Sometimes when you’ve been buried deep in a subject, you lose track of where you were before the journey began. This article series plunges into the process of an absolute novice designing, assembling, and programming a very basic clock. About half of it will be narrative, talking about the process, the other half will focus on the technical details. While I do try to keep it readable, I’ve been in the project so long that I’ve lost track of the point of view from the outside.
In the first draft of this opening article, I ended up with a rambling stream of consciousness mess that didn’t meet my standards for submission. So yeah, it was pretty bad. I will, however, shamelessly reuse the opening paragraphs.
Recently, I realized that I have been inadvertently doing a series, albeit an irregular one, where I would write about my attempts to learn a topic or skill. Only one of these was an instructor-led attempt, though I am hesitant to seize the title of autodidact, simply because these are hobbyist level dalliances. It would be technically correct for some topics, and isn’t that the best kind of correct?
Largely, I learn by doing. I select a goal, develop a plan to reach that goal, implement the plan, the revise the plan when it inevitably runs into issues resulting from my initial ignorance. In my current learning project, my ambitious goal is to design and build some electronic device which uses Nixie tubes for output. We’re nowhere near using those stylish vacuum tubes. The exact nature of this device has varied in my mind’s eye as I address my own knowledge gaps. I know that as it stands now, I do not possess the skills needed to do most of that, even if I’d set the function in stone.
So, what’s a man to do?
Clearly, I must start by addressing what I know I don’t know but will need to know. What I did instead was go on a spending bender for electrical components, and now I have to work around the sunk costs. Otherwise, I’d feel like such a fool. So, now I need a plan. The vague destination project doesn’t cut it. So I picked an intermediate goal. I’d ordered a bunch of electrical components with no real rhyme or reason beyond “These might be useful in future learning projects.” I got resistors, capacitors, a stack of shift registers, IC sockets, some protoboards, jumper wire, and five MSP430F2003 microcontrollers.
The MSP430-series is another family of chips from Texas Instruments. Unlike the shift registers, these are much more complex, being essentially a computer on a chip, containing a CPU, a timer source, RAM, non-volatile storage, and all that jazz. They’re designed for low-power applications and optimized for not guzzling electricity. This may sound like quite a jump from poking at a shift register, but I have a strong background in bigger computers and programming. So I’m working my way towards understanding circuits from both directions.
In a practical level, all the MSP430 will be doing for the time being is taking over from the Raspberry Pi I used before. That is, running code to push 1s and 0s down the wires. But what am I going to do to learn? Well, among the components I bought was a four-digit, seven-segment display, you know, the kind you find on a regular digital clock. So, I’ll make a clock. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it wasn’t so simple. They do sell real-time clock chips which do all the work even to the point of maintaining the calendar and accounting for things like leap years. Yeah, maybe later. I’m here to learn. I’ll be using the MSP430’s internal timer to drive the clock, but it knows nothing about time.
What are the components of this project? A: Figure out how to light up the lights on the display. B: Figure out how to get a regular interval counter from the MSP430 timer. C: Make the MSP430 output the value from B to the display. D: Figure out how to let the user set the time. Spoiler, it proved to be more effort than I originally expected. For the buttons, the wiring side is so trivial, but the code is where the catch is.
I also did these steps out of order. Why? Well, after placing the order for the lot of components, I started looking into how to get code onto the MSP430. If I was a masochist, I could write my own program to push ones and zeroes of assembly code over two or four pins… but I am less interested in reverse engineering that communication protocol than I am in getting the project working. Texas Instruments makes a series of developer boards which can be used to flash the memory on the microcontroller, and even debug the code by reading the memory, interrupting code execution on the chip, etc. These are the ‘Launchpad’. There are a number of different versions, but I ordered one off Amazon which fit the F2003 version.
Because I am a sucker who is still paying for Prime, the Launchpad arrived two days later, well before the larger shipment containing the F2003s. At first, I started to fret, because the socket was pre-populated with a larger chip than the F2003s I’d ordered. After a moment, I found the “supported microcontrollers” section of the documentation and the mile long list of chips it worked with. It had come with a MSP430G2553 chip, but did support the F2003s I had coming. In terms of capacity, the G2553 dwarfed the F2003, having more of, well, everything. It was, however, code compatible with the lightweight F2003s. So I could get started with my software before my hardware arrived.
Aaaand, we ran into the first self-inflicted difficulty.
You see, that G2553 shipped with demo code pre-installed, and I wanted to make a backup of the contents just in case. I went around from utility to utility looking for something to get the data off the chip. Along the way I downloaded two development environments, USB drivers for the Launchpad, and finally, a utility that let me dump arbitrary ranges of memory off the chip. I got a bunch of binary I had no clue how to interpret. Fine, I had my backup. I could flash it back using the same utility. So, lets get some of my own code on there.
I found an annoying quirk. The protocol used to load data onto the Microcontrollers is a remnant of the days of yore when every desktop PC had a nine-pin serial port. It had been translated to create virtual COM ports on the USB connection. This being that USB driver I previously mentioned. But the whole thing doesn’t play nice with the Windows USB stack for USB3 ports. Well, guess what most of my system had? This was an intermittent problem I would notice later. As it stood, I found one of the development environments couldn’t find the Launchpad. I ended up using the TI-developed software, as it did manage to find the Launchpad.
If I were doing this industrially, Texas Instruments’ Code Composer Studio would be expensive, but the free, hobbyist license will work for code below a certain size. I think that size is 16KB – which is as much as the G2553 can hold at full capacity, and sixteen times the F2003’s 1KB limit. So I’ll be good. I just needed the C header files for the hardware. This was included with example code from Texas Instruments. And a lovely export attestation page.
Laws and Regulations.
Huh. So, the header files and example code for a $2 Microcontroller are subject to export restrictions because of potential use in weapons development?
Okay then.
Well, In the example code was the C source code for the demo software the G2553 was delivered with. So I would literally never need the binary dump I made. Oh well.
Now that I could get code into the chip, I fell down the rabbit hole of learning the nuances of C-code for embedded systems. The first thing I did was write a version of the shift register test code that switched between versions at the press of a button. This would actually form the core of the code for the clock later, since the updates to the state of the output were done based upon interrupts generated by the chip’s internal timer.
What is an interrupt? In short, it’s an event not caused by the normal sequence of code. It could be anything from the internal timer ticking over, to a change in state of an external I/O pin, to a catastrophic system issue. We’re not delving into catastrophic system issues at this point, but interrupts are essential for anything that is going to be interacting with the real world. A user pushing a button doesn’t want to wait for the code to get around to checking the state of that button if that code has anything else it needs to do and might miss the button press all together. As for interrupts from the internal timer, it will trigger them on regular intervals which you have to configure at the start of your code. Eventually I’ll get around to tuning that to be an actual second long, but for the time being, regular intervals is good enough.
This article is getting way too long, it ran well past the word count of the shift register article, which was already pretty big, so I’m breaking it up. We’ll stop here, having completed Step B and ready to go back to Step A when the hardware makes its appearance.
Taking a step back to basics can be a good thing,
Bravo!
I’ve written nine articles in this series so far. I don’t know if there’s a tenth in the works, it depends on the outcome of the latest redesign.
This reminds me of my middle- and high-school science fair years – some of the high points of my pre-discovering girls life.
The whole ‘poorly thought out spending spree’ is also painfully familiar…
Yeah, I was impatient and eager to get started.
Ah yes, boxes of components, most will never be used…..
This is also a hazard of much lower-tech pursuits. ::ponders stockpiles of yarn::
Fishing tackle? Reloading components?
Hunting gear comes to mind.
I have at least learned not to buy furniture without first confirming precisely, with a tape measure, where it will live.
I love the tales of the tricks that were used on some of the old systems to get things to work. Abusing memory leaks and errors to get the expected results (and to make life more difficult for those trying to archive the software or port it to newer systems).
Given how many contortions the code went through to fit in the limited space of the microcontroller here, I don’t really blame them for creative solutions.
Once you get the missile guidance capabilities worked out you can keep your neighbors in line.
I’ve been waiting for this series to start.
UCS, I’ve got six MSP430 LaunchPad kits like this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/276383115922
That are left over from an old project. If they would be of any use to you I’d be happy to mail them to you. TPTB have my e-mail address.
I only use the launchpads for loading code onto the chips. I have the ones I need for the chips I currently have.
Thank you for the offer though.
Once I get the clock working, I have an active project to make a pluggable form of one of the surface mount chips. I’ve done my proof of concept, but want to wrap up the “simpler” clock project before diving deeper there.
I extend the offer to the rest of the Glib community. If anyone wants to follow in UCS’ glorious footsteps just let me know.
I’m tempted to say “Yes, please”, but then I look at the pile of microcontrollers and SBCs already lying about, unused, and think better of it. Between Arduinos (UNO, Micro, etc.) Raspberry Pi (honestly don’t remember which models are unused…2 are actually in active use), and the Pi Picos (regular and W)…I really gotta start building more stuff.
I was thinking about your flashing problem with your LED display. I have not seen the diagram, or know the chips, but I was wondering if any of those are outputting a frequency that feeds the project, as opposed to a solid 5V. If any chip in the line produces a 5V (or any volt) signal with a frequency, it would cascade down the line all the way to the display and show up as flashing. Squarewave outputs can occur, sometimes they are turned to solid 5V by addition of a resistor across some leads, etc…
Anyway I was think of your travails today and this article let me put my thoughts down.
The project runs on 3.3V, but I’ve solved the flicker. Or at least corrected it. The issue was only on the circuit board version of the clock, which used all the same components as the breadboard version, but I think it was picking up more interference either from itself or the surroundings. I added a bank of pull-down resistors on the data lines and the display cleared up… but that spoiled half of Article 9.
“What I did instead was go on a spending bender for electrical components, and now I have to work around the sunk costs. Otherwise, I’d feel like such a fool.”
Goes down into the basement and looks at the flexible heating elements, heater controller and display, envelope of type K mini thermocouples, and two self nesting SS cylinders. Maybe some day I’ll build that plastic grocery bag recycling product I though of making 10 years ago. Never mind, I’ve got a truck to work on in the garage.
The trick to not feeling guilty about sunk costs is to pretend someone gave you the stuff for free. That person being Bojack You A While Ago.
If you wouldn’t use it if you got it for free, then using it just to avoid guilt is creating a new sunk cost – your time.
I just justify it as something I’ll get to some day, or you never know when you might need it. I also have to purge every year to toss out stuff that is cluttering up my life.
I need to do some serious house cleaning. AND force my gf to do the same. That’s gonna be the hard part.
Otherwise, her junk will grow and migrate to the freshly open spaces.
I’ve been chipping away at our surplus stuff, and so has Mrs. Dean to an, ahem, lesser extent. We don’t have a basement or attic, which has helped with Stuff Control. I’ve adopted the mindset of “Would I move this to another house?”*, which really helps me to make the call. It’s a useful mental trick.
*We aren’t planning on moving.
I feel more guilt about wasting gifts than about wasting my own money through foolish purchases.
#metoo. I’m quite sentimental about gifts.
This is the stuff I learned in college. Our biggest project was building a controller using an 8088 processor, writing code in C++, and making the processor do stuff. I had a nice tackle box full of components and things that I gave to some kid who was going into that major. Should have kept it.
Yup, this was me. I still have a pretty good stack of components though (and a really nice soldering station that I should be using more often.)
BTDT.
*fond memories of Radio Shack*
After you finally sort it out I’ll be curious how accurate the timer in the chip is. Usually temperature influences them.
🤷♀️
I replace it with a 32kHz watch crystal early on.
Popeye The Sailor Man – First Trailer | Conor McGregor
I am a loss for words.
clickbait. never mind.
If only it was real.
Interesting article UnCiv.
I leave work, and I have no interest in looking at technology.
I leave work and look at the parts of tech I don’t get to touch at the day job.
OT, but in the AMLYNX, RJ mentioned Victor Davis Hansen and Stoicism. For those that don’t know, he was/is a professor of classics at Fresno State and Stanford for a long time, and has written many books on Greek life and philosophy, especially, in his early days, on the agricultural aspects of it (he also owned a small farm.) I have had beers with him, as he was a customer of mine for many years, and he also hired my then girlfriend as an adjunct prof.
Nice guy, real genuine.
I’m a big fan of victor davis Hanson too.
Always worth the read/listen.
This is all way over my head, but I can relate to the initial over spending.
I’m sure you could wrap your head around it. If you put in enough time.
Nixie clocks are very cool.
My favorite clock was a TIX clock. It had four sets of lights (a set of three, then three sets of nine) that would update the lights every minute, 10 seconds, or second. The number of lights in each section would allow you to read the time. The original company that made them went under, someone else picked up the license (and made some changes), and they fell behind and stopped taking new orders. I’m hoping it’s just the power adapter.
That doesn’t sound too difficult to recreate.
The trap has been set . . . . . .
Nah, I’d be more likely to make a binary clock instead.
Well, now it could become a business opportunity. A search showed an original new in box clock listed at $400 (which is beyond ridiculous). The hard part would be the “random” patterns.
Techmoan has a love for them.
I am enjoying this UCS. Looking forward to part 2.
That’ll be around next week.
Ugh. Dog bite aftermath continues.
Hot swollen joints. Puffy flesh. I’m on redonkulous antibiotics and painkillers.
Peace out.
😨
When did you get bit?
Also – when’s the next full moon?
🐺
Still time to order a three wolf moon T-shirt!
Tonight, actually.
Hayeksplosives, if you start showing symptoms of Lycanthropy, let us know.
BY LET US KNOW MEAN…
Jump on the Zoom.
Seriously though, That sounds awful and I hope it subsides without more doctor visits.
The going rate for a dog bite about 15 years ago was about 25-40K from the insurance company if the owner has insurance and if that’s the route you want to go.
About 35 years ago, I bought the local Justice of Peace a new pair of pants and a tetanus shot after my dog bit him. He was campaigning for re-election and somehow the dog didn’t like politicians.
They can be nasty for sure. Mrs OBE was bit while working for PetCo and at first just brushed it off. I said nah, injured on the job, they pay for that crap. Same antibiotics and painkillers and a couple weeks of free pay and covered medical costs.
Oof. If the swelling doesn’t subside soon, go back in for more testing to make sure they’ve got you on antibiotics that are working for whatever infection you’re fighting. My company does antibiotic susceptibility testing and antibiotic resistance is definitely a thing. Current technology for AST isn’t the greatest (well, except ours, which is still in development) and not that common, but if you have to go back in, badger them to get AST done on your bugs. It’s out there, and they’ll likely to have to use a big reference lab, but if you need it, it’s important.
My vet did that with one of our dogs that wasn’t responding to meds at first.
The Late P Brooks on April 23, 2024 at 12:29 pm
Behold the majestic omnipotence
Legal analyst Alan Dershowitz warned on Sunday about newly introduced legislation that would strip felons of Secret Service protection, saying that Democrats want former President Donald Trump “killed.”
Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, brought forth the “Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable Former Protectees Act”—or the DISGRACED Act—on Friday that would terminate Secret Service protection for individuals convicted of either state or local felonies.
Trump is specifically mentioned by Thompson as someone whose protection privileges would be affected should he be found guilty as the former president faces four criminal indictments. Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, became the first former president in U.S. history to stand trial in a criminal case that began on Monday.
The entire apparatus of the state, focused like a magnifying glass on an ant in the sun.
Makes you proud to be an American, don’t it?
Awesome: let’s go after Obama and Bush for war crimes.
Trump to me was always the least bad choice. But he has my respect and admiration for his bravery. All he had to do was not run again and all this goes away.
Because he thinks this country can be salvaged, he’s risking life in prison, financial ruin, and assassination. The petty evil shits who run this dumpster fire of a country have revealed their true nature by going after him.
Do they really need a law for that? They’re still denying Secret Service protection to RFK Jr. The only excuse I’ve heard for that is “well there’s a process and approvals and blah blah blah”. I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden’s team made up some bullshit reason to pull protection from Trump.
There may be a requirement that former Presidents get SS protection.
If they do strip it from him, I can imagine a posse of MAGA militia taking it on. The conflicts when he goes into gun controlled areas would be awesome.
prison is the interesting case
They want him dead? No new news there
My stock of LaunchPad kits (see above) were for a energy-efficiency/power-monitoring project. I had a system working on the Raspberry Pi but my boss wanted to see if we could get something that used a lot less power. I bought some Arduino boards and he bought the LaunchPads. Then tragedy struck and I inherited his entire electronic infrastructure: parts and tools, to add to my own already considerable collection.
At one point I thought I had a line on a project with UVM, measuring temperatures in a compost pile, that could use some of the low-power stuff but that fell through. My playing with the Arduino never went past the “See if the IDE works.” stage.
I find the Arduino IDE to be frustrating to use. There is a port that works with the MSP430s, but I prefer the Code Composter Studio, since I can actually find and change more things about the project.
Speaking of clocks… my mom and dad had clocks all over the house, and no two agreed. I got an off the shelf “atomic clock” movement (with hands, not digital) and built a simple case for it so I would have a known accurate clock to consult.
I have an atomic wall clock, likewise with hands, in my “study”/craft room. As annoying as Daylight Savings Time is, I’ve occasionally stayed up until 2:00 a.m. the night it starts or ends to watch the clock reset itself – especially in the fall, as the hands can only move forward.
My wife is very insistent that all of the clocks turn at the same time. I’ve come around to that way of thinking.
Then get rid of all but one clock – there, all your clocks turn at the same time.
I am beholden to time, a mania. I probably look at my watch or a clock every 15-20 minutes. No particular reason since it’s not like I have a list of appointments. I wake up at night, look at the clock, compute how long I’ve slept, how much longer I should sleep. Never set an alarm since there’s no schedule to keep but yet…
I have a nice wristwatch, but when the weekend arrives, it comes OFF!
I’m similar, 4X, but maybe not as bad.
Like Mrs. Lytton, my OCD triggers when clocks aren’t sychronized. Mrs. Dean likes clocks that are running a few minutes or so fast, but of course subtracts those minutes when she checks the time. Also of course, I am prone to resetting the clocks so they match within a minute or two.
Yes, hilarity has ensued.
GT, I take my nice wristwatch off on the weekends, too. And put on my utility watch. Which I need a new one, since it’s stopped telling the date.
Ukrainian men are rounded up for conscription: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXhC8WREVKM
Animals about to be slaughtered are treated more humanely.
Your tax dollars at work.
Ouch.
When the war broke out, my sister asked me if I would go and fight. It was a surreal conversation. The screenshot of our conversation is near the bottom of the article below.
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2023/08/more-weird-glitches.html
I suspect someone at the alphabet soup prompted her to contact me.
My chair broke.
I mean I’ve only had the chair since 2008, replaced the gas cylinder, the wheels, the seat cushion… Now it looks like either the gas cylinder again, or the part that attaches it to the bottom of the seat
+1 Chair of Theseus
Well played. I was too late with the modern version,
+1 Johnny Cash’s Cadillac
Dog bite aftermath continues.
I got bitten by my aunt’s cat when I was in college (breaking up an impending fight between her cat and mine). My finger swelled to a size I would never have imagined possible. I just started squeezing the pus out until blood flowed. Repeat as needed. Never even went to the doctor. If you’re gonna be dumb you gotta be tough.
They want him dead? No new news there
Nobody on Team Blue has the balls to do it, but if it should happen, they’ll shed no tears.
From Jill Biden’s Wikipedia article:
***
Joe had proposed several times before she accepted, as she was wary of entering the public spotlight, anxious to remain focused on her own career, and initially hesitant to take on the commitment of raising his two young sons who had survived the accident.[8][34] They spent their honeymoon at Lake Balaton in the Hungarian People’s Republic, behind the Iron Curtain.[35][36] She raised Beau and Hunter, and they called her Mom, but she did not formally adopt them.[23]
***
Odd that so many Democrats had honeymoons in commy countries. Multiple marriage proposals? OK, I can see Joe Biden doing that, Groundhog Day style. No formal adoption? Also weird.
A ray of sunshine:
***
Dale Schroeder (April 8, 1919 – April 12, 2005)[1] was a carpenter from Iowa, United States, who worked 67 years for the same firm. He lived frugally, owning only two pairs of blue jeans: one for work and one for attending church on Sundays. He never married or had children, and his $3 million estate paid for the college education of 33 Iowans.[2][3]
Schroeder grew up poor and wanted to help people like himself attend college. As a result of his generosity, 33 beneficiaries have graduated from college or university without debt. They include both men and women. Many have trained as medical doctors and teachers. The final beneficiary received the final $80,000 of Schroeder’s bequest, graduating as a therapist in 2019.[3]
***
Lastly, behold the Thermonator
***
Americans are big on the right to defend property as per their beloved constitution, but is a flame-throwing robot dog taking it a step too far?
Well, it could be the future now the ‘Thermonator’ is here.
Built by Throwflame and a bargain at just $9,420 (£7,610), this nightmare-inducing robot is capable of blasting jets of fire up to ten metres, possibly after honing in on a target using its laser sight.
***
link
“wary of entering the public spotlight”
Bullshit.
“focused on her own career, and initially hesitant to take on the commitment of raising his two young sons”
There we go. “She did not formally adopt them” – yeah, kids notice that and can take it pretty damn hard. Bro Dean adopted his wife’s two kids from a previous marriage, because he’s not a narcissistic asshole.
Notice what’s not mentioned, though? Whether she actually wanted to marry him for love.
No formal adoption? Also weird.
Is it? Adoption, particularly if there’s a surviving parent or children are adults, isn’t as necessary as it once was.
Clicked on this just so I could be added to whatever list they just put us all on.
Whee!
Don’t bother to answer the door, they’ll let themselves in!
It’s not going to get you on a New list.
Meet the new list,
Same as the old list!
There’s a list for those who want to be put on more lists…
‘List’ singular? That’s so cute.
I assumed they just have a master list and all the other lists are just extra charges.
Oh, how I laughed:
***
The Power Macintosh 7100’s internal code name was “Carl Sagan”, one of the three “fraud” code names (Pilt Down Man, Cold Fusion, and Carl Sagan) referring to the PowerPC processor pretending to be a 68000.[7] Though the project name was internal, it was revealed to the public in a 1993 issue of MacWeek. Sagan, worried that the public might interpret this as an endorsement which sullied his name, reportedly contacted Apple and threatened to sue unless they could prove the codename did not officially link to his intellectual property and identity. After they reportedly refused, he wrote a letter to the editor that appeared in a 1994 issue of MacWeek, seeking to inform their readers of the situation.[8]
Following the letter, a rogue programmer at Apple renamed the project to “BHA” (for Butt-Head Astronomer). Sagan then sued Apple for libel over the new name, but since the new codename was a expression of opinion, not fact, he lost his case. Sagan continued pursuing lawsuits. When he sued Apple again, this time for the original use of his name, he lost this suit as well. Sagan and Apple, apparently not wishing to engage in a series of lawsuits over the issue, came to an out-of-court agreement in November 1995, leading to Apple making a statement of apology. The engineers on the project made a third and final name change from “BHA” to “LAW”, short for “Lawyers are Wimps”.
***
I’m not sure what’s funnier: suing because someone named a computer after you or because they taunted you with a childish insult.
That’s funny! Sagan was a Butt Head Astronomer. One, maybe 1 1/2, steps up from Bill Nye. ‘Snowball Earth’, allowing the neutering of the Voyager images with barely a protest. Etc., etc. I loathed the man for years (yeah, like I’m done lol).
Many, many years ago I went through a roughly similar process with analog circuitry. Synthesizers were new, and cool and I wanted one. A big one. So I got the Heathkit (ah, Heathkit) ‘Electronics Learning Lab’ or whatever they called it. Transistors befuddled me, but op amps were my friends. Then SSM and CEM started making oscillators, filters, amplifiers, etc., on dedicated chips.
Discovered Bernie Hutchins’s Electronotes ‘zine, and the Preferred Circuit Collection. Hog Heaven!
Wound up with 6 oscillators, 2 filters (one pretty unique – 4 pole state variable), other timbre modifiers thanks to Electronotes, a couple of reverb/delay modules, with switchable delay times, including a switch for ‘use the panel controls’, several amplifiers, 2 more ADSR envelope generators than VCAs. Sadly long gone with not even a good picture remaining, but great fun to build, and to play.
Thanks for letting me reminisce!
I just read one of the books by Peter Hook (from Joy Division and New Order). They had a lot of experience with primitive synths. They gave a lot of feedback to the manufactures and a lot of their suggestions were put into new models. Many of them would just stop working if it got too hot. There was one that tended to not boot up until you hit it in a certain corner with a hammer. At one point someone from Erasure called them and asked exactly where they needed to hit.
The real nightmare was that oscillators, in particular, were very temperature sensitive. Temperature compensating circuitry included precise temp-sensitive resistors and thermal ‘paste’ between them and the ICs. Keeping a big Moog Modular III in tune for more than a few minutes was a nightmare. Especially from a fresh power on.
Yet look at what Tangerine Dream toured with in the 70s!
I hope they told him to give it a little respect instead.
I am in that same boat. I hope one day to figure out how to use them.
I think we did one analog circuit on a breadboard back in college physics. That’s the extent of my hardware experience.
In high school for a science fair project, I made a miniature radio transmitter. It attracted the attention of the CIA, who sent judges to the state level fair. I got a tour of HQ in Langley and some other swag.
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2023/11/my-cia-memento.html