Relay computers

From: jpero_at_sympatico.ca <(jpero_at_sympatico.ca)>
Date: Fri Sep 24 15:05:21 2004

Jules wrote:

>
> I was going to say that it does need to know what quadrant of the field
> the ball is in so that it can return the ball to the centre position
> after a point has been scored - but looking at the wiring diagram it's
> actually cleverer than that (I'm having to learn German as I go, here).
>
> All it does to return the ball is reverse polarity to the ball X/Y drive
> motors when the ball goes out of play, and only stop each motor when it
> reaches its respective centre line. Neat.

Snap! I remembered!

In early 80's, there WAS a 5" x 9" x bit over 1" thick black toy.
Powered by battery, totally mechanical motor runnning all the time,
one dim red LED as "ball". Paddles slides side to side on each end.

To play, Turn on red dot glows (LED) press start button and motor
starts whirring audiably, the dot moves in fixed directions if it
bounces off the paddles, LED mechanically stiffly "rebounds" and goes
in different direction so on. A miss, the motor stops LED "ball"
still glowing. I did recall clearly that LED never ever rebounded
off the "side wall".

There was another similar mechanical flat toy but you "steer" the
race car around the objects on the invisible "belt" and miss them toy
keep going. Fun stops with flashing LED where racecar "exploded"
when racecar "bashed" something.

Cheers,

Wizard
Received on Fri Sep 24 2004 - 15:05:21 BST