Re: APPLE IIgs

[fl332@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (John L. Graham)]

Someone was asking about semi-retirement uses for Apple IIs. I've found
the II+. IIe, and IIc class machines make GREAT data acquisition platforms
for long-term observations. The kind of stuff you just couldn't tie up
a computer you needed regularly to do. At the moment my most useful
application is a IIc that continuously records the inside and outside
temperatures. I used information from Vernier Software to make a pair of
high resolution temperature sensors and the software (a few dozen lines
of code) records a week's worth of data using the two HiRes screens
(HiRes 1 displays the outdoor temperature trace as well as a read-out
of the outdoor/indoor temperatures in C and C while HiRes page 2 shows
the indoor temperature trace). I'd like to modify it to save the data
to disk and record an entire year's worth of data.

In a smililar manner we use a IIe at work to record the relative humidity
in two of our optics labs.

Other projects I'd like to hack on are a cloud-cover monitor, seismometer,
and a magnitometer (which would be helpful in predicting aurora). Way
out on the fringe would be a sensor to monitor meteor activity by radio.
In addition to being just plain interesting, the data from the Apple II
can be easily ported to the Mac or PCs for additional processing or making
pretty graphs.

Neat stuff!

John