As I mentioned before, the Zolatron 64 6502-based homebrew computer (Z64) needs some kind of persistent storage. And these days there is no shortage of options. If you search around the interwebz for homebrew projects you’ll discover a treasure trove of clever solutions. But many of these involve implementing some form of existing technology. For example, you can employ a… Read more »
Pretty much every computer needs persistent storage. And these days we’re spoiled for choice – everything from hard drives down to micro SD cards being capable of holding more information than I can comfortably imagine. With clever interfaces, these options are also open to builders of homebrew computers, like the 6502-based Zolatron 64 (Z64). But it does mean grappling with… Read more »
Another day, another lesson learned. My Zolatron 64 6502-based 8-bit computer uses serial for its main I/O. One day I may add video output and keyboard input. But for the time being, I’m happy to talk to it via a terminal from another machine. So far, that other machine has been my electronics workbench computer – a LattePanda Alpha. And… Read more »
Every Raspberry Pi deserves protection. Having used these boards since the first iteration, I have tried many cases over the years, all of them with their strengths and weaknesses. Now I’ve settled on a couple of firm favourites – both from Argon40. And to get this out of the way up-front, this post is not sponsored in any way. I’m… Read more »
I’d been waiting for this moment. I’m not a electronics or coding expert and so, sooner or later, I expect all of my projects to die. But the Dawnclock just kept on living – right up to the point when it didn’t. I first blogged about this project in January 2013, which means that it’s been operating for eight years…. Read more »
One of the problems with having just two people living in an old, rambling house is that you spend a lot of time shouting. My More Significant Other (MSO) and I work in different parts of the house – I have an office and she prefers to work on her laptop in the living room. We often need to communicate… Read more »
Go – or Golang if you prefer – is a powerful programming language, applicable to virtually any platform, from single-board computers (SBCs) such as the Raspberry Pi to supercomputer clusters. I tend to work at the lower end of that scale. And I was motivated to check out Go because it has a reputation for being fast – unlike, say,… Read more »
Does anyone really like advertising? I think of it as a kind of social disease, something that runs rampant through our society as an unfortunate consequence of our desire for, well, stuff. So I decided to eliminate as much of it as I can, and this drew me to Pi-Hole, a networking app that helps you strip advertising from your… Read more »
You know you have a Raspberry Pi problem when you start searching around for projects just to use them up. But then, admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery… PiHole? Check. PDP-8 (plus intranet server and MQTT broker)? Check. Alarm clock? Check. Retro radio thing? Work in progress. Dream machine? Also in progress. Dot matrix printer… Read more »