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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Doug's Domain

Doug Vetter, ATP/CFI

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Doug's Technology Articles

(Image: Front of Amp Camp Amp PCB)

E36 BMW OBC Project Inspired by the work of the OpenOBC project I've decided to fund an R&D project that aims to produce a prototype replacement for the main logic board in the on board computer (OBC) provided as an option on BMW E36 vehicles.
My Custom 8 Bit CPU based on mostly discrete logic Inspired by the efforts of Ben Eater and James Bates I decided to build a custom 8 Bit CPU. But instead of a breadboard design I leveraged my PCB design tools to implement something that may be manufactured in quantity.
Building the Obsolescence Guaranteed PIDP-8/I A short run PDP8 replica kit affords an opportunity to revisit cutting-edge computer technology around the time of the moon landings. No, I didn't acquire an ASR-33 teletype to go along with it, but I can still hear it as I type commands in the OS/8 shell.
Bootstrapping STM32 F3 Discovery Board with Nuttx RTOS As part of my STM32 development I decided to bootstrap the Nuttx RTOS on my STM32 F3 Discovery Board. This article describes the configuration and build process required to produce an executable image that can be burned to the STM32 F3's onboard flash.
STM32 debugging with Segger J-Link, OpenOCD, and Linux Faced with a need to develop a custom hardware project based on the STM32 series of microcontrollers I assembled the hardware and software required to debug my application from a Linux host. This article describes my selections and a couple issues I encountered.
Custom DIY Solder Reflow Oven Project In late 2015 I needed to reflow some boards and yet didn't want to spend thousands for a commercial reflow oven so I bought a common convection oven, stripped it down, and installed my own heating elements, controller and custom front panel.
October CMS Install on Debian 8 with Nginx and PHP5-FPM I recently needed to build a website and ultimately wound up using a relatively new CMS called October on top of Debian 8, Nginx, and PHP5-FPM. While I've documented my installation experience here I recommend reading the notes at the end of the article before committing to the installation. October isn't for everyone.
Odoo V9 Install on FreeBSD 10 with Nginx Proxy I had a need for some inventory control software so I decided to install Odoo (formerly OpenERP) on an Intel NUC I was using primarily as an internal Git repository. As this system was running FreeBSD and Odoo doesn't officially support BSD I had to do a bit of integration work that is documented here.
Building ARMV6 Ports on FreeBSD with Poudriere I recently began to experiment with some ARM processors and FreeBSD only to find that pre-built packages are not provided for the ARM architecture. So I did things the BSD way and built what I needed from source using the Poudriere tool.
Git Website Management I've used Git strictly as version control for years but I recently decided to use it to deploy software on my website as well. This article describes how I set this up.
Amp Camp Amplifier Project This article describes how I designed a custom chassis and linear power supply as required to house the custom Amp Camp Amp PCB I designed.
Building ACA PCB with Diptrace I needed to build a revised version of the Amp Camp Amp circuit designed by Nelson Pass so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and use the opportunity to evaluate Diptrace, a Schematic Capture and PCB layout program. This article describes my first experiences with the application and shows the end result of the work.
APRS Aircraft Tracking Experiment An aircraft tracking experiment made possible by the Amateur Radio Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) Network.