DSO Nano Firmware Upgrade

Tom M. — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 12:10:00 GMT

I've been looking for an inexpensive and compact oscilloscope to round out my test equipment collection. I'd seen some of the ones that are PC based, and wasn't really interested in something tethered to a computer - I don't have one on my electronics workbench. After a bit, I found the DSO Nano, an open source Digital Storage Oscilloscope based on the ARM CortexTM-M3 32 bit processor. It's not especially powerful or capable, but does the basics and is quite inexpensive: $89 delivered.

It has a 320x240 pixel color display, a micro SD card for waveform storage, is powered by a lithium polymer battery, and is rechargeable via USB cable. It has a built in, basic signal generator, and comes wit

Electronics

Tom M. — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:35:00 GMT

My undergraduate degree is in Electrical Engineering, but I really can't remember much of it. Heck, I graduated in 1980 and I really can't remember much of anything that far back. I guess I learned lots of theory: power systems, circuits, electromagnetic fields, solid state stuff - you name it.

Not too upset that most of it is hazy in my mind.

We also learned quite a bit about test equipment in our labs: oscilliscopes, signal generators, frequency counters, and a bunch of other doodads I can't remember.

That stuff I wish I remember better!

I've been playing with a variety of electronics stuff, mostly related to the N8VEM project and the Arduino, both very cool things to do if you like being close to computer hardware and tinkering. Follow the links if you want to know more about either project.Oh, never mind! I pulled out another keyboard, this one an old Dell here at the office, and it worked fine. I guess the PockeTerm hardware is a little choosey about what it works with.

Now I know I'll be playing with this thing on real hardware tonight!

More PockeTerm Progress

Tom M. — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:05:00 GMT

I managed to resolder the caps last night and then get the rest finished up according to the instructions. Initial power test was fine: on/off switch worked, and the LED lit when power was applied.

I then mounted the ICs in their sockets and plugged the thing into a LCD monitor and a USB keyboard with USB to PS2 converter.

Unfortunately, there was no signal to the display. Power at the 5v voltage regulator is fine.

So... tonight I'll try some different displays and if that doesn't work, I'll start checking the board for potential bad solder joints. If that doesn't lead anywhere, I'll go begging for help on the Briel site.

I'll post a picture or three now.

PockeTerm Progress

Tom M. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:55:00 GMT

I spent about an hour last night identifying and inventorying all the components for the PockeTerm and beginning the assembly.

As I grow older, it gets harder and harder to make out the codes on very small resistors and capacitors. I've got one of those magnifiers that you wear like a huge pair of glasses to help. Luckily, mine came with three magnifications, so I was able to see the tiny writing on the tiny caps. I would never have been able to do it without them.

So, after getting it all straightened out, I fired up the soldering station and began. The resistors, switches, IC sockets, and the crystal went in fine. Capacitors were no problem till I got to the polarized tantalum caps, and soldered two of them in backwards. Oops!

So at that point I figured it was time to quit for the night. Tonight I'll desolder them and turn them around if I can do so without destroying them. I figure the PockeTerm will be completed and maybe even tested tonight. If I destroy

PockeTerm

Tom M. — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 02:15:00 GMT

A little company called Briel Computers makes a Propeller microcontroller based serial terminal call PockeTerm.

This is a tiny thing that draws almost no power, provides full VT100 emulation, and uses a standard VGA monitor and PS/2 keyboard for I/O. It connects via standard DB9 serial (DTE or DCE).

Mine came in the mail as a kit tonight. I inventoried all the parts and will likely solder it all up tomorrow. Pictures tomorrow.

This is the beginning of the N8VEM project!

More New Projects

Tom M. — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 01:50:00 GMT

While looking around at the N8VEM project, I also happened on the Arduino. The Arduino has to be one of the coolest things I've ever run across.

Years ago I played, very briefly, with a Paralax Basic Stamp. This is a micro controller that can be used to build fun circuits, and is programmed in Basic.

The Arduino is its big brother, and amazingly, all the hardware and software are Open Source. Well, not the individual chips, but all the boards, the development environment, the documentation, and tons of interesting circuits, machines and projects.

See much more at the Arduino Home Page.

I got involved because it's an easy way to get into reading schematics, examining circuit boards, and soldering electronics together. Sean and I have already built some pretty cool stuff with Arduino, including a couple of piggy-back boards, called Shields inthe Arduino language, some basic LED

New Projects

Tom M. — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 02:15:00 GMT

Sorry if this is a little bit off topic, but I'm pretty jazzed about some new projects I'm beginning.

It all started out with me thinking through how to get my 15y/o son away from World of Warcraft long enough to have some other kinds of fun and maybe learn something. He's got a great mind and does well in science and math in school, and says he might be interested in engineering (or medicine) as a career. So I started looking around for some projects we might do together that would be fun for both of us and that I could use as a vehicle for teaching him some technology.

Read on for the rest of the story...

Alan Turing

Tom M. — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:20:00 GMT

Most serious computer users have probably at least heard of Alan Turing, but unless you're very serious or have a formal computer science education, you probably don't really know much about him and his work.

I was browsing about last night and came across this really good video about Turing, which does a great job describing his contributions to computer science. The video is interesting and does not require a degree in math to understand. Hope you enjoy it!

Amazon, search, and buy used. It's amazing what you can get for $.01 plus $3.99 shipping. And it's amazing how many old computer books from the '60s, '70s, and '80s are out there. I buy Unix and CP/M related books, and books about old programming languages like Fortran, Lisp, Pascal, and Snobol.

More recently, I've been getting back into running CP/M, both on real hardware (a Kaypro 4) and emulation (SIMH Altairz80). I also sometimes play around on a TRS-80 emulator running TRSDOS or LDOS. These are fun old systems and there's a ton of old software for them in various archives around the net. I have large archive

Online Privacy

Tom M. — Thu, 27 May 2010 01:50:00 GMT

I wrote a blog entry over on Connect757 this morning about the lack of onine privacy on the social networking sites, facebook in particular, and google.

In my view, these businesses essentially exist to disttribute informattion about you. It's their most valuable asset. The idea that they will make it easy for you to keep your information private is wishful thinking. They willl always be tempted to sell information about you: your friends, your purchasing habits, your browsing habits, your like and dislikes, and anything else they can find that might make them a buck or three. Their ownership will demand it.

So imagine my surprise whenn I got home tonight and saw an article mentioning that facebook has once again revamped their privacy policy and now proviide a single click method of keeping all your information private.

What am I missing? I will not be rejoining facebook after d

Yikes!

Tom M. — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:40:00 GMT

I haven't written an entry here for a while, and it seems some things have changed...

My feelings about ancient Unix have perhaps evolved a bit, as has my collection of retro machines.

Read on for more...

A New Kaypro

Tom M. — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:25:00 GMT

After telling myself over and over that I have too much computing equipment, I did the unthinkable, though probably inevitable: I bought an old computer.

It was on eBay for a pretty good price, and is apparently in good working condition - a Kaypro 4 from the very early 1980s. This is a 64KB Z80 powered machine with a pair of single sided 5 1/4" floppies running CP/M 2.2. It comes with all the original software on floppy, and I hope with the original manual set.

This is one of those machines that I could not afford when it was new and I was poor, but that I dreamed of owning someday. Before I could afford machines of this class, they were already gone, and I ended up with a Zenith Z-248 that I bought at DoD contract pricing.

My plan is to do whatever is necessary to get it back in perfect condition and then just play with it. Maybe I'll install a BBS, maybe I'll do some assembler or pascal development.

I'll post pictures and restor

A Word About This Software

Tom M. — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:45:00 GMT

The software that runs this site is an Open Source (Affero GPL 3) web application from Concursive, called ConcourseConnect, a feature complete, enterprise ready directory, social networking, and community management application. It's kind of social networking meets business, and contains features unheard of in any other Open Source, or even commercial software today.

Read on for more...

This Old Micro - People

DSO Nano Firmware Upgrade

Electronics

More PockeTerm Progress

PockeTerm Progress

PockeTerm

More New Projects

New Projects

Alan Turing

Online Privacy

Yikes!

A New Kaypro

A Word About This Software