# \[off topic\] Need advice getting started with D1/ESP/PI type "thing" projects

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/off-topic-need-advice-getting-started-with-d1-esp-pi-type-thing-projects/23408>\
**Category:** Hardware\
**Created:** [21 March 2020 13:23 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/off-topic-need-advice-getting-started-with-d1-esp-pi-type-thing-projects/23408 "2020-03-21T13:23:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![ghayne](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/ghayne/32/39_2.png) [@ghayne](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ghayne)\
**Post date:** [22 March 2020 17:39 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/off-topic-need-advice-getting-started-with-d1-esp-pi-type-thing-projects/23408/41 "2020-03-22T17:39:31Z")

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> [@TotallyInformation](#):
>
> Haha, I took a similar approach to learning to program on the BBC Micro

Oh me too, This was my programming bible:

![basic](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/d/2/d2b14396d014915bef098a5b1685c4804e618cdd.jpeg)

> **[Illustrating BASIC](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=i508AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false)**
>
> To make a computer do a calculation, however simple, you must describe every step of that calculation in a language the computer can understand: this description is called a program. This book presents a popular and widely available language called...

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**Author:** ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)\
**Post date:** [22 March 2020 17:42 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/off-topic-need-advice-getting-started-with-d1-esp-pi-type-thing-projects/23408/42 "2020-03-22T17:42:14Z")

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pah - back in my day.... . (4 yorkshiremen sketch)...  
I had to write Space Invaders on a Z80 with nowt but op codes as I couldn't afford the assembler ! Using bottle caps and sponge on a pcb to make buttons... even had marching music for the invaders.. Really rocked...

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**Author:** ![ghayne](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/ghayne/32/39_2.png) [@ghayne](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ghayne)\
**Post date:** [22 March 2020 17:49 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/off-topic-need-advice-getting-started-with-d1-esp-pi-type-thing-projects/23408/43 "2020-03-22T17:49:06Z")

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I wanted one of these:

![Popular_Electronics_Cover_Jan_1975](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/d/5/d559945e93c19ff2796dc322248065786f3a743b.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![dynamicdave](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dynamicdave/32/96_2.png) [@dynamicdave](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dynamicdave)\
**Post date:** [22 March 2020 18:30 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/off-topic-need-advice-getting-started-with-d1-esp-pi-type-thing-projects/23408/44 "2020-03-22T18:30:45Z")

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Don't know whether to admit this or not... I've still got my BBC Model-B up in the loft.

I seem to remember I bought a large mouse for it and a graphics package as well as an external harddrive (was just like a house brick). I was involved with a group of programmers from Cambridge University writing COMAL-80 (structured BASIC) for the Beeb.

Like many people, I seem to have some spare time so I might venture into the loft and check it out.

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**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [22 March 2020 19:49 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/off-topic-need-advice-getting-started-with-d1-esp-pi-type-thing-projects/23408/45 "2020-03-22T19:49:42Z")

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Ah-hem,

> **[Computer programming in the punched card era](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programming_in_the_punched_card_era)**
>
> From the invention of computer programming languages up to the mid-1970s, most computer programmers created, edited and stored their programs line by line on punch cards.
> A punched card is a flexible write-once medium that encodes data, most commonly 80 characters. Groups or "decks" of cards form programs and collections of data. The term is often used interchangeably with punch card, the difference being that an unused card is a "punch card," but once information had been encoded by punching ho...

😀

I was good enough with punch cards at one point that I could hand correct them - we had tiny silver sticky labels and a small hand punch.

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**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [22 March 2020 20:12 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/off-topic-need-advice-getting-started-with-d1-esp-pi-type-thing-projects/23408/46 "2020-03-22T20:12:13Z")

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I very nearly brought a Euro Card based system (running CP/M) as my first. However, as I was making my mind up, the BBC Micro was announced. It was light-years ahead of anything else at the price-point. I was a mainframe operator at the time.

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**Author:** ![ghayne](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/ghayne/32/39_2.png) [@ghayne](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ghayne)\
**Post date:** [22 March 2020 20:38 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/off-topic-need-advice-getting-started-with-d1-esp-pi-type-thing-projects/23408/47 "2020-03-22T20:38:02Z")

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> [@TotallyInformation](#):
>
> I was good enough with punch cards at one point that I could hand correct them

As the youngsters have probably left by now:

I remember a colour measurement system I was responsible for, specified by Marks & Spencer that was programmed with punched tape:

 ![1024px-PaperTapes-5and8Hole](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/8/d/8dcbd9302079b9d096991750f901ed2089e15ceb.jpeg)

The instructions were "After starting the re-programming by pressing button A, pull the paper tape through the reader at a rate of approximately 1 foot a second until the red lamp lights"  
The computer had 16k Core Memory, the memory card was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

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**Author:** ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)\
**Post date:** [22 March 2020 21:11 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/off-topic-need-advice-getting-started-with-d1-esp-pi-type-thing-projects/23408/48 "2020-03-22T21:11:53Z")

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> [@TotallyInformation](#):
>
> could hand correct them - we had tiny silver sticky labels and a small hand punch.

... indeed the origin of the phrase "to patch a program"

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**Author:** ![zenofmud](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/zenofmud/32/316_2.png) [@zenofmud](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/zenofmud)\
**Post date:** [22 March 2020 21:30 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/off-topic-need-advice-getting-started-with-d1-esp-pi-type-thing-projects/23408/49 "2020-03-22T21:30:08Z")

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I have to relate a story.  
Background: When I was in High School run by an order of brothers, a frind of mine on day say he was going to the computer room (which was the sixe of a small office) and I tagged along. There were two paper tape leyboard machines. One was connected to a PDP-11 at a local high school. The other was so you could type your progran right onto the paper tape. It ran focal-7: one instruction per line, maximun 40 lines. No screen just printing to the paper.

So one day, one of the brothers was giving a tour of the school to two nuns. He brought them to the room and told them this was the computer room "Ohhh..." they said "What is a computer?"

At that the brother reached into the trash can and pulled out a strip of paper tape and fed it into the maching and said "Here, watch this!" and he started the tape reader and out was printed

..F\*\*\* YOU...F\*\*\* YOU...F\*\*\* YOU... (I replaced some of the letters with astricks)

To my horror, they closed the room for two weeks.

I still haven gotten over it.... 😭

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**Author:** ![happytm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/happytm/32/7058_2.png) [@happytm](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/happytm)\
**Post date:** [13 May 2020 19:52 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/off-topic-need-advice-getting-started-with-d1-esp-pi-type-thing-projects/23408/50 "2020-05-13T19:52:53Z")

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Here is to add to the items mentioned in all the post above. I found these items to be least expensive (US $5 including ESP8266) in most of the cases to make a meaningful sensor.

[https://github.com/happytm/BatteryNode](https://github.com/happytm/BatteryNode) . Please look at hardware section.

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Steve-Mcl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/steve-mcl/32/4826_2.png) [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)\
**Post date:** [12 July 2020 19:53 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/off-topic-need-advice-getting-started-with-d1-esp-pi-type-thing-projects/23408/51 "2020-07-12T19:53:01Z")

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Closed on 12 July 2020 19:53 UTC

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