Not even two years ago I published a video about the DR323 / DR78xx switching regulator by Mr Floppy, which is a replacement for the linear LM323 and 78xx series of positive voltage regulators. Their main advantage was their extremely low ripple, compared to other solutions such as the ezSBC. Now Mr Floppy has developed v0.2 of the regulator, which has some small improvements, and removed the surface mount coaxial port for probing. Instead he developed the Checker Board, which can be used to do accurate probing of TO3 voltage regulators.
Author: root42
Let’s Code MS DOS 0x30: VGA 3D Textmode
The EGA and VGA card can do a lot of magic tricks in textmode. This time we will investigate how you can draw a rotating 3D cube overlayed on normal text by utilising the EGA/VGA feature of a second character set.
Let’s Code MS DOS 0x2F: Mandelbrot Fractal
Everybody knows the Mandelbrot set. It is one of the most famous fractals. And it is easy to code! At least if you don’t care about speed… So let’s try to code it for ancient MS DOS PCs with VGA cards! And there will be color cycling!
Pico DRAM Tester
Eric Schlaepfer aka TubeTime has released an open source tester for vintage DRAM ICs. It is based on the fabulous Raspberry Pi Pico 2 microcontroller. It supports even older chips that use -5V and +12V. I ordered PCBs and the components for building the tester, so let’s warm up the soldering iron and build something!
FG 100 DDS Function Generator
A function generator can be a great debugging tool for digital and analog circuits. There is a very cheap one floating around that’s called the FG-100 DDS. What are its specs and is it any good?
New SID Replacement: Kung Fu SID
The MOS SID is the sound chip of the C64. Sadly they are no longer in production, and the ones that do exist start to fail. There are several replacement solutions out there, with varying pricepoints and sound quality. Now there is a new contender, fully open source hard- and software. It goes by the name of Kung Fu SID – promising great emulation and a price that’s hard to beat. Does it deliver…?
New Homebrew Sound Card: Sonic Buster 8
It’s been a long time since the last homebrew sound card we had on this channel! LABS is back with another iteration of the Blaster Board called the “Sonic Buster 8”. One improvement is that it now uses a genuine OPL3 chip for the FM music. Furthermore it is all SMD components and hence very compact and will fit also in cases where space is an issue. But is it worth the money? How does it hold up against other homebrew sound cards?
Funny Playing 4.2 SEGA GameGear LCD Mod
This is another GameGear mod. But as my favorite LCD mod is currently not available, I ordered a random one off of Aliexpress. It turned out to be a Funny Playing branded one — it seems it’s their version 4.2, with laminated screen and glass lens. Funny enough (haha!) I can’t see it on their website. No idea what that’s about, but let’s give this mod a go, anyway!
Let’s Code Commodore PET 0x02: Snakes on a PET
In this episode we code a simple game for the PET. It is the classic snake game, where you control a snake that picks up food and grows longer. We learn how to read from the keyboard, and how to limit the speed of the game, as the PET is slow, but not THAT slow.
Commodore C16 From Hell Repair
This is another dead Commodore machine from the pile of machines that eazy brought over at the beginning of the year. This time it is a TED machine: the venerable C16. It is completely dead, shows no signs of life. But this has never stopped us. Probably a dead CPU. How bad can it be, eh?