Restoring/Running part of NASA's Apollo guidance systems

[boji]

If gear, software, systems analysis and smarts were an orchestra, some lovely music here:

https://youtu.be/uyxQmb2u6Hk?t=816

Also the software emulation of the blinkenlight (debugger?) to communicate with AGC in part 8 is equally fascinating.

Ya'll EE's clearly have superpowers.

 

[Ricardus]

Oh man. CuriousMarc's channel is awesome. I've been following it for years. If you're into vintage computing he has awesome content.

This AGC restoration is super cool! So was the series about the Xerox Alto, and even the recent series he did about restoring teletype machines. He's the bomb.

 

[rackmonkey]

I’ve always been fascinated by the 60’s US space programs, ever since my dad brought me home a contractors model of the lunar lander signed by the first two men to fly it in space (Rusty Schweickart and Jim McDivitt). I must’ve been 5 or 6 when he gave it to me, years after the Apollo program ended. Miracle it’s still intact.

One of the most interesting pieces of the AGC was the “core rope memory” at the heart of it. There’s a geeky but interesting 1965 video from NASA that shows just how complex that stuff was to build. It was all wired up by hand with the aid of jigs.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_rope_memory

video

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ndvmFlg1WmE&time_continue=3

 

[Ricardus]

CuriousMarc just dropped a new video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWkSH0wxy80