For Fridays, it's either all or nothing - so today is an all day, with all kinds of exciting new things, including Raspberry Pi Version 2 & accessories, PCBGrip and Hakko soldering irons
I occupy a studio space in a building that is a former movie shooting facility turned into an artist hovel. The building itself is wonderfully old but the hallways are also full of ancient audio and video equipment from the movie days. One of the things that got the attention of our RnD and tech geek was the AMPEX VR1200B Quadruplex videotape recorder from 1966. The machine stands about 5' tall, about the same in width, and weighs 'under 1000 pounds' as the spec sheet puts it. This was one of the first machines to use magnetic tape technology for recording video in the form of 2" quad tape for video, as opposed to film that was used previously.
A couple interesting points about this machine:
- 60PSI Air was needed for air bearings and a Venturi system for holding the 2" tape in alignment;
- These machines were the workhorses in TV Stations throughout the 60's and 70's. Running these machines required a full time technician!
Here's the beast in action:
A photoset of AMPEX VR1200B
An Overview of Ampex History:
For Fridays, it's either all or nothing - so today is an all day, with all kinds of exciting new things, including Raspberry Pi Version 2 & accessories, PCBGrip and Hakko soldering irons
Solarbotics held a few workshops and lectures at the MAKEr faire April 22/23rd. After giving a workshop, a nice man from Microsoft invited me over to see their BEAM robots. Obviously intregued, I found their display at the Microsoft pavilion where Microsoft encouraged all their engineers with "MAKE"-style hobbies to exhibit, including this squad of […]
Ladies and gentlemen, it is with deep regret that I present you with our last news post of August. Next week will become September, which causes uncontrollable weeping for students, parents of students, and anyone who was ever a student. Lots of pain all around. Heck, some of the Calgary trees are already starting to […]
We do some stuff around the office just for fun once-in-a-while. One of these projects resulted in this set of Vibebots, built by Grant McKee. Simple, a bit noisy, but FUN!
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Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.