Finally Joining the Microcontroller Cult After Decades of Resisting (no pun intended)

[cerving]

Arduino output pins are configurable! Can source or sink, pull ups and pull downs internally.

Look up "Charlieplexing LEDs" and think about it... So cool!

True, but they're pretty weak... 60K or so if my memory serves me right. If you're feeding one into an N-FET you're going to want to put a little stronger resistor from gate to source... 10K is typical.

 

[Voyager1]

I built my first computer back in '78. Another Radio Electronics project:
https://archive.org/details/radioelectronics48unse_2
2k of RAM, 1k of ROM, video monitor, cassette interface for storage.

Ended up adding S100 expansion, floppy disk drive and 5MB HDD, speech synthesis, EPROM programming, and instant access to both the Editor/Assembler and BASIC.

This was my first computer! Built from a kit.
http://www.oldcomputermuseum.com/mini_scamp.html

 

[OverTheTop]

I have programmed many micros in years past. SCMP, Z80, 2650, 6800, 1802, 8080. I am sure I have missed a couple.

 

[NTP2]

I built my first computer back in '78. Another Radio Electronics project:
https://archive.org/details/radioelectronics48unse_2
2k of RAM, 1k of ROM, video monitor, cassette interface for storage.

Ended up adding S100 expansion, floppy disk drive and 5MB HDD, speech synthesis, EPROM programming, and instant access to both the Editor/Assembler and BASIC.

Hold it! You build it?! Was it the get talked into a 2K GPU and CPU by Linus tech tips or actual soldering?!

 

[John Kemker]

Forrest Mims and Don Lancaster were my heroes back in the day. They did some awesome projects... the original TV Typewriter was one of the coolest projects ever devised. No microcontrollers back in that day... all logic gates, shift registers, and serious creativity.

Forest Mims III is a rocket scientist (his first commercial product was a telemetry transmitter for model rockets) and an Aggie (graduated from Texas A&M in 1966).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Mims

 

[Art Upton]

Forest Mims III is a rocket scientist (his first commercial product was a telemetry transmitter for model rockets) and an Aggie (graduated from Texas A&M in 1966).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Mims

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Instrumentation_and_Telemetry_Systems

I had a MITS 8800B, Sold it in Museum Quality but not working in 1999 for $1700 on Ebay

 

[OverTheTop]

Hold it! You build it?! Was it the get talked into a 2K GPU and CPU by Linus tech tips or actual soldering?!

Actual soldering, chip by chip. Purchased the bare PCB and went from there. It had the video generator on-board, and that took about 1700 bytes of the 2k RAM. Then designed the extra stuff to be able to expand it and have some more fun . Even did a 32k RAM board for it. Speech synthesis used the SC01 chip, and I wrote a program that used the Naval Research Laboratories text-to-speech algorithm which was pretty fresh at the time.

I actually got a job (at 15 yo) working in the shop that sold the boards and parts.

 

[NTP2]

Actual soldering, chip by chip. Purchased the bare PCB and went from there. It had the video generator on-board, and that took about 1700 bytes of the 2k RAM. Then designed the extra stuff to be able to expand it and have some more fun . Even did a 32k RAM board for it. Speech synthesis used the SC01 chip, and I wrote a program that used the Naval Research Laboratories text-to-speech algorithm which was pretty fresh at the time.

Wow! That sounds pretty cool, wish that was still a thing, a bit like those vintage radio kits.

 

[OverTheTop]

You can still get to do interesting things, but the assembly is a bit more tricky. Here is a little board I designed for work recently. Dual ARM core SoC+FPGA, USB, dual 1000BASE-T Ethernet, 2GB ram (a million times more than my first computer!), multiple FLASH memories, truck-loads of I/O, plus power supplies of course. Resistors are mainly 0402 size, so 40x20mil. Track lengths are adjusted so groups of them have all the signals arrive at the same time. c (speed of light) can be a pain sometimes.

So I am still having fun with computers 47 years later .

[edit] I should mention that reading somewhere north of 15000 pages of datasheets was involved in designing that board. Worked first time.

 

[NTP2]

You can still get to do interesting things, but the assembly is a bit more tricky. Here is a little board I designed for work recently. Dual ARM core SoC+FPGA, USB, dual 1000BASE-T Ethernet, 2GB ram (a million times more than my first computer!), multiple FLASH memories, truck-loads of I/O, plus power supplies of course. Resistors are mainly 0402 size, so 40x20mil. Track lengths are adjusted so groups of them have all the signals arrive at the same time. c (speed of light) can be a pain sometimes.
View attachment 636015
So I am still having fun with computers 47 years later .

[edit] I should mention that reading somewhere north of 15000 pages of datasheets was involved in designing that board. Worked first time.

Man I love that you have to worry about C!!