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68K's in the lab???

Author	Topic
bannonth Starting Member 19 Posts	Posted - 26 Jan 2003 : 15:26:51 Hi all. New to Macs in general and have recently gotten ahold of alot of free PPC's and some 68k's (and am kicking myself for throwing out some of the "junk" now that I know what it was...). I run a biotech lab specializing in protein production in microbial systems. The lab we moved into was perviously used by a computational/modeling group and we took over the computers they left behind. Nothing too great, but it saved us from having to buy a few PC's for equipment control and office work. They also left behind a SGI O2 which I have been trying to use in conjuction with an old b&w ccd camera we had to capture images of protein and DNA gels (ok...just ignore that...I'm trying to take pictures...that makes it sound simpler). It seems like an interesting machine - anyone know anything about them? - but I can't get used to the IRIX interface, only a few of the UNIX computer guys can work on it and they don't like to, and the 20" monitor takes up too much bench space. Plus I have no software to edit the images once I've got them (and so far they haven't been good - though I think the camera is to blame) So its being replaced by a PPC 8500AV that I have been playing with. Apple Video Player seems like a much easier way to take the pics and I've got Photoshop 3 on there to edit them before we print. Hopefully this will work out better. Now (finally) onto the 68k question: Does anyone know anything about software/hardware used to interface equipment, record data, do ANYTHING lab related??? We've got a Plus that I found buried in a cabinet and I'd love to make that do something - even just function as a thermometer! just to show that it can be done. So if anybody knows anything hardware or software related let me know. I'm looking to do this cheaply, though I'll spend a few bucks for some entertainment and a new toy. And if you are on this board and do scientific work drop me and email at bannonth@msu.edu!
cory5412 68KMLA Comrade-in-Arms USA 4679 Posts	Posted - 26 Jan 2003 : 18:11:15 sounds like you need to get rid of that o2 I'll take it off your hands... SGi Machines are SOO cool... I don't really do sciency work, but I would LOVE to do something like that with my IIsi Official 68k videographer
II2II Junior Member Canada 115 Posts	Posted - 26 Jan 2003 : 20:58:48 I don't know much about Macs in the lab, but I have worked in them and have heard a few things: there are data aquisition cards for most models. I have seen NuBus and PDS cards from National Instruments (the NuBus card was GPIB, but I don't know what the PDS card was). I also ran into an oddball PDS card for the Macintosh SE by, I think, Strawberry tree. The serial ports support RS-422 and RS-232, which should provide an alternative means of interfacing. The AV models can be used to import video. I have even heard that the el-cheapo B&W security cameras have some use because the nudge into the IR. I also heard some mention of LabView (in terms of software) along the way. If you're more software oriented, programs like Mathematica, Maple and SPSS (sp?) are available. They won't be blazingly fast, but they are still respectable. A nifty program is NIH Image (it is in the public domain, with sources) since it can capture stills from video capture hardware and is capable of doing some basic image processing. II2II Intelligence officer in training.
stonent Junior Member USA 155 Posts	Posted - 25 Feb 2003 : 19:27:39 A good site to try for SGI tips and stuff is http://www.irisindigo.com Similar concept to this forum. 6360av 32/6.4/8.1 ;) SE 4/2000/FDHD/7.0.1 :) Q840av - Alive! Q650 64/2000/A/UX Woot! I may be nobody here, but in the Dell forums, I've got over 8000 posts :P
MrLynn Junior Member USA 394 Posts	Posted - 28 Feb 2003 : 08:13:17 Probably a good idea to look for ideas in other forums. A start might be the DealMac Forum (dealmac.com), as there are some scientists who regularly post there, amidst the other riff-raff (like me). /Mr Lynn The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn’t have a space program. --Larry Niven

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