I thought I recognised your voice in the background, I gave up watching Veritasium ages ago due to all the clickbait and over drawn out subject matter; not to mention he was increasingly holding back with providing the whole truth relating to many of his assertions. You meanwhile are my brain food, every video, every length, no skips, and bunnies too. That relay calculator is awesome btw, and now @willdoesbuild truly has the bug, I'm sure his calculator will go through a few iterations and tweaks until it's right.
Bro, who cares if the bell doesn't work right or the 128 bit doesn't work. People who have never tried to do something like this don't understand the difficulty of making such a "simple" thing.... this kind of stuff takes all sorts of "out of the box" thinking, even people who have a solid understanding of how a modern computer works would have trouble designing something like this. And the motor timer? GENIUS. good job. Great video.
Relays are more like how computers worked in the 1920s. In the 1960s, IBM and the like sold useful, practical computers, using transistors and even early microchips with a few logic gates inside. Transistors even back then could switch millions of times per second, compared with maybe 5 or 10 times per second for a relay (and that's pushing it!).
I caught that too, I was like what? I guess to everybody in generation Z, the 1960s and the 1920s are practically the same thing? Kind of like how to me, there isn’t all that much difference between the 1750s and the 1780s… 🤣
I started with electronics at your age in the 1970s and I never built anything as primitive as this. Seriously great work. I didn't hear the word "flip-flop" in your description, but I think that is what you were talking about. Also, that biz of "invert and add one" to do subtraction is called "ones-compliment". Really wonderful work. I'm subscribing. Continued Success!
This kid is going to be big. He's got the side bits, the jump cuts, and a quality idea. I would literally invest into his youtube. 100k+ views next vid. When you get the 1,000,000 sub play button, I want a shoutout.
I am very much looking forward to this new wave of William Osman and Michael reeves inspired creators. Maybe I'll get around to it some time, definitely would need to up the build quality (and code). Very well done!!!
When I was 12, I made a 2 bit binary telephone exchange out of nothing but cascading relays, to switch my own personal phone line between my friend's houses. it let me use 2 spare lines and a common ground to switch 4 phone lines - from each handset. You deserve my sub.
@@agranero6 In my case I never had call for memory, but I recall a creative use of telephone exchange crossbars for the same purpose in a japanese relay computer - still functional from what I hear.
@@TheAussieRepairGuy Casio had a calculator made entirely of relays that still have one at the company museum. There is a TH-cam video somewhere about it. Yeah crossbar switches are versatile enough to do a lot of things...and were extremely big and expensive too (I imagine more so now).
@@agranero6 There is a lot to be said for electromechanical systems. I know someone who manufactures digital pinball machines, and keeps trying to make improvements, but does not understand the attraction of an original pinball machine. it's not about the game.
I have been working with computers for about 45 years and have never seen a better demonstration of how they work than this. Please keep making videos. Thanks
If I may, with all due respect, YOU and like minded people are the justification of why do old tech. It’s ingenious in its simplicity and awesome, all the same.
This was an awesome build video to watch -- And for only a *second* video??? Damn..! You're doing really well right out the gate! Well done!! Editing / framing / lighting / sound / continuity / humour & script are all excellent!
I dunno which I find more impressive, the writing & production quality of the video or the fact that you were able to build a functional relay computer despite not having a great deal of expertise in the relevant areas (and I don’t at all mean that in a negative way; expertise comes with experience, and undertaking projects like this is a great way to gain experience). Your channel is definitely off to a great start - just remember what I would say is the golden rule, which is that it’s all about quality rather than quantity when it comes to content creation, especially on this platform. Look at all the channels that have 1M+ subs and only upload a handful of extremely high-quality videos a year (sometimes only 1 or 2) vs channels that just crank out multiple videos a week regardless of quality.
I helped build a relay computer a while ago and being able to use the second pole on the DPDT relays might help making a latching circuit and inverting signals. There's also latching relays. You can also build sequencers with a stepping mechanism (using a solenoid that rotates a wheel with contacts) similar to your motor clock. Now you can have punch tape inputs so program it and store the outputs mechanically.
I looked into buying latching relays, but I couldn't really find them - at least from what I researched. Also, I hadn't ever seen that solenoid mechanism, but I can totally picture it in my head!
@@willdoesbuildLook into how NMOS logic worked back in the day. The NMOS transistor is your basic form A single pole relay, faster smaller and lower power :) Using nothing but form-A relays and resistors you can build complex relay computers. An inverter is two relays: one to invert, another to buffer the signal from the resistor. The best relays to use for the combinatorial logic in this NMOS-like approach are reed relays. Always look for lowest coil power you can get, since the pull-up resistors will have to dissipate 4x the power when the pull-down contact is switched on. Say you have a 1kohm coil 12V reed relay. The pull-up resistor has to go to 24V and also be 1kohm. When the pull-up drives the buffer coil it consumes same power as the coil - 24V split in half between them. But when the output is zero; the pull-up is shorted to ground, sees twice the voltage (24V vs 12V), and dissipates 4x the coil power. So heat is a concern - but it always is with relay computers. The larger ones will self-immolate in short order if built in a compact enclosure and the cooling fan(s) fail. Latches can also be built from form-A relays. A single bit latch is two relays, just like an inverter.
Admirable. I'm encouraged for the future when I see young people attempting crazy things like this. When I was a yoof way back 45 years ago I really wanted to build a Mark 8 computer. Lacking the means to buy anything (a paper round didn't pay enough in 4 months to even buy an 8008 and you know.. vinyls..) but having the town dump nearby I found a lot of people were scrapping obsolete bandits and all kinds of old electronics.. This gave me a huge supply of relays and other bits. Mine never worked properly either and back then we didn't have the joys of the internet and all this information at our fingertips. The local library came to hate me because I was always in there ordering obscure books of electronics and computing mathematics. Carry on young man. Hope you have great success in whatever you decide to do.
Keep up the excellent work! When I was your age I was building parts for classic computers on perfboard and now I work full time at a Fortune 500 company in an IT position. My maker skills I learned back in the late 00s have saved the day so many times. Big companies that have been around for ages often have some old-ass hardware doing something absolutely vital somewhere in their tech chain. Being able to diagnose a fault and repair or build replacement parts when the alternative is a sketchy e-waste recycler on eBay selling that little board for $5000 is the recipe for promotions. Seriously, you're slaying, keep it up!
We aren't the only animals with language. We aren't even the only animals with a language built from symbols. Bees. Bees dance to tell other members of the hive where they found food. They communicate direction, distance, winds, and obstacles they encountered all using symbolic steps in their dance. We are just starting to look into the complexity of bee language, what parts they share what parts are specific to an individual hive.
nice video man....im going on 33 and have been messing with computers since i was like 14 and cars since i was 16 and this is prolly one of the coolest videos ive seen in a while. kinda reminds me of how the relay system in a car works.
As someone currently designing a 8-bit computer and planning on making a TH-cam video documenting the process... it's really nice seeing somebody close to my age have the same interests in building and computing and whatnot. I really enjoyed this video! why does this comment seem so formal lmho
@@willdoesbuild It'll be a little bit before its done... I've got 2 other unrelated passion projects, homeschooling, etc. But I do plan on making some mini episodes for little milestones. No spoilers, but the first one will likely be done later this month :)
The issue with the bell is probably because it's an inductor and when disconnecting inductors they make a large spike in voltage (could be up to several kilovolts) inductive flyback can be removed/reduced by using a diode
This could definitely be an A+ science project or even an engineering project! And I was thinking that making an 8-bit calculator out of transistors is complicated. You are really talented! Make more projects and be passionate about your hobby. Wishingg all the best for you! Ps. To make it more simple and ditching the memory part, you can just use bipolar switches, but this way you’ve learned more and that’s what it’s all about :)
Dude, you're not giving yourself enough credit. Even though this wasn't entirely era-accurate, doing the boards and casing by hand (mostly) is how it would've been done around that time! I'm downright flabbergasted by your dedication!
Wait... So this is your SECOND video??? - "Shut up and take my money"!!! - Awesome progress from the first but also very entertaining and educational - Go big Will !!!
For a clock you can use a chain of inverters in a ring - called a ring oscillator. No need for a motor. You can also use slower relays for that to keep the relay count lower.
Super cool project! Pacing and humor was spot on for a topic that could have been dry if flubbed. Love that you didn't use custom PCBs and I really like the way the lights flash when the bell is engaged, definitely adds to the artistic jank old mechanical electronics feel imo (if it isn't actually harmful). Awesome that you'll be able to display this as an interesting art piece and testament to your ability as long as it remains reliable. You're making me want to build one myself, even though I KNOW I don't want to build one of these, which is definitely a sign of a great video. Keep your flow and you'll do well in these parts brother, I'll sub
That mechanical drawing is really the way to go. It lets you accurately place all the holes. It works well when making the front panel for any kind of electronics.
Good news, your computer can also multiply and divide so you got 4 functions for the price of 2. Example: 011 x 010 -> 000 + 011 = 011, 011 + 011 = 110 110 / 010 -> 110 - 010 = 100, 100 - 010 = 010, 010 - 010 = 000. 110 / 010 = 011 You cal also do exponentiation and square roots if you are hardcore but it will take a looooong time.
First of all, awesome video! Looking forward for your next project! Second, the reason that subtractions works by inverting the number and adding 1: This is, in essence, the way to represent negative numbers and it is called "2's complement". You basically are adding the first number and the negative of the second number thus subtracting the second number from the first one. The way to think of 2's complement is that the most significant (in your computer the leftmost) bit is the sign bit. When it is set to 1 you have a negative number and when it is set to 0 you have a positive number. If you just invert all the bits (that's called 1's complement) then both 0000 and 1111 represent zero (the former is +0 and the latter is -0). Thus by adding 1 you eliminate the double representation of 0 (0000 is 0 and 1111 is -1) And if you are wondering, yes you can subtract in the same way even when using other formats like 1's complement and signed numbers. The logic remains the same: you add the negative of the number thus subtracting
Having played a lot with relays and stuff like that, in the 80s and 90s when I was growing up, that part of this wasn’t that unexpected to me, though it shows some real dedication to build a whole calculator that way. The thing that really put this over the top for me, was the mechanical clock circuit using a motor. I’m not sure I would’ve ever thought of that, I love that idea. I kind of wish I had paused the video and tried to figure out what I would have done for a clock in one of these things, before watching how he solved it. I know enough about flip-flops that I probably could have come up with a relay and capacitance based clock, but it would’ve been a lot more complicated than the motor was. Bravo!
If you REALLY want to go for a mid 20th century vibe you would use AC and incandescent bulbs... and either a literal bell or the most obnoxious buzzer for a audible output.
@@davestorm6718 In Grade 7 we did a science day at the local science centre. I was the only student with prior electronics xp as my father worked in Embedded Systems. We were just playing with a simple demo board with lights, buzzers switches, and so on... my table had me do all the wiring cause they were terrified and I read the specs of the power supply and knew it was fine (also you think they would let a bunch of kids play with real power?). After doing all the examples were were allowed some time to play with the circuits to do whatever... I wired the entire board in series and the resulting voltage drop made rhe buzzer play a slow beat... the table next to me attempted to replicate my results but couldn't... I suspect they wired everything in parallel and so no voltage drop.
I like the motor used as a timing circuit. Hopelessly complicated compared to a capacitor and inductor, but cool as hell. I look forward to seeing your next project!
Great video, Will. I took the other approach; I built a relay capacitor circuit without making any of the addition logic. It blinks a light nicely. Anyway, you might want to know that there is a historic picture of the Atanasoff-Berry computer from the 1940's, and you can see that it has a motor. In fact, that first computer with its big electric motor has more actual horsepower than just about any computer running today. It was also the first computer to represent values with binary numbers.
That was a very nice relay computer with a lot of good explanations of the technical stuff for people who are new to these ideas. I would be happy to adopt you as a nephew.
Your "Little Guy" looks like an elf but he is far more interesting than the innards of the Digiac Comtran 10. You just explained in a few mins with your little guy Christmas Elf a BIG part of what I learned in 4 weeks at Great Lakes, Ill. GJ
Great stuff. It's really cool to see that the next generation of engineers are still learning computing from the absolute ground up. Nothing like building a simple one out of electromechanical parts to truly appreciate the miraculous machines that we carry around in our pockets. Can't wait to see what you build next! Cheers!
This is such a cool project! I love electromechanical arcade games, and seeing something like this that kind of uses the same idea, but in a more "digital" sort of way is really awesome. Plus you refreshed my memory on some things we covered in my digital circuits class.
Great build. Back in I think 1970 i was in grade 8 and found a book in the high school library on 'How to build a working digital computer'. I am not sure if it was the one by Alcosser, Philips and Wolk but that one is in the internet Archive. My memory is it used a rotary telephone dial as an input device and old telephone relays to build a simple adder. Not sure if I still have the 24v relays hiding in a box somewhere. Never finished it as I got my hands on some surplus dual NOR RTL logic in 8 pin flat packs. You could pinch the pins together to make a flip flop and stack them to make a register (dead bug build style) 😀. That same year my math teacher introduced us the the 'CARDIAC' computer (CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation) from Bell Labs. Was hooked and never looked back. Have fun and keep building.
Man, you have realized a brilliant project. I am deeply impressed!!!!!! For your understanding. I am a computer scientist and live here in Germany and have been giving tutoring in mathematics and physics for 32 years. Unfortunately, I have noticed that the performance of students has declined significantly in the last 32 years. The dumbing down of young people is progressing. Your video gives me hope. There are still young people who are intelligent. You saved my day. Thank you very much
This is awesome! When I was a high school teacher, I always wanted to do something like this with my students but never managed to work it in to the curriculum. As a side note, keep in mind that you can totally use this project and your videos as part of your portfolio when applying for work other other positions. I mean it kind of depends on what the job or role is, but being able to not just hand someone a resume, but instead pointing them toward well presented videos and hard evidence of all the cool shit you've done already really helps you stand out.
I’m 70. And I have been building computers since 1970. I used stepping relays as well DPDT relays. My adder circuits 4 relays per Digit. Didn’t use a stepper relay. But, I think you did a great job in learning the basics of digital computing. With a little more work, you can actually make a pretty much true Binary Adding Machine. or the outputs, 8 switches or Push buttons for the input and 3 buttons for Clear, Add and subtract
Well done! The only important thing that you made wrong (from my POV) is that you didn't design it to be easely repaired. Boards should be detachable from each other, etc. You can do that with connectors or you can use flexible and longer cables between them so you can detach them while they're still connected or something. The video was a bit messy with you correcting yourself a lot but it was really fun to watch, it was not an issue at all. I'm sure you learnt a lot about many things. Good work!! I'm subscribing! :)
oh you get more ramblings about apple early macs, i do think these relays used to own before apple is the ibm had to use since it is redpilled to know about relays and i don't think that apple made wood macintosh using simple relays, early microchips, testing the computer before selling his intention to make a good product, i used iphone 5 to 7 because the both iphone 5 and 6 were broken, i had to use iphone 7 which came out in 2016 and it was so good, but my ramblings aren't enough to make simple chip, I think if you should go back to shenzhen and ask for relays and boards that is simple enough to make whole circuit... oh wait.. before apollo program used relays and simple computer tasks for NASA, had been long way since in 1960s or before had to make stuff better, and i think we should have make own board, relays, etc. to make 1:1 indentical to apollo 11 computer that used in nasa, not my ramblings but my fact that simple computer will work on binary and i thought haven't coded into vscode for microsoft..
I learned computer programming in high school, 1980. Our first several labs for learning binary was a 4 ft cube with large buttons and light bulbs that worked exactly like this. It could also multiply and divide. What an excellent project! Looking forward to more projects!
Talking about how relay memory works reminds me of my dad's first project of this sort. He just built a circuit that latches when it receives an input and used it to track when a door was opened.
* I am planing to do a computer relay for a long time and I found Chinese relays that cost about 1 dollar and are small and have two switches. Before that I was considering use reed relays for a smaller cost. About the smell some Chinese products (not the most of them) smell like...plastic...or solvent. It is not an horrible smell but the sell remain too long, it is not the "new" smell when you buy a car it is stronger and lasts longer. * Congratulations, you created a shift register using relays! If you used the port equivalent to do the design it would take much more relays. * Using a motor for clock is ...well..have you ever saw an old washing machine? All the cycles it goes thought are determined by a complex set of switches moved by a sync motor that acts as a clock and cams to close switches. Traffic lights also used this method. It is a design that survived the test of time.
Dude, this video is great! You're one hilarious young guy, and you did a really good job with the project and an even better job stringing it together into a super entertaining video. I'm looking forward to what you come up with next!
Awesome man! 1960s is a little late for relay computers being used in production, but this was really well put together. Check out Usagi Electric if you haven't already. Oh and you might like the November 1966 issue of Electronics Illustrated. Its just a decade counter with a rotary dial input.
@@willdoesbuild oh yeah and you might like the repair of the Apollo Guidance Computer (video series on YT by Curious Marc). It is estimated that NASA bought 60% of all ICs made in the early years.
The computers that I had growing up were very noisy with their clicky grindy disk drives, humming power sources, and PC speaker beeps. For this reason, perhaps, hearing this computer go "WHIRRRR" is very satisfying.
I completely understand what you’re talking about with your clock circuit. I designed a similar thing with a plc to create a game of sorts. The clock is central to the control and events that happen.
Don't worry if anyone is mean to you we will fight alongside you. I loved this video so much and the fact it's your second video is insane, humor top notch, suffering top notch, also I adore the build and logo. I've never made anything as cool as this but I know that exact feeling of "Wow isn't this beautiful" when looking at something that I made from scratch it's a very cool feeling to see something you worked so hard on come to fruition. Cannot wait for more videos and I love the editing, pop off king. Easiest subscribe in my life.
Actually the first electric computer was built by Konrad Zuse in Germany during WWII. Because he received funding from the nazi regime, his work ended up forgotten and for many years the Mark I was considered the first electric computer. Zuse started his work before the war building the relays by hand but after he caused a blackout in his town he decided to look for 2nd hand relays and found that there were many available from the telephone company. The SUSE linux distro is named after Konrad Zuse.
I worked with Strowger and in Switched Telegraphy (Telex). Back in the 70's we used in addition some DDL as well as a bit of TTL whilst we built Scamps for monitoring (SC/MP from scratch including the transformer). But the real early stuff were the relays with their valency trees. They were pretty elaborate. I think your project should be the starting point before people get into Arduinos and Raspberry Pi's. Well done!
Very cool. So glad to see you making great builds. Loved the video. All the comedy and education makes it really easy to follow. Really hope your channel blows up. You definitely deserve it. Cheers bud 🤙
Nicely done. This is similar to how older pin ball machines used to work. Lots of relays, motors and actuators. I used to repair them back in the '80s.
Despite, this project looks useless to me, your video is very original and creative. Your English is very well pronounced, my natural language is French, but I can understand very clearly ! You're a GENIUS, man !
Worth a sub and like! Keep this forever and tell your kids that's what your school calculator was, and if you didn't bring it to class every day, you'd be considered unprepared.
Computers in the 60s were mostly running with vacuum tubes. There's one computer (Zuse Z1) from '37 that did use mechanical switches, but they broke down all the time. Some Computers of the early 40s had relays though
"Will's Lerning Corner". That one caught me off guard and had me laughing for about 5 minutes straight. A great oxymoron. Anyway, I've only recently used my first relay for the simple task of providing on demand voltage to a motor - totally fascinating how complex things can get when many of these are put together.
Love your project, Will! I built lots of things like that when I was a kid in the 70s, & it's great seeing kids your age going right back to the basics this way. If you want to get seriously retro about this, there's a a couple of things you can do to make it more authentic: 1) Relay computers don't need a regulated power supply; a mains transformer + bridge rectifier + a 2200uF filter capacitor will work fine. I'd recommend making everything either 12V or 6V. 2) Use tiny lightbulbs instead of blue LEDs. Car dashboard lights are still available, if you go for a 12V power supply. Also, look up "grain of wheat" lightbulbs, which are great for projects like this. If you're willing to settle for 70's instead of 60's, red LEDs are legit for the period, but be sure to calculate out the correct current limiting resistors for whatever power voltage you're using. PS: Great job on your YT presentation too! A good sense of humour always makes videos better. SUBSCRIBED!
Great video mate! Just a little correction, computers in the 60s already used vacuum tubes and some already used transistors, in so called SLT packages; the IBM 360 mainframe from 1964 did that. And technically the first parts were sprockets
2:40 This might sound weird but, I miss the days when $77 was a lot. As you get older, you need bigger numbers to feel the same impact. I think to feel what you felt the moment you read $77, I'd have to be reading something like...."6,700"; my lovely Metuchen NJ monthly mortgage. Enjoy the youth kid, enjoy it.
I am still waiting to see someone build a x86 single core CPU out of relays!! Like a 486 DX 2 66mhz and run Doom on it.. yes it will be a big computer but would be very cool
Fun fact, the relay calculator in the Veritasium video just so happens to be mine!
Nicely done!
That's right! I wish I'd credited you in the video but I at least linked your video in the description :) Thanks for the idea!
I am glad when the YT community joins forces and does things together...
I thought I recognised your voice in the background, I gave up watching Veritasium ages ago due to all the clickbait and over drawn out subject matter; not to mention he was increasingly holding back with providing the whole truth relating to many of his assertions. You meanwhile are my brain food, every video, every length, no skips, and bunnies too. That relay calculator is awesome btw, and now @willdoesbuild truly has the bug, I'm sure his calculator will go through a few iterations and tweaks until it's right.
0:47 I came here to say that was a picture of UsagiElectric's Valve computer. The UE-1
Usagi!!!
i’ve got a sneaky feeling that in the next 8 months this vid could break 1 mil views
same
Why 8 months in particular? Some sort of meme?
for that it needs engagement
engagement
engagement
Bro, who cares if the bell doesn't work right or the 128 bit doesn't work. People who have never tried to do something like this don't understand the difficulty of making such a "simple" thing.... this kind of stuff takes all sorts of "out of the box" thinking, even people who have a solid understanding of how a modern computer works would have trouble designing something like this. And the motor timer? GENIUS. good job. Great video.
Relays are more like how computers worked in the 1920s. In the 1960s, IBM and the like sold useful, practical computers, using transistors and even early microchips with a few logic gates inside. Transistors even back then could switch millions of times per second, compared with maybe 5 or 10 times per second for a relay (and that's pushing it!).
Yeah, I'm not sure why I started saying 1960's lol! I think I started saying it early in the project, and never gave it up. Thanks for the correction!
@@willdoesbuildWell Japan had relay computers in the 50s so...close enough.
According to my Dad (who's born in the 1960s) dinosaurs roamed the earth and computers were 100% relays.
I caught that too, I was like what? I guess to everybody in generation Z, the 1960s and the 1920s are practically the same thing? Kind of like how to me, there isn’t all that much difference between the 1750s and the 1780s… 🤣
@@FriendlyNeighborhoodNitpicker
Very rich coming from the guy who didn't build his own computer.
I started with electronics at your age in the 1970s and I never built anything as primitive as this. Seriously great work. I didn't hear the word "flip-flop" in your description, but I think that is what you were talking about. Also, that biz of "invert and add one" to do subtraction is called "ones-compliment". Really wonderful work. I'm subscribing. Continued Success!
Nah, it's called two's complement. Just inverting but NOT adding 1 would be one's compliment.
This kid is going to be big. He's got the side bits, the jump cuts, and a quality idea. I would literally invest into his youtube. 100k+ views next vid. When you get the 1,000,000 sub play button, I want a shoutout.
I am very much looking forward to this new wave of William Osman and Michael reeves inspired creators. Maybe I'll get around to it some time, definitely would need to up the build quality (and code). Very well done!!!
When I was 12, I made a 2 bit binary telephone exchange out of nothing but cascading relays, to switch my own personal phone line between my friend's houses.
it let me use 2 spare lines and a common ground to switch 4 phone lines - from each handset.
You deserve my sub.
At about 9 designed a relay circuit that could retain its state, it was basically a flip-flop. I got so proud I could create a memory with relays.
@@agranero6 In my case I never had call for memory, but I recall a creative use of telephone exchange crossbars for the same purpose in a japanese relay computer - still functional from what I hear.
@@TheAussieRepairGuy Casio had a calculator made entirely of relays that still have one at the company museum. There is a TH-cam video somewhere about it.
Yeah crossbar switches are versatile enough to do a lot of things...and were extremely big and expensive too (I imagine more so now).
@@agranero6 There is a lot to be said for electromechanical systems.
I know someone who manufactures digital pinball machines, and keeps trying to make improvements, but does not understand the attraction of an original pinball machine. it's not about the game.
@@TheAussieRepairGuy Technology Connections has a series of videos explaining the internals of an electromechanic pinbal machine he has.
I have been working with computers for about 45 years and have never seen a better demonstration of how they work than this. Please keep making videos. Thanks
Check out Ben Eater if you think this was put together well.
If I may, with all due respect, YOU and like minded people are the justification of why do old tech. It’s ingenious in its simplicity and awesome, all the same.
this video was really well put together and the project was really interesting i cant wait to see what else you make :)
This was an awesome build video to watch -- And for only a *second* video??? Damn..! You're doing really well right out the gate! Well done!!
Editing / framing / lighting / sound / continuity / humour & script are all excellent!
Thanks! I've been making short-form for awhile so I've had some practice :)
I dunno which I find more impressive, the writing & production quality of the video or the fact that you were able to build a functional relay computer despite not having a great deal of expertise in the relevant areas (and I don’t at all mean that in a negative way; expertise comes with experience, and undertaking projects like this is a great way to gain experience).
Your channel is definitely off to a great start - just remember what I would say is the golden rule, which is that it’s all about quality rather than quantity when it comes to content creation, especially on this platform. Look at all the channels that have 1M+ subs and only upload a handful of extremely high-quality videos a year (sometimes only 1 or 2) vs channels that just crank out multiple videos a week regardless of quality.
Yeah, I’m still trying to figure out that balance! Enjoying content creation though!
I helped build a relay computer a while ago and being able to use the second pole on the DPDT relays might help making a latching circuit and inverting signals. There's also latching relays. You can also build sequencers with a stepping mechanism (using a solenoid that rotates a wheel with contacts) similar to your motor clock. Now you can have punch tape inputs so program it and store the outputs mechanically.
I looked into buying latching relays, but I couldn't really find them - at least from what I researched. Also, I hadn't ever seen that solenoid mechanism, but I can totally picture it in my head!
@@willdoesbuildLook into how NMOS logic worked back in the day. The NMOS transistor is your basic form A single pole relay, faster smaller and lower power :) Using nothing but form-A relays and resistors you can build complex relay computers. An inverter is two relays: one to invert, another to buffer the signal from the resistor. The best relays to use for the combinatorial logic in this NMOS-like approach are reed relays. Always look for lowest coil power you can get, since the pull-up resistors will have to dissipate 4x the power when the pull-down contact is switched on. Say you have a 1kohm coil 12V reed relay. The pull-up resistor has to go to 24V and also be 1kohm. When the pull-up drives the buffer coil it consumes same power as the coil - 24V split in half between them. But when the output is zero; the pull-up is shorted to ground, sees twice the voltage (24V vs 12V), and dissipates 4x the coil power. So heat is a concern - but it always is with relay computers. The larger ones will self-immolate in short order if built in a compact enclosure and the cooling fan(s) fail.
Latches can also be built from form-A relays. A single bit latch is two relays, just like an inverter.
I suspect the words stepper motor, rotary solenoid, and the way the pulse telephone network was built, are going to be in your future. Lol
You did good kid. Proud of you.
Admirable. I'm encouraged for the future when I see young people attempting crazy things like this. When I was a yoof way back 45 years ago I really wanted to build a Mark 8 computer. Lacking the means to buy anything (a paper round didn't pay enough in 4 months to even buy an 8008 and you know.. vinyls..) but having the town dump nearby I found a lot of people were scrapping obsolete bandits and all kinds of old electronics.. This gave me a huge supply of relays and other bits. Mine never worked properly either and back then we didn't have the joys of the internet and all this information at our fingertips. The local library came to hate me because I was always in there ordering obscure books of electronics and computing mathematics.
Carry on young man. Hope you have great success in whatever you decide to do.
Keep up the excellent work! When I was your age I was building parts for classic computers on perfboard and now I work full time at a Fortune 500 company in an IT position. My maker skills I learned back in the late 00s have saved the day so many times. Big companies that have been around for ages often have some old-ass hardware doing something absolutely vital somewhere in their tech chain. Being able to diagnose a fault and repair or build replacement parts when the alternative is a sketchy e-waste recycler on eBay selling that little board for $5000 is the recipe for promotions. Seriously, you're slaying, keep it up!
We aren't the only animals with language. We aren't even the only animals with a language built from symbols. Bees. Bees dance to tell other members of the hive where they found food. They communicate direction, distance, winds, and obstacles they encountered all using symbolic steps in their dance. We are just starting to look into the complexity of bee language, what parts they share what parts are specific to an individual hive.
nice video man....im going on 33 and have been messing with computers since i was like 14 and cars since i was 16 and this is prolly one of the coolest videos ive seen in a while. kinda reminds me of how the relay system in a car works.
Great video! Interesting topic, well explained and top editing! Thank you!
Oh I loved the motorized clock!
As someone currently designing a 8-bit computer and planning on making a TH-cam video documenting the process... it's really nice seeing somebody close to my age have the same interests in building and computing and whatnot. I really enjoyed this video!
why does this comment seem so formal lmho
When do you plan on posting it? I wanna see!
@@willdoesbuild It'll be a little bit before its done... I've got 2 other unrelated passion projects, homeschooling, etc.
But I do plan on making some mini episodes for little milestones. No spoilers, but the first one will likely be done later this month :)
The issue with the bell is probably because it's an inductor and when disconnecting inductors they make a large spike in voltage (could be up to several kilovolts) inductive flyback can be removed/reduced by using a diode
Thanks for adding this, hope he sees it.
I did! Electronics are so confusing 🙃 I’ll add flyback diodes next time!
This could definitely be an A+ science project or even an engineering project! And I was thinking that making an 8-bit calculator out of transistors is complicated. You are really talented! Make more projects and be passionate about your hobby. Wishingg all the best for you!
Ps. To make it more simple and ditching the memory part, you can just use bipolar switches, but this way you’ve learned more and that’s what it’s all about :)
Dude. You did nice work, no matter if you're a "kid". Seriously? That's impressive.
Dude, you're not giving yourself enough credit. Even though this wasn't entirely era-accurate, doing the boards and casing by hand (mostly) is how it would've been done around that time! I'm downright flabbergasted by your dedication!
Wait... So this is your SECOND video??? - "Shut up and take my money"!!!
-
Awesome progress from the first but also very entertaining and educational - Go big Will !!!
6:00 I love the loading bar
For a clock you can use a chain of inverters in a ring - called a ring oscillator. No need for a motor. You can also use slower relays for that to keep the relay count lower.
But motors are so cool!
i can see your channel blowing up in the near future, goodluck!
Super cool project! Pacing and humor was spot on for a topic that could have been dry if flubbed. Love that you didn't use custom PCBs and I really like the way the lights flash when the bell is engaged, definitely adds to the artistic jank old mechanical electronics feel imo (if it isn't actually harmful). Awesome that you'll be able to display this as an interesting art piece and testament to your ability as long as it remains reliable. You're making me want to build one myself, even though I KNOW I don't want to build one of these, which is definitely a sign of a great video. Keep your flow and you'll do well in these parts brother, I'll sub
Thanks! Keeping this complicated and often dull project entertaining was definitely one of the main challenges :)
That mechanical drawing is really the way to go. It lets you accurately place all the holes. It works well when making the front panel for any kind of electronics.
Yes it does!
Good news, your computer can also multiply and divide so you got 4 functions for the price of 2.
Example:
011 x 010 -> 000 + 011 = 011, 011 + 011 = 110
110 / 010 -> 110 - 010 = 100, 100 - 010 = 010, 010 - 010 = 000. 110 / 010 = 011
You cal also do exponentiation and square roots if you are hardcore but it will take a looooong time.
Wow! It's almost better than a ti-84!
First of all, awesome video! Looking forward for your next project!
Second, the reason that subtractions works by inverting the number and adding 1:
This is, in essence, the way to represent negative numbers and it is called "2's complement". You basically are adding the first number and the negative of the second number thus subtracting the second number from the first one. The way to think of 2's complement is that the most significant (in your computer the leftmost) bit is the sign bit. When it is set to 1 you have a negative number and when it is set to 0 you have a positive number.
If you just invert all the bits (that's called 1's complement) then both 0000 and 1111 represent zero (the former is +0 and the latter is -0). Thus by adding 1 you eliminate the double representation of 0 (0000 is 0 and 1111 is -1)
And if you are wondering, yes you can subtract in the same way even when using other formats like 1's complement and signed numbers. The logic remains the same: you add the negative of the number thus subtracting
The transistor was invented in 1947 and was used in computing to after the mid 1950s (1955-57) replacing the vacuum tube
Great work mate, awesome video. Keep them coming
Thanks, will do!
Having played a lot with relays and stuff like that, in the 80s and 90s when I was growing up, that part of this wasn’t that unexpected to me, though it shows some real dedication to build a whole calculator that way. The thing that really put this over the top for me, was the mechanical clock circuit using a motor. I’m not sure I would’ve ever thought of that, I love that idea.
I kind of wish I had paused the video and tried to figure out what I would have done for a clock in one of these things, before watching how he solved it. I know enough about flip-flops that I probably could have come up with a relay and capacitance based clock, but it would’ve been a lot more complicated than the motor was. Bravo!
If you REALLY want to go for a mid 20th century vibe you would use AC and incandescent bulbs... and either a literal bell or the most obnoxious buzzer for a audible output.
And make a relay into a buzzer! (I learned this in 2nd grade back in the 70s - wish we had the web back then)
@@davestorm6718 In Grade 7 we did a science day at the local science centre. I was the only student with prior electronics xp as my father worked in Embedded Systems. We were just playing with a simple demo board with lights, buzzers switches, and so on... my table had me do all the wiring cause they were terrified and I read the specs of the power supply and knew it was fine (also you think they would let a bunch of kids play with real power?). After doing all the examples were were allowed some time to play with the circuits to do whatever... I wired the entire board in series and the resulting voltage drop made rhe buzzer play a slow beat... the table next to me attempted to replicate my results but couldn't... I suspect they wired everything in parallel and so no voltage drop.
Subbed! This is amazing! I love the editing style
I like the motor used as a timing circuit. Hopelessly complicated compared to a capacitor and inductor, but cool as hell. I look forward to seeing your next project!
Great video, Will. I took the other approach; I built a relay capacitor circuit without making any of the addition logic. It blinks a light nicely. Anyway, you might want to know that there is a historic picture of the Atanasoff-Berry computer from the 1940's, and you can see that it has a motor. In fact, that first computer with its big electric motor has more actual horsepower than just about any computer running today. It was also the first computer to represent values with binary numbers.
Fascinating!
Just discovered your channel, this is good, +1.
*gold
this looks amazing! subbed!
Hand-wiring your own machine from scratch is a rewarding process, nicely done. Now you can graduate to EDA software!
That was a very nice relay computer with a lot of good explanations of the technical stuff for people who are new to these ideas.
I would be happy to adopt you as a nephew.
Your "Little Guy" looks like an elf but he is far more interesting than the innards of the Digiac Comtran 10. You just explained in a few mins with your little guy Christmas Elf a BIG part of what I learned in 4 weeks at Great Lakes, Ill. GJ
Great stuff. It's really cool to see that the next generation of engineers are still learning computing from the absolute ground up. Nothing like building a simple one out of electromechanical parts to truly appreciate the miraculous machines that we carry around in our pockets. Can't wait to see what you build next! Cheers!
This is such a cool project! I love electromechanical arcade games, and seeing something like this that kind of uses the same idea, but in a more "digital" sort of way is really awesome. Plus you refreshed my memory on some things we covered in my digital circuits class.
Great build. Back in I think 1970 i was in grade 8 and found a book in the high school library on 'How to build a working digital computer'. I am not sure if it was the one by Alcosser, Philips and Wolk but that one is in the internet Archive. My memory is it used a rotary telephone dial as an input device and old telephone relays to build a simple adder. Not sure if I still have the 24v relays hiding in a box somewhere. Never finished it as I got my hands on some surplus dual NOR RTL logic in 8 pin flat packs. You could pinch the pins together to make a flip flop and stack them to make a register (dead bug build style) 😀. That same year my math teacher introduced us the the 'CARDIAC' computer (CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation) from Bell Labs. Was hooked and never looked back. Have fun and keep building.
Man, you have realized a brilliant project. I am deeply impressed!!!!!! For your understanding. I am a computer scientist and live here in Germany and have been giving tutoring in mathematics and physics for 32 years.
Unfortunately, I have noticed that the performance of students has declined significantly in the last 32 years. The dumbing down of young people is progressing.
Your video gives me hope. There are still young people who are intelligent. You saved my day. Thank you very much
Awesome video Will!!!! Super Great job dude! A natural in front of the camera....It's like it's in your gene's or something :)
Thanks so much!!
This is awesome! When I was a high school teacher, I always wanted to do something like this with my students but never managed to work it in to the curriculum. As a side note, keep in mind that you can totally use this project and your videos as part of your portfolio when applying for work other other positions. I mean it kind of depends on what the job or role is, but being able to not just hand someone a resume, but instead pointing them toward well presented videos and hard evidence of all the cool shit you've done already really helps you stand out.
I’m 70. And I have been building computers since 1970. I used stepping relays as well DPDT relays. My adder circuits 4 relays per Digit. Didn’t use a stepper relay. But, I think you did a great job in learning the basics of digital computing.
With a little more work, you can actually make a pretty much true Binary Adding Machine.
or the outputs, 8 switches or Push buttons for the input and 3 buttons for Clear, Add and subtract
Well done! The only important thing that you made wrong (from my POV) is that you didn't design it to be easely repaired. Boards should be detachable from each other, etc. You can do that with connectors or you can use flexible and longer cables between them so you can detach them while they're still connected or something.
The video was a bit messy with you correcting yourself a lot but it was really fun to watch, it was not an issue at all.
I'm sure you learnt a lot about many things. Good work!! I'm subscribing! :)
Thanks! yeah, from now on I will definitely make things more repairable lol
Awesome job! Well explained, really well edited and you've earned a subscriber! Really enjoy your style and honestly, keep up the great work!
Admit it, you can't fix the 128 bit o/p because you GLUED THE BOX SHUT. That's stupid. Like would Apple glue their iPhones shut. Oh wait.
oh you get more ramblings about apple early macs, i do think these relays used to own before apple is the ibm had to use since it is redpilled to know about relays and i don't think that apple made wood macintosh using simple relays, early microchips, testing the computer before selling his intention to make a good product, i used iphone 5 to 7 because the both iphone 5 and 6 were broken, i had to use iphone 7 which came out in 2016 and it was so good, but my ramblings aren't enough to make simple chip, I think if you should go back to shenzhen and ask for relays and boards that is simple enough to make whole circuit... oh wait.. before apollo program used relays and simple computer tasks for NASA, had been long way since in 1960s or before had to make stuff better, and i think we should have make own board, relays, etc. to make 1:1 indentical to apollo 11 computer that used in nasa, not my ramblings but my fact that simple computer will work on binary and i thought haven't coded into vscode for microsoft..
@@dergonmcdragon3161Jesus fucking christ dude
Very fun and cool. Congrats!
I learned computer programming in high school, 1980. Our first several labs for learning binary was a 4 ft cube with large buttons and light bulbs that worked exactly like this. It could also multiply and divide. What an excellent project! Looking forward to more projects!
Thanks!
Talking about how relay memory works reminds me of my dad's first project of this sort. He just built a circuit that latches when it receives an input and used it to track when a door was opened.
* I am planing to do a computer relay for a long time and I found Chinese relays that cost about 1 dollar and are small and have two switches. Before that I was considering use reed relays for a smaller cost. About the smell some Chinese products (not the most of them) smell like...plastic...or solvent. It is not an horrible smell but the sell remain too long, it is not the "new" smell when you buy a car it is stronger and lasts longer.
* Congratulations, you created a shift register using relays! If you used the port equivalent to do the design it would take much more relays.
* Using a motor for clock is ...well..have you ever saw an old washing machine? All the cycles it goes thought are determined by a complex set of switches moved by a sync motor that acts as a clock and cams to close switches. Traffic lights also used this method. It is a design that survived the test of time.
I love when people remake old technology like this, it is so fascinating. Thanks for showing is this!
SO PROUD OF YOU, THIS IS FIRE 🔥
Dude, this video is great! You're one hilarious young guy, and you did a really good job with the project and an even better job stringing it together into a super entertaining video.
I'm looking forward to what you come up with next!
Awesome man! 1960s is a little late for relay computers being used in production, but this was really well put together. Check out Usagi Electric if you haven't already. Oh and you might like the November 1966 issue of Electronics Illustrated. Its just a decade counter with a rotary dial input.
I just looked up the issue, and everything in here is really interesting! One of my other favorite parts was the article, "IC's go civilian"
@@willdoesbuild oh yeah and you might like the repair of the Apollo Guidance Computer (video series on YT by Curious Marc). It is estimated that NASA bought 60% of all ICs made in the early years.
Look up Konrad Zuse, and the relay computers he started building in the 1930s.
there were no relay computers in the 20's, but a guy at bell labs made the k-adder out of relays in the 30's. His name was george stibitz
btw one of the relays was switched around in the build montage.
Great video man! Looking forward to seeing more content from you!
The computers that I had growing up were very noisy with their clicky grindy disk drives, humming power sources, and PC speaker beeps. For this reason, perhaps, hearing this computer go "WHIRRRR" is very satisfying.
I completely understand what you’re talking about with your clock circuit. I designed a similar thing with a plc to create a game of sorts. The clock is central to the control and events that happen.
Don't worry if anyone is mean to you we will fight alongside you. I loved this video so much and the fact it's your second video is insane, humor top notch, suffering top notch, also I adore the build and logo. I've never made anything as cool as this but I know that exact feeling of "Wow isn't this beautiful" when looking at something that I made from scratch it's a very cool feeling to see something you worked so hard on come to fruition. Cannot wait for more videos and I love the editing, pop off king. Easiest subscribe in my life.
Actually the first electric computer was built by Konrad Zuse in Germany during WWII. Because he received funding from the nazi regime, his work ended up forgotten and for many years the Mark I was considered the first electric computer. Zuse started his work before the war building the relays by hand but after he caused a blackout in his town he decided to look for 2nd hand relays and found that there were many available from the telephone company. The SUSE linux distro is named after Konrad Zuse.
Lets see how the algorithm pushes the hell out of this
Epic stuff
I can see the next generation of TH-cam is not going to disappoint.
I worked with Strowger and in Switched Telegraphy (Telex). Back in the 70's we used in addition some DDL as well as a bit of TTL whilst we built Scamps for monitoring (SC/MP from scratch including the transformer). But the real early stuff were the relays with their valency trees. They were pretty elaborate.
I think your project should be the starting point before people get into Arduinos and Raspberry Pi's.
Well done!
Learning something new by trying is never a bad thing.
dude great job, very well built and very well explained
you used a motor to make a clock signal. absolute madlad.
Cool, but I was really excited for the bell.
Me too 😞
Very cool. So glad to see you making great builds. Loved the video. All the comedy and education makes it really easy to follow. Really hope your channel blows up. You definitely deserve it. Cheers bud 🤙
Nicely done. This is similar to how older pin ball machines used to work. Lots of relays, motors and actuators. I used to repair them back in the '80s.
I wanna make a pinball machine like that someday- probably not soon though ;)
Now this is what you can call building a Computer.
Really nice work and (what's even more important these days) excellent presentation. 🤩 Keep creating ... I'm watching you! 😱
Despite, this project looks useless to me, your video is very original and creative. Your English is very well pronounced, my natural language is French, but I can understand very clearly ! You're a GENIUS, man !
Brav bro ... I hate soldering complex circuits
I've often tried to understand this before but never really got it before this video
Worth a sub and like! Keep this forever and tell your kids that's what your school calculator was, and if you didn't bring it to class every day, you'd be considered unprepared.
Computers in the 60s were mostly running with vacuum tubes. There's one computer (Zuse Z1) from '37 that did use mechanical switches, but they broke down all the time. Some Computers of the early 40s had relays though
This is true!
The bunny was a nice touch. Made me laugh.
That moment you realize people are pretty blunt with family members.
"Will's Lerning Corner". That one caught me off guard and had me laughing for about 5 minutes straight. A great oxymoron.
Anyway, I've only recently used my first relay for the simple task of providing on demand voltage to a motor - totally fascinating how complex things can get when many of these are put together.
Thanks! I put a lot of work into that intro lol
i love how i can sort of understand how this works (apart from actually wiring this up and all) because i do minecraft redstone
Minecraft is a wonderful teacher
Dude this is great. For real tho. Thank you :) I thoroughly enjoyed this video. I hope you make lots more cool stuff
Love your project, Will! I built lots of things like that when I was a kid in the 70s, & it's great seeing kids your age going right back to the basics this way.
If you want to get seriously retro about this, there's a a couple of things you can do to make it more authentic:
1) Relay computers don't need a regulated power supply; a mains transformer + bridge rectifier + a 2200uF filter capacitor will work fine. I'd recommend making everything either 12V or 6V.
2) Use tiny lightbulbs instead of blue LEDs. Car dashboard lights are still available, if you go for a 12V power supply. Also, look up "grain of wheat" lightbulbs, which are great for projects like this.
If you're willing to settle for 70's instead of 60's, red LEDs are legit for the period, but be sure to calculate out the correct current limiting resistors for whatever power voltage you're using.
PS: Great job on your YT presentation too! A good sense of humour always makes videos better.
SUBSCRIBED!
Thanks for the advice! If I do a bigger V2 of this project, it’ll definitely be a while from now
You learned. I learned.
Great video mate! Just a little correction, computers in the 60s already used vacuum tubes and some already used transistors, in so called SLT packages; the IBM 360 mainframe from
1964 did that. And technically the first parts were sprockets
Yup, my timeline was definitely off!
@@willdoesbuild that’s fine! It’s only TH-cam we come for the entertainment value! I also shamelessly listed wrong info from time to time 🤣
2:40 This might sound weird but, I miss the days when $77 was a lot.
As you get older, you need bigger numbers to feel the same impact. I think to feel what you felt the moment you read $77, I'd have to be reading something like...."6,700"; my lovely Metuchen NJ monthly mortgage.
Enjoy the youth kid, enjoy it.
0:15 1940s, ever heard of the Zuse Z3?
Fascinating work. Great job!
You are awesome! Keep making things that you enjoy!
This is very, very impressive.
I am still waiting to see someone build a x86 single core CPU out of relays!! Like a 486 DX 2 66mhz and run Doom on it.. yes it will be a big computer but would be very cool