Apollo LEM-5 DSKY/AGC

Sam Ammons

New Member
Hey guys!,

I am making a replica DSKY as used in the LEM (Apollo 11), because its cool. I have found the DSKY dimensions which I can get off of the paper 1:1 model made by Edu-craft and sold on E-Bay. The dimensions will be extremely close, within a millimeter or two and I can get the rest of the color and functional information off the Internet. I am going to use a microcontroller, probably an Arduino, possibly an MC68HC11, to simulate an AGC. This will have working keys, working lights and a serial input and USB interface so it can be driven from a simulator of the mac or pc crowd. The parts have already been sourced and I am well versed on the electronics aspect of what it needs to do. Since a GPS module is only $25 and an accellerometer is only $12, the computer itself is less than $75, and the blinking lights and numbers are cheap, the first substantial cost is the fabrication of the circuit boards. The first board run will be $100 for enough boards to make about 10 boards. One board will be the Alarm Status Indicators, the second board will be the numerical Indicator Board, and the last board will be the Keyboard. If anybody wants to help fund the boards, I will give assembled and tested boards so a person can install them in their DSKY base unit. I will even give you the dimensions of mine - or you could buy the paper kit from Edu-Craft and install my electronics in that (search DSKY on ebay). My unit will display live GPS coordinates, live attitude coordinates for x/y/z angles, and of course a clock. I am planning on making the front panel so it will mount on a wall and be the coolest alarm clock ever. just enter the program as noun/verb, wake time, and when it comes around to that time the infamous 1202 alarm will get your attention. There will also be a contact to connect the buzzer of your choice. Since it will have a micro in it to drive the display, it can just as well play pre-recorded scripts such as program 63 the moon landing from High-Gate (initial decelleration burn) to lunar contact. I think thats the right program but my notes are at home.... If anyone wants "in" on this let me know. Contact me through this board if you want my email address or further info.

BTW: I am not building a "Real DSKY or AGC" this will be a simulator with a computer interface. It has a few local programs installed but if you want it to do serious tricks then you would need to write the software on your computer to talk to it.

Is anybody interested in this?

Sam
 
Last year I took a bunch of hi-res reference photos of the DSKY from Apollo 12 for another thread here:

http://www.therpf.com/f9/has-anyone...idance-computer-74054/index2.html#post2112081

Just thought they might come in handy. Best of luck!

Yes, they have come in very handy. Excellent pictures and I am using them. Some things I dont know that maybe somebody else does, is what color the alarm lights were, and what the key travel was on the dsky. I am assuming the lightbulbs were amber milspec lightbulbs, 5 volts incandescant behind white plastic lenses. The key travel was probably short because the dsky was operated with gloves on. Dont know if they are clicky (tactile) or not. I also dont know if the buttons were illuminated from behind, presumably they were. Because of the orientation of the DSKY, I dont think direct sunlight washing the warnings out was a problem - but I dont know how bright the alarms were. Incandescent is brighter than LED, but I can use 2 bright white LED's and a yellow gel to get the right color.

The parts I have acquired are amber LEDs, green 7 segment displays .5 inch digits, and cherry keyboard switches for the full depth model and buttons for the thin, wall mount model. Also green surface mount LED's for the horizontal seperators, panel lights, and dots on the right side.

I am going to fab it up in styrene to start but I have a friend with a machine shop who might mill me some parts.

Sam
 
Last year I took a bunch of hi-res reference photos of the DSKY from Apollo 12 for another thread here:

http://www.therpf.com/f9/has-anyone...idance-computer-74054/index2.html#post2112081

Just thought they might come in handy. Best of luck!

I see that new members are not supposed to sell stuff, and that when selling it needs to be in the junkyard. I didnt know that until reviewing my last post and saw the banner. Sorry! I will not sell stuff and I will just keep these postings as a fyi kind of thing. Sam
 
Yes I have. Thats a physical model of the electronics in a "Block 1" spacecraft (worked but didnt go to the moon) I am working on a replica DSKY reproduction with LGC simulator. His is the real thing but doesnt look like it. Mine isnt the real thing but does look like it. Thanks for the link though, it provided additional info I needed for the software development.
 
agc2.jpgWorking DSKY-Apollo Guidance Computer
 
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Very impressive work, especially the back, there must be consierably less pictures of the back than the front.
How much of it was guess work
 
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