(this is in collaboration with a comrade 'S')

The People's Permacomputer Project (acronym: P3) is designed to meet a special design case. That is: modern digital civilisation has collapsed. Complex computer hardware is hard to come by, and will not be easy to repair. This hardware project will also attempt to meet a use case scenario: storage upwards of 200 years, and be durable enough to still operate.

It is my hope this permacomputer will truly be able to last around 500 years with minimal need for maintenance or repair.

~The Nipkow Disk Video Teleprinter~

Please refer here. the hellschreiber is a shortwave radio compatible facsimile device. In other words, the hellschreiber is a type of radio fax machine.

The principle behind the radio fax is similar to a mechanical televison. Instead of using ink to print onto paper, the television uses a nipkow disk to scan across a flashing light source, such as an LED or fluorescent tube. The flashing light is timed to the position of each of the holes in the nipkow disk, allowing luma pulses to be created, mimicking pixels on an electron-beam CRT.

~Construction of the Mechanical Video Teleprinter~

The first movement of this project is to design a mechanical television. This stage of research and development will be considered a success if an operating 30-scanline nipkow disk television can be built.

Why? Because video is important for the human-computer interface, and resources will be severely limited in terms of what will be able to provide a standard, as well as modular interface into the digital logic of the P3.

The mechanical television is a good choice for demonstrating the possibility of video output from a digital computer after the collapse of modern society.

Please find attached the research material from the Ben Heck show.

Episode #1

Episode #2

Suffice it to say: you construct a 30 line televisor @ 15 FPS with the following materials:

- a cheap electric drill
- some vinyl LP records
- a cheap LED or fast fluorescent light

This construction is a happy congruence with the processing limitations of the digital computer to which the mechanical TV will be attached. It will only be capable of 30 scan-lines of resolution.

Please refer to the reference images of what i imagine this mechanical TV will be able to render.

Up Next Time: Ceramic DIP 8-bit CPUs (:

http://www.mjbauer.biz/DREAM6800.htm

https://maggi9295.github.io/projects/dream6800/dream6800.html