John Willforth ProtoType Board Manual

[+dhe]

Maybe my search FU isn't up to snuff.

 

Does anyone know if there is a copy of John Willforth's ProtoTyping Manual on whtech - or can someone please upload a copy here?

 

 

[HOME AUTOMATION]

Dunno...

 

BOX2009.ZIP

[HOME AUTOMATION]

 

 

 

Spoiler

 .IF DSK1.C3.
 .CE 6.
   .~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
   ^W-AGE/99 * NEW-AGE/.
   ^99 *.NEW-AGE/99.* N.
   ^EW-AGE/99 * NEW-AGE.
   ^/99 *.NEW-AGE/99.* .
   ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
 ^^^^^^^^^^^.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^..
 ^^^^^^^^^^*.by JACK SUGHRUE, Box
 459, East Douglas, MA 01516.*.
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^.#14..
     .
 ^^^^^^^^^^^.GENTLEMAN GENIUS..
     .
     Of the two tags, Gentleman and
 Genius, I think the former gets my
 approbation concerning the best way
 to describe John Willforth.  My wife,
 Elaine, agrees.  For John is first a
 real gentleman; and that is what you
 think of before realizing he's also a
 genius.  Gentlemen, I think, are
 rarities today, even among TIers;
 though I've discovered more in the
 99er ranks than in other walks of
 life.  People like Charlie Good, Jim
 Cox, Jim Peterson, Barry Traver..
     Geniuses, though, are a dime a
 dozen in the computer world, and most
 of them are far from civilized..
     An example, small but
 significant: Lots of TIers have been
 to my home, all of them treated to
 Elaine's gracious welcome, her
 extended hospitality in the matters
 of food and lodgings, so they get to
 know her and discover, too, that we
 two rattle alone around our hut, now
 that our four tykes have leapt into
 the grownup world, returning us to
 "couplehood" these past two years.
 So any female voice answering our
 phone will be Elaine.  But John is
 the ONLY "adult" TI person who will
 acknowledge Elaine's existence on the
 phone.  He always says, "Hi, Elaine,
 this is John Willforth," when she
 answers, just as if she's not a
 non-person.  Sometimes they converse
 so long I have to pry the phone from
 her fingers so I can get to talk to
 John..
     With others who've been here,
 however, it's usually "Jack there?"
 when she answers, without even
 mentioning who they are..
     I don't know.  Maybe I'm old
 fashioned, but I still believe a lot
 in courtesy and friendliness and the
 acknowledgment of the existence of
 someone I've met..
     Anyway, John's old fashioned in
 this way, too, and I like it: 19th
 Century values in a 21st Century
 mind. It's fun being in tune to
 someone as family oriented as he is.
 He talks about his wife (Fay) and his
 three daughters with such joy that
 you know love and sensitivity are a
 VERY LARGE part of his nature..
     My wife and I talk about John so
 much that my son Matthew and his wife
 (Carolyn) wanted very much to meet
 him.  The last time he came over for
 dinner, we had the "kids" over, too,
 and all of us enjoyed his pleasant,
 witty company all evening..
     John's a talker.  That's a
 compliment.  And he can converse
 about almost anything but literature
 (as he claims he doesn't have time to
 read novels, thus leading to the
 time-worn argument in THIS house that
 all the major social changes in the
 world have been brought about by
 fiction ... and so on).  It's fun
 arguing with John because the
 conversation is stimulating and he's
 still your friend in the end..
     John's logical.  He even tries to
 use logic with his teenagers (which
 probably makes him illogical, when
 you think about it)..
     He's hardworking (to a workaholic
 degree, I think) at some pretty heavy
 duty electronic wizardry.  John even
 has a calculator on his watch, which
 he uses..
     He writes well.  His articles on
 printers, as well as the long-term
 articles on hardware (and software)
 are lucid, practical, and scary:
 SCARY in the sense that he takes
 apart consoles and P-boxes and
 anything else mechanical, electrical,
 and electronic that he can get his
 hands on and performs vivisectionist
 surgery on their innards.  He seems
 to be able to radically modify
 anything, from computer chips to his
 backhoe and assumes everybody else
 should be able to do so..
     Whew!  Not me.  My hands shake
 when I have to dump my pencil
 sharpener or fill my stapler..
     But John's made me a believer.
 One evening he came up to my computer
 room, still chatting about his
 family, and, while carrying on the
 conversation, took apart my working
 P-box.  Completely! Screws, nuts,
 bolts, fans, stuff, whachamacallits,
 and thingamajigs.  Then he reversed
 my fan, explaining that it would keep
 my box cool (maybe even cooler) while
 it would cut down the noise to
 one-third.  It did.  We turned on
 other P-boxes in the room and
 compared them to the fix..
     He also told me where and how to
 order floppy drives and how to
 install them (5.25 and 3.5 operate
 with no cable modification on the
 TI).  I learned that I could buy any
 IBM compatible half-height disk
 drives and put them in my TI.  [ERM
 Electronic Liquidators (1 800 776
 5865)] for fully warranted
 reconditioned drives. I called,
 bought two Panasonic DSDD ($29
 each!!!!), installed them myself,
 just like a computer grownup.  Though
 they also sell cables and disks (for
 as low as .15 each DSDD), I ended up
 getting a Power Y cable for internal
 power connector ($.99) and an AT-HDDR
 cable set for double connector to
 controller ($2.89) and a whole lot of
 other things from another company he
 recommended: National Computer
 Accessories (916-441-1568).  So,
 thanks to John, I was able to convert
 my setup on my school system from one
 SSSD to two DSSD at a cost of around
 $60! And does that make a LARGE
 difference in my ability to do TI
 things in my classroom.  As a matter
 of fact I'm writing this at school on
 my quiet P-box, DSSD system and LOVE
 it! Everything works great.
 (Remember, we're talking about John
 teaching me, the man who has to use a
 manual to open a jar of peanut
 butter.  You readers are chuckling
 over this "big" hardware deal, but
 John opened up new worlds to me.  I
 plan to confidently upgrade another
 system soon and maybe even do a user
 group demo..
     Which brings me back to John's
 generous spirit.  While at a training
 session in Connecticut some months
 ago, John willingly came to our
 M.U.N.C.H. in Worcester,
 Massachusetts, one evening and shared
 some great insights and answered all
 kinds of questions, including some
 about things he had written as
 newsletter editor of the West Penn
 user group, which he founded many
 years ago to reach out to users
 outside the Pittsburgh area..
     He was also the hit of the New
 England Fayuh that same week.
 Everyone there was thrilled to meet
 the man they all knew through his
 writings and references to his work
 by others.  He ended up being the
 biggest TI star at the whole event.
 People at the fair were in awe of him
 and still talk about his visit, yet
 I've met very few humbler men..
     .
    Now, back at my desk at home, I'm
 using a console John modified a while
 ago and recently gave to me.  It has
 a plexiglass cutaway of the interior
 housing of a Zenoboard containing a
 clock, speech, 32K, E/A, XB,
 ADVENTURE, TIW, DM, and a system
 Pause button.  All switchable.  I
 feel as though I died and went to TI
 Heaven..
     The man's a genius, no doubt, but
 more important, he sure is a warm and
 sensitive friend.  To me, it's worth
 owning a TI just to have met John
 Willforth..
 ..[If you use NEW-AGE/99 please put
 me on your exchange list.]..
............................................

 

 

0806.DSK

[Gary from OPA]

Older thread about it:

 

 

[HOME AUTOMATION]

This is peaking my interest now! This isn't a set-up ...IS IT!

 

John's mentioned 3 times here...

 

contents.txt

 

 

TIGERCUB_1119___HARDWARE_UT.DSK

 

[+Ksarul]

I scanned it sometime back, but I don't seem to have a full copy of it on this computer, as I only found the Appendix C and Appendix D schematics for a Forti board and a speech in the PEB board using it. I'll try and check on my archive machine later.

[airernie]

19 hours ago, dhe said:

Maybe my search FU isn't up to snuff.

 

Does anyone know if there is a copy of John Willforth's ProtoTyping Manual on whtech - or can someone please upload a copy here?

 

 

Sorry, somewhat massive in size..  Sorry, not sure this is complete since it was done from a copy.  I've also added a couple PDFs that I just have labeled content00x.pdf. Not sure if they were part of the copied manual or from other sources. 

 

I do have some photo scans from another source that seem to be part of the original covers and manual, but without an index.. who know.  I will upload those once I've converted to pdf.

 

Ernie

The Proto Board.pdf

content001.pdf content002.pdf

Edited April 3 by airernie

[+dhe]

Thanks @airernie  - I'd have bet dollars to doughnuts, that had already been put on whtech.

 

[RickyDean]

8 minutes ago, dhe said:

Thanks @airernie  - I'd have bet dollars to donates, that had already been put on whtech.

 

You know, I'm glad you asked about this. I just realized that in the 35 years I've had my two Cards I thought that they were Bunyard cards, and I've only had part of the manual for these. The file named content001.pdf is pretty much what I've got, never had the big one.

[airernie]

14 hours ago, dhe said:

Thanks @airernie  - I'd have bet dollars to doughnuts, that had already been put on whtech.

 

Probably because all I had was a copy and not an original and wasn't sure if it was complete.  I have also uploaded the version with original covers that I mentioned in my previous message.  It's the same as content002.pdf, but with an 'original' cover and better resolution.

 

I'm pretty sure this is complete because I would have scanned any other pages that were between the covers had they been present.  However, time and memory prohibit me from stating more than that. :-)

 

Perhaps Jim will find his copy and remove any doubts.. :-)

 

proto-card-misc.pdf

Edited April 4 by airernie

[RickyDean]

32 minutes ago, airernie said:

Probably because all I had was a copy and not an original and wasn't sure if it was complete.  I have also uploaded the version with original covers that I mentioned in my previous message.  It's the same as content002.pdf, but with an 'original' cover and better resolution.

 

I'm pretty sure this is complete because I would have scanned any other pages that were between the covers had they been present.  However, time and memory prohibit me from stating more than that. 🙂

 

Perhaps Jim will find his copy and remove any doubts.. 🙂

 

proto-card-misc.pdf 2.79 MB · 1 download

Actually this is the same one I have too, somewhere.