Somethign you folk from North America will be familiar with.
There is a 12V light, fridge and occasional inverter to mains-voltage
system with 12V "leisure" lead-acid battery and photovoltaic (PV)
charger and charge-regulator.
For winter when our days are short and sun not bright - would it be an efficient solution to have a small gasoline engine running a 12V
generator eg. from a car?
Would be efficient to have a small engine which runs full-power for a shortish time - something like an hour? - then stops.
Smallest Honda "GX" engine is 100cc.
Small engine+12V-generator & battery is much more fuel-efficient than
running a generator supplying power on-demand?
Tempting thought is - that would happen when it is dark and *cold* - therefore if you coudl recover the waste heat of the generator engine it would be welcomed.
I have no knowledge of this - anyone want to get this going?
Regards,
Rich Smith
Somethign you folk from North America will be familiar with.
There is a 12V light, fridge and occasional inverter to mains-voltage
system with 12V "leisure" lead-acid battery and photovoltaic (PV)
charger and charge-regulator.
For winter when our days are short and sun not bright - would it be an efficient solution to have a small gasoline engine running a 12V
generator eg. from a car?
Would be efficient to have a small engine which runs full-power for a shortish time - something like an hour? - then stops.
Smallest Honda "GX" engine is 100cc.
Small engine+12V-generator & battery is much more fuel-efficient than
running a generator supplying power on-demand?
Tempting thought is - that would happen when it is dark and *cold* - therefore if you coudl recover the waste heat of the generator engine it would be welcomed.
I have no knowledge of this - anyone want to get this going?
Somethign you folk from North America will be familiar with.
There is a 12V light, fridge and occasional inverter to mains-voltage
system with 12V "leisure" lead-acid battery and photovoltaic (PV)
charger and charge-regulator.
"Carl"-a wrote in message news:V9JaS.912$Qst2.799@fx03.iad...
On 7/30/26 8:11 AM, Richard Smith wrote:
Somethign you folk from North America will be familiar with.---------------------
There is a 12V light, fridge and occasional inverter to mains-voltage
system with 12V "leisure" lead-acid battery and photovoltaic (PV)
charger and charge-regulator.
My quick take as someone who started with a 500 whr unit and a small
solar panel six years ago to make sure I could keep my CPAP running in
case of a power failure and now has a 2400 watt solar array and 3000 whr solar generator that I use to charge my PHEV car and home essentials
backup if needed.
"Richard Smith" wrote in message news:m18q6s8yow.fsf@void.com...
Somethign you folk from North America will be familiar with.
There is a 12V light, fridge and occasional inverter to mains-voltage
system with 12V "leisure" lead-acid battery and photovoltaic (PV)
charger and charge-regulator.
For winter when our days are short and sun not bright - would it be an efficient solution to have a small gasoline engine running a 12V
generator eg. from a car?
Would be efficient to have a small engine which runs full-power for a shortish time - something like an hour? - then stops.
Smallest Honda "GX" engine is 100cc.
Small engine+12V-generator & battery is much more fuel-efficient than
running a generator supplying power on-demand?
Tempting thought is - that would happen when it is dark and *cold* - therefore if you coudl recover the waste heat of the generator engine it would be welcomed.
I have no knowledge of this - anyone want to get this going?
Regards,
Rich Smith
-----------------------------------
Realistically the recommended charging current for a 100A Lead or
LiFePO4 battery is 20A which means 5+ hours to fully recharge. The
power from the generator is around 300W per battery. You can charge at
higher current at some indeterminate risk to battery lifespan.
Inverter generators don't need to run at full speed to produce full
voltage like a standard genny, they throttle down and consume less
fuel at lower loads. Inverter circuits are the DC equivalent to AC transformers, they can convert one combination of voltage and current
to another of slightly less power.
I'm about to test such a setup. My DC-AC power station consists of two
100Ah LiFePO4s powering a Vevor 2500W inverter, chosen for low standby
loss if running the fridge overnight. A 30A solar controller, overload
and accidental short protection and voltage, current and charge level monitoring added to its cost and complexity. I design and build more electrical than mechanical equipment.
The AC powered charger is a homebrew made from a 50A stick welding transformer, rectifier and capacitor, with an input Variac to adjust
the power. The transformer isn't ideal for the task but I had it,
hadn't found an alternative transformer and could tweak the circuit to
work well enough, and since it's self-limiting to tolerate a stuck
electrode it's suited to performing tests such as circuit breaker trip current, up to 70A so far. It can deliver 30A at 28V for 24V batteries
and 40A at 14V for 12V, matching the 2x 20A suggested charging current
for the batteries.
The test will be what overheats and needs upgrading, likely it's the
reverse input protection diodes for which I bought a higher current
upgrade. A forward diode in series keeps battery current from surging
into the capacitor if connected when power is off, another in reverse
to minus shunts the current from a battery connected backwards until
the fuse blows. Commercial DC sources may lack this protection. The
Variac brush current is a hard limit, replacements are scarce,
expensive and tricky to make. I have a thermal imager to find hot
spots and a thermocouple meter to more accurately measure them.
Grid power here costs $0.22 per KWH, I figure genny power at $0.60 to
$1 depending on gasoline cost and electrical efficiency, which is poor
for the welding transformer at higher loads. Nevertheless it can
charge effectively on the 900W max of my Honda EU1000i, and at full
power on my 2200W HF Predator, the first model. A Kill-A-Watt meter
lets me keep the load within the Honda's limited capacity. The Vevor
2500W invertor runs my microwave and starts and runs a window air
conditioner without a hiccup. Its no-load loss is around 10-15W, much
better then the 50W of my APC1400 UPS which wastes half the battery
charge while the fridge has cycled off.
For small AC loads an inexpensive Bestek 300 works well, usually it's
all I need for the computers and TV. It's on batteries retired on
schedule from hospital mobile laptop stations. My larger batteries
were bought new to qualify for the now discontinued 30% tax credit.
The genny must be outdoors away from doors and windows for CO safety,
which rules out collecting its heat, but I have free firewood for
that. For theft safety it may need a 3 side + lid sound enclosure
which I made from fireproof suspended ceiling tiles rimmed with shop
made sheet metal U channels. The noise is from the engine, a larger
muffler didn't help.
I reworked my clothes dryer vent to be the inlet for the extension
cord to the driveway where the Honda genny needs only a small space
cleared of snow and likely ice. Behind the house the cord can go
through a hatch I made to load in firewood. The larger genny is fueled
and in a shed there, but I have to shovel half way around the house to
reach it and the snowblowers.
The little Honda is stored indoors without fuel, which is in an EPA
sealed container stored in a closed bin. I made a rubber stopper and
bulb pressurizer for the fuel tank inlet that lets me prime it for use
and then completely empty it through the carb bowl drain before
bringing it indoors with the wood stove.
Except for the weatherproof wall entry near equivalents to most of
this setup could be purchased and plugged together. I didn't look hard
at battery chargers because their experimental use is too
restricted. I need the adjustable voltage output and current limiting
plus meters of lab supplies.
This or its droogs can operate directly from a 12V or 24V battery. https://carfridge.alpicool.com/products/alpicool-t60?
A magnet in the divider switches it between single and dual
compartment modes.
Managing home power generation can become a nuisance chore that
frequently interrupts you, even if the tasks are brief like feeding
the stove. ... Speaking of which, I just read the electric meter
several hours late and put the solar panels back in the truck bed, the
only place they can be concealed in front of the house. In this
overcast they produce about 5% of rating.
I'm about to test such a setup. ...
Somethign you folk from North America will be familiar with.
There is a 12V light, fridge and occasional inverter to mains-voltage
system with 12V "leisure" lead-acid battery and photovoltaic (PV)
charger and charge-regulator.
For winter when our days are short and sun not bright - would it be an efficient solution to have a small gasoline engine running a 12V
generator eg. from a car?
Would be efficient to have a small engine which runs full-power for a shortish time - something like an hour? - then stops.
Smallest Honda "GX" engine is 100cc.
Small engine+12V-generator & battery is much more fuel-efficient than
running a generator supplying power on-demand?
Tempting thought is - that would happen when it is dark and *cold* - therefore if you coudl recover the waste heat of the generator engine it would be welcomed.
I have no knowledge of this - anyone want to get this going?
Regards,
Rich Smith
"Bob La Londe"-a wrote in message news:114ipdu$2vnba$1@dont-email.me...
Just bear in mind solar tends to be less efficient than you might think.
-aI ran that gamut some years back setting up burglar alarm systems
models here there was no power, and in un-powered warehouses.-a I found
that if I didn't plan for 4 times the estimated max demand I was getting constant low battery communication from the cellular communicators.
This is in SW Arizona where arguably it is among the best locations in
the world for solar power.
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff
---------------------------------
Yes, I might get 50% of rated output at the meter panel due to shade and suboptimal fixed angles and the resistance of 10 AWG (5.26mm^2) wire.
They only test around 100% of label wattage at the panel connectors on a very clear and cool day with a variable resistive load adjusted to find
the peak, which varies in voltage between identical panels. Barely noticeable haze or cirrus can drop them to 50%, overcast to 10% and rain below 5%. Fixed mount panels lose power off-angle, you may get only 2
hours near max power and 5 total per day, unless you can move them. I am
not in a good location for solar power unless I move panels several
times a day.
On 7/31/2026 1:00 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"Bob La Londe"a wrote in message news:114ipdu$2vnba$1@dont-email.me...
Just bear in mind solar tends to be less efficient than you might think.
aI ran that gamut some years back setting up burglar alarm systems
models here there was no power, and in un-powered warehouses.a I found
that if I didn't plan for 4 times the estimated max demand I was getting
constant low battery communication from the cellular communicators.
This is in SW Arizona where arguably it is among the best locations in
the world for solar power.
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff
---------------------------------
Yes, I might get 50% of rated output at the meter panel due to shade and
suboptimal fixed angles and the resistance of 10 AWG (5.26mm^2) wire.
They only test around 100% of label wattage at the panel connectors on a
very clear and cool day with a variable resistive load adjusted to find
the peak, which varies in voltage between identical panels. Barely
noticeable haze or cirrus can drop them to 50%, overcast to 10% and rain
below 5%. Fixed mount panels lose power off-angle, you may get only 2
hours near max power and 5 total per day, unless you can move them. I am
not in a good location for solar power unless I move panels several
times a day.
I have never done this, nor have I ever seen it first hand, but I heard >described a very simple tracking system once. Panels are mounted on a >swivel axis. A box with a slit is placed on either side of the panel.A friend did that using LEDs as photo sensors. They actually work in
A small photovoltaic cell is used to trigger a circuit which moves the
panel with an actuator depending on condition. Sound complicated and >fiddly, but the idea seems pretty simple. Elevation is adjust every so >often through out the year. I don't recall hearing how it was rest to
the sunrise horizon at the end of travel. Maybe a timer. No signal
from either trigger for so many minutes and it trips a circuit that
powers the panels back to a limit switch using something like a
6060/6062 board.
Given today's abundance of advanced flexible processors it might be
easier to program a small computer system with a 365 day timer, to just
move the panel/s by dead reckoning every few minutes, and then swing
back to the sunrise horizon at sunset. Not at sunrise obviously because
if all backup power is consumed overnight there would be no energy to >restart the system when the sun rises.
I started to make the 200W panel pole mount track by machining a stainless steel thrust ball bearing to fit its water pipe supports and buying a
small DC geared motor.
"Bob La Londe"-a wrote in message news:114jb72$3jgba$1@dont-email.me...
I have never done this, nor have I ever seen it first hand, but I heard described a very simple tracking system once.-a Panels are mounted on a swivel axis.-a A box with a slit is placed on either side of the panel.
A small photovoltaic cell is used to trigger a circuit which moves the
panel with an actuator depending on condition.-a Sound complicated and fiddly, but the idea seems pretty simple.-a Elevation is adjust every so often through out the year.-a I don't recall hearing how it was rest to
the sunrise horizon at the end of travel.-a Maybe a timer.-a No signal
from either trigger for so many minutes and it trips a circuit that
powers the panels back to a limit switch using something like a
6060/6062 board.
Given today's abundance of advanced flexible processors it might be
easier to program a small computer system with a 365 day timer, to just
move the panel/s by dead reckoning every few minutes, and then swing
back to the sunrise horizon at sunset.-a Not at sunrise obviously because
if all backup power is consumed overnight there would be no energy to
restart the system when the sun rises.
Bob La Londe
------------------------------------
I started to make the 200W panel pole mount track by machining a
stainless steel thrust ball bearing to fit its water pipe supports and buying a small DC geared motor. The sun sensors can be LEDs on either
side of a baffle, they also output current when illuminated, though not much.
https://www.instructables.com/LEDs-as-light-sensors/
Comparators with a central dead band sensing the result of the opposing
LED outputs would drive an H bridge that can turn the motor either way, usually toward the more lit "sunwise" LED until they are nearly equal.
In the morning the other "widdershins" LED would rotate it back toward
the sun if properly positioned and the panel output to the H bridge is sufficient. Those are the direction terms from before clock dials. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-bridge
Then I decided to make it manually raise and lower, to catch early sun
over the roof, especially when the trees are bare.-a The wind loading on
the raised pole and tied-down large rotator pulley discouraged me from continuing the tracker project, it's guyed in place and in summer it permanently faces a gap between trees. There are other panels on the
ground nearby that I have to move around to dodge house and tree shadows every few hours so I'm back there anyway and can rotate it by the guy
lines. Wood heat has accustomed me to managing my energy sources.
I played with an Arduino a little, didn't have a good use for its
limited capabilities, then went back to programming on an old laptop
running DOS and QBasic which has a nicer interpret or compile IDE, the structured programming syntax of Pascal minus its restrictions and all
the legacy computer hardware free to use (unlike in Windows), KBD, LCD
and HDD for files plus COM and LPT whose registers are addressable in
the I/O space. LPT is the digital interface to custom external hardware, I've wired it to a DAC chip and comparator as a successive approximation voltmeter. A mouse can be added through a Call Absolute to a pointer to INT33 code stored as a String. https://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/oldlinux/Linux.old/docs/ interrupts/int-html/int-33.htm
On 7/30/2026 5:11 AM, Richard Smith wrote:
Somethign you folk from North America will be familiar with.
There is a 12V light, fridge and occasional inverter to
mains-voltage
system with 12V "leisure" lead-acid battery and photovoltaic (PV)
charger and charge-regulator.
For winter when our days are short and sun not bright - would it be
an
efficient solution to have a small gasoline engine running a 12V
generator eg. from a car?
Would be efficient to have a small engine which runs full-power for a
shortish time - something like an hour? - then stops.
Smallest Honda "GX" engine is 100cc.
Small engine+12V-generator & battery is much more fuel-efficient than
running a generator supplying power on-demand?
Tempting thought is - that would happen when it is dark and *cold* -
therefore if you coudl recover the waste heat of the generator engine it
would be welcomed.
I have no knowledge of this - anyone want to get this going?
Regards,
Rich Smith
Just bear in mind solar tends to be less efficient than you might
think. I ran that gamut some years back setting up burglar alarm
systems models here there was no power, and in un-powered warehouses.
I found that if I didn't plan for 4 times the estimated max demand I
was getting constant low battery communication from the cellular communicators. This is in SW Arizona where arguably it is among the
best locations in the world for solar power.
Just bear in mind solar tends to be less efficient than you might
think.
...
The very last actual computer program I ever wrote was a Quick Basic
(4.5) executable running under PCDOS 7.0. Due to a partial Y2K bug
and dead cmos battery I called it in my autoexec to bring up a menu to
set time and date upon boot up. I used that computer until the end of
2016 for remote programming some older lines of alarm panels. In 2017
I gave it to the company that purchased my alarm accounts.
Bob La Londe <none@none.com99> writes:
...
The very last actual computer program I ever wrote was a Quick Basic
(4.5) executable running under PCDOS 7.0. Due to a partial Y2K bug
and dead cmos battery I called it in my autoexec to bring up a menu to
set time and date upon boot up. I used that computer until the end of
2016 for remote programming some older lines of alarm panels. In 2017
I gave it to the company that purchased my alarm accounts.
Digression, but - I used Quick Basic for my first attempts at
programming back in 1996 - so 30 years ago.
I could have used the "built-in" BASIC within "MSWindows" then for what
I was doing, but well - whatever.
I got a first result showing my algorithm did work as a computational solution.
I realised things got really serious if you were to make the solution 3-Dimensional - one "serious" being that a 3-Dimensional takes the cube
of the amount of memory for my first 1-Dimensional solution (there were almost no 3-Dimensional solutions around then 30 years ago (?)).
I was pitched into supercomputing at that juncture.
My world became "unix" ("Linux"), programmed in "C".
Within a very few months the academics in the Department of Mathematics
and Computer Science where talking with some amazement at each other as
they absorbed what I had discovered or deduced myself - which they
considered what only an expert could comprehend.
Another "conversation" was a young lady who was a post-doctoral
researcher, who paused for a long time after looking through my code -
then picked-up on the "pointers" I had used - per possibilities I had
read-of in the couple of books I had on programming in "C" (including Kernighan and Ritchie's "the" book). Where it turns out I had done about
the same as a trainee pilot who had learned about the necessity of
flying low, and the necessity of flying fast, and had just returned from
a first solo training flight in less than half the time it was supposed to take,
with a thin haze of smoke coming off the aircraft and leaves and twigs
jammed in bits of the aeroplane, where they were deducing that the pupil
on an early solo flight had just flown at Mach 2 at treetop height (which would if so leave them handling "PR" issues like windows broken by the supersonic boom at just over head height, cows needing psychotherapy,
etc.).
Happy days... :-)
On 8/3/2026 1:13 PM, Richard Smith wrote:
Bob La Londe <none@none.com99> writes:
Digression, but - I used Quick Basic for my first attempts at...
The very last actual computer program I ever wrote was a Quick Basic
(4.5) executable running under PCDOS 7.0. Due to a partial Y2K bug
and dead cmos battery I called it in my autoexec to bring up a menu to
set time and date upon boot up. I used that computer until the end of
2016 for remote programming some older lines of alarm panels. In 2017
I gave it to the company that purchased my alarm accounts.
programming back in 1996 - so 30 years ago.
I could have used the "built-in" BASIC within "MSWindows" then for what
I was doing, but well - whatever.
I got a first result showing my algorithm did work as a computational
solution.
I realised things got really serious if you were to make the solution
3-Dimensional - one "serious" being that a 3-Dimensional takes the cube
of the amount of memory for my first 1-Dimensional solution (there were
almost no 3-Dimensional solutions around then 30 years ago (?)).
I was pitched into supercomputing at that juncture.
My world became "unix" ("Linux"), programmed in "C".
Within a very few months the academics in the Department of Mathematics
and Computer Science where talking with some amazement at each other as
they absorbed what I had discovered or deduced myself - which they
considered what only an expert could comprehend.
Another "conversation" was a young lady who was a post-doctoral
researcher, who paused for a long time after looking through my code -
then picked-up on the "pointers" I had used - per possibilities I had
read-of in the couple of books I had on programming in "C" (including
Kernighan and Ritchie's "the" book). Where it turns out I had done about
the same as a trainee pilot who had learned about the necessity of
flying low, and the necessity of flying fast, and had just returned from
a first solo training flight in less than half the time it was supposed to take,
with a thin haze of smoke coming off the aircraft and leaves and twigs
jammed in bits of the aeroplane, where they were deducing that the pupil
on an early solo flight had just flown at Mach 2 at treetop height (which
would if so leave them handling "PR" issues like windows broken by the
supersonic boom at just over head height, cows needing psychotherapy,
etc.).
Happy days... :-)
I used Quick basic a little earlier than that. I was struggling with
Algebra with irrational solutions in college, so I wrote some program
to calculate graphs and data points to help me get close. It was so
fast I had to add a time delay for visual affect before I showed it to
my Algebra professor. Brilliant guy. From that he learned QB and
started using it for generating fern graphics. (a fractal set) I
showed him how much faster C+ was and he rewrote it in C+ and started
writing his own graphic libraries to go with it, because he didn't get
all the libraries with his copy of C+. I never really figured out how
to write the answer as a complete expression, but I learned how to
calculate it close enough to a gazillion decimal places.
A little after (or maybe it was before, well around that time) my
Geology professor was showing off his basic interpretor executing a groundwater saturation study he was working on and proud of how much
faster the new 386 he had for his department was executing the program
than the older XTs or even the 286. He was really proud of the fact
that it only took a few days to run. I showed him how to use an
editor to semi automatically convert it into Quick basic compatible
code and compile. The next model ran in a couple hours.
One of my part time jobs back then was working as a lab tech in the
computer lab. Mostly just supervising, but I did spend a fair amount
of time teaching other people how to code or how to be power users.
Speed of computation - he went from interpreted BASIC to compiled
binaries from "QuickBASIC"?
Bob La Londe <none@none.com99> writes:
On 8/3/2026 1:13 PM, Richard Smith wrote:
Bob La Londe <none@none.com99> writes:
Digression, but - I used Quick Basic for my first attempts at...
The very last actual computer program I ever wrote was a Quick Basic
(4.5) executable running under PCDOS 7.0. Due to a partial Y2K bug
and dead cmos battery I called it in my autoexec to bring up a menu to >>>> set time and date upon boot up. I used that computer until the end of >>>> 2016 for remote programming some older lines of alarm panels. In 2017 >>>> I gave it to the company that purchased my alarm accounts.
programming back in 1996 - so 30 years ago.
I could have used the "built-in" BASIC within "MSWindows" then for what
I was doing, but well - whatever.
I got a first result showing my algorithm did work as a computational
solution.
I realised things got really serious if you were to make the solution
3-Dimensional - one "serious" being that a 3-Dimensional takes the cube
of the amount of memory for my first 1-Dimensional solution (there were
almost no 3-Dimensional solutions around then 30 years ago (?)).
I was pitched into supercomputing at that juncture.
My world became "unix" ("Linux"), programmed in "C".
Within a very few months the academics in the Department of Mathematics
and Computer Science where talking with some amazement at each other as
they absorbed what I had discovered or deduced myself - which they
considered what only an expert could comprehend.
Another "conversation" was a young lady who was a post-doctoral
researcher, who paused for a long time after looking through my code -
then picked-up on the "pointers" I had used - per possibilities I had
read-of in the couple of books I had on programming in "C" (including
Kernighan and Ritchie's "the" book). Where it turns out I had done about >>> the same as a trainee pilot who had learned about the necessity of
flying low, and the necessity of flying fast, and had just returned from >>> a first solo training flight in less than half the time it was supposed to take,
with a thin haze of smoke coming off the aircraft and leaves and twigs
jammed in bits of the aeroplane, where they were deducing that the pupil >>> on an early solo flight had just flown at Mach 2 at treetop height (which >>> would if so leave them handling "PR" issues like windows broken by the
supersonic boom at just over head height, cows needing psychotherapy,
etc.).
Happy days... :-)
I used Quick basic a little earlier than that. I was struggling with
Algebra with irrational solutions in college, so I wrote some program
to calculate graphs and data points to help me get close. It was so
fast I had to add a time delay for visual affect before I showed it to
my Algebra professor. Brilliant guy. From that he learned QB and
started using it for generating fern graphics. (a fractal set) I
showed him how much faster C+ was and he rewrote it in C+ and started
writing his own graphic libraries to go with it, because he didn't get
all the libraries with his copy of C+. I never really figured out how
to write the answer as a complete expression, but I learned how to
calculate it close enough to a gazillion decimal places.
A little after (or maybe it was before, well around that time) my
Geology professor was showing off his basic interpretor executing a
groundwater saturation study he was working on and proud of how much
faster the new 386 he had for his department was executing the program
than the older XTs or even the 286. He was really proud of the fact
that it only took a few days to run. I showed him how to use an
editor to semi automatically convert it into Quick basic compatible
code and compile. The next model ran in a couple hours.
One of my part time jobs back then was working as a lab tech in the
computer lab. Mostly just supervising, but I did spend a fair amount
of time teaching other people how to code or how to be power users.
Speed of computation - he went from interpreted BASIC to compiled
binaries from "QuickBASIC"?
They warn these days that an interpreter running the sparse "script" can often far better use the computer's hardware that a "clunky" compiled
program in eg. "C".
Rest clipped, I need to stop blabbing and hammer sheet metal for the car.
I don't recall which BIOS' or revisions anymore, but I documented more
than a couple issues like that with different supposedly cross
compatible BIOS.
On 8/4/2026 1:08 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
I don't recall which BIOS' or revisions anymore, but I documented more
than a couple issues like that with different supposedly cross
compatible BIOS.
I should add when I was taking most of my programming classes at home I
had a Tandy1400HD (V20 processor) laptop, a generic XT with an 8088 processor, and an early AT with a 286 processor.-a-a I would typically
write on the AT, and test my code on all three machines.-a I did not have
a color monitor at the time, but I did have a Hercules color card in the
XT, and a very simple VGA card in the AT (maybe that was later I
forget).-a In order to keep track of things on screen I would pick random color codes for particular types of information or menu items, so the brightness would be different on the CRT.
The Tandy had some quirk of its architecture so it would address a
little more ram than just 640 like a regular XT.
One of my instructors started testing student programs on a 386, that
had an actual honest to goodness color monitor and he was impressed with
how I made order of everything on screen by color.-a I had completely forgotten about using the color codes by then.-a Fortunately I picked
colors at random that didn't look to terrible.
My first programs were written on a Commodore Pet 2001 with a tape
drive.-a Then I started writing basic on a HeathKit H89A with a Z80 processor if I recall.-a My dad built it from a kit.-a The most complex program I remember writing back then was a strictly text based version
of Mastermind using numbers instead of colors.-a I was in the process of writing a similar style blackjack game program when we took a massive voltage surge, the surge suppressor behind the air hockey table we were using as a computer blew up and flames shot 3-4 feet up the wall.-a Sadly the Heathkit didn't survive.-a I guess when you hit a surge suppressor so hard it explodes it doesn't stop the voltage spike.-a It was a power
company mistake in the field.-a They paid for a lot of refrigerator
motors from what I heard, although ours didn't die from it.
In high school I wrote several simple video games starting with a simple version of pong using the paddle controllers that came with the Apple
II(s) we had in the math department. I wrote some basic space invaders
style games, and I was working on a D&D like texted based game with
tracked random threats and rewards in each room.-a The contents of the
room or dungeon were random, but then stored for the duration of the
game stored in a massive array.-a I was doing some testing when it a loop condition I missed closed and it started doing continuous drive access.
I was just about to pull the plug out of the wall when smoke poured out
of the drive.-a Yeah I smoked hardware with software.-a I'm still not sure how I did that because drive access was supposed to be minimal.
An instructor once asked me to write a program to generate a test for
his algebra class with random computer generated problems on each test
so they couldn't cheat.-a It worked great until he walked over to me with
a big stack of completed tests and asked for the answer keys.-a You know
he kicked me out of his class 13 different times in one semester.-a I
still got the 'A' I earned though.-a LOL.
I did some playing with an HP 9825A the year before, but with a tape
drive and a one line LED display its was kinda slow and tedious to do anything.-a Mostly I just played around with it when I was bored with playing poker in study hall.
On 8/4/2026 1:08 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
I don't recall which BIOS' or revisions anymore, but I documented
more than a couple issues like that with different supposedly cross
compatible BIOS.
I should add when I was taking most of my programming classes at home
I had a Tandy1400HD (V20 processor) laptop, a generic XT with an 8088 processor, and an early AT with a 286 processor.-a-a I would typically
write on the AT, and test my code on all three machines.-a I did not
have a color monitor at the time, but I did have a Hercules color card
in the XT, and a very simple VGA card in the AT (maybe that was later
I forget).-a In order to keep track of things on screen I would pick
random color codes for particular types of information or menu items,
so the brightness would be different on the CRT.
The Tandy had some quirk of its architecture so it would address a
little more ram than just 640 like a regular XT.
One of my instructors started testing student programs on a 386, that
had an actual honest to goodness color monitor and he was impressed
with how I made order of everything on screen by color. I had
completely forgotten about using the color codes by then. Fortunately
I picked colors at random that didn't look to terrible.
My first programs were written on a Commodore Pet 2001 with a tape
drive.-a Then I started writing basic on a HeathKit H89A with a Z80 processor if I recall.-a My dad built it from a kit.-a The most complex program I remember writing back then was a strictly text based version
of Mastermind using numbers instead of colors.-a I was in the process
of writing a similar style blackjack game program when we took a
massive voltage surge, the surge suppressor behind the air hockey
table we were using as a computer blew up and flames shot 3-4 feet up
the wall.-a Sadly the Heathkit didn't survive.-a I guess when you hit a surge suppressor so hard it explodes it doesn't stop the voltage
spike.-a It was a power company mistake in the field.-a They paid for a
lot of refrigerator motors from what I heard, although ours didn't die
from it.
In high school I wrote several simple video games starting with a
simple version of pong using the paddle controllers that came with the
Apple II(s) we had in the math department. I wrote some basic space
invaders style games, and I was working on a D&D like texted based
game with tracked random threats and rewards in each room.-a The
contents of the room or dungeon were random, but then stored for the duration of the game stored in a massive array.-a I was doing some
testing when it a loop condition I missed closed and it started doing continuous drive access. I was just about to pull the plug out of the
wall when smoke poured out of the drive. Yeah I smoked hardware with software.-a I'm still not sure how I did that because drive access was supposed to be minimal.
An instructor once asked me to write a program to generate a test for
his algebra class with random computer generated problems on each test
so they couldn't cheat.-a It worked great until he walked over to me
with a big stack of completed tests and asked for the answer keys.-a
You know he kicked me out of his class 13 different times in one
semester.-a I still got the 'A' I earned though.-a LOL.
I did some playing with an HP 9825A the year before, but with a tape
drive and a one line LED display its was kinda slow and tedious to do anything.-a Mostly I just played around with it when I was bored with playing poker in study hall.
HCF instruction?
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