• Bi-Colour, Tri-Colour and RGB LEDs


    I was having an argument with ChatGPT today, initially about Bi-Colour LEDs, then it spilled over to Tri-Colour LEDs. Let me explain. A Bi-Colour LED has two different colour LEDs in the one package. In theory any two colours could be used but Red & Green or Red & Yellow are pretty common. Now according…


  • Update on updating the Retro IC Chip-Tester


    Like most engineers I can’t leave something alone for too long if it’s broke and have to keep picking at it. In my previous blog post I talked about wanting to test some suspect ICs I’d bought and the fact that to accomplish this, I would need to update the firmware on my Retro IC…


  • Why is nothing ever simple


    I’ve just bought 100 x 74LS590 IC’s for a project. They came from China and looking at them, I’m not sure they are genuine. They look a bit suspect (the laser etching isn’t quite right) and the packing was terrible with the pins bent all over the place, so it makes sense to test them.…


  • Fixed it…


    I’ve been having a problem with WordPress that I assumed was down to my limited knowledge and experience. Turns out there is a bug. I use “Tags” on posts. This allows me to group like posts easily together. I then use the WordPress “Query Loop” to display a list of all related posts at the…


  • Issues with some posts 🙁


    So I’m doing battle with WordPress right now as it seems incapable; or I’m incapable of persuading it, to support hierarchical posts. My PSU series of articles is an example. I have one post that is the parent or start of the series, then I have multiple child posts all linked to that parent. This…


  • I’m really enjoying my new webhosting


    So, the bulk of my old website has been transferred to my new hosting platform. There are some articles and posts that I still need to transfer but they need work as I’m not very happy with how they were originally written and some of them have had upgrades and fixes applied so this needs…