Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1381013
JUNE 2021 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 15 the interfaces for the Skinner boxes I had built and program the computer to replace the old electro-mechanical steppers and relays that had previously powered the lab. e electro-mechanical patch panels were always breaking down and were unreliable, as well as being impossible for most of the stu- dents to program (Figure 4). Figure 3: The digital PDP 8/L was the latest in 12-bit minicomputers. You had to manually toggle in the RIM Boot Loader with its front-panel switches so it could read a paper tape for the program from the ASR-35 teletypewriter. All the PCBs were single- and double-sided NPTHs with a wire-wrap backplane. Figure 4: The food sensor-equipped Skinner boxes used for experiments on rats were interfaced via custom PCBs to the new DEC PDP 8/L minicomputer, replacing the old electro-mechanical steppers and relays that were unreliable and difficult for students to program.