[HN Gopher] A collection of Soviet control rooms ___________________________________________________________________ A collection of Soviet control rooms Author : irtefa Score : 173 points Date : 2022-12-20 17:34 UTC (5 hours ago) (HTM) web link (blog.presentandcorrect.com) (TXT) w3m dump (blog.presentandcorrect.com) | yamtaddle wrote: | Can you even imagine how relaxing it would be to have the same | interface to your systems, every day, with all the parts in one | physical location and never moving? Learn it once, then nothing | changes for years and years, or if it does it's usually adding | on, not replacing or re-arranging existing stuff? Man, that would | be nice. | trap_goes_hot wrote: | I can see it working for certain industries, but overall we | need digital systems too. I work in manufacturing (biotech); | everything we do uses a automated recipe, and there are only a | handful of systems where we need an operator to directly | interact with a UI to make stuff happen. | RedShift1 wrote: | Use boring software. Software that releases every few months | instead of weeks or even days. Software that is well documented | and has an active supportive community. | yamtaddle wrote: | Works when you're picking the software. Less so in most | companies where you spend 75% of your time interacting with | half-broken, constantly-changing, barely-interoperable | programs and web-services that someone else chose. | robofanatic wrote: | > not replacing or re-arranging existing stuff? Man, that would | be nice. | | I've met some people who miss those phones with "bottom 40%", | that is pre-iphone era phones with hard coded plastic buttons. | | https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/want-new-iphone-blame-steve-j... | neilv wrote: | Especially if the interface was designed for high performance | (unlike most UX today). | | One of my favorite was when I spent years starting to learn | photojournalism on the side: the mechanics of using a camera is | only a small part of it (it's mostly about understanding and | conveying a story), but even at my student/amateur level, the | muscle memory with pro DSLR and lenses was crazy-effective. | | I even got a shot that happened only in an instant, unexpected, | perceived in my peripheral vision, and the right camera body (I | had 2 hanging from shoulders) was suddenly in my hands, | viewfinder to my eye, aimed, zoomed in with my 70-200 focal | length ring, focused (I might've even used the wheel to select | which AF focus point, before half-pressing the shutter button), | and snapped-- without consciously intending to do any of those | things, so it all seemed to be instantaneous, and I got the | shot of something as it was falling. | | Had I only had a touchscreen phone/camera or a bottom-end DSLR | (on which some brands intentionally cripple the UI, to avoid | cannibalizing pro gear sales), I would've looked very dumb as I | didn't get the shot. | smm11 wrote: | f8 and be there. | Acutulus wrote: | I'm in full agreement with you about the tactility benefits | with a physical camera versus a smartphone. | | I'm in a phase of life where I'm not sure what I'm supposed | to be doing or even what I'm very good at. But I do have a | camera and I can write passable amounts of code, so I've been | preparing a website to host my work while I strongarm friends | and family into taking pictures with me. Most of them have a | nice phone with a good camera and so we often end up talking | about what the benefits are of a dedicated set of camera | hardware versus using a phone's camera. I like those | discussions because it makes me think critically about my | camera and why I'm using it. | | The physical inputs and muscle-memory laden experience is | what I've kept relying on as justification and it's nice to | hear I'm not the only one. For those of us who have used | guns, it almost feels like holding a rifle. The entire | process is subconscious and the more I use it the faster I | become, as well as the more finely-tuned I can set up the | camera during that subconscious movement. It equips me to | image things that, if constrained by time or scene stability, | I straight up would not be able to do with a phone camera. | | There's also the social benefit that comes with it. I've | found that when I'm using my camera and rapidly fiddling with | controls and settings, people around me get the sense that I | am a professional (I'm not) who knows what he is doing (I | don't). "Everyone" has a phone so those "every" are common to | see holding up a flat slab to a scene but dedicated camera | users are increasingly rare. My tools and my physical control | over them grants me this silly air of authority. And honestly | that authority presents me with fresh opportunities for | impromptu shots; just recently I was at a live music event | and started wandering into places and standing on things to | get the angles I wanted. Nobody said a word to me, nor did I | think twice about doing it. We all kind of understood, "that | guy has a camera and he's using it well. I suppose we should | let him work". Kind of interesting. | waynesonfire wrote: | whatever would the bored 10x'er do! But of course, invent the | LCD touchscreen. Now, excuse me while I throw up. | turtledragonfly wrote: | Agreed. Typing this with Vim (: | closeparen wrote: | Boring is best where the risk of nuclear meltdown is concerned, | but I would expect operating the same system every day for | years to be pretty boring vs. engineering changes to systems. | Wistar wrote: | I used to be an editor in an online digital video suite. All | real time and all dedicated controls. GVG Kadenza, Abekas and | Accom digital disk recorders, D1 and digi-beta, GVG 141 edit | controller. Rarely even looked at the controls, could adjust | two or more parameters simultaneously--super important, | especially when the parameters affected each other as they were | adjusted. Muscle memory ruled--like playing a piano. Plus the | physical motion, flying through the settings, looked impressive | to the clients and, at those rates which could reach several | hundred dollars an hour, that performance, the show, was | important. | rthnbgrredf wrote: | Learn vi/vim/nvim. Interface hasn't changed much since 1976 | (first version of vi). | bmitc wrote: | I think a modal editor is somewhat at odds with an HMI | consisting of dedicated, physical controls. | bmitc wrote: | I worked at a fusion company and would have loved to be involved | in the control room design. People generally aren't interested in | designing rooms like this. People are happy with just big | monitors at desks likely displaying hard to interact with | interfaces that are ever changing. One engineer even wanted to | install physical barriers to keep people away from stations. | jamestimmins wrote: | I keep wondering if there's a market to build things in this | style. Either smart-home/Raspberry Pi controls or something | similar. | rpmw wrote: | Reminds me of the Homer Simpson's control room, #5 especially so | Aardwolf wrote: | I agree it's really aesthetic (I love the circle arrangements | with indicator lights occurring in several in them, I assume it's | something reactor related). Are such control rooms still made | today, or is it all digital screens? | sizzle wrote: | Remind me of Homer Simpson working at the Springfield nuclear | site | folmar wrote: | Digital screens, but they mimic the mimics shown here. | tabtab wrote: | What's the sun-shaped thing in photo #2? | themanmaran wrote: | I think it's a graphical representation of the RBMK control | rods [1]. | | It's also in the last two images. These are replaceable control | rods that were laid out in a circular pattern in the RBMK class | reactors. | | 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBMK | wkat4242 wrote: | It's not nearly enough rods for an RBMK. Those were huge. And | they had nothing outside the circle. Probably another type of | nuclear facility. Maybe a medical isotope reactor? | | The second last photo looks like an RBMK or at least | something that size. | vilhelm_s wrote: | If you click on the picture it says it's the Kola nuclear | power plant, which is a VVER-440 reactor. Searching for | other VVER pictures, e.g.[1], confirms that they match. | | [1] http://www.nucleartourist.com/areas/vver440a.htm | SoftTalker wrote: | They had channel-type reactors before the RBMK (essentially | earlier generations of the design) that were smaller. Could | be what these are. | pugworthy wrote: | Status of nuclear control rods I imagine? | hydrogen7800 wrote: | There are a few pictures with this arrangement. My guess is | these are nuclear reactor control rooms, and those representthe | control rod arrays. | mdcds wrote: | #2 links to atomic-energy.ru | | So it's probably nuclear plant control console and I'm guessing | nuclear fuel rods are represented by a dot inside the "sun" and | rods themselves are suspended in some sort of a circular | enclosure | dale_glass wrote: | This one? https://www.atomic-energy.ru/news/2012/05/21/33562 | | That's Kol'skaia AES, | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Nuclear_Power_Plant | | This is a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VVER | smm11 wrote: | My mind sees a very small green control panel with a Soviet | knock-off iPhone beneath it. | elzbardico wrote: | The biggest problem with the Soviet Union was Brezhnev not being | able to keep with his economic reforms after 1974. Seeing Russia | nowadays it is sometimes hard to believe that once they were the | second economy in the world, before being removed from this post | by Japan. Had they enacted Chinese style reforms they could have | avoided the whole disastrous 90s | cmrdporcupine wrote: | Even with market reforms, I think they would have fallen victim | to the addiction to energy revenues that's poisoned so many | energy exporting economies. Breeds corruption, croneyism, and | discourages investment in other industries. | | Maybe Norway is the only exception. | xattt wrote: | The most visually appealing part is the use of colours that you | wouldn't expect on an industrial control panel. | | The first picture shows a shade of blue, as well as red and | yellow symbols for whatever they might mean. | | Also, approximately fifteen images down shows a switch control | panel for a two-platform, triple-track Moscow Metro station | (Polezhaevskaia) that was intended to have a branch line, but | mothballed due to future ridership projections. | chemeng wrote: | Always felt bad when replacing these old control rooms, there | is a certain beauty and elegance to their design that is | missing in modern HMIs. | | This sort of color coding is common in industrial settings and | definitely was on panelboards of the era. It would be really | interesting if the color coding seen here in any way aligns | with ANSI/ASME A13.1. | akoster wrote: | Great find! Reminds me of this 2020 post: | | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23334339 | | https://designyoutrust.com/2018/01/vintage-beauty-soviet-con... | pugworthy wrote: | There is a Star Trek bridge vibe to those circular control rooms. | | I wonder if there's a tradeoff point where if you have less than | some number of people, the circular design is more optimal to | enable communications between people and access to data. | | At some point with more people (and more data) it becomes | untenable to keep the circular design and you go more linear, | such as the NASA mission control room. | kjellsbells wrote: | Id love to know what Edward Tufte thinks of this sort of design. | I get very strong small-multiples vibes from seeing all those | needle-style meters, and I assume, given the stakes, that the | Soviets applied some psychology and human information design | principles to them. Or maybe they just hacked it together, who | knows. | canadianfella wrote: | alexellisuk wrote: | Who spotted the GitHub commit graph towards the end of the page? | Looks like they were busy. | Humphrey wrote: | We still have control rooms like this (I think in use) in | Tasmania Australia. They sometimes have open days for our Hydro | Power Plants, and they are some of the most interesting tours | around. The one I visited was like using a time machine to travel | back to the age of Art Deco. Obviously some more modern control | systems have been added, but the Art Deco vibe is still there! | Arrath wrote: | I was lucky enough to tour a lot of hydroelectric dams around | the western US as a child, thanks to frequent roadtrips and a | dad who could talk his way into nearly any place, and a more | permissive security culture[1]. As you say, a lot of the | control rooms are beautiful in a certain functional way. | | [1]Another thing ruined by 9/11. | bloomingeek wrote: | I've operated in boiler room offices at large plants for almost | 40 years, the mimic panel is a very valuable tool. With miles of | piping carrying water and steam for various reasons, the panels | help keep it all straight in your mind. | | These panels are in hospitals, chemical plants, data centers, | Navy ships and subs and many other places similar to where I | work. I can't imagine what it feels like to work in a nuke | facility. I do work with some men who worked on subs, their | training was astounding. | nonrandomstring wrote: | The recreation of the control room in HBO's Chernobyl drama was | impressive. Presumably it was fairly accurate/authentic - but | also it's simplicity and explicit use during shots in the drama | as a filmic device to explain the quite technically complex | plot was amazing. From the dials, meters and warning lights | made it all come alive. | sizzle wrote: | Working with some SCADA control unit in a factory right now. | It's all digital and keeps changing configuration. Wish there | were physical buttons. | zhrvoj wrote: | I was maintaining instrumentation is similar control rooms. The | man behind panel. Petrochemical industry, recorders, | indicators, alarms, tranducers, pneum. controllers. Mix of | pneumatic and electronic technology (thermionic valves mostly). | US technology from 50's/60's and it looked the same like this. | Remember Taylor 700T chopper stabilized thermocouple | transducer, Honeywell, Fisher instrumentation... | i_am_proteus wrote: | After working with mimic panels for years on steam plants, I | got exposed to an older, pre-mimic-panel design. | | I appreciated the mimic panel's beauty for the first time on | that day. | allanrbo wrote: | Was just watching the Andor Star Wars series last week. Probably | the artists took some inspiration from the soviet control rooms. | MonkeyMalarky wrote: | I have to say, the control room of the ship crashed on Kenari | was stunning. | sharkjacobs wrote: | good zoom backgrounds | wkat4242 wrote: | I wonder why the operators are always wearing lab coats and | butcher's hats. Are they afraid they'll get hair in the switches? | tjohns wrote: | Nuclear power plant. Workers would wear those uniforms while on | site so that they don't track any stray radioactive particles | home on their street clothes. | papito wrote: | Probably because nuclear plant workers were thought of as lab | workers, and those wore these uniforms as well. Not sure if it | was also a precaution against hair and threads falling into | critical equipment. | rumdonut wrote: | I'm not sure what these rooms control, but it's possible the | control room is simply part of a greater facility that has a | mandate for this. Which makes sense, since there's something to | control here that may be more sensitive / dangerous than the | control room itself. | SoftTalker wrote: | A lot of them are nuclear plants. The ones with the big | circular display panels on the wall are: that's the reactor | core. | | They require lab/clean room type of dress so that it's easier | to tell if you have any foreign material on your clothes. | alfiedotwtf wrote: | Soviet control rooms and CRAY-1 aesthetics is what's missing in | my life ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-12-20 23:00 UTC)