Cyberamic Control Cards

Below are the computer cards used to control a cyberamic show.

This is an example of a fully assembled post-93 cyberamics control center. This will consist of..

-1 CPU card

-1 transport card

-1 LCD screen

-1 power supply unit

-5 character driver cards

-2 light driver cards

-1 cyberamics remote console (not pictured)

Starting off, above is a character driver card. Some notable ways to identify this card are: 

-The card has 14 LEDs. (8 outputs for character valves, 6 outputs for spare movements/effects)

-The card will sometimes have a label that says "char. driver".

-The card has a 26pin ribbon cable connector at the back of it to connect it to a cyberamic valve board.

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What does this board do? 

This board takes the data given to it by the CPU through the rack PCB, chooses the character it is for via the header (the switchbox labeled "Dolli #1" in the photo above), and sends electrical pulses to the valve boards and spare movements (wink, warbs, etc) to produce movements based on the data given. The earlier PTT boards have an audio module at the top that would also control the speakers that would be inside the body of the characters (defunct after about 1981, but cabaret acts could have kept this feature for longer, no confirmation).

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What do the chips do...in short terms?

-The biggest chip on the board is the "brain" of this board. It takes in the data, decodes it, and tells the other chips what to do.

-The header (previously identified above) chooses which channel of data the brain will take in. By switching the header, you could change the brain from taking in Helen's data to Jasper's. 

-U11 and U12 (UL2003N) take the ~5v directions from the brain and pulse the 24v movements through the ribbon cable. If a movement is not working, you normally will need to replace one of these chips.

-The big glass tube is called a "fuse". Even though these cards are 24v, they are only allowed to draw a MAX of 0.75 amps at a time in order to not short out the power supply. If a fuse is burning out each time you replace it, you either have a bad chip or a bad valve on your figure.

MORE TO COME!!!!