Author Archives: e8johan

Cheaper Pies

Posted on May 14, 2015 by e8johan

With the launch of the Raspberry Pi 2, the pricing of the old B+ felt a bit out of shape. For $35 you got either the newest model with ARMv7 and far more CPU power, or the older B+ with … Continue reading →

Posted in Raspberry Pi | 2 Comments

Python without an OS

Posted on April 29, 2015 by e8johan

Josh Triplett just did a presentation at PyCon demonstrating Python running in GRUB and EFI. He has a full interactive Python 2.7 environment, including the ability to peek and poke at memory, including the framebuffer. What excites me about this, … Continue reading →

Posted in Programming, Retro | Comments Off on Python without an OS

MEGA65 – a modern 8-bit system

Posted on April 23, 2015 by e8johan

Paul Gardner-Stephen and MEGA, museum of electronic games and art, just announced the MEGA65. It is a modern day 8-bit computer. It is compatible enough with the C64 to run old ROMs and programs, while it supports modern interfaces such as … Continue reading →

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miniSpartan3 – an affordable FPGA board

Posted on April 8, 2015 by e8johan

The miniSpartan3, from Scarab Hardware, is an affordable FPGA board. As the name indicates, it comes with an FPGA from the Spartan series. At $25, you get a XC3A50 FPGA, while at $35, you get a XC3A200. This puts the board … Continue reading →

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CANtact – hackable CAN interface

Posted on April 6, 2015 by e8johan

The CANtact, by Eric Evenchick, is an open source car tool. It lets you connect to your car and interact with it over OBD II. The hardware and software are open and available from the project’s github. For those who wants … Continue reading →

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SigRok lets you measure instructions

Posted on March 26, 2015 by e8johan

The SigRok project produces open source software for interfacing various types of measurement devices such as logic analyzers, oscilloscopes and more. The target is to provide cross platform software that words on Linux, OS X Windows, Android and more for … Continue reading →

Posted in ARM, Electronics | Comments Off on SigRok lets you measure instructions

Kryoflux – low level floppy controller

Posted on March 25, 2015 by e8johan

When working with retro computers, you sooner or stumble upon aged disk media. Unfortunately data is lost. Various solution exists such as gotek, C64FC or custom hacks. However, when encountering old, unreadable disks, there is still hope. The problem is that … Continue reading →

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Embrio

Posted on March 23, 2015 by e8johan

This is a Windows only tip, so I’ve not played much with it. However, Embrio does look like a perfect experimentation kit. Take an Arduino, connect your peripherals and draw the solution. It even lets you work in a live … Continue reading →

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Retrospelsmässan

Posted on March 20, 2015 by e8johan

It is time for another round of Retrospelsmässan – the retro gaming fair #1 in Sweden.

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Follow-up on the Nyuzi Processor

Posted on March 13, 2015 by e8johan

I recently wrote about the Nyuzi Processor, referring a Phoronix article. Commenter Timothy Miller was kind enough to point out that the source article fails to recognize Jeff Bush as the author of the Nyuzi Processor. Visiting his github page, reveals a … Continue reading →

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