Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #04807
To: Wilf Rigter Wilf.Rigter@powertech.bc.ca
From: Bruce Robinson Bruce_Robinson@bc.sympatico.ca
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 23:15:07 -0700
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Heads: reinventing the wheel.
Wilf Rigter wrote:
>
> Anyway the Bruce Head circuit looked familiar so I checked some articles
> I wrote round the time this discussion was going on and this is what I
> found.
OK, let's not call it the "Bruce Head". Clearly others thought of the
concept before me. Besides, it sounds just a tad obscene.
> now strip away the solar engine ... and you get:
>
> <>
Actually, after my initial failure I took a quick scan through the
"head" circuits and saw "phaser.gif", but when I saw the 1381, a bunch
of inverters and two motors, I figured it was definitely not what I was
after. Looking back at it, I see what the solar engine did, and I now
realize that most of those inverters were just used to drive the motors.
> Not to put too fine a point on it but the resulting circuit looked very
> similar to the Bruce Head circuit using Nus instead of Nvs ...
There's that stupid name again. Yep, exactly the same except it uses
photo diodes and Nu's.
> ... and then I discovered some remarkable differences in operation.
I have noticed that property when you swap Nu's and Nv's around. Of
course, I usually can't explain the "why" of it.
> Here is a way to add a little finesse to the Bruce Head circuit and make > it the self-clocking Bruce Head:
I'm gonna change my name if you keep that up. Before I came up with the
idea of hooking the photoresistors to the outputs of the opposite Nv's,
I was fooling around with ways to adjust the "clock cycle". Since I was
using an asymetric bicore for a pulse generator (short delay Nv provides
the pulse, longer delay Nv makes sure the two "comparator" Nv's have a
change to time out), It occured to me I could have each of the
comparator Nv's speed up the long delay in the bicore when it became
inactive. Sort of a crude self-clocker. I dropped the idea because it
would have meant an extra two inverters, and it wasn't solving the
fundamental problem anyway.
As usual, your improvement is very elegant. And I knew you'd improve it
somehow.
BTW, I put a copyright notice on ALL my diagrams, articles, web pages,
due to a false accusation made against me a few years ago (no copyright
notice on my articles then). But PLEASE note that the copyright notice
on my circuit drawing refers to the DRAWING, not the circuit depicted
therein. If you want to redraw one of "my" circuits (which has probably
been created by lots of others before me), go right ahead -- I have no
claim on the circuit. And put your own copyright notice on anything you
draw yourself. Of course a little acknowledgement is nice if the circuit
is really innovative -- most of mine aren't.
If your create a totally new circuit, you have to patent it to protect
your interests.
Keep on Beaming everyone ...
Bruce
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