The Steampunk Console Project

I'm continuing to make slow progress, focusing... mostly... on my own rendition of a Steampunk Keyboard for the console's computer. Hopefully this process will be accelerated by my impending purchase of a new bench grinder ( ...let's see... cheap on-sale 6-inch department-store grinder, or an 8-inch "Jet"!... cheap on-sale grinder... or a "Baldor"!... $$$!! Ack!!! ).( Read more )

A Steampunk Keyboard for the Steampunk Console Computer?

... and another sneak preview beyond the LJ cut!


Ack! I go into the next room to take a short nap... and already it's the end of August!!! No doubt about it! Something evil is stealing time from me!!
"You got that right!" says a sinister sounding voice, coming from somewhere behind me.

...based upon a true story!

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Now! Where was I? ...oh,yes! Damn the sciatic nerve! Full-Speed Ahead! Ouch! Ow! ow ow ouch!... ok... half-speed then...

First, I would like to apologize, to all those who have been kind enough to leave a comment, for my singular lack of exertion in maintaining this journal account. Though I cannot promise that this will change, I will try, at least, to make up for it by being more forthcoming in details in what I do report.

For the rendered image in the previous journal entry... well, it's a twelve-hour render, and I have not made any improvements... but I have uploaded a full-screen image to allow better viewing of details. Just click on the image below to link to a mid-size image. Then click on that image to be taken to a 1280 x 1024 view ( after you click with the little "magnify" cursor ). Eventually, I'm hoping to release the content that produced that image... free to anyone who might want to use it... or parts of it... in their own 3D renderings. One stipulation, though. It will be in Caligari ".scn" format, in remembrance of dear ol' Caligari trueSpace... recently executed by the good folks at Microsoft, for the crime of having fallen below the bottom-line.

... so you will have to have access to a copy of trueSpace 6.6, at least, to open the file ( or an application that can read Caligari files ).

Now, for the console project:

There's no reason why all the panels on this build should be built in exactly the same fashion. Particularly since each panel will serve a seperate range of specific functions. One - power supplies, fixed and variable, single and dual-polarity; two - electro-mechanical ( controls for DC motors, steppers, servos, etc. ); three - electronic prototyping, an array of devices to facilitate the use of the drawer-mounted prototyping boards; four - the synthesizer section ( sound & music modules,and my trusty old ESQ-1 ); five - instrumentation ( digital and analog meters, frequency generators, counters, digital oscilloscope(s) ); aannd... finally... six - the computer...

...which, in the render, you see is not visible. Which is because it will ( if this works out ) likely be the most complex part of the whole machine. Since the computer ( and it's associated network of micro-controllers ) will be the main engine behind this system... why not design it rather like the engine of a... um... "hot-rod". That is, with the engine exposed. Open-frame.

Hence the initial design concept for the computer keyboard:



Of course, this is not the finished keyboard... ( Read more )

I can't believe that it's been more than four months since I've added anything to this journal account. Though some small progress has been made, it's not been nearly as much as I'd hoped. It just seems that whenever I attempt anything like this, a thousand obstacles and distractions begin coming from every direction. And, of course, it's just like that for many of us... but it still shouldn't be.
Hopefully, I can give an account of what I have done within the next few ( or several ) days. For now... here, at least, is a preliminary 3D rendering ( in trueSpace ) showing something of what this project may... eventually... end up looking like.



Well... maybe not the room. But as for the console itself, most of the electronics, materials, and hardware have finally been acquired.

Back to Business.



For the moment, the unceasing onslaughts of chaos have receded sufficiently enough so as to allow me to make just a little more progress:



Shown here is one of two just completed panel-illumination lamps. Two down... ten more to go!

UPDATED October 9, 2009: ( Read more )

Potholes on the Road to Nowhere for Now, Here



I've stalled for a bit. A frustrating search for a properly fitting nut, bolt, and washer turned into a weekend project to reorganize my parts drawers... which has decided to stay on for a few more days.

Aarrg! Never let your... hardware get mixed!

But, at least I received these two beautiful gauges which will be placed, with a third, 120 degrees apart around the base of the console's central column:

More on the general order of how, where, when, which, and maybe... eventually... a big side-order of "why?".





Closeup of the paddle-switch/LED panel ( I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to steam-punk-ify this, yet ), shown earlier, to detail the construction plan. Notice, on the underside, that these are connectible via terminal screws. This is the pattern that will be followed throughout , using terminal strips, cable connecters, and pin-type terminal blocks, rather than hard-wiring any of the raw switches, dials, meters, levers, tools and cranks, etc. This is to allow the whole set-up to be as easily re-configurable ( or dis-mantel-able ) as possible.

Also shown is a PIC controlled LED-display and switch sub-panel, sized and shaped for dropping easily into the holes cut in the plexiglass panels.



Ok... Confessions of a Dumpster-Diving Addict, here. I can't help it. To me, an abandoned circuit-board or unpurchased component is like a starving lost puppy... just crying to be put to good use! Consequently, I've collected, and assembled, a lot of stuff... over the years. So here's just a tiny fraction of the DC/DC converter and relay modules, and terminal hardware, and other things, that I could invest into this project.

It's meant to grow... and I've got a lot of lost puppies to feed to it!



...aand, in case you were wondering, there will be a central column, contained by this one-foot diameter plexiglass tube ( well... wood wouldn't do, here... ). And this will house a framework of moving platforms and riggings, to which can be attached DC motors, steppers, optical components, lights, spark-coils, lasers... whatever and whenever.

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What it will become... eventually.





Though the first section of this rebuild is far from finished, this arrangement of components ( with some of the wood pieces not yet stained and finished )shows the planned layout. The remaining sections will, of course, follow the same steampunk theme, with different layouts according to general function.

Notice it's appearance versus the older plexiglass panels.

mmmmm... Mahogany, Brass, and Bakelite!.... plexipetroplastic, yechh!!!

How It All Began... sort of...

( Sorry about the picture quality, but these were done from scans of a few old and dusty Polaroid camera shots... yes, I've been fiddling with this for that long! )


....a long time ago ( though it seems like only yesterday ), in places not really so far away...


These photos depict the console's original form. The left image shows the framework, built as a skeleton of one-inch aluminum channel-stock. On the right is the semi-finished project, with the original plexiglass panels.

It's functional, at this stage, with built in computer and color VGA monitor. Plus, a power supply and a series of panel drop-in modules providing switches, encoded keypads, LCD displays, digital and analog meters.

Still a long way from what I really wanted to accomplish, though.



These show a little closer detail on the computer, originally a Tyan Trinity AMD K6 motherboard. Now quite obsolete, of course. Oh, well... it's a Type 40... right? I had several I/O expansion boards for this machine, including a homemade 16-channel analog-to-digital converter.

The nice thing about the shape of this thing is accessibility. The innards can be reached from above or below. The bad thing... is that if I have to move, the whole console has to be dismantled. So, it had better be relatively easy to take apart. It is. I've had to tear it down several times by now.



The picture on the left shows the main purpose of this project. A prototyping workstation. The slide-out drawer provides three computer-interfaced prototyping boards, each with a PIO chip, clock and divider circuitry, drivers, and built-in LED's and DIP switches. The console panel, above, expanded the functionality of these boards with a sub-panel of 24 paddle switches and 24 tri-color LED's, plus drop-in keypads, displays, and PIC microcontroller modules.

On the right is the heavy duty power supply which provides 48 volts to a chain of DC/DC converter modules, for powering digital circuitry in the sub-panels.


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Well... I'm back to making slow and torturous progress on this old thing again. And if I have any time or energy left afterwards, I'll post a few details here.



Meter sub-panel for console power-supply section. Water-Jet cut brass kick-plate inset onto a craft-store French-Provincial wood plaque ( www.walnuthollow.com ). Two Weston Type 301 meters, 0-10V and 0-20KV scale. One Allen Model 214-327 fan-type meter, multi-scale. Three control positions, knobs on bronze bushing mounted shafts with shaft couplers for rotary-switches or potentiometers.



Switch sub-panel for console power-supply section. Eight toggle switches, 15A 125V SPDT. Eight Radio Shack 272-710 Neon Lamp assemblies. Brass inset onto 4-inch by 16-inch inkeeper sign.


A few of the new components for upcoming sub-panel projects:


Miscellaneous console items. Top left: trial run assembly of vintage style rotary-switch components. Top right: Antique railroad-type glass insulator elaborated with brass door-knob mounting hardware. Bottom left VINTAGE Weston Type 643 meter, 0-15V, 4-inch diameter. Bottom right: Vintage Marco radio vernier, inset onto a 5-inch wood round.



Miscellaneous console items. Top left: phastron 40-013857 meter, VOM type. Top right: three-of-ten Mossman heavy-duty telephone-type 5PDT center-off switches, PM-4013-Z1P2.
Bottom left: One of seven Vintage Lionel J-38 Morse Code telegraph keys. Bottom right: two antique-radio style tuning knobs.