Don Lancaster

[Al Kossow]

Obituary for Don Lancaster - The Gila Herald

Don Lancaster, 83, passed away on June 7, 2023, in Mesa where he was undergoing physical therapy after hip surgery. He lived the past 44 years in Thatcher, where he …

gilaherald.com

 

[syzygy]

An incredibly prolific writer and communicator. I remember once calling him up on the phone to help with a LC mod for my model 1 - maybe 1982-3. Knowing next to nothing at the time, I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to get power from - he explained it and I never forgot that. Read his columns regularly. He had a lot of impact. Thank you!

 

[Bruce Tomlin]

As a kid in the mid '70s, The TTL Cookbook (and the availability of chips at Radio Shack) was really influential to me, in the time where I had to wait for affordable home computers to be a thing. I learned a lot by just making LEDs blink.

 

[ajacocks]

Don was such a presence in the community, for so long. He will be missed!

- Alex

 

[DeltaDon]

You were a teacher that could teach and make it seem simple. RIP Don.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Sigh. Another fixture gone. RIP, Don--and may you never lack tinajas.

 

[whartung]

RIP

So helpful early on.

 

[falter]

I'm quite shocked as I was talking to his daughter a month or so ago and he was apparently doing well. He was so helpful with my TV Typewriter project. My condolences to his family.

 

[falter]

"Don was truly a microcomputer pioneer and held a patent for one of the original Apple parts that he developed."

Anyone know what 'Apple part' that was?

 

[syzygy]

Maybe this one https://image-ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-public/print/downloadPdf/3149561

 

[whartung]

That's dated 1961, so I doubt it's that germane to Apple.

 

[daver2]

A sad (and unexpected) loss to both his family and the computer world.

My condolences.

Dave

 

[syzygy]

That's dated 1961, so I doubt it's that germane to Apple.

Actually, it was granted in 1964. I don't know what "Apple Part" is involved and I was surprised when I read that also, especially given his views on patents, which he expressed quite clearly. I could only find this one patent under his name.

 

[Al Kossow]

There may be a connection between the TVT and Woz's "Dial-A-Call" terminal which is essentially the guts of the Apple I video display, but there has never been an acknowledgment of that.
Video displays built from two levels of serial MOS shift registers were common knowledge in the trade press at the time. I cloned the boards from an Ann Arbor terminal around that time to
make my first video terminal.

 

[1944GPW]

Though I only knew of him via having 'The Cheap Video Cookbook' back in the day, I had a look through his follow-up book 'Son of Cheap Video' on his colourful website.

As a testament to his problem-solving creativity, SOCV details how he simplified his video circuit timing sync to the CRT by the use of what he called the 'Snuffler'.
This was not much more than a long coil of wire stuck on the side of the CRT that picked up the beam flyback, this went into a Schmitt trigger to provide a clean pulse to interrupt the CPU to run the display. Quite the genius idea!