Sequential timer programmer
2012
Four Sequential Timer Programmers developed and built by Dr Jack Tait, Clyro, Herefordshire, England, 2012 (see note field)
These timers are the ‘brains’ of some of Jack Tait’s analogue drawing machines. They are the machines’ programmers that send variable time pulses to the different motors. When the machines are outfitted with the timers, the set up functions as an analogue computer.
In X-Y plotters like the NSEW machines, they send the pen in two directions. Each axis motor needs instructions to start, stop, go forward or reverse. Instructions that come from the sequential timer, are simple e.g. ‘X Motor forward 3 seconds then stop.’ Simple time variations create the most complex and rich drawings.
Tait explains: ‘Programming also implies the potential of repeatability. This brings any such
machine into the category of ‘design tool’ able to explore a coherent set of ideas'.