Hotsolder - Electronics & Other Geeky Pursuits

I just posted an article about how I took a $10 Radio Shack wireless doorbell and turned it into a PowerPoint "clicker" for my PC. Includes the software, so check it out.

Labels: article, electronics, hack

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posted by Al @ 7:04 AM   0 comments links to this post

When I was in high school I built an 1802-based ELF, which I had a lot of fun with. It languished in a shed I had in south Mississippi. Every time we'd visit, I'd promise to go find the ELF and get it working again. Then last year Katrina struck and wiped out my little shed.

I did find the poor little computer, but it was seriously destroyed. Luckily, I found Spare Time Gizmos selling a kit and I bought it. Honestly, I thought I didn't have time to build it so I'd put it on the shelf until I did. But dog gone it, once it came it I had to put it together right away. It's a great kit.

There's actually a thriving community of 1802 people on the Web. Mike Riley has his RCASM assembler, and there's a lot of other software floating around. To do my bit, I put three new articles in the Articles section. One covers how to change RCASM to recognize erroneous short branches. The second shows how to use minicom under Linux to download to the board. The third article is a link to my 1802 disassembler software I wrote.

Oddly enough, the first articles I ever wrote were for a little "magazine" called QuestData that was published by Quest who made an ELF clone in those days. I'd have never dreamed I'd go on to write for Dr. Dobb's Journal, Web Techniques, and a host of other "real" magazines. Of course, those first articles were terrible -- pains me to read them now -- but you have to start somewhere!

Labels: 1802, article, old computer

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posted by Al @ 8:58 PM   0 comments links to this post

Just added to the articles section - make printed circuit boards using a laser printer.

Labels: article, electronics, pcb

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posted by Al @ 9:15 PM   0 comments links to this post

I've been getting the urge to write some longer articles again, so I'm opening the HotSolder Article Pages. I'll get a link to the right shortly. Look for some new articles soon as well as some "reprints" of other articles I've had on some of my other Web sites.

Labels: article, geek

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posted by Al @ 7:25 AM   0 comments links to this post