Open Hardware: Arduino, ESP32, RP2040, and More
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Celebrating a few resourceful Project Hub uploads from July
Makers always find a good reason to make: to learn or to enjoy, to share or to find a solution, they can play around all day, and work around anything. Proud of our community’s resourcefulness, this month we celebrate three projects uploaded to Project Hub in July that embed IoT, robotics, and home automation into approachable and fun tutorials. It just takes equal parts passion, creativity, and willingness to try something new…
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Finally, an MOS 7600/7601 Video Game Array data sheet
The 7600 is now fairly well understood thanks to Sean Riddle's die photo, which Ken Shirriff exhaustively explored, but no one had ever found a data sheet — until earlier this summer. This data sheet is dated "Preliminary April 1976/Revision 1 June 1976," consistent with the earliest 7600 I've seen from 42nd week 1976, and gives the 7600 an official name, the Video Game Array (an unfortunate acronym collision). It specifically covers the original 7600-001 variant, an NTSC TV-compatible part that plays Pong in tennis, hockey and handball/squash/racquetball variations as well as a target practice mode, and is the variation present in most Pong consoles that used the MOS VGA. The mask ROM is explicitly stated as 512 words in size, which is read and executed by the "frame processor," acting as a combination I/O chip and CPU. The FP reads the opcodes from ROM, acquires player input, maintains the score, and sets up the display and audio output for the chip's analogue output stages.
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Building a new Apple II?
This got me thinking recently: has someone done this for an Apple II, of any generation? I assumed this would be too complicated, given how much more these machines had going on under the hood, so to speak. But there’s more stuff out there than I realised.
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ESP32 Keeps Track Of Hot Tub’s Vital Signs
Like swimming pools, hot tubs need regular monitoring to ensure their water stays clean and clear. An average person might take a water quality reading once or twice a week using test strips, but such a low sampling rate obviously won’t do for a hacker. [Stephen Carey] has therefore built a hot tub monitor that checks the water quality every minute and reports it on a neat mobile dashboard.
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These DIY Super Headphones Take Sound Seriously
[Pete Lewis] from SparkFun takes audio and comfort seriously, and recently shared details on making a customized set of Super Headphones, granting quality sound and stereo ambient passthrough, while providing hearing protection at the same time by isolating the wearer from the environment.
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Kaluma Puts JavaScript On The RP2040
With a simple firmware update, Kaluma puts a lightweight JavaScript runtime on the Raspberry Pi Pico (which uses the RP2040 microcontroller), providing handy modules for file systems, graphics, networking, and more. Code for a simple LED blink can then look like:
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Ollie v2 USB to UART/CAN/RS485/RS232 converter gets USB-C port, plastic enclosure, and more (Crowdfunding)
Ollie v2 is an improved version of the Ollie USB to isolated UART, CAN Bus, RS232, and RS485 converter that gains a USB-C port, a plastic case, the ability to set the voltage from the target board, and various other minor improvements. Like the first version, the Ollie v2 is a portable tool designed for hackers and field engineers that allows them to work with a single device instead of a bunch of USB converters, each handling a single protocol, and isolation makes sure the host, such as a laptop, is protected from high voltages.
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Best Raspberry Pi Pico Accessories and Add-Ons 2023
You’ve got the Raspberry Pi Pico, but what accessories do you need to get the most from this board?