Several months, ago, I stumbled across the “Smartknob” project by ScottBez1. The idea is really interesting and quite captivating for people who love interfaces. In essence, a magnetic encoder is used to sense the rotary position of a knob. However, the knob is actually a small motor- a special type called a brushless DC motor “BLDC”. Because it’s a motor, we can drive it towards or away from points – both continuously and discretely – to provide ‘haptic textures’ and user feedback. So, this opens up many doors to different user experiences- springing knobs, clicky, knobs that keeps spinning after you let go- very cool things.
Continue reading “SimpleFOC BLDC Motor Drivers”Project updates!
It’s been a while since I last posted, but I have been keeping busy! I have updates on a number of previous projects as well as announcing a few new projects. I also have started using GitHub to start uploading projects so that others can see/ use them.
SNES Repro Carts
This project went on hiatus for a bit. During early days of COVID I was working pretty feverishly on this, and I got the board schematic captured and a layout done, and made a few boards. I also wrote the supporting documents for this blog, which left off when we make the boards. For some reason, after I got the boards, I couldn’t get them to work. I got busy with work and some other things so this fell to the wayside and I stopped seriously working on projects in the same way for a bit. I decided to revisit- and made a few new tools along the way.
Continue reading “Project updates!”HP 1670D notes
I have finally gotten around to setting up the logic analyzer I picked up locally to replace the HP 1652B. It’s a really nice instrument- 136 digital channels, LAN connectivity, keyboard and mouse support, internal mass storage, and some other nice features. Here are some notes on how I set up and used some of the features- they are generally not well documented and there are some modern upgrades we can do to make working with it easier.
Continue reading “HP 1670D notes”Still alive!
I made it a new year’s resolution to write on the blog more. Clearly, that hasn’t happened, but not without any success. I’m off to a good start on picking up and working on a few projects, and there are 4 drafts floating around here for future posts. So, the content should be a bit more consistent or at least existing in the near future. There are a few projects from 2020 that got left to rot in the drafts, and there are a few that I’ve already done in this year, so I just have to start somewhere when posting. Here are a few things kicking around that I’m hoping to make posts on:
Continue reading “Still alive!”Samsung Syncmaster 305t rework and cooling mod
When I lived in Pittsburgh, I got this huge 30″ Samsung monitor from Goodwill for a couple of bucks. It turned on and with no display connector attached, it runs through a color check. So, since the panel worked, I figured everything was fine and took it home.
SNES repro boards 2
Alright, so we’ve got the main parts for our board picked out based on the specs we want to meet. How do we hook it all up? Let’s start with the ROM.
Continue reading “SNES repro boards 2”SNES repro boards
A while ago, I got interested in making SNES repro boards. This was part due to the cost of genuine copies of some titles, and half in the interest of playing some of the the SMW hacks that have been released online (or maybe making my own!) I have never really built any hardware that interfaces with a CPU before, so there was a lot of learning to be done. This will be a multi-part post since there is so much material to cover.
Continue reading “SNES repro boards”ASUS N550J charging issues
A while ago, my roomate broke his laptop. It wouldn’t charge, but it wasn’t something obvious like a busted charger or anything like that. So, I helped him move all of his important files to a new machine, but I haven’t had time to look at the old one for a while. Now that I’m starting to settle in at my new job, I have a bit more free time at the end of the day when I get to play with projects.
Pioneer SA-9100 noisy channel
A few weeks ago, I fixed the issue with the protection circuit. I forgot to document the repair, so I’m going to go back later and write up what the issues were if anyone else needs to read that. Since then, it’s sounded pretty good, but recently after a while of listening (about 1-2 hours) the left channel will drop out due to some noise. It makes it unbearable to listen to, and the volume knob doesn’t do anything to lower the static, just the right channel.
Continue reading “Pioneer SA-9100 noisy channel”I’m back!
I just accepted a job with Asylum Research. It’s a company based in Santa Barbara, CA that makes some of the best AFM/SPM instrumentation on the planet. There are a lot of talented and nice people there that I’ve met in the past few weeks. The move from Pittsburgh has been long and hard, but I’m finally starting to get settled back into things and starting to dig back into projects that I was working on before the whole move. I brought 3 projects from Pittsburgh to tide me over while I search for places to get new projects. (Goodwill out here sucks)
- Samsung SyncMaster 305T BGA separation issue
- Pioneer SA-9100 receiver protection circuit tripped
- Pioneer CT-F1000 clutch slip, not sure if there are any electrical issues yet