AOApfel Orchard LabsEngineering · Preservation · Infrastructure

Apfel Orchard / Engineering notebook

Old hardware.
New ideas.

A working lab for embedded systems, infrastructure, software recovery, control systems, vintage computing, and the occasional machine that should probably have stopped working years ago.

Explore projectsLatest recovery
Lab telemetryPublic service health and incident history ↗
AO-LAB / PROJECT BUS

      

    


    

      
FocusSystems that deserve another life

      
MethodsReverse engineering · integration · recovery

      
EnvironmentLinux · networking · embedded controls

      
Latest recoveryDigital Loggers LPC / firmware 1.9.1

    


    

      
01 / Documented work
Work, documented.
Three machines, three different problems, and a complete record of how each one was understood, recovered, or given a useful second life.

      

        
Flash forensicsRecovered
Digital Loggers LPC
A stalled firmware update left a controller with a blank display. A preserved NOR flash image, byte-level analysis, and an external programmer brought it back.
MX29LV040PLCC32XGecu T48Binary analysis
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Embedded modernizationActive
Crestron TSW-750
A discontinued touchpanel becomes a modern control surface by keeping the original endpoint and moving the intelligence to an Ubuntu service.
PythonUbuntuCIPHome Assistant
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Hardware recoveryDocumented
PacketShaper 1550
Recovering a Packeteer appliance in QEMU, from disk images and hardware assumptions to a repeatable cold boot.
QEMUPacketWiseFirmwareRuntime shim
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02 / Live system
Call the orchard.
The BBS remains part of the lab because not every useful interface needs to be new. Connect from the browser, launch the full terminal, or dial the line.

      

        
 BBS line254-566-2753
Browser terminal
Keyboard input is sent directly to the BBS through its secure WebSocket bridge.
Open full screen ↗
The connection begins only when you choose to connect. On mobile, the full-screen terminal is recommended.

        
WAITING FOR CALL
APFEL ORCHARD BBS
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LINE ............ READY
BAUD ............ 57600
GATEWAY ......... SECURE

PRESS CONNECT TO BEGIN_

      

      

        Distributed compute · active
Apfel Foundry
PXE-booted workers and archival workflows for making old and unusual data useful again.

        Infrastructure · live status
Service Status
Current availability for the orchard’s public systems, gateways, and experiments.

      

    


    

      
03 / Preservation
The archive still has roots.
The engineering work does not replace the original purpose of the orchard. Restoration, documentation, and recovered software remain first-class projects rather than a museum wing hidden behind the newer systems.

      

        Collection / archive
Computing Preservation
Machine records, photographs, restoration notes, recovered media, and the context that makes the hardware meaningful.

        Specialist archive
Save the WANG
Wang Professional Computer software, manuals, disk images, hardware records, and recovery logs.

      

    


    
About the lab
Apfel Orchard Labs is where preservation and engineering meet: keep the hardware, understand the system, replace what has to be replaced, and document enough that the next person does not have to start from zero.