Quote Originally Posted by RussMartin View Post
That's pretty much the same way I had to do it "way back in the day" . . . in 1969 on an IBM 1130 with a 2310 disk drive using a 2315 "pizza box" removable disk about 14 inches in diameter. Sadly, the LCD had yet to be invented, so the output was to an 1132 chain printer.
OUCH! Ok, I never had to go thru that (a few years ahead of my time), but I can about imagine. My very very first MCU/CPU type project back in '80, was a Z80 (+1K ram, handful of LEDs, a few HEX switches and pushbuttons, and debouncing for the 'program' switches), programming the code into the RAM with the switches to blink a single LED. Took me 6 hours to program it, a simple loop with a delay, and it actually worked the first time. Got damn lucky. Gave up after that 'cause the school got Apple II+'s.
You didn't even have a 'nixie tube' (sp?) for display or what?

An exercise in making larger numbers out of much smaller numbers....
My OBD project has me going out to 15 decimals, not because I have, but because I can. Absolutely no need for it except for error stack up over time.
On a side note, that paragraph just gave me a bit of an idea to help me better randomize more numbers in another project I've got going.

I have in fact learned as much as I think I have . . . but I haven't learned nearly as much as I want to know!
Ok, fair enough... The point being, from this end, was basically, the same as it always is (or at least it always seems to be when somebody has a problem)
Break it (whatever IT is) down, wayyyy down, and build it back up.