All,
thanks for all input! Many useful things to follow up here. Trying to
summarize and including a bit more follow-up research. URL’s valid as of June
30, 2015, if you are reading this in the archive; folks suggesting good ideas
referenced by name, search nearby here in the archive for contact info.
Minecraft gets a special category because a) my son is already addicted and b)
I have the suspicion that a *lot* of kids are in his category in that way. It
was pointed out quite correctly (Toby Thain) that Minecraft is a *horrible* way
to learn physics; my son and I calculated that his character could run and jump
while carrying (in its pockets, apparently) a mass equivalent to approximately
7 Iowa-class battleships.
“Hands-on” electronics
Raspberry Pi Gertboard interface. Servo motor interface in particular
will add real-world interest. (Mark J. Blair)
http://www.newark.com/gertboard/gertboard/atmega328-assembled-gertboard/dp/46W9829
LittleBits kits for plug-together components, ex-Radio Shack and
available on eBay (Steve Algernon)
http://littlebits.cc
Modern CMOS should be BE series and hence ESD-protected. CMOS is more
tolerant of supply voltage variation. (Dave G4UGM)
74LSxx TTL should generally be capable of replacing standard TTL. TTL
is generally faster than CMOS, TTL is more tolerant of connecting two arguing
outputs together. 74ALS series is CMOS internal but with TTL interfaces. (Dave
G4UGM, Mouse)
CMOS 4000 series is very static-sensitive; use a wrist strap and bench
pad if you work much with this. (wulfman)
http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/logic/gate-products.page#p1512=CD4000&o7=&o4=
http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/catalogs/c151/P30.pdf
http://www.ti.com/lit/ml/scyb004b/scyb004b.pdf
http://eeshop.unl.edu/pdf/CD4000.pdf
http://www.skot9000.com/ttl/
Arduino kits are well-established and have many options of kits,
sensors, projects, etc. (Dave G4UGM)
Arduino Experimenter’s Kit incl. breadboard, LED’s, jumpers, etc. Note
Raspberry Pi pins are 3.3V and need voltage clamps on inputs from TTL (Brent
Hilpert)
http://www.elektor.com/arduino-sensor-kit
http://www.adafruit.com/products/170
It’s possible to find packaged piles of components. Projects and
manuals are tougher.
http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&productId=2129115&catalogId=10001&CID=MERCH
Emulators
PDP-8 or PDP-11 recommended (Christian Gauger-Cosgrove)
http://fms.komkon.org/comp/sys/DEC.html
http://www.vandermark.ch/pdp8/index.php?n=PDP8.Emulator
http://www.bernhard-baehr.de/pdp8e/pdp8e.html
Cardiac emulator available as a web page, complete with examples and
instructions. (Brian L. Stuart):
https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardiac.html
https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardsim.html
CAS/mathematics
Raspberry Pi has Mathematica (included?) for Raspbian. This is a cheap
way to get a running Mathematica. (Douglas Taylor)
https://www.raspberrypi.org/mathematica-10/
http://www.wolfram.com/raspberry-pi/
Beaglebone Black is rumored to have Mathematica in work
http://community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/386736
Maple (similar to mathematica)
http://www.maplesoft.com/products/maple/
Open-source Maxima (based on MacSyma from MIT) for multiple platforms.
http://maxima.sourceforge.net
TI NSpire calculators include a CAS descended from muMath/muSimp. TI
offers a calculator emulation which runs on Win/Mac:
https://education.ti.com/en/us/software/details/en/36BE84F974E940C78502AA47492887AB/ti-nspirecxcas_pc_full
https://education.ti.com/en/us/products/computer_software/ti-nspire-software/ti-nspire-student-software/tabs/overview#tab=overview
Minecraft/world simulation games
Minecraft V.1.4.8 should run Eloraam's RedPower 2 which includes 6502
and FORTH interpreter
http://ftbwiki.org/RedPower_2
Direwolf20 modpack (part of the Feed the Beast launcher) has Immibis'
RedLogic, which is redstone wiring and logic gates; as well as dan200’s
ComputerCraft which gives you a Lua programmable computer (and peripherals)
that can do all sorts of neat things. (Christian Gauger-Cosgrove)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmZHDI72dVI
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaiPn4ewcbkHYflo2jl0OuNaHK6Mj-koG
http://luacraft.com
“Giant Video of FORTH-ness”(Christian Gauger-Cosgrove)
https://youtu.be/ARO1uVRSLJQ
Minecraft/Pi/interaction kit is Kickstarted, orderable. The kit
includes a Raspberry Pi 2 and components to stick together. (Steve Algernon)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/withpiper/piper-a-minecraft-toolbox-for-budding-engineers
Factorio apparently has some serious logic systems (William Donzelli)
https://www.factorio.com
Hopefully this is useful; I appreciate very much all the input I got.
- Mark
On Jun 21, 2015, at 7:01 PM, Tapley, Mark <mtap...@swri.edu> wrote:
> Christian et al,
> sorry for the somewhat off-topicness:
> ….
