"Apollo Tech Support, Marc speaking." 😊

"No, dammit. Apollo, not Apple. Stop calling me."

@@pmcgee003 Haha, that made my day!

😂

I hope they do, especially since the modules aren't potted it would be easier. I wonder if they could retrofit a test connector so it can be controlled with Mike's genius test port controller/debugger thing.

Simon T ow yeah they can. Mike is probably thinking of all the possibilities on how to restore it and get all the mismatched parts working together.

@@SuprSi What's missing from this computer is the grounding test connector cover, not the test connector itself. The test connector is present and functional on all AGCs (and so all are compatible with the debugger). :)

@@mikestewart8928 That's awesome, I hope you get to work with this one soon, thanks for the reply :)

It might take too much time, but I would definitely want to see it restored, as long as it will have less than 8 videos.

Gofundme? I'd put in a 10$

Hopefully a museum snaps it up so people can look at a piece of history forever.

1202 must already be taken.

@@user2C47 1202 should be the radar unit that can overload the AGC if the off function doesn't work.

It's not a baseball card or a gun, so most Americans won't care about it.

@@frac you forgot comic book

@@frac Sold for $279,858.75 (includes buyer's premium) link : www.rrauction.com/PastAuctionItem/3418160

It's been done, most notably by John Pultorak for the Block I. See here: see here www.ibiblio.org/apollo/Pultorak.html . And of course even more notably by our very own Mike Stewart, who built a gate exact replica Block II in an FPGA. Which led him on a multi-year quest to find the lost schematics and software, and finally to find a real AGC to be able to trace the exact original logic, which we eventually restored to working function. We used Mike's replica extensively during the restoration as a guide to what the AGC should be doing, and it was always pinpoint exact. Annoyingly, the 74xxx series approach falls apart when you have to implement the non-logic IC based modules, such as almost the entirety of the Tray B, for which you'd most probably substitute completely different modern circuitry and memory. It also fails with the analog I/O and alarm circuits, but you would just duplicate the original circuit discrete components. For the main logic part of tray A though, you can pretty much do an exact logic replica with TTL or CMOS and get it to boot, as Mike demonstrated.

CuriousMarc I wonder if some sort of an “homage to analog” design could be done, using a single IC throughout as a challenge, and very few additional transistors. LM118 family released in 1971 would work passably for logic circuits as well as “fast” analog needed in this application. They don’t have much drive capability without getting slow, so one could parallel them or cheat with emitter followers :). Also, the whole thing would be a thermal monster. 5mA/op-amp is, I imagine, a lot compared to average supply current per chip in the AGC?

Their aim would be history The V2's aim would be London

It would be a house priced computer here too. Which is a bargain compared to what it actually cost to make it - must have been in the $ Billions of total R&D investment, and they made just 57. By the way, Italy is also known for making very nice house-priced cars too :-)

do you think he has 500.000 $ to invest into an AGC ? :)

@@bobl78 It's just money :)

They deserve to have it though, or at least someone who let them restore it

@@fabianfierro I can't think of anyone who deserves one more than Mike but I doubt he can afford it.

@@hqqns me too. AGCs are only interesting to nerds and museums, whoever buys it will give Mike access, it's not like rare art or antique that end on private collections, hidden from the word (or I seriously hope it won't end like that)

Since I think everything is shown in this video -- sure! Here's what I took. I wasn't expecting to be able to take it apart that day, so the only camera I had with me was my phone: photos.app.goo.gl/V5KYistnWyWFqQCi7

@@mikestewart8928 You're my hero. great pics. thank you very much

@@mikestewart8928 You didn't learn to always come prepared at this stage of the series? :/

Since there is now a pathway to get it working that didn't exist before I expect 500k isn't far wrong.

@@mikestewart8928 fantastic Mike - thanks for sharing. I shudder to think how much was spent on engineering just for the front case shell that fits over the keys and displays. Is is cast or machined?

The drawings indicate that the lettering is 0.26"/0.24" high white characters. They reference specification 1002122, which is sadly missing from the National Archives, but we know that the title of it is "Futura Demibold Characters, Process Specification".

Good question, and thanks Mike for the answer. There are some folks who really LOVE to identify fonts used in pop culture, for instance this very interesting page on the fonts used in 2001: A Space Odyssey typesetinthefuture.com/2014/01/31/2001-a-space-odyssey/

Based on the vast amount of video Marc took from Jimmy's AGC restoration showing this font, It would be trivial to generate .FNT or .TTF file no?

@@mikestewart8928 makes sense. The entire Apollo program used Futura even on the plates they left on the moon.

...and look at that vintage Dymo labeling....

Wait what?

@Lassi Kinnunen kzfaq.info/get/bejne/balmnNGZnd2vfH0.html

Hehehe. Based on a drawing we got this weekend, I'm now 99% sure that the answer to the question resides in revisions of drawing 6014999. We have the latest revision (as shown in the video) which specifies 2003100-071 for G&N 602, but according to this other drawing, there should be some earlier version that will state 2003100-051. We'll hopefully get all of the revisions of 6014999 before the end of the year, and then we'll be able to pin down when the two were swapped, at least to the month.

@@mikestewart8928 I suspect you've reconstructed more knowledge of "what" and "how" than those working with it originally. They couldn't see the whole picture at the time. It's gotta be a *well-earned* thrill to converse with those original participants and blend your model with what they actually experienced at the time. The stories and perspectives you guys have swapped are truly rare experiences in life. I hope you're writing this stuff down for your book -- Feynman-style collection of fun stories perhaps? :)

Until we can find another one... They don’t come around that often :-(

That would be so awesome. Someone finds us a LM we can connect it to!

@@CuriousMarc Snoopy?

Um... don't we? In Jonson's NASA Space Center?

Well, seeing as how there are still unflown craft in existence, it shouldn't technically be too hard to refurbish one to flight status, bung it on a SpaceX rocket and fling it up

You'd have to manufacture the semiconductors, which would get pretty expensive I imagine. (if you want authentic ones) The rest of it would be pretty simple, especially if you forgo the original gold contacts, use some random ICs etc...

Yes, it has been done. As far as I know, eg. Mike built one before he started the restauration project. But there are others too.

@@rkan2 Ok, not THAT accurately. I just wonder about taking the original diagrams but use modern components. Converting rtl to TTL would be a sod though 😒

James Neave You could always try the way Mike did with FPGA, it's a functionally equivalent system just much smaller, cheaper and easier to debug and do stuff with. I am tempted by it but I don't have the $$ for the FPGA etc to do that. It would be an awesome project to do.

James Neave check this out www.ibiblio.org/apollo/Pultorak.html

I spoke too soon!

Yes it says in the video, 57 of the Block II AGC.

Yes Sir. Learn more about it in Ken’s article here: www.righto.com/2019/07/software-woven-into-wire-core-rope-and.html

I atleast hope Elon will bid, win and contact these guys to rebuild a fully working AGC with DSKY and such. maybe for a Space museum, on mars somewhere in the future :D atleast someone we all know and who might put it up for display :D