Monday, 19 February 2018

Retro Computers - Part 3

With the two tape-to-tape computer cabinets finished and ready for painting I started on the mainframe computer (the brains of the set).

Again I used a basic shape and drew that out... this time construction would be simpler as there are no inserts other than the front of the unit.  I made this as a separate panel, with holes drilled for all of the flashing LEDs that I would be fitting.


As usual, I made this from 1mm plasticard with some ribbed section for interest.

I build the basic cabinet, found it was too short and then added some height using ribbed sheet and plain sheet at an interesting angle.





So with the basic cabinet built I then proceeded to install the LEDs... 27 of them!

The photos don't show it (of course) but this is a mass of twinkling, flashing lights...



I'm just glad that LEDs don't generate any appreciable heat...


These are all powered by a 9V battery.  The panel with 6 lights are powered by a separate AA battery pack.

I need to add a roof to this unit (removable) and the front needs a lot of detailing, but this is pretty much where I am at the moment on the computers.


No comments:

Post a Comment