My journey in amateur digital electronics. The focus is broad, from retro computers to electron circuits. I produce videos on topics that I am currently working on in my "Rat Lab", and find sharing information helps focus my personal learning. I am not an EE (probably didn't need to state the obvious). I enjoy learning through failure (I fail a lot, so I must be getting smarter).
My first computer was an Atari 400 (which I still own)
@@tenminutetokyo2643 thanks. Im going to look at video next, the output is crisp, then goes wonky and back and forth. The initial removal of power regulator and heat sink made a noticeable difference. So at lease some of my video issue was heat.
Great video! Would love to see more CP/M video programming examples (C, Assembly, Fortran ...). Was the pi approximation taken/inspired from a programming book ? I like to read old programming books, especially ones that use numerical examples.
Leibniz formula is one of the very well known formulas, and can likely be found in many programming books, however the formula is well described here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz_formula_for_%CF%80 For more interesting / modern algorithms, I have converted a spigot algorithm as found in this paper to Turbo Pascal: B Rabinowitz, Stanley; Wagon, Stan (1995). "A Spigot Algorithm for the Digits of Pi". American Mathematical Monthly Code: github.com/RealMightyPEZ/TurboPascal/blob/main/Spigot.pas I am hoping to have a video on several implementations running on various 8-bit systems by Pi Day 2025.
Great video. I've bought som SLG46826G PLDs. They can be programmed with an Arduino over I2C, and the software is available for both Windows, macOS and Linux. And they are operate between 1.8V and 5V, with 2 different voltages. I'm looking forward to try them out.
Any interest in making one or a few videos about business applications, especially DBASE II (or other database), Visicalc (or other spreadsheet) and Wordstar (or other word processor)? Thanks again for your excellent videos
@@johnzacharakis1316 ahhhh dBase, learned it in college for my one and only undergrad business class. That and Cullinet IDMS were my introductions to databases. Will have to poke around and go find it. Never used Visicalc, i was a Lotus123 user, and still use lotus keyboard shortcuts in excel.
I spent countless happy hours programming in Turbo Pascal and Turbo C, then C++. There was Turbo Assembler, Turbo Debugger (which let you use a separate debugging monitor!) They even had Turbo Pascal for the Mac and they developed a really good set of object-oriented GUI tools for DOS, along with the Object Windows Library ... I stayed with them for years as they evolved with the rapid expansion of computing power. But, Borland compilers used to be affordable for hobbyists: now that they've turned into Embracado (or whatever they're called) they seem to want an arm and a leg for the licences and so I use open source compilers when I need to write code, which isn't very often these days. But, fond memories of Borland. Thanks for taking me back in time.
Hi, i had ( still have ) turbo Pascal 5 ( then 5.5 and 6 ) , i was able to churn out code fast once my brain forgot cobol and basic. I then came across technojocks add ons and wow, all the bells and whistles and animated menus was there in my new work
I memeber. As someone who learned how to program on punched cards and typically a several hour wait between submitting a job and discovering you had a syntax error, the introduction of Turbo Pascal was truly amazing.
Maybe I'm just an idiot, but what's the point of this little computer? As far as I can see the only I/O is that USB serial connection. Why wouldn't I just emulate a CP/M machine?
Not a dumb question, really just depends on motivation. For my coding, i prefer the determinism of dedicated hardware, and the knowledge that i am running on actual z80 architecture. But its amazing how many old architectures such as vax/pdp/data general, IBM 370 architecture can all be run with high fidelity on a simple PC or PI emulation. In fact my goal to learn cpm could have been accomplished on CPM/86. Why do i run an actual zx81, 2600, atari 400. Because i am a nerd.
There are advantages in being able to run a program on real hardware. No matter how good the emulation is, it will never match the delays of real hardware. It is quite instructive to build and run same piece of C code on a Z80 CPU with CP/M and compare the timing with the same piece of code running in a simulator where it tends to run much much faster. In the end it is a question of preference for sure. But if you want to have a taste of how it was to use a similar machine in the lates 70's it is quite instructive.
So this means Bus transceiver is protective element for circuit, does't it ? How often can it be happened to have undefined condition in data transmission paths ?
Undefined conditions are due to design errors, not lack of data. Circuit design should 1) prevent multiple active signal sources on a line, (detailed in this video) 2) ensure that no inputs can have a floating signal (i.e. not driven to a high / low state, a rather common mistake that I make and causes troubleshooting)
I got one of these too. It had most of the mechanical issues yours had and suffered from counterfeit op-amps. I was eventually able to resolve all the issues. They can be made to meet specifications. Here are two videos where I go through the steps. 1) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sttpgZkDx48.html 2) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XWJOChu1ZMc.html
I will have to check Mouser, I buy through DigiKey LS10 series is what I use;: LS18 / LS19/ LS20 LS100 series has additional circuitry for handshake protocol for working with microcontrollers Digikey Ordering: www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/specialized-ics/686?s=N4IgTCBcDaIDYHsDmBLAzgdxQFwMYAsQBdAXyA Guide: logiswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/LS100-Series-IC-Users-Guide.pdf
I appreciate what you are trying to offer to the community. But, if I might offer a couple bits of feedback. The images of the charts (as well as the overly long pc breadboard wiring) are almost unreadable. I'm using an Android phone and the charts and images are blurry. I imagine on a monitor, they must be unreadable, as well. Compare them with fellow educators EEV, Mr Carlson's Lab, or Great Scott, as examples. It's best just to show a few wires being inserted into the breadboard, while most of the remainder of the board is pre-wired before the video. I'm going to subscribe to your channel as I like your idea of explaining individual ICs.
Thanks for this useful video. I have few questions: 1) What is the maximum current it can provide? 2) Does it come with a power adapter? If no, which one to use? 3) Can I run it from my computer too? I mean is it possible to interface it with a free software and operate it accordingly? 4) Can we generate frequency in decimals too, like 114.223Hz?
Hello and thank you for your reply 1) Next time I am using the device, I will measure 2) No adapter, it uses a standard provided usb cable, I power it from my nearby laptop, but have also used a phone charger. 3) there is no interface other than the front panel buttons.
I noticed a "slight" reduction in noise (or sometime just shifting the noise) at the higher freq like 10K. it did nothing that would change / correct the underlying waveform, so when they started to break down (square wave looking like Triangle) no benefit. Honestly, after trying it a few times, I never use it. Yes, for me way off, but thankfully I just wanted a cheap low freq sin wave to drive a breadboard circuit clock for low freq testing, so it works for me.
