Path: ...!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: rbowman Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy Subject: Re: The enduring appeal of Microsoft Excel Date: 29 Oct 2024 19:18:38 GMT Lines: 23 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net o0Gxn2D+XCvBc8ma3lle1wit9v1+xH9FKUOi3f31R+ZkZuWOnx Cancel-Lock: sha1:3sX3DOzz/HTrn8bQv14CL9GUKvw= sha256:+HQTRZGCdscwFf/s+37P8LDOnT1npksra3W8LF/kgi4= User-Agent: Pan/0.149 (Bellevue; 4c157ba) Bytes: 1905 On Tue, 29 Oct 2024 14:31:13 -0400, Chris Ahlstrom wrote: > Check out ControlCalc. Our company hired a guy to build an air-traffic > lighting system. He build the control hardware himself, and he used > ControlCalc to drive it (and show graphics of various airfields). Newfangled ideas. In the '70s the company I worked for had a contract to build the controllers for airport approach lighting systems (rabbit) https://www.trafficsignalmuseum.com/pages/ef15.html What he refers to as the cam shaft is actually an Eagle Signal stepper. The 'motor' is a solenoid that sucks up a ratchet. The silver thing he's holding up in the last photo is a massive lead weight. Let's just say the thing doesn't operate silently. Nylon cable ties weren't acceptable to the FAA so the wiring harness had to be laced. https://www.dairiki.org/hammond/cable-lacing-howto/ Finest state of the art. I'm hoping the modern systems are a little more advanced but with government agencies you never can tell.