RS232 flow-control & handshaking – Psion MC400 retro communications
Connecting my retro-laptop to the internet via 2 x RS232 serial connections to a Raspberry Pi… and defeated (for now) by lack of hardware flow-control signals 😦
40 years later: reflections on 1981 – pop music’s greatest year?
Was 1981 pop music’s greatest ever year? There’s no doubt for me – it absolutely was! Débuts from several of the decade’s biggest names, Eurovision Winners and a novelty No.1, 1981 had it all.
dot-com failures, skim.com & obsessive bag collecting
About my Love of bags – this one a dot-com era superstar from 2000/2001. Internet enabled fashion? Oh yes! SKIM.COM a y2k style bubble readt to burst 🙂
“My Life in Laptops” – am I Doug Rocket?
My homage to Doug Rocket’s art installation at Place “MY LAPTOPS 1991-2005”. It’s well Mexico.
Magellan GPS 315 vs. The Future – part 2
Some older GPS receivers can’t compute dates properly thanks to the original GPS system employing an epoch with 10-bit week number… a new epoch starts every 1024 weeks!
Record Store Day 2021 – crooked queuing
Why vinyl is more than the sum of its parts. “Record Store Day” 2021 and queuing for 2 hours to buy a black plastic disc. Independent record shops and teenage memories…
Retro & Online – Connecting Psion’s MC400 & Series 3a machines to “the internet”
Connecting 30-year old computers to the internet in 2021… for the LOLs. Revisiting RS232, null-modems and the like, all at 19200 baud.
Magellan GPS 315 vs. The Future – part 1
Comparing a handheld 1990s dedicated GPS receiver with the GNSS chip in a 2019 smartphone
Psion Series 3a vs. Technics RS-B665
Controlling my 1990s Technics tape deck from a 1990s PDA – Psion Series 3a remote control via NodeMCU
Retrocomputing – getting re-acquainted with the Psion Series 3a and MC400
Retro computing. Getting 1990s era computers connected to modern stuff….
MCMF – MF4 dialling for the Psion MC400
Back in the early 1990s I was a serious Psion-a-holic. If there was such a thing as “Psionaholics Anonymous” I would’ve been there. My first machine was the ground-breaking Series 3 and I was instantly hooked. After that I owned a Series 3a, Siena, Series 5 and later a Revo. These machines had soul. IContinue reading “MCMF – MF4 dialling for the Psion MC400”
“Electronics & Music Maker” – archiving a demo cassette from 1982
“Electronics & Music Maker” (E&MM) was a magazine aimed at home/hobby music makers that started in the early 1980s and was produced as an offshoot of the mighty Maplin electronic component distribution empire. The idea was that it would promote more sales and engagement with Maplin’s component business through projects & DIY features based aroundContinue reading ““Electronics & Music Maker” – archiving a demo cassette from 1982″
Reviving a relic – a time machine from the past – the Enhanced Waveform Generator
Reviving some 1990s era tech …
A Life-long Love Affair with “Compact Cassette”
I was saddened to learn of the passing of Lou Ottens, a Dutch Engineer credited with inventing the humble cassette tape format whilst working at Philips in the 1960s. Crucially Philips had the foresight to licence the format and it quickly became the de-facto standard for consumer audio recording. It made me reflect on justContinue reading “A Life-long Love Affair with “Compact Cassette””
Buying 2nd hand “vintage” Hi-Fi on eBay – buyer beware
Bought an old Hi-Fi from eBay – seller listed it as “used” (meaning it works OK but might have some cosmetic damage). Turns out it was faulty. D’oh.
Reading a 27C512 EPROM with a Raspberry Pi – ROM-dumping!
Using Raspberry Pi GPIO to read the contents of an old 5V CMOS ROM
Minidisc copybit stripper – the Elektor SCMS killer
Defeating SCMS copy-control restrictions in digital minidisc-to-minidisc copies using the infamous Elektor copybit killer from 1998
Technics RS-B665 Cassette Deck Remote Control
Creating a remote control for a 1990s tape-deck using raspberry pi, python, node-red and some relays. Features minimal hardware hacking of the tape deck itself… 😉
Tiny Oscilloscope kit based on STM32F103 ARM microcontroller
I discovered this tiny oscilloscope kit the other week. It’s a DSO138 by JYE Tech – £30 from Amazon(UK) or less than £20 if you can wait for delivery from China 🙂It took me less than 2 hours to build and worked first time! I’ve still got some soldering skills lol. It comes in twoContinue reading “Tiny Oscilloscope kit based on STM32F103 ARM microcontroller”
Replacing white LED stylus target light on Audio-Technica AT-LP120X
I recently bought a new turntable, the Audio-Technica AT-LP120XUSB. I wanted direct drive, decent mid-range quality (didn’t need the absolute highest spec due to my ageing & damaged hearing – I blame the school discos of the 1980s, and Roni Size gigs 😦 ) and USB built-in so I could hook up recording/streaming devices. IContinue reading “Replacing white LED stylus target light on Audio-Technica AT-LP120X”
Streaming Vinyl Audio around the house (and beyond) with Raspberry Pi and Icecast + Darkice
Streaming audio from a turntable with Darkice and Icecast running on a Raspberry Pi
Bosch-Worcester 35CDi Fan Failure
It was a cold start to 2021, outside temps well below freezing, I guess that was the final straw for the ~20yr old fan in my combi boiler. On New Year’s Day I’d noticed it was making more noise that usual as I was putting some rubbish in the wheelie bin, nothing more than aContinue reading “Bosch-Worcester 35CDi Fan Failure”
Grafana, Influxdb & telegraf based home temperature monitoring with Raspberry Pi and the humble DS18B20
Creating a temperature monitoring dashboard in Grafana to display temps from sensors all around the house. Running on Raspberry Pis and using the venerable DS18B20 one-wire sensor.
Flashing LEDs with a 555 timer – and not a lot else
Just dug this out of storage – some electronics I made in the late 80s/early 90s. Most of it is old/scrap components – only the 555 and the MC14526 counter/divider actually do anything – flashing the LEDs long the edge. I can remember making it at work during quiet times as a side project, IContinue reading “Flashing LEDs with a 555 timer – and not a lot else”
Loading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
About Room 7609
Hi, and welcome to Zed Starr’s compendium of techno-bizzle. Sometimes a bit retro, or getting retro stuff to do things in “modern life”; featuring Raspberry Pi, Linux, GNSS, analogue audio/Hi-Fi, Psion computers and with an overall electronics flavour. And no, I don’t know what “techno-bizzle” is either. Enjoy.
Subscribe to My Blog
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
