Notices by paulrickards (paulrickards@mastodon.social), page 2

The Commodore 1520 and the other variants based on Alps plotter mechanisms were a great introduction to pen plotters and I’m still amazed to find them stuffed into the oddest of retro tech like calculators and keyboards. The gears on these suffer over time and split but I designed 3D printed replacements that have been working well for me.

#RetroComputing #PenPlotter #GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt #Art #ArtForSale #Artist #ArtForSaleByArtist #PenPlotterArt #PenPlot

Amazing to think I’ve been playing with pen plotters for over 10 years (longer if you count my first plotter, the Commodore 1520 with my VIC-20). What started out as a curiosity has continued to keep me engaged as a retro computing enthusiast and captivated as an artist. I thought I’d go back in time with some of the plotters I’ve used in various ways. 🧵

#RetroComputing #PenPlotter #GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt #Art #ArtForSale #Artist #ArtForSaleByArtist #PenPlotterArt #PenPlot

One of the loudest plotters I have is the Sweet-P Six-Shooter by Enter Computer. They basically took a HP 7475A tabloid, cloned it, shrunk it down, and sold it cheaper.

I brought this plotter to VCFEast, I couldn’t run it because it was so loud! 😆

#PenPlotter #GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt #Art #ArtForSale #Artist #ArtForSaleByArtist #PenPlotterArt #PenPlot

Enter the Roland DXY-990 plotter. This was the top of the line model at the time, sporting 8 pen stalls and electro static paper hold. I liked this one so much I got three more Roland models.

I also started playing with white ink on black paper.

#PenPlotter #GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt #Art #ArtForSale #Artist #ArtForSaleByArtist #PenPlotterArt #PenPlot

In 2016, I discovered a plotter kit by MakeBlock. This was a fun build and had lots of room for creativity by modifying it. I drew with a pen, burned with a laser, and drew in sand. The firmware wasn’t great and needed modifications to do constant velocity, which is necessary when using a laser.

#PenPlotter #GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt #Art #ArtForSale #Artist #ArtForSaleByArtist #PenPlotterArt #PenPlot

My first “pro” plotter was a HP 7470A back in 2014. I was blown away that these existed, being that my only exposure up to that point was the tiny “toy” plotters.

This plotter was so fast but suffered from having only 2 pen stalls and a pen head that could only use the short HP style of pens so it was limiting. Still, I got hooked immediately.

#PenPlotter #GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt #Art #ArtForSale #Artist #ArtForSaleByArtist #PenPlotterArt #PenPlot

Plotting with light on a vintage oscilloscope!

Tangentially related to pen plotters 🙃

#Oscilloscope

Stop using Twitter.

I bolted on WAV output to my pen plotter workflow to drive the oscilloscope. It’s all just X and Y all the way down.

#oscilloscope #PenPlotter #PenPlotterArt

Rotating cube on a vintage oscilloscope.

This Python script generates a stereo WAV file which I then play the sound left and right channels into the oscilloscope.

https://hackaday.io/project/28833-microhacks/log/87292-oscilloscope-sing-along-rotating-cube

#oscilloscope

Some years ago I bought a Quadra 605. The seller used a box that was exactly 1/8” larger in each dimension. The single layer of bubble wrap worked as well as you’d expect.

I tried putting the puzzle back together with ABS slurry but it was too much to ask for clips that held everything in place. It sat on a shelf for another day.

#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac

You probably noticed I really like using cyan, magenta, and yellow in my pen plots. It enables me to create many different shades of color much like an inkjet. But where an inkjet hides ink dots that are too small to see, I’m using 0.5mm pen strokes which add lots of texture. Zoom in! 🔍

11x15 watercolor paper with archival inks using a HP 7585B vintage pen plotter.

#PenPlotter #GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt #Art #ArtForSale #Artist #ArtForSaleByArtist #PenPlotterArt #PenPlot

A Hayes appreciation post.

#RetroComputing #HayesSmartModem #HayesChronograph #telephone

Noticing a lot of eBay descriptions clearly written by AI lately. Like a 4th grader trying to boost the word count of an essay with sum-zero phrases.

I’ve not sold on eBay in years so I’m curious to know if they’ve added an AI description service for sellers or are sellers getting them from an external service?

A pair of my favorite jeans developed a hole in the knee. This led to me to learning about #Sashiko, a beautiful art of visible mending. This inspired me to create this plotter design.

Inspiration is everywhere!

#PenPlotter #PenPlotterArt #MastoArt #Art #GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding

@foo8ar @dillera Does it speak AURP?

Almost forgot— it’s #BaudDay today: 3/12/24 happy baud day to all those that celebrate!

#RetroComputing

I wrote a quick blog post about how to spin up your own Apple Internet Server with WAN capability (tunnel AppleTalk over the Internet).

https://biosrhythm.com/?p=2767

Edit: PM @mac84tv with your email for access to the tracking sheet.

#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac #MARCHIntosh #GlobalTalk #LiveLaughLocalTalk

It’s like Kinko’s here, print jobs being sent from afar to my ImageWriter II via LocalTalk. This one from @vga256

#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac #MARCHintosh #GlobalTalk #LiveLaughLocalTalk

We're Zoning out! We've now got three different sites connected via Apple Internet Router!

#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac #MARCHintosh #GlobalTalk #LiveLaughLocalTalk