The Display/Keyboard unit – DSKY for short – is the primary way that Apollo-era astronauts communicated with the onboard computers. Not all DSKYs ended up in space, however, with the MIT hosting a simulator that features one of these units. Unfortunately the unit that ended up at [CuriousMarc]’s lab had seen better days, with the assumption being that it was the same DSKY that was installed in a photo of the old simulator. In addition to the busted EL display and two (improper) replacement keys, the insides show signs of damaged modules and possibly worse.
Without bothering to hook the unit up to the (previously restored) guidance computer, a full teardown was begun to assess the full extent of the damage. Considering that the DSKY uses latching relays for memory and two modules were ominously marked as being defective, this made for a tense wait as the unit was disassembled.
Fortunately making new DSKY-style EL displays has first been replicated in 2019, meaning that a replacement is possible. Perhaps surprisingly, the busted display still fires up in the test rig, as a testament to how robust the technology is. At the end of the teardown, the assessment is that the unit can be restored to its original condition, which will be done in the upcoming videos in this series.
Old school. 👍👍👍
If they are not careful, we’ll have a new Saturn V waiting to go to the moon faster than the newer promised rockets.
I once heard on a flatearth debunking channel that some flatearthers claim we cannot build the Saturn rockets nor can we recreate the moonlanders, “cause this knowledge is lost forever”. meanwhile im following these fellows for a while and start to think they might be able to recreate basicly almost everything if we give em the old parts, schematics, time and money.
time and money definitely a thing tho. And I love following this series, such a great way to get to know these items and they even “restore”, recreate them and explain to their best ability how they work. awesome.
Not suprised: our rule was to build 2, one for space, another to figure out why the one in space stopped working.
Production negated the need for the second one.
There’s all sorts of stuff still around, todays motors are just bigger more powerful versions of the old stuff just scaled up
The Curious Marc crew showed a real DSKY (maybe even this one) at the most recent Vintage Computer Festival at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. The display is spectacular, especially for 1960s tech. What I didn’t get from the videos is how loud the relays are. The whole thing clicks away when running. Each change in a display segment is driven by one or more relays switching.
“Without bothering to hook the unit up to the (previously restored) guidance computer,”
They can’t, the computer they had access to was sold at auction by its owner.