[Usagi Electric] is known for minicomputers, but in a recent video, he shows off his TMS9900-based homebrew computer. The TMS9900 CPU was an early 16-bit CPU famously used in the old TI-99/4A computer, but as the video points out, it wasn’t put to particularly good use in the TI-99/4A because its RAM was hidden behind an […]
Sometimes it’s nice when you can do everything you need to do with just one single port. In this vein, [Nicola Strappazzon] whipped up a circuit to combine serial and UPDI programming in a very convenient way. As an example, [Nicola] demonstrates the concept using an AVR128DA28 microcontroller. It’s paired with a 4052 multiplexer IC […]
If you’re into retro CPUs and don’t shy away from wiring old-school voltages, [Mark]’s latest Intel 8080 build will surely spark your enthusiasm. [Mark] has built a full system board for the venerable 8080A-1, pushing it to run at a slick 3.125 MHz. Remarkable is that he’s done so using a modern Microchip FPGA, without vendor […]
The RP2350 has a few advantages over its predecessor, one of which is the ability to load firmware remotely via UART, as [Thomas Pfilser] has documented on his blog and in the video below. [Thomas] had a project that needed more PWM than the RP2350 could provide, and hit upon the idea of using a […]
Meet the little board that could: [alcor6502]’s tiny USB relay controller, now evolved into a multifunction marvel. Originally built as a simple USB relay to probe the boundaries of JLCPCB’s production chops, it has become a compact utility belt for any hacker’s desk drawer. Not only has [alcor6502] actually built the thing, he even provided […]
We know, you’ve already got a USB to serial adapter. Probably several of them, in fact. But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t use one more — especially when it’s as as cleverly designed as this one from [Anders Nielsen]. The first thing you notice about this adapter, and the big departure from the ones that […]
What can you do with a cheap Linux machine with limited flash and only a single free GPIO line? Probably not much, but sometimes, just getting root to prove you can is the main goal of a project. If that happens to lead somewhere useful, well, that’s just icing on the cake. Like many interesting […]
The TP-Link TL-WR841N isn’t a particularly impressive piece of hardware, but since it works decently well and sells for under $20 USD, it’s one of the most popular consumer routers on Amazon. Now, thanks to [TrendyTofu] of the Zero Day Initiative, we now have a concise step-by-step guide on how to hack your way into […]
The basic 16×2 LCD is an extremely popular component that we’ve seen used in more projects than we could possibly count. Part of that is because modern microcontrollers make it so easy to work with; if you’ve got an I2C variant of the display, it only takes four wires to drive it. That puts printing […]
Modern microcontroller platforms spoil us with their performance and expansive spec sheets. These days it’s not uncommon to be developing for a cheap micro that has a clock rate well in excess of 100MHz, with all manner of peripherals baked in. DACs, WiFi, you name it – it’s in there, with a bunch of libraries […]