Latest news and updates

Code, code and more code... (and a DiscFerret update) (Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:08:07 GMT)
I've just uploaded a couple more projects to the Code page: - Tumble (my fork of Eric Smith's tumble tool, a TIFF-to-PDF converter) - LibLPFK (a Linux driver library for the IBM Lighted Program Function Keyboard) - LibPtouch (a Linux driver library for the Brother PT-2450DX label printer)

All of these are downloadable from the Code page, and you can even browse the entire source code history if you're that way inclined. Enjoy!

The DiscFerret project is still ongoing; I'm just working on code licensing and getting the PCB design finalised...

(Yes, I know, I need to rig up an RSS feed for these newsboxes! It's on the to-do list!)

New tutorial -- Quartus on Linux (Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:36:57 GMT)
Seeing as Altera have just released a Linux version of Quartus, I figured I'd document how to make it run on Ubuntu 10.04 (64-bit). The new tutorial is hiding in the "FPGAs" section, as Quartus 10 on Ubuntu 10.04. This was FAR easier than setting up ISE. Like, orders of magnitude easier. My one gripe about Altera has just vanished into thin air... all hail the One True FPGA Vendor! :)

New section: LCDs (Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:51:41 GMT)
I've started documenting some of the LCD displays I've reverse engineered. First (of many, I hope!) -- the Planar EL160.80.38-SM1

More 16500B stuff (Thu, 20 May 2010 20:11:52 GMT)
I've just added another technote for the HP 16500B: Memory upgrades for the HP 16500B. Believe it or not, the base memory in the 16500B can be upgraded fairly easily and cheaply, up to a maximum of 16MB (and possibly beyond that). This is very handy if you're running a 16555D Deep Memory Logic Analyser or two in a 16500B mainframe...

ISE tutorial updates (Thu, 06 May 2010 07:36:21 GMT)
I've just updated the ISE-on-Ubuntu tutorial for ISE 12.1 on Ubuntu 9.10 -- this involves tweaking a few more scripts, and changing a few paths. Simple really (although the Chipscope stuff took some figuring out).

I've also increased the base font size in this site's stylesheet. In hindsight, 12 pixels was a bit small; I've bumped it up to 10 points, which should also look better on paper. I really should put together a separate CSS file for printed versions of this site...

More, as always, later :)