Worlds First Commercial Computer Portrait System Casi Apollo VP2 circa 1978

[rmay635703]

I just snagged the Worlds First Commercial Computer POrtrait System (the 1976 Compmark I spacepix wasn't commercially sold)

Casi Apollo VP2 circa 1978, sadly its incomplete, no keyboard, no remote, no camera, no printer. I am going to try and decipher the pinouts and wire up 75ohm video connects (it only has gigantic Broadcast 50ohm video connectors)

I will try and document it but I am curious if anyone knows what Centronics branded printers would have been matched up to this unit between 1978-1981 This unit depending on its variation would actually print 144column ASCII single spaced text to make B/W portraits. Not sure if any tally units talked in the original centronics language and man does this have wierd looking hand wired connectors for printer and keyboard, I think each wire if shorted must type a character

Inside It looks sort of like small s-100 (never delt with one so not sure) I will post pics if I can find a decent free hosting service. I did notice this unit only has 2 of the max 3 boards so it is missing the secondary printer driver and rom software expansion.

Cheers
Ryan

 

[rmay635703]

I took some pics after tearing this unit apart and will see if they are discernable just attached to the forum.

This unit of all things has a
SOLID STATE MUSIC card is the lower bus slot copywrite 1978 it just has rows of S 7917 21L02B chips, OLD 1kbit SRAMs OOH 8kb total, thats enough to??? 144 x 120 x 16 grayscales (I believe thats what its rated at though the math doesn't work out, must skip some lines, odd you could tell who you were looking at)
It appears that they took a card that would be used to store digital sound and modded it to store frame information? Strange.

Could it be this?? http://members.lycos.co.uk/leeedavison/6502/memoryplus/08.html
not bad if it is for 1978

The upper card is only marked ATC 20 2486 REV D
Lots of TI TTL logic lots of F-7474PC chips and other F-74XX variants
along with MC1711cp m7852

I can't find any CPU on the unit, strange that it could allow you to flash a picture add text and print without a discernable CPU

It appears most of the fun stuff happens on the power plane on the back of the unit, I haven't take that out yet due to all the "weak" looking soldered wires coming from the contrast, brightness, width, print and other riostat controls. The power plane accepts the video signal and must process it somewhat then attaches directly into an de-soldered slot on the bottom of the passive backplane. The video info is soldered straight into the motherboard, not really sure how this thing can do anything given how simplistic it really is. The keyboard, remote control, printer and everything else solder into the power plane.

If anyone wants circuit diagrams, I am thinking this unit could be built out a a handfull of modern equivalents.

Cheers
Ryan

 

[Terry Yager]

Solid State Music used to make a number of different kinds of S-100 boards, not just sound-related stuff.

--T

 

[rmay635703]

Solid State Music used to make a number of different kinds of S-100 boards, not just sound-related stuff.

--T

I started to look and that is definately true.

Off hand can there be any serious side effects of wiring a 50ohm video lead into a 75ohm without an adapter? I had an old mono Broadcast monitor long ago that had a pair of 50ohm to 75ohm adapters, sadly I sold that long ago not having a real use for a mono NTSC monitor.

Cheers
Ryan

 

[rmay635703]

After running a series of adapters I have gotten this old machine up and running. It is strange seeing a somewhat blockey grayscale image made out of my DVD movie output. One issue I noted is that the screen is shakey every once and a while when I flip to the captured image.

Anyone have any idea what pinout a square printer port and square keyboard port would be? I have determined the ground 12v -5v but can't really figure what the others go to even after trying to trace this thing out.

Thanx
Ryan

 

[jumbo]

casi apollo

casi apollo

I just snagged the Worlds First Commercial Computer POrtrait System (the 1976 Compmark I spacepix wasn't commercially sold)

Casi Apollo VP2 circa 1978, sadly its incomplete, no keyboard, no remote, no camera, no printer. I am going to try and decipher the pinouts and wire up 75ohm video connects (it only has gigantic Broadcast 50ohm video connectors)

I will try and document it but I am curious if anyone knows what Centronics branded printers would have been matched up to this unit between 1978-1981 This unit depending on its variation would actually print 144column ASCII single spaced text to make B/W portraits. Not sure if any tally units talked in the original centronics language and man does this have wierd looking hand wired connectors for printer and keyboard, I think each wire if shorted must type a character

Inside It looks sort of like small s-100 (never delt with one so not sure) I will post pics if I can find a decent free hosting service. I did notice this unit only has 2 of the max 3 boards so it is missing the secondary printer driver and rom software expansion.

Cheers
Ryan

hi ryan this is jumbo, not sure how to navigate on this site , i was searching internet and came across this blog, i was wondering how you made out in your search, i came across the complete package from my uncle who set up in rockaway playland in brooklyn, i got it all and then some with mug pree, tshirt press , button press and the complete casi with cameras , monitors , key board printer omni 800 or 810 all cables most with paperwork, i just sure what i am going to do with it yet and imput thanks

 

[Doug G]

Reading this post triggered my memory. Our division of CDC provided nationwide authorized Centronics service through the 70's, and I'm 95% sure I serviced one of those portrait system printers. I think the whole setup was in a booth at an amusement park in Denver. I seem to remember the wind ripped off some sheets from the paper basket after I'd printed some test printouts.

In those days I think it would have been a Centronics model 101A

 

[Chuck(G)]

Yup, text mode printer rendering with overstrikes.

Long before that, there was punched-card art. I vividly remember Playboy bunnies as such. Just take the deck and stick it in the 407 and do an 80-80-listing.

Then there were the FORTRAN programs that made use of the ability to overstrike using "+" as the carriage control character. Much higher quality images.

Bitsavers probably still has some ASCII art. Probably also some in the CP/M user group libraries as well as Simtel.

 

[rmay635703]

hi ryan this is jumbo, not sure how to navigate on this site , i was searching internet and came across this blog, i was wondering how you made out in your search, i came across the complete package from my uncle who set up in rockaway playland in brooklyn, i got it all and then some with mug pree, tshirt press , button press and the complete casi with cameras , monitors , key board printer omni 800 or 810 all cables most with paperwork, i just sure what i am going to do with it yet and imput thanks

Sorry I haven't really checked into this site lately, (I don't check often to begin with) Anyway if you have photos I am interested in seeing the cables and such.

Not really sure what you could do with a mug press and an old Apollo, unless you have some type of antique sublimation video printer.

If you were nearby (likely not) I might pay a few bucks to pick up the stuff (not presses as I have too many of those things anyway)

I am mainly interested in the system from historical purposes and plain curiosity.

As toward things I would buy, if you have any of the posters I might buy them, I haven't had the mug shot one in decades.

Be sure to take some photos and place them here, I am guessing you could probably sell the presses, they don't fetch much anymore but they still are worth a little depending on brand/condition/size (the usual stuff)

Good Luck

Thanx
Ryan

 

[rmay635703]

Yup, text mode printer rendering with overstrikes.

Long before that, there was punched-card art. I vividly remember Playboy bunnies as such. Just take the deck and stick it in the 407 and do an 80-80-listing.

Then there were the FORTRAN programs that made use of the ability to overstrike using "+" as the carriage control character. Much higher quality images.

I have a photo taken of my parents by this machine in 1977 (original creators machine) dark areas are # symbols, light areas . and various other shades by / $ and other symbols all single spaced and capital (aka there is no real space between the column above and below the text is right on top of the others)

Makes a halfway decent picture considering.