4:58 _"[The Altair 8800] was actually pretty fast. It ran at 2 MHz, twice the speed of a Commodore 64...."_ Not actually, no. Clock speeds for 8080/Z80 and 6800/6502 processors are not directly comparable for speed because the former (for certain technical/design reasons) need more clock cycles to execute an instruction. A 2 MHz 8080/Z80 is very roughly equivalent to a 0.5 MHz 6800/6502 CPU. So the Altair (and the TRS-80 Model I) would have been about half the speed of an Apple II or Commodore 64. (You actually mention this later in the video.) Regarding bringing in 3D printing: is that really necessary? It seems to me you could just as well do everything you need in sheet metal using basic high-school metalworking techniques, exactly the stuff they were teaching in my junior high school in 1980 (and presumably earlier).

@Curt_Sampson

Жыл бұрын

@@parad0xheart It depends on the person and what resources they have avaialble, of course; for me 3-D printing would add _greater_ monetary, time and skill barriers (and I have no post-high-school experience with metalworking, though I do have drill). But I'm thinking of doing a similar project, so I take it that you are willing to make the 3D printed parts I require and are willing to mail them to me?

@Curt_Sampson

Жыл бұрын

@@parad0xheart No, I did not assume you have a 3-D printer. It doesn't really matter if you have one or not; it's certainly within your capability buy or rent one. I was making a suggestion exactly parallel to yours to see if you think such suggestions are reasonable when aimed at you. If you don't think that's reasonable, why would you make such demands of someone else? (I personally think that, "you're not allowed to disagree with me unless you're willing to do something involving much more work than I put into this discussion" is more a troll technique than an attempt at conversation.)

@Curt_Sampson

Жыл бұрын

@@parad0xheart Re-read my original post. I did not make any demands. I asked a question. And yes, it was a genuine question, and I certainly do believe that it might well be easier to drill a few holes in some sheet metal than to spend hours with a CAD program figuring out how to get melted plastic to lay out in a way that would provide the kind of structural strength and flexibility you so easily get with sheet metal.

@Curt_Sampson

Жыл бұрын

@@parad0xheart These are all good questions, and I think you'd learn a lot by trying to answer them yourself.

@Curt_Sampson

Жыл бұрын

@@parad0xheart Doing cardboard templates is a great idea. For me that would certainly work better than CAD because I get a much better sense of what something will be like when I'm physically handling stuff. (That may just be my inexperience with CAD showing, though.) There's certainly no need for a drill press: it's not hard at all to drill accurate holes in sheet metal with a regular drill, so long as the sheet metal is clamped down and you use a punch to put a little dent in the centre of where the hole will go. That's probably the easiest part about the whole thing. For bending, again, you don't need to get complex about it: just clamp to the edge of a table and bend. (I'm assuming you are doing 90 degree bends here.) I'd be more worried about accurately cutting metal to size than anything else, I think. And yeah, using a "case you already have" is a pretty normal thing. Back in the day you could go even to Radio Shack and buy a "project box" that you'd just drill to mount whatever you needed for controls and switches and whatnot.