On Sun, Mar 25, 2018 at 1:31 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > and if anyone cares, I just listed three SGI IRIS dial boxes on ebay. > they are just rotary encoders, the smarts were in the button box, which had a > 68008 in it.
I went noodling around eBay and found a couple of types - one looked like your auction with what you describe - 8 rotary encoders just piped directly out to what appears to be a DB25 on the back that clearly need an external box with smarts. There's also another variety with two vendors/case styles that appear to take serial and +5V. SN-921 (2.1mm barrel jack for +5V) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Sgi_dialbox_sn-921_front.jpg DANAHER CONTROLS Dials DLS80-1022 (+5V over DE9 serial cable - has special Y-cable for power injection) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/SGI_dialbox_DLS80-1022_front.jpg I've been playing with the LPFK for years and I've been interested in the dialboxes ever since I saw an early one on a VAXstation 8000 on the show floor at DECUS. I decided to pick up one each of the DLS80 and SN-921. Should get to me in a week or so. >>> https://github.com/hanshuebner/sgi-dialbox-usb/blob/master/dialbox.py I'm going to test this code out when I have a dialbox in hand. In the meantime, I'm finding some of the common links to resources are now dead. I did find these on the Internet Archive: eventio.py (quite similar to dialbox.py) https://web.archive.org/web/20070526101234/http://www.ysbl.york.ac.uk/~emsley/coot/mbox-2004-2005/att-0547/eventio.py Configure_Dials_for_OS_X.pdf (from May 2005, mentions OS X 10.3. Has nice pics of the cables) https://web.archive.org/web/20060518153503/http://sbgrid.org/downloads/Configure_Dials_for_OS_X.pdf SGI Dialbox to O2/Octane/etc https://web.archive.org/web/20071011031646/http://www.meadow.net/pinouts.html#sgidbox I have worked with a number of devices that are powered by +5V via their DE9. Routinely, that's done by not connecting Pin 9 (RI) from the host and injecting +5V into the device on its Pin 9. I will be checking my DLS80 for that once it arrives. I've made my own Y-cables from scratch, and I found a brand of USB Serial adapter in a large 2-piece plastic shell and modded those to inject USB +5V over DE9 Pin 9 to keep the cabling simpler. Both methods work. -ethan