Light pens?

[Steven Canning]

I have an Honest-to-God Atari made light pen in my hand. It has a DB-9
female connector made to be plugged into an Atari 400, 600, 800, etc. front
panel "I/O port"  ( used for more than just "joysticks" ). I would be
willing to part with it for only  "half" of a song...

Best regards, Steven C. ( Southern California, USA )


> >
> > I have two IBM Model 5150s (one original rev, and a rev b).  I think
I've
> > explored every single inch of the hardware except for light pens -- I
would
> > really like to experiment with one and write some software that
interfaces with
> > one.  Does anyone know:
> >
> > 1. What light pens were available and for which PCs?  (I also own Tandy
1000s,
> > and they have "light pen" ports too)
>
> I can tell you that although the MDA card has a light pen connector, the
> light pen certainly doesn't work on the 5151 monitor (far too long a
> persistance). It does work on most CGA monitors
>
> As regards machines that could take light pens. The Sirius could (or at
> least there's a light pin input on the user port header). There's a light
> pen signal on the analogue port of the BBC micro (I have the Torch
> lightpen for the Beeb, it's not exactly simple!). The FTS88 could take
> one as an option too (there's a header on the diagnostic LED board.
> Obviously the GT40 does. As does the Vectrex. And I think the Atari 400,
> 800, etc. The Gemini has a lightpen socket (which happens to be the same
> pinout as the connector between the Torch lightpen and its interfae box,
> hmmm). The HH Tiger has a lightpen connector
>
> >
> > 2. Does anyone have any light pens for sale or trade?
>
> No, but it's not hard to make one if you don't require high resolution.
> There was at least one design in 80-micro for the Tandy 1000. There were
> plenty of designs for the Beeb (most of them use the Honeywell 'Sweet
> Spot' devices). Thoese were not as good as the Torch one I mentioned, but
> they do work.
>
> -tony
>