Portable Drill Press
We aren’t sure that [John Heisz’s] build is really what we think of as a drill press, but it is a very portable way to convert a regular drill into …read more Continue reading Portable Drill Press
Author Archives: Al Williams
One Instruction to Rule Them All: C Compiler Emits only MOV
How many instructions do you need to successfully compile C code? Let’s see, you’d need some jump instructions, some arithmetic functions, and — of course — move instructions, right? Turns …read more Continue reading One Instruction to Rule Them All: C Compiler Emits only MOV
Reading Floppies with an Oscilloscope
There’s a lot of data on magnetic media that will soon be lost forever, as floppies weren’t really made to sit in attics and basements for decades and still work. …read more Continue reading Reading Floppies with an Oscilloscope
Project Starline Realizes Asimov’s 3D Vision
Issac Asimov wrote Caves of Steel in 1953. In it, he mentions something called trimensional personification. In an age before WebEx and Zoom, imagining that people would have remote meetings replete …read more Continue reading Project Starline Realizes Asimov’s 3D Vision
Practical Sensors: The Hall Effect
Measuring a magnetic field can be very easy with some pretty low tech, or it can be very high tech. It just depends on what kind of measurement you need …read more Continue reading Practical Sensors: The Hall Effect
Inside the VIC-20
Commodore machines are well-loved around here, but usually when you think Commodore, you think about the Commodore 64, or maybe the PET or Amiga. But the Commodore 64 had an …read more Continue reading Inside the VIC-20
FIR Filters for Xilinx
Digital filters are always an interesting topic, and they are especially attractive with FPGAs. [Pabolo] has been working with them in a series of blog posts. The latest covers an …read more Continue reading FIR Filters for Xilinx
Do You Really Own It? Motorcycle Airbag Requires Additional Purchase to Inflate
If you ride a motorcycle, you may have noticed that the cost of airbag vests has dropped. In one case, something very different is going on here. As reported by …read more Continue reading Do You Really Own It? Motorcycle Airbag Requires Additional Purchase to Inflate
Spy Tech: CIA Masks in Five Minutes or Less
You know the old trope: James Bond is killed but it turns out to be someone else in an incredibly good-looking Sean Connery mask. Mission: Impossible and Scooby Doo regularly …read more Continue reading Spy Tech: CIA Masks in Five Minutes or Less
A “Disgusting” 1980s Computer Restored
It takes a special eye to see a junkyard car and envision it as your latest hotrod. The guys at RMC found what they termed a “disgusting” Acorn Electron and …read more Continue reading A “Disgusting” 1980s Computer Restored