After much faffing around, I’ve resubmitted my PCB order to JLCPCB and now I wait. I made a stack of changes around the edge connector pin-out arrangement to try and make the PCB track routing easier. After a couple of very long days, I managed to route the new CPU board, memory and LED output…

I’d assumed that when I retired, I would have loads of time on my hands. Ohhh how wrong I was. I seem to have a part-time job (unpaid unfortunately) helping a friend finish the refurbishment works on her studio. It’s fun though and we have a laugh, and as people seem to think it’s important,…

So I’ve been working tirelessly, day and night (well, I’ve given it a few hours anyway) to move the project forward. Below is the latest version of my documentation. I’m having to document decisions and ideas because I just forget them, so my terrible memory is your good fortune. This isn’t the best way of…

Yes, I’ve been here before… many, many times. I’m not sure how much time I’ve spent over the years designing and building computers. I’ve got, for example, a 6502 CPU based system modelled on the Acorn System 1. I’ve got several single board computers based on 6502’s Z80’s. 6809’s etc, multi-board computers, but the one…

I landed a piece of assembly work consisting of soldering some thru-hole components onto some PCBs and create a bunch of simple wire harnesses. There is a join on the harness that needs a piece of heat-shrink to insulate it, and I was getting really tired of trying to cut hundreds of pieces all the…

Bulbs !! Some of the kits have one or more bulbs attached to the baseboard. Typically these are 3.5v, 200mA MES bulbs, usually coloured red, but I’ve seen kits with green and yellow bulbs as well. Replacements are available to purchase and if you’re only after one, then this may be a sensible way to…