Satellite stuff (Was: Re: BBC printer port (ever used for anything

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun Sep 19 23:40:27 2004

> > Right. The Maplin one (Published in the Maplin Magazine) used only the
> > user port IIRC.
>
> I've got another one (decoder only) which looks very Maplin-ey. That one
> just has a pair of SPDT switches on the front along with a meter marked
> 0-10, whilst at the back there's just power, and a pair of DIN sockets -

I will ahve to dig out the Maplin docs. IIRC that one had a 20 pin ribbon
cable which connected to a Beeb user port (or to a input port card for an
Amstrad CPC...)

The DIN sockets do sound Maplin-like, but I thought they were on the
receiver. One linked to the decoder, the other to a tape recorder (you
recorded the analogue signals from the satellite, then played them back
into the decoder later on).

> both 5 pin, although one's arranged in a 'circular' pattern and the
> other's more like an 'H'. No labels on any of that.

Maplin sold PCBs (with silk-screen overlay) and printed case panels IIRC.
This could be a homebrew copy, or it might (more likely) be another
magazine project.

> > I do have a 'real' weather satellite receiver system. It came from
> > ic.ac.uk, and the bit I really wanted (and got) were the 3 I2S image

[...]

> I'd forgotten you had that. Do you have sufficient software to make it
> do something as a complete system if a suitable VAX were found, or has

Alas not. I got the I2S driver tape I think, but nothing more :-(

As regards 'a suitable VAX', I have Unibus interface cards for the I2S
machines (hex-height, but with the A/B connector corner cut away so
they'll fit over an M930 terminator or M920 jumper), and some 'GPIT'
interface boxes (2U rack) that connect to DL11-W or DLV11-W cards. So
just about any Unibus or Qbus VAX could be used...

-tony
Received on Sun Sep 19 2004 - 23:40:27 BST