instructors and good training material and we got through it. This stuff is complex , tip of the hat to you guys for figuring this all out.
A belated happy 10.-22. to you!
Fascinating. For some reason UA-cam dropped this in my feed. It’s wholly unrelated to anything Ive ever watched (unless restoring old tractors and boats is a connection…) So naturally I didn’t understand a word you said but still found it mesmerizing that a machine like this could show signs of life and that you know how to coax it to function.
Glad to have you here, and happy to hear you enjoyed the video!
20:25 Holy Cow! I mean, I've seen myself completely beardless, but you've dropped probably about 10 years off right there. :)
I had to do an A B comparison to make sure it was the same person. LOL
Absolutely fantastic. I was quite Skeptical that it would ever live again, "Bit more then you could chew" type of thing. But you and the community has shown, there is bite to that bark. I am in awe!
Excellent work. Won't post any spoilers here, but your solutions to problems are innovative, and, more importantly, _functional._ Well done, both of you!
Now we know why they named it DIAPER - because when it finally works, you load up your pants in astonishment! Great job!!!
I've been watching a lot of this and I'd like to thank not just you but Mrs Bunny and all the little bunnies. There's a lot of sacrificing going on making these videos for us and working on this hardware. And I want you to know it's greatly appreciated. 😊
Awesome. You are slowly becoming a master of the G15.
Oh, I'm still a long ways off, Lloyd is the master for sure!
The electric motors running the paper tape were made by Bodine Electric Company, who are still around in Iowa to this day
Amazing to see the data building up on the drum in real time.
So cool.
What a neat machine. Glad that new drum works after all these years. It was crazy that he was even able to get a spare.
Just started computer sciences in university, hearing about these old vacuum computers and actually seeing them work is two completely different things! Love the video, can't wait to see this bendix execute a program... Keep up the great work!
Looking at those cards jogged an old memory... I'm pretty sure I encountered one of these machines way in the back of a desert junkyard in the early 1990s. Man, if I could just go back in time and have another look
I enjoy watching your adventures. I don't have the love for these kind of machines.... but I always enjoy a good fix-up. It encourages me to keep at it.
Came for clean shaven Dave. Stayed for the working Bendix
Every once in a while, I gotta get 10 years younger overnight by shaving it off!
@@UsagiElectric you do look so young without it!
@@UsagiElectric That's not just 10 years! You look like you're in your early 20s almost when clean shaven and in your 50s or later when you're about to shave lol
Pretty cool to see each hurdle being tested, troubleshooting and repaired. This machine is what brought me to your channel. Looking forward to seeing it compute again. Thanks for the videos. I’m also looking forward to your Diode testing video
Human ingenuity is simply amazing, this takes me back to when i was 9 and pulled apart my TRS-80 to see how it worked lol , my father was none to happy but it kept me from his power tools 🤣🤣 this computer is a work of art.
Seeing the blocks of bits march across the scope as they were shifted onto the number track gave me goosebumps. It's incredible that you've even gotten this far on a machine that is pushing 70 years old! You're a restoration legend, and Lloyd is too for contributing his first-hand experience with this machine! I can't wait for the next video.
Congratulations! Excellent progress. Can't wait to see the next step.
I knew you would be able to replace the photodiode. Congrats on this great repair!
That's incredible. What a beautiful machine. Nice job getting this far. And I know what a mammoth task it was just to film and present this video. Thanks!
be me. dont know wtf is going on but have been invested for ages. finally. it boots. a single tear for this machine I dont know anything about.
Regards from Spain! As a tube amp builder, is a pleasure to see people like you interested in this kind of stuff, Congrats for your channel dude. Best wishes!
A journey of a thousand miles started with a single step.
An most excellent troubleshooting process, and it is so awesome.
Thanks for sharing!
Incredible work! You guys are the pioneers of G15 restoration.
Congratualtions :) :) Really looking forward to the next epic chapter.
Great work. Keep at it - retro computer enthusiasts and computer historians will love to see this piece of computer history read tape and be alive again. We thank you for your efforts.
What an awesome contribution to computing history! We get in such a hurry for.the latest, greatest thing that it can be easy to fail to preserve things like this... but it was so important to human history, so getting it to work is fantastic.
2 plus 2 equals 4. Thanks for the tech history! Pretty amazing that it works and they moved it to you!
Congratulations David. It's been a long road but I've been with you step by step.
Never though I'd listen to the end. You made this quite interesting for someone who's note into vintage "antique" computers. Good job on the repair.
Congratulations! A big round of applause for you an LLoyd.
Blinkenlights!!! Congratulations on hitting this major milestone! You have the patience of Job for sure...
Oooooh, it's tryin'! That G-15 is so close to operational status I can feel it. Excellent progress!
It's super close! My guess is about a dozen flaky diodes holding us up at this point!
This is so epic. Crazy passion and commitment to this machine. Big cheers!
Congratulations, that is amazing debugging and circuit tracing work!
Awesome work you two, just watching the blinkenlights going is an amazing thing to see. You can almost smell victory.
With a function generator, a resistor and your scope, you can create a curve tracer for the diodes.
It may be that the breakdown voltage on the bad one is very low.
BTW: I have found that a 1N5711 works OK as a replacement for a 1N34 in some circuits.
The signals you have a large enough and slow enough that it is likely that the details of the diode don't matter much.
The BAT41 is a 100V diode. I think you are only running about 25V on those diodes so that should be OK
A conventional silicon diode would likely work for you if you need a higher voltage part
AWESOME!! Now all you need to do is to restore a Tektronix 575 curve tracer and test the diode under load! (This only uses 1/4 the number of vacuum tubes that your Bendix uses!) Good luck!!😁
Very nice troubleshooting. Don't stop now, this is quite an achievement! Can't wait to see more.
Lovely to see this old beast coming back to life, and kudos to the original designers who got so much out of the resources they had.
Congratulation to both you and Loyd, seeing the neons flicker must have been amazing!
Wow wow wow, thought I'd be one of the first to say congratulations, been following this with interest from the start, now I'm watching the full video.
Very impressive work by you and Lloyd there, David. 👍 That's a great result and a fascinating episode in this odyssey!
Undoubtedly, your most interesting and captivating video yet. I'll watch again to verify what I thought your troubleshooting was actually fully going. EXCELLENT. Any video where the viewer gets to burn his or her brain energy/thoughts is my kind of video. Reminds me of 3:00 AM nights when I was with DEC and trying to get a system going. No sleep and running on just coffee and a scope probe !!!
I suspect that had the Bendix engineers realized that someone would be reading their schematics 70 years later, they'd be as amazed as I am.
So happy. This was quite a journey to kickstart the ghost in this machine, fantastic. High five to all of you for sure for not giving up. Can't wait when actually calculate something with that thing.
Awesome work guys. I've been keenly following the Bendix adventure and it amazes me how far you've come! Can't wait for the next episode!
This is quite an odyssey! But I'll follow your Bendix exploration as long as it ever may take. This machine has something incomparable to it. You're doing a fascinating and invaluable job by restoring this machine, your patience and resilience are admirable! All the best of luck to you and your mates and family!
🎉 Nice! Maybe the diodes are bad in the sense that their breakdown voltage has decreased to something lower than the one they need to block. So the meter's low voltage test doesn't trigger the failure.
or gone too resistive/leaky in reverse, germanium diodes do have more reverse leakage current than silicon anyway, this wont show up on a multimeter diode test, you need a 'semiconductor analyzer' like a Peak dca55/dca75
Cool deal, neat to see an old machine running (almost) again. Thanks for sharing.
I have no knowledge at all of vintage computers but this whole project is so interesting
Seeing the data shift in on the scope is such a cool moment!
What a project, I'm jealous :D
As an electrical engineer...I would love to see you at some point get this to the point of performing the differential equations calcuations you mentioned in the beginning of the video! Even a relatively "simple" one would be amazing to see!
In the early '70s my parents had a Bendix washing machine combined drier, it was enormous, I asked my mum about it, she said it was the best machine she ever had, when it broke though it was hard to source parts in the UK and so she got rid of it, none of the usual manufacturers did a combo machine and so she had to buy both a washer and a drier.
Love the ODEC printer at 19 minutes in I used to repair 300 and 600 LPM ones
This is one of my favorite channels for stuff I didn't even know I wanted to know. Thanks.
Wow! Saving the past for the future, bravo.
Seeing the values populate on the drum and being read back correctly was just so awesome I wished there was a double-like button. What a thrilling experience. Well done!
Awesome progress. Being able to witness the journey is amazing.
You can construct a junction tester with nothing more than a stepdown transformer & a resistor that feed the X-Y function of a scope. A Germanium diode will have more of a slop to the knee, as germanium junctions are more leaky than silicone, but you can test a good GE diode & use that for comparison to determine which ones are bad.
I really like your work. I love that type of old machines like 50s 60s computer.
Keep up the great work. It's amazing to see a piece of living history being brought back.
There are also 0805 SMD photodiodes cheaply avaiable, did you ever think about glueing those to some sorts of a stick and soldering tiny wires to it?
Sorry…. There is only one 👍 button 😢 . This video deserves many!
I’ve been waiting so long for this. I feel like Tool just released another album.
Just gotta say, I love the editing in the crosstalk between Dave and Future-Dave. You are approaching Jedi level Youtubing skillz. The self-deprecating comments are fun, too. 'Uncoordinated monkey' had me snorting my coffee.
Thank you for again an exciting episode.
It feel like a real thriller to me, with a positive ending every time.
I love you man, and am looking forward to the new episode every sunday. Thanks again!
Absolutely fascinating! Congratulations on getting the Bendix to boot.
Super cool, man! Excited to to see the next stage of getting this neat machine running again!
Excellent work, it's been quire a journey and the finish line is in sight now.
Excellent news - I'm really loving this journey!
WOW! I took a screenshot of the blinkenlights for my wallpaper Man. What an awesome achievement!! Heartiest congrats, Sir.
Super cool accomplishment David!
I can't wait to see that printer output HELLORLD.
So cool to have friends in museums 😁
It's amazing to see such stuff for the first time ever, and in working condition to boot
I have only seen mainframe emulators but this is the real deal, old school
This is pretty fantastic! Hats off to everyone involved
Big congrats, and I love the teaser shot at the end...
A good way to check diodes is with a device called an octopus. They are dirt cheap and can be made with a couple resistors. They hook up to a scope in xy mode. Variable results with new scopes but work great with CRT scopes.
Congratulations! 3:45 Interesting place for a tube, doesn't look simple to R and R.
Cheers,
Adriel
If you cannot find an exact photo diode you could put a fiber optic cable in its place and run it to another location where you can then use some other photo diode that is larger.
Not a bad idea. You should probably hide that construction behind the metal case, to keep the original appearance intact. But it would definitely solve the size problem, and you could use the more available versions of light-sensitive Germanium diodes.
Incredible work! You are an inspiration!
Gotta love the archeological scratching of “YOU WANNA BET?” from a former technician next to the block labeled “CLOCK TRACK (PERMANENT RECORDING) TIMING TRACK” on the drawing.
Pretty cool becoming one of the very few Bendix techs. Excellent progress!
Bravo! Good progress, all involved with the Bendix G15! 😎🥳
What a great episode, good luck with the rest of the restoration.
we had 3 of these in High School. one worked and the others were parts. this was about 1974. Essentially, my first computer.
I would place the new photo-diode on the sprocket channel and move the sprocket diode to bit 2. That way you have 5 identical data channels and you only need to adjust the sprocket bias to be different and it will then cause all the data bits to behave the same way.