THINGS AVAILABLE FOR USE

I know this list is incomplete; I hope to fill in the details as time goes by. It includes the principal objects which you should be able to find somewhere in the 773 laboratory.

COMPUTERS, ETC.

• ACORN A5000 COMPUTERS : three, one with a PC coprocessor and attached STEbus system.
• BBC COMPUTERS : one BBC B+, two BBC Masters. They are sort of compatible; the main difference is that the Masters can use a medium density, and rather cleverer, disc filing system called ADFS, and come up expecting to use it. If you need the lower density system, compatible with the B+, type *DISC after switching on. Accessories are three FLOPPY DISC DRIVES ( two single, one dual ), and three MONITORS. There is one ISO PASCAL ROM CHIP, which was bought for the B+ but I think is interchangeable.
• MACINTOSH of some sort, depending on availability.
• SINGLE-BOARD COMPUTER, based on 6502 processor, and quite like a BBC. ( Strictly belongs to the Mechanical Engineers, but they're being very nice about it. )
• ANALOGUE COMPUTERS. Two, each with two integrators and other bits. They share a power supply unit.

MACHINERY.

• MENTOR ROBOT : a simple, cheap, and somewhet wobbly robot which nevertheless has all the parts we want to talk about in the course.
• CONVEYOR BELT, with various accessories ( guide bars, photocell detector, gauging unit ). Goes with the Mentor.
• TURTLE : A primitive mobile robot.
• TRAIN : a train, with track. The idea is to build things to control it from computers, and to work out control methods.
• CCD CAMERA AND VIDEO DIGITISER, which run with the A5000s.
• PLANAR BALL BALANCER : a plane table on gimbals, with two stepper motors controllingthe angle of tilt in two dimensions.

THINGS FROM OLD ASSIGNMENTS.

There are many bits of hardware which people have constructed from time to time. Most of it remains unlabelled; I hope that some day I'll work out what it all is. Until then, here's a partial list of things which are certainly there somewhere, but not always easy to find.

If you make something, please label it, put it in a sensible place in the 473 laboratory ( preferably in a box, if you can find one ), and send me a mail message which I can copy into this list.

• FOR THE TURTLE : Various versions of controllers of different vintages.
• FOR THE TRAIN : Various versions of controllers of different vintages. Train detector switches : Peter de Vocht, 1991.
• MISCELLANEOUS :
  • A "touch sensor" grid : Andrew Cope, 1987.
  • Ultrasonic rangefinder : Adrian Krzyzewski, 1990.
  • Shaft encoder : Mark Scaletti, 1992.



TOOLS.

• Box of workshop tools, various.
• Multimeters.
• Oscilloscope.
• Soldering iron.

Go to me ( Alan Creak, in case you've forgotten );
Go to Computer Science.