smartwatch I have officially turned to the dark side Slowly turning to the dark side, I just purchased my first Apple watch.
3D Printing 3D Printer Z-Axis Woes In a previous post, I discussed my new 3D printer and I briefly mentioned that I'm having z-axis banding issues. I'm not quite sure what's happening, but I initially had severe z-axis banding
3D Printing My first 3D printer - the Geeetech i3 Pro B (Prusa Clone) Back in the day... When I was a kid (back in the 80's), I used to come home from school and watch a great TV show about future technologies. I don't remember the
FPGA FPGA for Fun #1 (Part 2) - Driving the MAX 7219 LED Display Module In a previous post, I covered the wiring diagrams, finite state machines, and LED segment encoding for the MAX7219 display module wired up to the Mojo FPGA. In this post, I will cover
FPGA FPGA for Fun #1 (Part 1) - Driving the MAX 7219 LED Display Module I recently ordered a few LED display modules based on the MAX7219 chip. When they arrived, I immediately began putting together projects to use them. The first project was to wire one up
programming Driving the Max 7219 7-Segment Display Module from ASP.NET Core on the Raspberry Pi In a previous blog post, I discussed how to create a dotnet core 2.0 WebApi application to run on the Raspberry Pi and trigger an LED. This post will build upon that
programming Is the feedback loop the key to a learning computer? When I was in my early 20's, I setup my Korg Poly-Six synthesizer so that the audio output fed into a Radio Shack (Realistic) Reverb Machine with the output of that going back
electronics The Hand-MIDI Interface Project - Adafruit Feather 32u4 with Magnetometer A few months ago, I had an idea to create a new musical instrument that mounted on a glove. I used a cycling glove that I had from that time that I bought
FPGA Armchair Engineering - Ignorance is bliss I'm totally into my FPGA. Embedded Micro is supposed to be announcing a new FPGA based on the new Artix 7 FPGA chip that will allow me to run the new Vivado design
synthesizers Emulating a Lunetta circuit with an FPGA is a flawed idea Last night, I decided to explore an idea that I have been formulating over the past several months, but haven't actually taken the time to explore. I had a thought that I could
electronics Strange VGA Effects on an FPGA When I assembled my VGA implementation on my Mojo FPGA, I did so with only a single wire for each of the color signals (Red, Green, and Blue). This limited my color choices
FPGA A Saturday morning puzzle on my FPGA I woke up this morning with a desire to solve a puzzle. I decided that I'd make a simple LED chaser on a 7-segment LED display using my Mojo FPGA (now that I
FPGA Pong on the Mojo Revisited In my previous post, I briefly discussed the implementation of a pseudo-pong game on my Mojo FPGA developer board. I was able to implement the VHDL version that I linked to later in
FPGA Creating PONG on the Mojo FPGA I recently found an old VGA monitor on the side of the road and it inspired me to see if I could get my Mojo FPGA board to output a VGA signal. I
electronics Custom Fritzing part for Mojo v3 There is a great tool called Fritzing that allows you to create a breadboard view of circuits that you can use for documentation. I really wanted to use it to document the breadboard
Mathematics Solving the Stable Marriage problem on an FPGA (Part 2) In part 1, I introduced the Stable Marriage problem and proposed implementing it on an FPGA. In this post, I will define the approach I am taking to define the preferences in binary
FPGA Using Notepad++ as the default editor for Xilinx ISE I was having difficulties working with the built in text editor for the ISE FPGA tool from Xilinx. I was missing some of the things I've come to depend on in the editors
FPGA Reversible Binary Counter on the Mojo FPGA After playing around with the Binary counter implementation from a previous post: Implementing a simple binary counter in the Mojo FPGA IDE, I wanted to make the LEDs display a count down in
electronics How I accidentally learned something unexpected from a simple binary counter In my previous post, I talked about how I implemented a binary counter with my Mojo FPGA board. I am working on a follow-up post on implementing a reverse binary counter with a
electronics Implementing a simple binary counter in the Mojo FPGA IDE I recently purchased a Mojo FPGA development board based on the recommendation of my good friend Keith Rome. He's been very helpful in getting me started on my journey into this bizarre technical
electronics My First Electronics Kit Build - the DSO138 Oscilloscope I recently ordered the brilliant Open-source DSO138 oscilloscope kit by JYE Tech. It costs about $20 and is eligible for Amazon Prime shipping, so I thought I'd give it a try. It sat
diy Controlling a 40106 Oscillator from Raspberry Pi I have been working with electronics lately moving slowly toward my end goal of creating circuits that can "create" their own "music". As part of that journey, I have
programming Controlling a 40106 Oscillator - Part 2 In past blog entries (Controlling a 40106 Oscillator from Raspberry Pi), I have covered my adventures using the 40106 CMOS chip as an oscillator to create DIY synthesizers. Since I am a beginning
electronics Why I really got back into electronics Why I really got back into this hobby### A few weeks ago, I stumbled on a DIY synthesizer community based on synthesizers called "Lunettas" (after Stanley Lunetta, the guy who pioneered
electronics After 30 years, I have returned to my favorite hobby The past### When I was a teenager, I was a major nerd. Well, actually, I have been a major nerd for my entire life, but it really started to emerge during puberty. On
