[HN Gopher] Zusie - My Relay Computer
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Zusie - My Relay Computer
Author : xk3
Score : 111 points
Date : 2025-01-31 16:55 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nablaman.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nablaman.com)
| dang wrote:
| Related. Others?
|
| _Zusie - My Relay Computer_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8711869 - Dec 2014 (21
| comments)
| guerrilla wrote:
| > 8-bit data bus and 16-bit address bus
|
| What? That is very intense. If I were doing relays, I would have
| gone for 2 bits or something, 4 bits max. Hardcore.
| creer wrote:
| Agreed, 8-bit data, 16-bit address (but 12-bit program
| counters) is massive for relays! That's a lot of relays to do
| anything. But it turns out their start was when they stumbled
| on 1500 relays in good condition. So they were set in relays
| from the start and could aim "rather" big. They do have a lot
| of relays.
| dahart wrote:
| So cool! Should link to the project homepage
| http://www.nablaman.com/relay/ Or the news page with pics &
| videos. http://www.nablaman.com/relay/progress.php Last update
| was in 2011, btw.
| serviceberry wrote:
| I think that's the fate of every project like that. Not to take
| away from it, it's still fantastic and geeky. But at some
| point, you have this realization that you're pouring years of
| your life into something that is not only utterly useless, but
| also _won 't be appreciated by others_. You can't even play
| Pong on it. There's literally nothing you can demo to non-
| nerds, other than "this device makes looks complicated and
| makes noise".
|
| Maybe you'll make it to HN more than a decade later, but that's
| it. No one will buy it from you. Your heirs will toss it out.
| It... sucks.
| zelon88 wrote:
| And yet you've developed this knowledge for yourself that
| applies to other things. Among them you develop probably the
| most imperative skill which practically nobody focuses on;
| problem solving. And if you've got kids that share your
| interests they get that knowledge and experience also.
|
| Humans need hobbies. Humans need to explore their
| curiosities. If you're not doing this you're hiking or biking
| or gaming or going to the gym or kayaking or.... something
| equally useless.
| serviceberry wrote:
| Sure, but we're herd animals and also need validation, even
| if we're pretending not to. We go on a journey of self-
| discovery to Nepal so that we can talk to others how
| profound it was, etc.
|
| I'm not dissing hobbies, I'm just saying that building
| stuff like that is a very lonely hobby, which is why such
| projects almost always fizzle out.
| progmetaldev wrote:
| I really feel this statement. I'm being forced out of a
| company that is struggling to pay my salary, after almost
| 18 years. This is a career where I taught myself and
| continued (and continue) to improve. I know that my best
| skill is the ability to solve unique problems, and that's
| mostly been from needing to complete a project or the
| business loses their time and money. For most of my career,
| I have been the sole developer, and impostor syndrome is
| real and haunting. Having HN, and following various news
| and blog sources, I think I am in a good place with my
| knowledge. It's just transferring to another company after
| almost two decades that is the scary part.
|
| Having a senior position, but still very much wanting to be
| involved in coding and architecture, makes me nervous that
| I won't be able to keep my same lifestyle without going
| into full-time management. Problem solving is often tossed
| to the side for a "good enough" answer. I understand that
| as a business need, but when things start to get really
| complicated, pulling in an existing library or solution is
| often not possible.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| > The result is largely who you became while you build it,
| not the physical end product.
|
| - malux85, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41516755
| accrual wrote:
| Who's to say no one appreciates it? And even if it were
| unappreciated, that doesn't make it any less worthwhile to
| the person working on it if that's what they choose to do
| with their time. Not every project needs to live forever with
| a bustling community and updates. You can quietly work on
| something, finish it one day, be proud of your work, and put
| it online for others to admire (or not). That's plenty enough
| of a purpose and reason to build these things IMO.
| tesseract wrote:
| The real project is the sense of accomplishment we gained
| along the way, or something like that.
|
| But anyway, there are institutions like the Craftsmanship
| Museum <https://craftsmanshipmuseum.com/> that exist to
| present this kind of passion project to the interested
| public. That one in particular came out of and is still very
| centered on the hobby machinist and model steam engine
| community... if there's not already something similar for
| electronics and computing type projects, it definitely seems
| like maybe there could/should be.
| dunham wrote:
| There was an update in November 2013 at the end of
| https://www.nablaman.com/relay/story.php
|
| > The last time I wrote something here was two and a half years
| ago. Since then, Zusie has been more or less finished. Also,
| I've moved to a different city, and Zusie has followed along.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| As of late I've been watching a Youtube creator, DiPDoT[0],
| building a relay computer.
|
| DiPTDoT's project is still in-progress. His computer has an 8-bit
| data bus and a 16-bit address bus[1], like the Zusie. His
| registers are a little more generous than the Zusie.
|
| I really enjoy the sound of DiPDoT's test rigs running his cards
| thru functional testing. The rhythm of a relaying computer
| running code with loops is probably pretty fun.
|
| [0] https://www.youtube.com/@dipdoting
|
| [1] https://youtu.be/GwNZFNtruTY?t=60
| alnwlsn wrote:
| One of the most polished diy relay computers (and video series)
| I've seen is by Paul Law [0]. He's been working on it for over
| 10 years, and has just started a series on using it to
| calculate Pi.
|
| [0] https://www.youtube.com/@paul80nd
| artemonster wrote:
| the guy uses same relays as I do and he solders them onto pcb.
| Ive learned my lesson the hard way that these relays are
| unreliable and they do die, so in my design all of relays are
| socketed. hope the guy will adjust his design too
| ggerules wrote:
| This is a very cool project!
|
| I wish this was around when I was teaching computer architecture.
| I use to challenge students to think outside the box when it came
| to switchs. One example is to build a computer out of
| paperclips.[1] The book can be found on eBay, Amazon and other
| used/old book outlets.
|
| [1] "How to build a working digital computer", Edward Alcosser,
| 1968
| sho_hn wrote:
| I 3D printed some Zuse-style mechanical NAND gates last year,
| that was a lot of fun and makes for a great fidget toy:
|
| https://mero.ng/i/vMdqQYJG.jpg
|
| I've kind of given some thought of doing a higher-quality metal
| production run of these with nice finish and engravings of the
| inputs and outputs as a geeky desk fidget.
|
| Model credit goes here (and of course to the original Zuse patent
| application the design is from), although I made a NAND remix as
| I wanted a universal gate and fixed up all of the tolerances and
| still really have to upload my version:
|
| https://www.printables.com/model/69642-zuse-inspired-z1-logi...
| genpfault wrote:
| (2011)?
| gwbas1c wrote:
| I'd love to see, and hear, a video of the computer in operation
| myth2018 wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42889686
| gwbas1c wrote:
| I see "This video displays Zusie the Relay Computer...", but
| there's no actual video to see.
| msandin wrote:
| https://youtu.be/-ReqdyCxZ9I?si=e6WjONWMOGHG7Wja
|
| Sounds fantastic on YouTube, even better IRL.
| artemonster wrote:
| Shameless plug for my relay computer:
| https://github.com/artemonster/relay-cpu
| creer wrote:
| There is now a whole bunch of relay computers on youtube! It's
| become easier to do it seems. This one 2011, some more recent on
| youtube.
| bittercynic wrote:
| That's beautiful and mesmerizing - video here:
| http://www.nablaman.com/relay/progress.php
|
| I built one of these[0] a few years ago, and really enjoyed the
| build process and playing around with it. It was a pretty big
| project, but no special skills required.
|
| [0] https://relaysbc.sourceforge.net/
| sitkack wrote:
| The creator of relaysbc posts here every so often.
|
| The bare PCB is here
| https://www.tindie.com/products/jhallen/single-board-relay-c...
|
| I have not completed mine yet, what was the hardest part during
| assembly or the gotcha you had to debug?
| bittercynic wrote:
| I think the hardest part was trying to clean the flux off of
| the board, and I never did get it that clean.
|
| I chose to use sockets for the relays, and at first it had
| some weirdly inconsistent behavior. Removing and re-
| installing all the relays fixed it, though.
|
| I went very slowly and checked my work as I went. I don't
| understand the circuit well enough to debug it, so I was very
| motivated to work accurately.
| rahen wrote:
| Another relay computer for those interested, with hand built
| DRAM! http://www.northdownfarm.co.uk/rory/tim/tim-8.htm
| msandin wrote:
| Having seen this in person my favorite aspect is the sound it
| makes, absolutely mesmerizing.
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