Microcontrollers in a Raspberry (Pi) Flavored World?

Microcontrollers in a Raspberry (Pi) Flavored World?

A couple of [do action =”dc501″] members have been playing with the hugely successful, incredibly popular Raspberry Pi machines. One member, Kwadroke of the Wired, is planning on using RaspPi for the heart of one of his many custom arcade systems. (Picture of Raspberry Pi courtesy Kwadroke). All the local interest and global buzz regarding this...

Read More

American Manned Spaceflight

American Manned Spaceflight

So much to be said, but it’s all been said before. Yes, I know there is still a manned spaceflight _program_ at NASA, but this country lacks the ability to actually put somepony in space. I hope future historians don’t look back and say “yeah, that’s where America jumped the shark”. Even for an obnoxious hacker like me, it’s...

Read More

Did Somepony say “Lightsaber”?

Did Somepony say “Lightsaber”?

Ok, too much wayback lately. Sorry about that. I’m not nostalgic, just old. So a fellow dc501 member said my lathe would be a cool way to make a lightsaber handle. Yes, yes it would. That part is easy, turning a chunk of aluminum to look like something cool. I do that all the time. But what about lightsaber light? That got me painting with light a little...

Read More

WayBack: T/S1000

WayBack: T/S1000

So this recent thread about “your first bit of code” on the Defcon forums got me thinking about my old T/S1000, my first computer. The Timex/Sinclair 1000 was a Z-80 based home computer, back in the VIC20 TV-as-monitor era. I actually thought it a bit amazing, consider it’s super simplistic design. A Z-80, a 6116 2kx8 SRAM, a PROM, some glue...

Read More

WayBack: Discrete 74xx Project

WayBack: Discrete 74xx Project

I’m still geeking out over this. So, some twitter discussion got me digging through boxes of old lab junk for an 80186 SBC I built for a class while working on my undergrad. In the same box was another project, a timer gizmo done for a design lab, again, back in the old college days, designed around 74xx series discrete logic. Let’s see what all...

Read More