Random Bits - Sign X Labs Aim 65
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- #vintagecomputer #aim65 #6502
Just a quick shot of this... thing I bought...
Thought it was a well known vintage computer. And it almost is..
And yes, I will post the tapes here soon - gotta get my capture rig working. Stay tuned!
"I think it's kinda sad that you can't actually use it for anything" is my general sentiment on retro-computing.
Well I can.. I have a few ideas.. one is to wait for an AIM65 motherboard to come up. They have, but I object to paying $300 for one. Waiting for that to come up cheap or maybe do a raspberry pi emulator etc.
Quite a fascinating and unique looking piece of equipment. Imagine the looks people would give you opening this case up and plugging it in at some site, or even carrying it through an airport in the 70s.
Thanks for sharing. 😉👌🏻
Found this off the Vintage Computer subreddit. I did some Googling because I am in CT and was curious about Sign-X. I found a few references in EPA documents, they were involved in monitoring "plume rise," or the air pollution emanating from power plants. I found one document talking about them having instrumented helicopters with tape recorders to collect the data. I also found mention of them being involved with wind energy in the late 70's. So this could either be monitoring winds vs. power generated at conventional power plants to study pollution or maybe early wind energy experiments. I think the seller was in PA and it looked like that is where they were monitoring the pollution, so my guess is the former. There were some other scholarly works but you needed to pay. Either way, quite interesting.
Looks like what they once used to check the oil and tires on a Titan Missile. Definitely has a James Bond Vibe to it...
Great video as always, sad to see it wasn’t a proper aim 65, but it is still a fascinating piece of history
No The Vintag Starter pak is Appel II+ and C128
Interesting! Maybe the AIM-65 was in a controller box with the display and power and you could attach the "interrogator" to access the recorded data and make a hard copy... Also a few years ago I was able to buy a new in box Hi-Tek made AIM-65 keyboard from a seller on ebay, I believe he had more than one for sale so maybe back in the day Sign X was able to purchase keyboards and printers directly. I attached the keyboard along with a bubble LED display to my Synertek Sym-1 making possibly the world's only Sym-65 :)
That's kind of what I was thinking. I imagine AIM-65 in power stations or similar, recording data.. and then someone with this box plugs in and downloads it as they travel to each station. Hopefully I stumble across a stray AIM-65 board and can test it out with this.
The connector is, IIRC, called amphenol? We had boxes of em that were scrapped due to lack of traceability certs in aerospace machine shop I worked in.
Yes that name sounds right. I'll probably trace it out and see if I can line it up with an AIM-65 board somehow if I ever find one loose.
@@TechTimeTraveller I'd bet anything the wire count lines up with whatever the edge connector was on the AIM. Should pinout like an expanded Kim-1 essentially, right?
So it's a user interface to a data logging system?
Time to search for the replicants.
Very interesting! I have no idea what that machine is either, but it's pretty cool. I've never heard of that AIM 65 computer you talked about, but now I'm definitely curious! Lol that part with the missile launch was hilarious!
It would have been reasonable for the AIM 65 to have been the monitoring system for a wind-powered generator then the Interrogator was dragged around to various sites to gather the power generation stats and perhaps maintenance status to be reported to the office or the generator owners. The AIM 65 could have been left powered and running 24/7 and the input connections from the Interrogator pulled to inactive. When these little miracles came out they quickly found use in thousands of diverse systems, especially if it meant you could gather data with valuable unmanned systems. (I was in college in '78 and was very much into microsystems at the time. I still have a NASCOM-1 Z80 system in the loft from those days!)
I tried to count the number of times 'basically' was used but there were too many!
Just found this one. Nice find for your collection.
Since it is the "Interrogator" you may need to wear a black hat while using it.
Wow, would be a very tiny AIM65! Mine is in a giant suitcase.
Hey, what is that beige thing with gray buttons and curly wire that comes out at the 2:30 mark?????🤣😂
I think it's a telegraph? Lol
RPM could be Revolutions Per Minute. Curiously is 0, which could indicate that generator was stopped.
The ebay algorithm was looking out for you...