I have not been keeping up well with this blog in the last few months. Starting a new job definitely does that to this sort of project. I did spend time behind the scenes on some cool things that are in various stages of completion. Some involve 3d printing with the Prusa i3 MK3s that I assembled this summer. Others are following the dream of creating new and exciting Amiga custom chips.
But overall, it has been harder to spend time in the Silicon Valley garage also for one reason: Winter is coming! And spending time out there for projects has become a lot less attractive.
Today the solution to keeping the endless stream is ideas flowing has arrived. It will help the atoms dancing and the feet warm during nights of soldering. As the year nears the end, and many projects are waiting to be realized, this will heat up the velocity:
Ok, rightly so you will complain, is this an advertisement for heating badly insulated garages with oil filled electric heaters? Alright, dear readers, I do owe you at least some progress.
I made a few more of SukkoPera’s amazing port test dongles for use with DiagROM or Amiga Test Kit. Now also with a couple more colors. You can find them on eBay, or reach out to me if you need one.
But there’s more. The collection has gotten two new friends.
An Amiga 500 and Amiga 1200 are now part of the family and will enable plenty more projects to come. Equipped with a kickstart switcher, these little treasures are as fun as the 90s can be
It has gotten way too easy to get a few PCBs shipped to one’s house and since 1 or 10 is the same price in the end, I have 9 left over for almost everything I build. So reach out to me if something tickles your fancy.
I’m also experimenting soldering TQFP parts in various ways. In the past I loved hot air for putting down my STM32s but either the solder paste got old quickly (it does) or it’s just too darn cold, so I made some progress with my drag soldering skills on some Xilinx CPLDs
All of these are exciting, but rather ramping up for some of the bigger projects that are awaiting:
Over and out for today, see you soon.