2 Hickok Ford Vehicle Simulator Analog computers

[lai...@wcoil.com]

Check out auction 350987319019. It appears to be partial analog computers
made by Hickok that simulate Ford vehicles. Most likely solid state but
check out the card readers. They look like cardmatic tube tester card
readers. So maybe you could simulate the suspension on a Pinto and test a
6L6 on the same machine! Standard disclaimer, not my auction etc. Tim
Laing

[lai...@wcoil.com]

I should have added these are on E-bay.

[Nick]

Fantastic... boat anchors!

What on Earth would you do with them? They're missing all the external sensors etc.

Nick

[Dennis]

Your on to something Tim. Look at all the time one could save. I didn't know that Hickok was into auto testing equipment but looks that way. Too bad there's not a date on those. Would be interesting to know when they were used. Can only imagine what's inside.

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[lai...@wcoil.com]

Nick, I don't think there are any external sensors. These units are
analog simulators. They probably had a big set of patch panels that
allowed wiring the various analog elements to simulate a cars suspension
system etc. using the various log, sine and cosine etc circuits. You
would simulate a shock and spring using caps resistors and the various
amplifiers and oscillators. At least that is my limited impression of
these things.
I saw a much larger version of these analog computers that was used for
airframe testing/design. Boeing donated one to Ohio Northern
Universitie's Engineering dept. It was still in a room when I was going
to college in the early 80s. I was a faculty brat so I ran around the
University all through my childhood so I knew the University from the
late 60s to 1986. I never saw it used for anything in all those years
though. I remember a huge section of patch panels with hundreds of
jumpers going all over the place. At one time analog computers were
much more powerful and faster than any digital computers for doing
complicated simulations of physical systems.
Tim L.

[lai...@wcoil.com]

Nick, I don't think there are any external sensors. These units are
analog simulators. They probably had a big set of patch panels that
allowed wiring the various analog elements to simulate a cars suspension
system etc. using the various log, sine and cosine etc circuits. You
would simulate a shock and spring using caps resistors and the various
amplifiers and oscillators. At least that is my limited impression of
these things.
I saw a much larger version of these analog computers that was used for
airframe testing/design. Boeing donated one to Ohio Northern
Universitie's Engineering dept. It was still in a room when I was going
to college in the early 80s. I was a faculty brat so I ran around the
University all through my childhood so I knew the University from the
late 60s to 1986. I never saw it used for anything in all those years
though. I remember a huge section of patch panels with hundreds of
jumpers going all over the place. At one time analog computers were
much more powerful and faster than any digital computers for doing

complicated simulations of physical systems. I don't know very much more
about analog computers.
Tim L.

[NeonJohn]

We had an analog computer at the Sequoyah Nuclear plant that simulated
reactor core dynamics. It had several banks of Nixie tube readouts,
several strip chart recorders, probably 75 precision 10-turn pots with
vernier dials and a big patch board. The patch board allowed different
sections to be patched together - programmed - for different
simulations. It was a quick-release affair so that several could be
kept pre-programmed.

There are no sensors. The unit is programmed with a set of initial
conditions, on this unit using punch cards, and then started. The only
things missing from these units are the patch cables - and the thick
instruction manual on how to set them up.

What is interesting is that Sequoyah now has a mainframe dedicated to
calculating core dynamics - what a desktop analog computer could do faster.

John

--
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[threeneurons]

Here's the link to the eBay listing:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/350987319019

Hickok is still around. They've specialized in automotive, since 1984, but that doesn't mean that they didn't make any gear for that industry prior to that date. More likely, just left the general instrument market around that time. Here are some company history links:

http://www.hickok-inc.com/about/hickok-company-profile.html

http://www.hickok-inc.com/hickok100/hickok-history.pdf

A link to some other old Hickok gear:

http://www.stevenjohnson.com/hickok/

My first experience with Hickok, was some of the scopes used in high school:

They also had some Eico's, too:

In College, I got to use some analog computers. They where long obsolete, by then, but they were a convenient way to wire up circuits, so a few stuck around. Here's a site dedicated to them:

http://www.cowardstereoview.com/analog/

And the EAI Model TR20 I used in school:

On Monday, February 3, 2014 5:39:32 AM UTC-8, TLaing wrote:

... So maybe you could simulate the suspension on a Pinto and test a

[Matthew Smith]

Quoth lai...@wcoil.com at 2014-02-04 00:09 ...

Oh, my. If I had the space and a squillion dollars for international
shipping, I'd take 'em like a shot.

John - any idea of what the Nixies in the Sequoyah were for? Voltmeters?

Of particular interest, as I'm in the throes of designing a simple
analogue computer. My only output devices are currently a pair of large,
ex-Soviet, centre-zero microammeters wired as voltmeters (ie: pure
analogue.) Had been wondering whether to include a digital voltmeters
too. Whilst I'm actually building it for practical reasons, it WOULD
look good with some neon on there. My biggest part of the design
challenge is getting the cost of the patching down - even cheap banana
jacks become expensive when you need hundreds!

M

--
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ABN 16 391 203 815

[NeonJohn]

On 02/03/2014 02:17 PM, Matthew Smith wrote:

> John - any idea of what the Nixies in the Sequoyah were for? Voltmeters?

Yes, voltmeters. They could be jumpered into any part of the simulation
circuitry. As I understand it, they were used primarily to set up the
initial parameters more precisely than the verniers could. The outputs
were all Brush pressurized ink strip-chart recorders.

John

[John Rehwinkel]

>> Check out auction 350987319019. It appears to be partial analog computers
>> made by Hickok that simulate Ford vehicles.
>>

> Oh, my. If I had the space and a squillion dollars for international shipping, I'd take 'em like a shot.

I considered buying 'em for parts and art projects, but while I'd part with a couple hundred dollars for 'em, a couple hundred MORE for shipping makes it beyond the "that would be nice to have" category.

> Of particular interest, as I'm in the throes of designing a simple analogue computer.

I've been considering doing the same. Op-amps are cheap and common these days, and it would be nice to build an analogue chaos machine (the original research on chaotic systems grew out of a weather simulator on a Systron-Donner analogue computer).

> My only output devices are currently a pair of large, ex-Soviet, centre-zero microammeters wired as voltmeters (ie: pure analogue.)

Nice! I have a real fondness for big meters.

> Had been wondering whether to include a digital voltmeters too. Whilst I'm actually building it for practical reasons, it WOULD look good with some neon on there.

Oh, you give me ideas! Maybe a couple of neon bar graph displays would work. An eye tube or two? And a nixie voltmeter would be an appropriate touch.

> My biggest part of the design challenge is getting the cost of the patching down - even cheap banana jacks become expensive when you need hundreds!

Surplus is your friend. I bought a raft of banana jacks in assorted colours from a surplus vendor a while back. They're great for prototyping. And you're right about needing a lot of them, I looked at some of the analogue computers available on eBay, and the panels are just covered with them.

- John

[JohnK]

Way back in '69 I used boot eyelets soldered into PCBs for the 4mm sockets.
Didn't get a cheap solution to the plugs though. None of the bent metal,
springy-wire ideas survived use. One idea that nearly worked was a smaller
eyelet for the socket and very flexible meter lead cable for the leads/
plugs. Stripped the cable, bent the strands back over the insulation and
held with heatshrink.

Later [ late '80s] I used wire-wrap pins and the rolls of "blue links" -
can't remember the brand etc. The ones that I still have are on blank
generic spools. They are continuous wire with a socket to suit wire-wrap
pins every 6 inches. Worked but didn't look nice; very cheap though.
A mate's contender at the time used an idea that I discarded - high density
plug pins that had an insulation displacement connection slot at the end. he
soldered the pin end into the pcb and pushed the 'telephone' wire into the
knives to make the connections. Wasn't nice to use [for me anyway] and
'pulling' a connection wasn't easy [ needed plier on the short side and pull
both sides together. The temptation was to just rip the wires out.]

Found a rolled up piece of mylar recently - was the artwork for one of the
patch panels - double-size done with Bishop Graphics tape. The high temps in
that area had helped the tape fall off :-((

John K
Australia


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