What projects have you been working on lately

Post here to let others know of a project you're working on.

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brad
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What projects have you been working on lately

Post by brad » Mon May 30, 2016 8:53 pm

I have been so busy with all sorts of things that I haven't even been active on my own forum!

I thought I'd see what people had been working on lately and I'll start with me.

I've been studying up on a bit of python programming, I thought it would be useful to have under my belt to be able to make a few little apps here and there that can run on all the different platforms. I have also made the Toaster breadboard power supply and am currently writing up a complete electronics course which is a long term project.

How about you guys?

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Re: What projects have you been working on lately

Post by Garth » Tue May 31, 2016 8:12 am

In a recent lull in my work, I started building a new workbench computer. I've had in mind doing this for many years, although improvements I was able to make to the existing one delayed or reduced the need. The work load is back up now, so the new workbench computer is on hold for a while. I'm using a half-rack-width 3U VME card cage, more portable, with batteries in the back so it can operate mobile, and will have a bigger display and keypad, more I/O, including more channels and more bits of A/D and D/A, be much faster, have 768 times as much RAM, etc.. This is to control processes and experiments on the workbench, take and analyze data, substitute for much more expensive equipment I don't have, and now even take data in the field, like the times I've recorded data in light aircraft (which we make communications products for) but with more flexibility now.

I've been doing some tests on the 65816's undocumented behaviors for one of the 6502.org forum members who has quite a knack for using external logic to trap unused op codes to do his special magic for ultra-fast I/O functions. The 65816 only has one unused (actually reserved, but they'll never do anything with it!) op code, and it has one operand byte, and then Jeff uses it to do both input and output at once (non-memory-mapped), plus optionally modify the next instruction (fooling the processor as to what it is) depending on the input results (so you don't have to branch), all in two clocks (100ns @ 20MHz). He has a similar thing for the 65c02 on my website, doing I/O bits in a single clock cycle (50ns @ 20MHz). The logic functions could of course be put into programmable logic. I'm looking forward to using his magic on the new computer.

15 or 20 years ago I wrote an extensive Forth kernel for the 65816, so the software is well on its way. I also plan to use the large look-up tables for super-fast 16-bit scaled-integer math, as discussed on that section of my website. There's no interpolation, as every answer is pre-claculated, accurate to the last bit. In some cases like trig or log functions, it's nearly a thousand times as fast as having to actually calculate the value. My HP-71 hand-held computer worked for a few weeks to generate all those tables and put them in Intel Hex format. The website section has the tables (which you can use with any processor), info on how each table was formed, how to use it, background info on how scaled-integer (notice I did not say "fixed-point" which is a limited subset of scaled-integer) can be used in many if not most situations where most people think you need floating-point, and how to interface.

So far I have the power-supply board and most of the mechanical work on the card cage done, but have not started on the CPU board yet or other separate board(s) for things like the analog I/O channels.
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources

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Re: What projects have you been working on lately

Post by bitfogav » Wed Jun 01, 2016 5:04 am

Good idea for a topic Brad :)

Beginning of this year I got into another hobby, Drones... So I have been building up a few models from kits and different components to get what I wanted.
I am currently in the making of my own FPV Ground Station (FPV = First Person View) It would allow me to view the 5.8Ghz video signal from my drone,
I do have some FPV goggles which look a lot like Virtual Reality goggles.
The Ground Station would have many functions, used as backup system, used as a power bank or even used with a video recorder as an SD card recorder so that I can record the video signal (even though I do have a 1080p camera on my Drone). :)
You can buy FPV Ground Stations but I thought it would be more fun to build my own.
Here is a few images of the components I am going to use, and the build so far.

Image of the 7"inch TFT monitor
IMG_2763.JPG
IMG_2763.JPG (62.8 KiB) Viewed 15273 times
Image of the plastic box I am currently building with a 5volt and 12volt supplies, including jack connectors, still work in progress.
IMG_2762.JPG
IMG_2762.JPG (60.69 KiB) Viewed 15273 times
And the end result should look something like this on a tripod..
80254.jpg
80254.jpg (80.81 KiB) Viewed 15273 times
If you don't know what Voltage your country is using, you shouldn't be doing electronics ;-)

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brad
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Re: What projects have you been working on lately

Post by brad » Fri Jun 03, 2016 8:22 pm

Great to see what you're up to Garth and Gav.

Will we be seeing any progress shots or details on 6502.org or on wilsonmines? Garth?

Gav - Drones certainly seem to be gaining popularity in the hobby electronics market and you are spot on when you say it is more fun to build it yourself than to buy a pre-made model of some sort. In fact, it's even more fun than just buying a do it yourself kit.

I would like to get a simple drone just as a demonstration of how adjustable voltage regulators work. let me explain:

A voltage regulator samples the output voltage at the load, compares this sample with a reference voltage to then change the biasing of the series regulating transistor to give a certain output voltage. If you change the reference voltage, the output voltage also changes. So my thoughts are to have a cheap drone with an ultrasonic transceiver module connected to it, facing the ground. I would set it so the drone flys 1 meter above the reference which is below it. If there is only the ground below it, then it is 1 meter off the ground. If i then place a chair under it, the drone would increase it's height to now be 1 meter above the chair. This way I think they will be able to visualise that if you change the reference, you change the output.

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Re: What projects have you been working on lately

Post by Garth » Sat Jun 04, 2016 2:36 pm

brad wrote:Will we be seeing any progress shots or details on 6502.org or on wilsonmines? Garth?
Since my work goes in waves that I can't predict, the progress on the new computer will start and stop too. I don't know how long this will take, and there are always naysayers who think that if you can't get it done in a couple of months, then you never will. I'll mention it in forum posts from time to time, and I may even post a picture or two, but I don't think I want to do something like a blog on it. I've been thinking about it for nearly 20 years, but didn't do much until getting going in March.

Actually, if I had an unlimited amount of free time, I would like to put up a website section on the existing workbench computer and all the things I've done with it. What's shown about it in my project pages on 6502.org at http://6502.org/users/garth/projects.php?project=1 is very outdated, since I made a lot of improvements to it over the years. I guess I really should at least put up pictures on my website. Ok, I'll try to get to that.
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources

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Re: What projects have you been working on lately

Post by brad » Sun Jun 12, 2016 9:14 am

I think they are a little too quick to judge that any project will be able to be completed within a few months. While I have projects that I started years ago and still have not finished, I think I will eventually get back to them. But them there have been projects which actually do require a year or more to do. I could imagine this would be the case with the various computers you have worked on. It certainly would be the case for the guy who made this computer:

http://www.homebrewcpu.com/

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