Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!news.Brown.EDU!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!utnut!cannon.ecf!leebr
From: leebr@ecf.toronto.edu (LEE  BRIAN)
Subject: Re: Anyone using the Apple II ?
Message-ID: <CHI4DK.CEp@ecf.toronto.edu>
Sender: news@ecf.toronto.edu (News Administrator)
Organization: University of Toronto, Engineering Computing Facility
References: <1993Dec04.022711.28332@norfolk.vak12ed.edu>
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1993 08:17:43 GMT
Lines: 36

In article <1993Dec04.022711.28332@norfolk.vak12ed.edu>,
Fred W. Culpepper <fculpepp@norfolk.vak12ed.edu> wrote:
>I am attempting to find folks who are using the Apple II, II+,
>IIe, or Apple IIGS to operate robotic projects.  The usual
>method is to use the game port on the mother board as an I/O
>port for simple robotic activities.  My main purpose in seeking
>those working with the Apple is to exchange ideas which can
>translate into projects for high school electronics classes.

in high school, we had a small educational robot arm named the
Dynatron (maybe that was the company's name) it used a small
board of TTL chips (latches, shift registers, counters) to get
it controlled via: computer printer port, C64's user port, and
Apple II's game port (I think) maybe you can check this out,
if you want, I'll see if I can find out more info on it from my
high school, but maybe not since I graduated from it 4 years ago.

maybe someone can help out?

anyway, I can't imagine it being too hard to control using the game
port.  maybe try putting in an I/O board with a 6520 or two to
control it?  I build such a board a few years ago and it seems
much easier to use it to control something, since I don't have
to multiplex 10's/20's of signals over the game port.  the only
advantages of using the game port are probably: analog inputs
(although not too linear) and it's alot safer in terms of blowing
things up :)

regards,
bjl

-- 
+=[O]==================================================================[<]=[>]=+
|  Brian Jonathan Lee (aka "hojo")      |  "Bleh!"                             |
|      leebr@skule.ecf.toronto.edu      |  "Got'er, done'er, done'er, got'er"  |
|      leebr@ugsparc0.eecg.toronto.edu  |  "Evil thy name is NETREK!"          |
