A relay computer on hat rails
Big loud relays, Turing complete, NO f**king diodes
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The memory addressing and read/write operations work after having finished the wiring.
You can select a 5-bit address by clocking +24V or GND to the 5 address relays to set or reset them.
The memory multiplexer selects the one of the 32 cells and puts its state to the ALU-Multiplexer which can store the bit into the ALU a,b,c cells.
A +24/GND clock on the write wire will write 1/0 to the cell.
Video will come.
Row 3 and 4 are the memory demultiplexer and the memory itself.
To save wires and relays, I use resistors to latch the relays. The advantage of it is that clocking +24V will latch a bit ON and clocking the GROUND will latch it OFF.
A relay can still hold the on-position with less than half of the nominal coil voltage, so this hack is very useful.
I´ll modify my actual design to this kind of latching also for the address- and ALU-multiplexers. It will make the computer more powerful with a minimal amount of effort.
Finished wiring the ALU.
The seven Relays from left to right:
1) Reset I/O Multiplexer
2,3) Multiplexer (latching, read mem to A, B or Carry, write sum or carry to mem)
4) Reset ALU input A,B,Carry
5,6,7) Input A, B, Carry (latching)
Placed the relays for the command demultiplexer and ALU - preparing for wiring.
I was lucky to get the nice 4poles industrial relays for cheap on Ebay. They are used, but in good condition.
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I will keep the build simple, so there will be only 32 bits of memory in this build, but scalable.
It´s a 1-bit architecture, so an 8bit+8bit addition will take 8x longer than an 8bit-ALU. But it saves tons of relays :) The relays should be able to switch stable with up to 100Hz, the maximum switch depth is two, so 50 Hz should be doable.
Years ago I made the schematics - should have been a compact PCB relais computer. Never finished it due to other projects. Now I decided to make it big on hat rail. I ordered most parts already and will start to build this week.
"NO f**king diodes" => does that mean you use the reverse electricity sparks as a RF jamming generator ? :-D
Hehe, yes it´s a good side effect :-D
I should write "no diodes for logic" but there are too less f-words in the forum
+1
Unless it is travel-related ?
Anyway for good measure, this project has some useful sick relay tricks : #Relay Logic Clock
Yes, with two wheels underneath it would be valid.
Thanx for noticing :)
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Hi Paul, I saw a replica of one of Zuse's computers when I was in Berlin in 2009. I've never seen a relay computer running in real life though - I imagine they must be quite loud :) What are you planning in terms of execution speed, memory etc?