breadboard

Retro Breadboard Gives Up Its 1960s Secrets

Published

2 months ago

March 14, 2022

When we see [Ken Shirriff] reverse design something, it has a tendency to be on the tiny degree. His normal strength is taking a look at die images of weird and also out-of-date chips and also determining just how they function. As well as while we like those initiatives, it behaves to see him in the macro globe this moment with a teardown and repair of a 1960s-era solderless breadboard system.

If you would certainly vow the “Elite 2 Circuit Style Examination System” included in [Ken]’s article looks acquainted, it’s most likely since you captured his partner-in-crime [CuriousMarc]’s video on the very same unit, an eBay rating that showed up in non-working problem. The breadboard, which retailed for $1,300 in 1969– an eye-watering $10,000 today– was plainly not focused on the enthusiast market. Fact be informed, we really did not also recognize that solderless breadboards were a point till the mid-70s, yet live and also find out. This device has all the bells and also whistles, consisting of 3 variable power materials, a range of buttons, switches, sign lights, and also jacks for outside links, and also a pulse generator along with an official feature generator.

Legit, that would certainly be, if it really functioned. [Ken]’s payment to the fixing was a complete teardown of the tool adhered to by reverse-engineering the layout. Seeing just how this point was created around the restrictions of 1969 innovation is a genuine reward; the steel can transistor and also ICs and also the cool and also clean PCB design deserve the cost of admission alone. As well as the truth that neon lights and also their motorists were less expensive and also less complicated to utilize than LEDs states a great deal concerning the state-of-the-art at the time.

When it comes to the essential repair services, [Marc]’s video clip ends prior to arriving. That’s great, we make certain he’ll place [Ken]’s evaluation to excellent usage, and also we constantly delight in [Marc]’s video clip collection anyhow. The Beauty trip comms collection was a terrific one, also.

Related Topics:1960s Breadboard Retro secrets

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555

555 Timer Contest Entry: A Digital Counter With Nothing But 555s

Published

5 months ago

January 7, 2022

admin

With a 555 on the BOM, you never ever recognize what you’re going to obtain. With 40 of the functional timer contribute a construct, you may simply obtain something totally unforeseen, like this 555-based eight-bit digital counter.

This involves us using [Astronomermike], that selected to make an electronic circuit with only 555s as well as a largish handful of passives as his access in the existing 555 Timer Competition. The common timer chip is not precisely the very first chip that enters your mind for electronic applications, however it does include an SR lock, which just calls for a little persuasion to end up being a JK flip flop. His first style for the flip flop that would certainly develop the core of the circuit had a set of 555s bordered with a lot of OR entrances as well as inverters– within the regulations of the competition however rarely in its spirit. Fortunately, the 555 makes a great inverter also, as well as in addition to some diode-resistor OR entrances, the standard counter component was birthed.

The video clip listed below programs the style as well as construct, along with the journey down the fixing bunny opening thanks to a negative breadboard. Each half-nibble phase of the 8-bit counter inhabits a complete breadboard with 10 555s; the entire 40-chip string in fact functions as well as looks quite great doing it.

Fact be informed, this is precisely the example we wanted when thinking up this year’s 555 competition, so excellent on [Astronomermike] for believing outside package for this set. To see what various other usages individuals have actually discovered for the chip that goes on providing, or to obtain your access in prior to the target date on January 10, head over to the contest page.

74xx

SPAM-1 Is A Well-Documented Discrete CPU With An Impressive Software Library

Published

7 months ago

November 8, 2021

admin

Right Here at Hackaday we enjoy tasks that are so well-documented that you can invest days researching what the developer has actually accomplished. [John Lonergan] really did not dissatisfy when he made the SPAM-1, an 8-bit CPU constructed from distinct reasoning entrances. His thorough log consists of a riches of info on such points as developing opcodes, enhancing program counter reasoning, running an electronic simulation, in addition to his ideas on microcode style. The large quantity of it might be a little bit repulsive to novices, so it could be best to begin with the video series that explains the design and also explains on a number of sub-blocks.

The style has actually altered a little bit considering that [John] initially began on the job, as he made a decision to include increasingly more functions, yet the result is a well-thought out design that maintains the simpleness required for distinct equipment yet still has adequate functions to maintain it fascinating for experienced CPU enthusiasts. The guideline dimension is instead huge (48 little bits) to streamline the guideline decoding at the expenditure of bigger code dimension. Conditional dive guidelines are absent; rather, all guidelines have an optional control flag to make them conditional, an attribute influenced by the ARM guideline collection.

Once the style was fully grown sufficient, [John] designed the whole point in Verilog and also substitute his style to confirm proper procedure and also to inspect the timings, approximating it to be practical approximately 5 MHz or two. A huge pile of breadboards and also DIP chips from the 74xx collection after that brought the style to life.

Not material with merely developing, imitating and also applying a personalized CPU in equipment, [John] likewise invested considerable initiative on the software application side of points, creating an assembler and also also a C-like compiler for the SPAM-1 system. As well as if that had not been sufficient, he likewise included an emulator for the traditional CHIP-8 language, which permits it to run existing programs like Pong and also Tetris. Input and also outcome for all this software application is mainly with a UART link to a COMPUTER. A VGA user interface is still on [John]’s order of business, yet he did develop an adapter to connect a classic NES controller to the system.

The SPAM-1 is a deserving enhancement to the lengthy checklist of discrete-logic CPUs we have actually seen right here, such as this breadboard computer system running a UNIX-like OS or this minimalistic one. If you wish to see one that executes an existing guideline collection, attempt this homebrew RISC-V computer system.