mtuandrew wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 1:47 pm
Yep, it isn’t the common mechanical parts that’s the issue, it’s the electronics and specialized mechanical parts (the trucks for instance.) Amtrak still has stocks of the parts, but some will run out sooner than others.
All-in-one card-based electronics can be printed and reproduced in America, the components are relatively simple (even the obsolete ones can be modernized or found from new old stock) but Amtrak had best get copies of all the needed programming while it can.
Hmm, maybe, maybe not. These probably date from the beginning of the eprom (programmable chip) era. They may have chips that you can pick up at any radio shack, or they may be be eproms , in which case you would need to know how they are programmed. Nowdays , the Chinese grind the numbers off the top of the chips , so no one can copy them , bit ironic because they probably copied the design in the first place.
OTOH , someone clever enough ( I've never gone there) could probably figure out the functions of the whole board, and start from scratch with something like Ardunio etc.
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