2mm scale railway begins

Started the 2mm scale railway. Just waiting on some solder paste and I can start my first bit of 2mm pcb track work. 

 

Learning for Christmas

Made a case for the SenseHat and Pi 3 to learn a bit more about this great hat!

 

Case cover from old MagPi printouts with access to the Pi from the top. I'm looking to cover the Pi using a clear removable cover. 

 

I've used a Hak3r board to mount the SenseHat inside the laptop style case. This will for easy changing to another hat in the future. 

 

Wow, what a summer!

It's been a while, but much has happened over the Summer.  I have working on the CB250 cleaning and removing rust from parts.  Work will continue but progress is slow - this is ok as its good to get some shed time.  I have started yet another project an RC2014, this is a 'work' project to demonstrate how computers work to someone.  The plan is to use the Pi Zero to control the Z80 processor and monitor address and data lines.  I may add a wireless dongle so that I can interface using SSH.

FTDI hidden in the bottom of the base (cheap chopping board from Tesco) to allow for USB COM connection.

Speccy Finished

All done, and working!

I have also started work on the joystick for the arcade part of Retrobox. 

I used a turbo tape loader wav file from my iPad to load Manic Miner. It loaded in just over 20 seconds!

Board stuffed

ZX Spectrum Ready for testing

Soldering continues

Resistors, capacitors and sockets done

ZX Spectrum clone

Rebuilding my old Speccy+ for the Retrobox.  Using a clone board (Harleguin Rev G) and also installing a new keyboard membrane.

Retrobox

And yes another project!

A portable retro gaming box, for both spectrum, bbc and some emulation 

Bank holiday project

Retropi mini arcade.  Up cycled an old PS3 controller with a raspberry pi and a 5 inch touch screen.  

Cleaning, Cleaning and more cleaning!

A before and after shot

Cleaning is slow going job, but the results are worth it.  Looking at coating in zinc to protect the parts.

A another before and after for the seat mount

Going back to basics

6502 emulator with a pi zero, and real 80's input method!

Good use of an old book, recovered with something appropriate for the content

Hex keypad input, with LCD showing the state of 6502 registers and flags. 

LEDs mapped to memory for some output, this will also include switches for input at a later date. 

6502 pi

Found a use for the free pi zero, a 6502 emulator - in the style of a 1980's dev board.  

I need to add some more I/O mapped to virtual memory 

Three weeks in vinegar

The process is a little slow, but soaking parts in vinegar seems to remove most of the rust.  This is going to be a very long process, but its very satisfying bringing the old parts back to life after many years being covered in rust.  Once the nice weather makes an appearance then I can start painting some of the parts that are not going to be powder coated.

Nice clean piston, ready for new rings

First trip out

Short trip out to see how the new bike rides.

Very well!

New bike, new tyre

I have repaired the switch on the instrument panel and have ordered a new rear tyre. I have a couple of other tidy-up jobs to do, then we can go for a ride.

Bike finished

Bike now fully restored!

and it has become a Kawasaki w650 :-)

Cheap parts cleaner

Until finances allow the purchase of a parts cleaner, I picked up a large plastic box to start cleaning the larger parts. Cleaned lots of parts this weekend, also used this months purchase (digital vernier calliper) to measure the clutch springs.  Needless to say that need replacing!

In soak

Unknown parts found in the bottom of the plastic box.

Old gaskets removed and faces cleaned.

Shiny

Getting a little OCD with cleaning the parts, but its a good way of having some nice relaxing shed time at a weekend.

Most of my posts from now on, will be clean motorcycle parts!

Tools used for cleaning - plus a large container of Gunk

Yes, and the bolts - told you I was getting a little OCD

Clean parts into a new bag, with diagram if necessary

All parts given a spray of WD40 to protect them before bagging

Clean?

Not much to report on the CB250 build, just lots of cleaning parts.  Spent over two hours this weekend just getting the top of engine block basically free from oil.

6502 Test

I have created a 6502 test circuit, all seems to work. It should help with my goal of creating my own apple one replica. 

Evil Pi

Project Evil Pi, (or PenPi) hardware all done.  This is my Pi network security toolkit.  I'm using Kali Linux, Fruity WiFi and some other tools.  The Pi has been modified, removing most of the sockets and placing the wifi dongle in the case. I have added a small 16x2 LCD panel and some buttons.

Finished prototype case

Sockets removed and USB replaced with headers

SD card now on the back of the Pi 

Head bolt removed

I have drilled out the broken head bolt. I need to work our what thread so I can re-tap the hole.