HW
I finally got around and completed the USB IR Toy v3.0 I got from Dangerous Prototypes .
Took me a while, had to go over the BOM, then I realised that I looked at the 3.3v version’s BOM etc., but it’s done.
(I had to bend the UART pins because my pickit wouldn’t fit and I was lazy to look for header extension).
Thanks
I was just watching an eevblog episode about VIA’s (research for my project), and I saw Dave using Saturn PCB Toolkit for various calculations.
Interestingly (and not surprisingly) the tool is only available for Windows, but I wanted it anyway, so I decided to give it a try under WINE.
It wouldn’t install, throwing a few errors, but then I did manage to install it on my Windows and copy the .exe file over to my mac,
and – voila, the thing works, it should also work on Linux…
Cheers
3 days later, my mouser order arrived to Japan (this is super fast), I got the relays, desoldered the bad one (proper desoldering tool is very useful here).
(Right is new replaced, left is the old one for comparison, didn’t take it apart though).
Soldered the replacement and couple of screws later, I had the multimeter repaired, reassembled and ready to test.
(Don’t forget to note colors of the internal cables connected to the rear panel posts)
First I realised that once or twice another test had failed (500.2), and also 600.1 and 601.2 (which was definitely a change from original 600.1,600.2,601.1).
When the test process asks for 4-wire short I literally used a 4-wire kelvin clips shorted, and this seems to be the reason why error 500.1 came up, and likely the 600.x ones now were because I shorted HI to LOW instead of AMPS.
Now, for 4-wire short I used pomona banana leads (I think 12-ich ones) to get as close to a “real” Keithley 4-wire short brace (it’s literally a brace with 4 banana plugs that snaps right into the posts).
After the change of leads – all of the tests succeed. Voila, I repaired the multimeter (but I think I will someday make a a 4-wire short brace for reliable testing).
Cheers
I’ve always been a big fan of serial ports, modems and especially computer-to-computer null-modem communication,
I wanted my Commodore 64 to be able to serve as a serial terminal, but the built-in serial port has extremely low speed.
I found this project, called UART Cartridge, and I knew this is it, of course those carts are not possible to buy, I had to make them myself, so I got to work.
I’ve ordered the PCB’s, all the parts (some still haven’t arrived so I had to find alternative source), and built the first cart already.
The result is amazing, the cart looks great and works really well as well.
I’ve been using my C64 on a Dell U2410 monitor over Composite cable, and the result wasn’t very good,
as much as games look okay scaled, the small very sharp font doesn’t stretch well, so I had to look for other solutions.
First, I tried Japan-made EntaVision S-Video->VGA converter, with mixed results, the font is more readable but somehow it doesn’t handle interlacing well and everything looks jittery.
Then, I tried “UP Empire SD-CSH1” S-Video -> HDMI converter and the result is much better, the font is very readable, although on my Monitor I can’t adjust the 720p/1080p picture to 4:3 aspect ratio, well, with such a small font it might be even better to keep it stretched – makes it even more readable.
The schematics and design was done by Dennis Kuschel, and are available on his website:
http://mycpu.selfhost.it/otherprojects/c64terminal/index.htm
I have enough parts to make a few more of those carts (and another part order pending), and will happily do so if you’re interested.
I would ship from Japan, it seems that worldwide shipping ranges between $4 and $8 depending on the speed.
Please contact me if you’d like to place an order (for tracking purposes I would recommend registering on my blog and placing a comment – also that other folks can see what is the demand).
Cost for a single unit : $40
Cost for 2-5 units: $35 each
Waiting time from placing an order to shipment – 2-4 weeks (although I will try to keep a small stock of ready-made carts or at least part sets for immediate assembly).
Please note that *your* cartridge may look different, due to supply of certain parts, some of them may be substituted for others.
The cartridges are fully tested on a PAL (EU) Commodore 64.
I have verified that the software itself works on an NTSC Commodore 64 with help of an emulator (VICE), there is no 100% guarantee that it will work on an actual NTSC C64 – and I will not accept returns should that be the case.