Very old logic systems replaced

[parky]

Just remembered another one in 1984, we were doing a overhead conveyor system using a symax300, we had to interface with a trallfa robot (I think it was called) spray system, The system had to tell the robot what program number via coms (232), only problem was the coms card for the symax had to be come from the US & it would be 3-6 weeks (we were not informed of this link until on site commissioning), so my boss's brother in-law who owned a company who designed video games for the gaming industry came up with the idea of a small Z80 board off the shelf that had a UART & enough inputs to take an 8 bit binary input & convert it to the required string, we called it a PSCON (parrallel to serial converter), on commissioning this guy had to set the baud rate at 150 baud, that's all this robot would work on, interestingly, this robot was I think a 68000 processor with half a megabyte bubble memory the menory card was as big as an A2 sheet, it held the programs for the spray sequence that was tought by an operator holding the robot, switching a combination of switches i.e. start recording, rotate (tells us to rotate the part), then at the end finish, it was some fun trying to get a good spray pattern, you held it & moved it just like you would with a handheld one These were lorry wheels with many awkward places, the trouble was is getting a good coverage, not missing any places, in the fastest time possible & remembering to flick the right switch at the right time, we all had a go & with 30 possible recipes we probably hand teached over a 150 wheels, these then went on through the oven.