This thread is a place to mention your own 6502-related project that you might be working on. Sort of like the "Homebuilt Projects on the Web" section of the 6502.org page.

I just posted 4 pictures of my current project at:
http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Node/7408/robots/robots.html
The new part is the 4 picture links at the bottom of the page.
Eventually I'll post schematics for the VIC expansion board, but I'm still making changes...

Pete

Whoops, there was a typo in that URL. Try:
http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Node/7408/robots/robots.html

Pete

Good to see old computer put to good use instead of just being in the closet. : )

I remember seeing an industrial application back in the mid eighties that was using 4 VIC-20 motherboards to control some type of automated drilling operation using stepper motors to move the drillheads. Home computers don't have to just play games.

I've got a 32K RAM board (using 2K x 8 RAM chips) that I built for my VIC-20. It also has a Reset switch ( that Commodore left out). It's been a while since I've messed with that.
Ted

Neat robot, Pete! What's it going to do?

I recently found out that there is a robot club close to me and I've been busy working on my own autonomous robot to bring with me to my first meeting. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures at this time, I'll try to get a few soon. It is controlled by a small board with a 6502, 2764, 6264, and 6522.

Also, I remember reading in Compute's Gazette long ago about a whole power plant run on six Commodore 64s. About two years ago there was an article in my local newspaper about some weather monitoring devices carrying C64s to monitor atmospheric conditions. You find 6502s in all kinds of interesting places.

_________________
- Mike Naberezny (mike@naberezny.com) http://6502.org

re: -.1
I suppose it's main 'practical' purpose is to take it to my daughter's school, to help the kids get fired up about technology topics.

This is my 3rd robotic project. With each one so far, I get it done to a certain point, then say "that's good enough", then I start working on it's replacement.

Once I get the basics of locomotion working on this one, I plan to try to make an obstacle-avoidance system for it based on the laser from a laser pointer. The beam will bounce off of a mirror, so that it sweep the path ahead. A detector will measure how much of the beam is reflected back, then the software can plot a course to avoid anything that has a strong 'bounce'.
Next feature might be the Japanese language synthesis that I mentioned in another note.

Pete

Another cool industrial use of a 6502 was in Santa Cruz, CA: until just a couple of years ago, there was a plant that made those fruit roll-up snacks (fruit paste partially dehydrated onto a plastic or wax-paper backing, then rolled up and sealed in a plastic wrapper). Anyway, they used an Apple II+ to control the machine which monitored the amount of water remaining after the dehydration process.

My best friend (we both learned 6502 together when the Apple II first came out) was for years the only guy around who remembered how the Apple II+ worked or had any repair parts, copies of the operating system, or any other usefull stuff, so he was called upon fairly regularly to maintain the machine.

Sadly, I understand that the old warrior was finally retired when the plnt was moved a few miles down the road.

-- Brian Farley