Education – Geronimo/370

Origin of radio numeric codes

Posted on2021-12-272021-12-27

Searching for the origin of the ‘73’ code at the end of a message, meaning something like ‘kind regards’, I found the following. Glen Zook, K9STH, posted this to the Heathkit mailing list: Many amateurs already know that “73” is from what is known as the “Phillips Code”, a series… Read the rest

Video series about SCEPSIS

Posted on2019-07-182019-07-18

I’m in the process of producing a viedo series about my Simple CPU emulator, SCEPSIS. You can find the expaning playlist here: playlist for SCEPSIS videos… Read the rest

SCEPSIS

Posted on2019-05-252019-06-113 Comments

Have a look at my new project, the ‘Simple CPU Emulation Program (Student Instruction System)‘… SCEPSIS control panel… Read the rest

MTS up and running

Posted on2018-12-192019-03-23

Today I got my copy of MTS (Michigan Terminal System) and installed it in Hercules on my Raspberry Pi model 2, using the try-mts cookbook. See this page for more info on MTS. Below you will find a screenshot of the up and running system.… Read the rest

TotemDuino connected to MacBook!

Posted on2017-12-14

TotemDuino connected to MacBook! After some mailing back and forth with the Totem team, they found a solution. Oddly enough, it’s a solution I tried, but it did not work the first time. It appears one has to install the Prolific USB-to-Serial drivers. Installation log Here’s what I did now:… Read the rest

Totem Mini Lab – testing the Side Panel 1

Posted on2017-12-08

Totem Mini Lab – testing the Side Panel 1 The Side Panel 1 is powered from the Mini Lab board, using both its 3,3 Volt and the 5 Volt connections. NOTE: it is very important to set the Side Panel 1 to the same voltage as has been set in… Read the rest

Totem Mini Lab – Side Panel 1

Posted on2017-12-05

Totem Mini Lab – Side Panel 1 I suppose in thanks for my review and for making contact between the Totem team and a Dutch distributor, they decided to send me a pre-production version of their Side Panel 1. Functions It’s a board with a couple of functions that make… Read the rest

Totem Mini Lab – first review

Posted on2017-12-03

Totem Mini Lab – first review A couple of weeks ago I came across the site of Totem. They make interesting stuff! Amongst other things they produce what they call a “Totem mini Lab” (see picture on the right, click for larger image). This seems a good setup for lesson… Read the rest

There’s no standard like your own standard

Posted on2017-11-15

There’s no standard like your own standard Because more than one person can be working on the program of a MINDSTORMS robot at our school, International School Eerde, I devised a standard that every robot builder has to adhere to. This makes it possible to work on the programming for… Read the rest

Real robots don’t drive straight

Posted on2017-11-15

Real robots don’t drive straight This is the title of a publication by Fred G. Martin of the Computer Science department of the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. Basically, what he is trying to tell us is that sometimes we tend to cut corners and hide the interesting stuff from… Read the rest

IoT : Internet of Things – Raspberry Pi Zero W

Posted on2017-10-25

Raspberry Pi Zero W Wow… I say again: wow… I keep getting amazed by the sheer size of credit-card sized computers. The newest one (that I know of) is the Raspberry Pi Zero W. See picture on there right. For you to be able to see the size I made… Read the rest

8 bit computer, solution for the microcode

Posted on2017-10-09

8 bit computer, solution for the microcode As I mentioned in this post, I was looking for a solution to program a couple of EEPROMs that are going to hold the microcode for my 8 bit computer. Using an Arduino Nano, I created a solution that also uses a python… Read the rest

New version of MINDSTORMS

Posted on2017-09-26

New version of MINDSTORMS There is a new version of MINDSTORMS out, version 1.3. It gives us the possibility to edit MyBlocks that we’ve been building before, when for example, we want to add a parameter, change the icon, things like that. Check it out here! … Read the rest

8 bit computer, output module, problem solved

Posted on2017-09-24

8 bit computer, output module, problem solved Remember that annoying problem I spoke of? I solved it! It appears I had soldered two connections together by accident. Almost invisible, but still two outputs were connected, resulting in double displays on the two leftmost 7-segment displays. Fortunately I was able to… Read the rest

8 bit computer, instructions and microcode

Posted on2017-09-232019-05-12

When designing and building your own computer, you have to design and build your own instruction set as well. So that’s one of the things I’m doing right now. One of the functions of the Control Unit in the computer is to decode the instructions and have all the chips… Read the rest