Comment by don-bright
16 hours ago
well the fact that you can wire the Rotary Switch to power and the thing physically rotates --- that's definitely Haptic Feedback that i dont ever recall seeing in a computer. lol.
that manual is wild too. entire section on games.
reminds me a lot of those old radioshack "build your own circuit" boards. the wires to components especially but also the manual, the way it just builds up dozens of examples from simple to complex, so if you really wanted to, a child could work their way through it slowly and understand everything.
looks like the inflation adjusted cost would be around 900 bucks today.
The Rotary Switch - which is both input and output in the real Minivac - is absolutely wild yeah.
One of the crucial things I didn't get to yet is making that wheel controllable - some circuits in the manuals do require you to turn it. That's high in the todo list (with mobile support).
I also really want to share all of the videos I've been collecting of similar "wheels" - in (modern-ish) elevators [0] and light shows [1]... And also pinball machines! [2]
Re: RadioShack boards, I did have the "300 in 1" kit growing up, so yes... it's full circle for me. :-)
[0] https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3dk5GkJni6/ and https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzuHXKRpuN-/
[1] https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6qqCdhJbM2/
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEgm