totm apr 2024 Voyager 1 in critical condition

[darthgently]

1 minute ago, Nuke said:

best tape decks in the known universe.

i think the real solution is to remap the tx buffer into an unused memory location. since there are a lot of systems you can no longer use due to lack of power, and other failures. if some of those have memory mapped i/o, you mighty be able to use that memory space for a new buffer.  while this is trivial to do in asm, there just isnt any hardware you can test and verify this earth side.

Oh, dang, I didn't catch that it was specifically the tx buffer.  Yeah, that seems viable

[Nuke]

12 minutes ago, darthgently said:

Oh, dang, I didn't catch that it was specifically the tx buffer.  Yeah, that seems viable

im remembering an article i read a week ago so it may not specifically be the tx buffer. voyager's memory has fared better than mine.

looks like its not a tx buffer proper but an intermediate buffer for formatting the data for transmission. still something you can address to an unused block.

Edited April 12 by Nuke

[magnemoe]

16 hours ago, Nuke said:

best tape decks in the known universe.

i think the real solution is to remap the tx buffer into an unused memory location. since there are a lot of systems you can no longer use due to lack of power, and other failures. if some of those have memory mapped i/o, you mighty be able to use that memory space for a new buffer.  while this is trivial to do in asm, there just isnt any hardware you can test and verify this earth side.

They don't have an stationary Voyager probe? Pretty sure everything newer has the computer in some NASA or other agency storage. For an rover you want the physical rover and the computer. 

[kerbiloid]

A voodoo probe.
You are trying the needles, and watching its reactions by telemetry.
Much faster than light.

[PakledHostage]

5 hours ago, magnemoe said:

They don't have an stationary Voyager probe? Pretty sure everything newer has the computer in some NASA or other agency storage. For an rover you want the physical rover and the computer. 

That's the thing.  They would need to have something.  They're not going to write new code and upload it without testing it on the ground first.  Maybe they don't have actual hardware for all of it, but I suspect they at least have the core equipment. Or maybe they have a virtual machine Voyager that they can test on? The VM would have to be very high fidelity in order to serve as a meaningful test platform, so maybe they even have both a VM and a hardware reference system? (i.e. do the initial development and testing with the VM and then do the final testing on the reference hardware.) I'd sure be interested to know.

[kerbiloid]

It's launched 47 ya.

The midget pilot on board is about 70 yo.
Age matters. His reaction and coordination are not the same like in youth.

Edited April 13 by kerbiloid

[darthgently]

3 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

The midget pilot on board is about 70 yo.
Age matters.

Midget?  Not for a Kerbal.  Age does not matter either.  Get your facts right

[Nuke]

im starting to like the whole disembodied brain thing. rocket science and brain surgery together at last.

[Shpaget]

On 4/11/2024 at 10:50 PM, darthgently said:

Voyagers use tape for secondary storage.  And V1's tape is still working? Amazing!

To be fair, tape is still number one choice for data archiving.

That being said, archiving != usage. That tape is being constantly used. It is amazing that it didn't fall apart from purely mechanical manipulation.

[kerbiloid]

Another evidence of the pilot onboard.
He has iron and duct tape,

[darthgently]

17 hours ago, Shpaget said:

That being said, archiving != usage. That tape is being constantly used. It is amazing that it didn't fall apart from purely mechanical manipulation.

And in those temperatures at that.  Not your typical '70s  materials in the tape.  Amazing

[PakledHostage]

7 hours ago, darthgently said:

Not your typical '70s  materials in the tape.

So no bell-bottomed polyester tape in Voyager?

[adsii1970]

@Minmus Taster, there's still some hope for Voyager I. But we know eventually, the hardware will be unworkable and unsalvageable from here. Time and environment are the enemies of anything.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nasa-tries-to-jog-voyager-1-s-memory-from-15-billion-miles-away/ar-BB1lESkx

[darthgently]

4 hours ago, PakledHostage said:

So no bell-bottomed polyester tape in Voyager?

Wouldn't it be the greatest punchline if the tape system in V1 turned out to be basically Sony BetaMax?  It was a better standard.  Oh, wait, that's right, no politics or religion ...

[adsii1970]

20 minutes ago, darthgently said:

Oh, wait, that's right, no politics or religion ...

I am old enough to remember the Betamax recorders. That's not politics or religion; it's just a fact. What did them in was the recordable cassettes were more expensive than the VHS ones. Those suckers, even in the 1980s, were not cheap!

[magnemoe]

On 4/15/2024 at 10:15 PM, adsii1970 said:

I am old enough to remember the Betamax recorders. That's not politics or religion; it's just a fact. What did them in was the recordable cassettes were more expensive than the VHS ones. Those suckers, even in the 1980s, were not cheap!

Yes also think VHS was larger on rental videos. Remember you could also rent the player who was smart as it extend customer base to people not having an player. 
But saw the fun in Betamax vs VHS being politic or religion

[kerbiloid]

So, NASA and Voyager are exchanging with videocassettes, sending them to each other?

Makes sense.

[darthgently]

5 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

So, NASA and Voyager are exchanging with videocassettes, sending them to each other?

Makes sense.

Everyone wondered what happened to Blockbuster.  They got a big dark government contract and are doing just fine.  Though most of their margin in that contract is late fees

[Nuke]

On 4/15/2024 at 11:54 AM, darthgently said:

Wouldn't it be the greatest punchline if the tape system in V1 turned out to be basically Sony BetaMax?  It was a better standard.  Oh, wait, that's right, no politics or religion ...

my head canon is that its an 8 track.

On 4/15/2024 at 12:15 PM, adsii1970 said:

I am old enough to remember the Betamax recorders. That's not politics or religion; it's just a fact. What did them in was the recordable cassettes were more expensive than the VHS ones. Those suckers, even in the 1980s, were not cheap!

my grandpa was an electronics repairman so i saw all kinds of gizmos visiting the grandparents. they also collected antiques. when there was some overlap awesomeness ensued. old timey radios, betamax, a very early tv with a tiny screen, all functional of course.

Edited April 17 by Nuke

[adsii1970]

35 minutes ago, Nuke said:

my head canon is that its an 8 track.

That predates the Betamax. I am so old I had a portable 8-track player. It ran on six "D" cell batteries. Ah, the old cla-clunk of the thing changing tracks. I remember it well!

37 minutes ago, Nuke said:

my grandpa was an electronics repairman so i saw all kinds of gizmos visiting the grandparents. they also collected antiques. when there was some overlap awesomeness ensued. old timey radios, betamax, a very early tv with a tiny screen, all functional of course.

We want antiques that are fully functional. That's what distinguishes an antique from junk.

[Nuke]

19 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

That predates the Betamax. I am so old I had a portable 8-track player. It ran on six "D" cell batteries. Ah, the old cla-clunk of the thing changing tracks. I remember it well!

We want antiques that are fully functional. That's what distinguishes an antique from junk.

unfortunately grandpa died some 20 years ago and the collection has been liquidated by greedy members of the family (read most of them). the only thing i got was a massive roll of rosin core 60-40 solder, which i still haven't used up yet. i kind of wanted to make the ancient tv run doom.

Edited April 18 by Nuke

[Lisias]

9 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

So, NASA and Voyager are exchanging with videocassettes, sending them to each other?

Makes sense.

As someone that "been there, done that"... Videocassetes had a way better noise/signal ratio, and we could save our programs using it faster and with more reliability than using audio cassettes.

[kerbiloid]

2 hours ago, Lisias said:

As someone that "been there, done that"... Videocassetes had a way better noise/signal ratio, and we could save our programs using it faster and with more reliability than using audio cassettes.

They send videoinstructions to the pilot.

[PakledHostage]

This CNN article says Voyager 1 is back in business as of April 20th, following a firmware update that works around the bad memory location.

[Minmus Taster]

40 minutes ago, PakledHostage said:

This CNN article says Voyager 1 is back in business as of April 20th, following a firmware update that works around the bad memory location.