Suska: Atari ST(E) in a chip

Vydáno 12. 5. 2014

Another “Retrocomp in a FPGA” approach, this time for Atari ST(E): Suska. Based on Altera FPGA, boosted by a lot of circuits (Memories, some ATmegas, Ethernet chip…) You can build your own, or simply buy ready made board. Author says: “At the very beginning it was just the address decoder... [Continue...]

Z80 retro microcomputer

Vydáno 3. 5. 2014

Imagine a Z80 CPU at 128MHz, 64MB RAM, monitor, UART, powered by CP/M version 2.2 or MP/M-II… Just a nice dream? No, it’s real! Of course, it’s FPGA. Xilinx Spartan 6 this time, as used in Papilio Pro board. Look at socz80 project page for more details and source codes.

FT800 EVE – a great display controller for 8bit

Vydáno 30. 4. 2014

FT800 provides a powerful feature set in a small package to create dynamic HMI interfaces. The device supports line by line graphics rendering to 1/16 of a pixel on displays with resolution up to 512 x 512 with 262K colours. It also provides: [Continue...]

PiPhone – homemade smartphone

Vydáno 29. 4. 2014

Take your Raspberry, add touch display, GSM modul and headphones / microphone, and voila: homemade smartphone. The so-called PiPhone is built entirely from off-the-shelf kit – no soldering required, no electronics work…

DIY $5 USBTinyISP

Vydáno 28. 4. 2014

Author says: “Over the summer I needed to find a way to get OFF of the arduino board and onto smaller/cheaper microcontrollers for more permanent projects. For a while I have been using the ArduinoISP sketch to upload files, but if I wanted to upload a hex file, I needed... [Continue...]

BitScope Micro

Vydáno 15. 4. 2014

A smaller and cheaper version of BitScope. It’s an Oscilloscope, Logic Analyzer, Waveform & Clock generator and Spectrum Analyzer all configured as a tiny light weight water resistant mixed signal probe with impressive characteristic: [Continue...]

Serial monitor

Vydáno 14. 4. 2014

“Sometimes I needed an external serial monitor like the Serial Monitor in the Arduino Editor, to see what is going on. So I made one,” author said. ESM (External Serial Monitor) is based on Atmega 328. It has its own display and control buttons, so it can work fully autonomously.... [Continue...]

Raspberry Retro Gaming

Vydáno 10. 4. 2014

“Wish I Have An Commodore…” (or Speccy, CPC, etc) But if you have Raspberry Pi, you can easy emulate all of them. Here is a list of RPi vintage emulators: [Continue...]

Multiple classic computer in one FPGA

Vydáno 9. 4. 2014

Multiple Classic Computer (aka MCC) is simple FPGA (Altera) based design with PS/2 mouse and keyboard and VGA / TV output. It can emulate Commodore C64 and Amiga 500, as well as Apple II, ZX Spectrum and Atari 2600. It provides “plug-and-play” concept. Games and architecture emulator are stored on... [Continue...]

FPGA NES

Vydáno 8. 4. 2014

Yes, NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) recreated in single FPGA. Dan Strother built it on NEXYS kit with Xilinx Spartan-3E FPGA. [Continue...]

Arduino on x86 processor

Vydáno 6. 4. 2014

86duino Zero and 86duino One are based on Vortex86EX processor, so they’re the cheapest (39USD / 69USD) ev boards with x86 based processor. [Continue...]

Online assembler for 6809

Vydáno 24. 3. 2014

I’ve updated my online assembler IDE recently (more info here). It can assemble / debug code for MCU Motorola 6809. The assembler is in alpha version, not yet fully compatible with old 6809 assemblers (pseudoinstructions like FCB, FCC, BSZ, RMB, ZMB are missing, but I’m working on them). The all... [Continue...]
Tags: 6809 ASM80 Motorola

Tiniest USB

Vydáno 22. 3. 2014

USB implemented on an ATtiny10? Impossible… ATtiny10 has only 1kB FLASH, 32 bytes SRAM and reduced register set! Oh… wait… look at µ-Wire – it’s USB on an ATtiny 10! It shows ATtiny10 is more than sophisticated LED blinker! Great work, anyway…

PIC piano

Vydáno 21. 3. 2014

I said WOW: multi timbral piano, build on PIC16Fxx. Keyboard (3 octaves) is made from coins, SW uses RTOS. Web (in russian) [Continue...]

An 8bit math unit (arithmetic and logic)

Vydáno 20. 3. 2014

Based on ATmega169, this ALU can provide services like the old 74181 etc. You can do a lot of math operations with two 8bit numbers. It’s designed for ATmega, but source code is MIT licensed, therefore it should work on PICs etc.

Mini ATtiny…

Vydáno 19. 3. 2014

I’m sorry for that lyrics. 🙂 If you know Adafruit’s Trinket, you may be curious how to make equivalent board at home. So here is a Shrinket – the Trinket equivalent you can build with common tools on common board, i.e. DIP ATtiny etc.

A tiny and cheap WiFi module

Vydáno 18. 3. 2014

WizFi250 is a compact and easily applicable WiFi module. WizFi250 provides all necessary for a simple usage – an integrated RF amplifier, antenna, 1MB Flash and secure protocols (WEP, WPA, WPA2PSK) and mainly easy control by simple AT commands. WizFi250 is suitable for all common 8/16/32 bit embedded systems. (Datasheet) [Continue...]

Plastic enclosure on demand…

Vydáno 17. 3. 2014

A time ago I saw Phil Ruston’s case for his V6Z80P, and it’s awesome. It’s cutted from 3mm acrylic and looks just perfect. Fortunatelly Phil wrote who made it: Razorlab. You select a material (from cardboard to acrylic) and upload your design – they cut and engrave final piece. You... [Continue...]