Fun project of the year

[Roche]

This job was too much fun to not do it...

The customer turned up with a board that looked like this:

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It had been running for about 16 years, but was undocumented and unreliable. I persuaded them to go for the nuclear option, and designed this:

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The processor is a P18, with plenty of I/O
It is fitted inside this:

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Fun bits included radio calling from each bank, 60GHz radar to detect the bank and anything in the direction of travel, speed control, interlocks with gates and other bits of user interface...

It runs across the Thames, about 50 miles west of London.

[ric]

I was going to be sneaky, and use geolocaiton info from the photo to try to locate it, but it was taken by a Ricoh camera with no GPS.
50 miles west of London would be around Abingdon/Oxford wouldn't it?

[Roche]

It's a little closer to London...
I meant to add - it's a chain ferry; so there is a chain between the two banks and the ferry pulls itself along the chain. All battery powered.
You're correct - Ricoh camera - ancient, waterproof and usefully anonymous!

[ric]

Now you've got me curious.
Wikipedia thinks the furthest uptsream ferry is the "Shepperton to Weybridge Ferry", but it's plainly not that one.
From the width of the river, I assume it's a fair way upstream from there.

[Roche]

Although it is in the Thames, it crosses between the river bank and an island, so it is not a full crossing. Some of what you see in the picture is an island, so you don't see the entire width of the river. It is on a private estate.

[Roche]

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This year the project was slightly different: A friends son has had a stroke. The son was a saxophonist, but could no longer play. He has though developed enough control of one hand to be able to use a keyboard, and blow a sax. My friend is a pretty able machinist, so made a surround for an alto sax so it could be operated by solenoids. I knocked up an interface between the midi output of a keyboard and the solenoids. All done with a little P18...

[ric]

That looks like something that Professor Fate would launch at The Great Leslie!

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Have you made a video (with sound) of it in operation yet?

[Roche]

No video just yet - there is still some mechanical adjustment going on. When/if there is one, I will try and post it...