The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Day: January 9, 2020

  • Homage Tektronix Circuit Computer: Colored Scales

    Although the original Tektronix Circuit Computer had relentlessly monochrome scales, a dash of color added a festive holiday look:

    Tek CC - Pilot V5 - color test overview
    Tek CC – Pilot V5 – color test overview

    Well, OK, that’s excessive.

    The intent was to see how the pens behaved, with an eye toward accenting general-purpose circular slide rule scales with a few colored characters.

    The green pen shows how I built the arrows by drawing a line through vertical arrow characters:

    Tek CC - Pilot V5 - plain paper - letters
    Tek CC – Pilot V5 – plain paper – letters

    I like blue ink entirely too much, having used a blue pen as my daily writer for most of my adult life:

    Tek CC - Pilot V5 - plain paper - red blue
    Tek CC – Pilot V5 – plain paper – red blue

    Red ink for “backwards” scales and suchlike would work well, even if it’s too vivid for the tick marks:

    Tek CC - Pilot V5 - plain paper - red green
    Tek CC – Pilot V5 – plain paper – red green

    Those are all on unlaminated plain paper, with plenty of room for improvement.

    Seeing as how I’d be doing all the “tool changes” manually, optimizing the plotting sequence would be mandatory: one pen change per color per deck!