Dimming shift registers using PWM on an Arduino

https://makertube.net/w/aqVHdb1nPbwxQP2NAxcfi1

Automation for the NES https://hackaday.com/2023/08/15/automation-for-the-nes/ #toolassistedspeedrun #retrocomputing #shiftregister #automation #controller #emulator #nintendo #gaming #Games #nes

[Ken Shirriff] Takes a Bite of the Apple-I

The Apple-I was a far cry from Apple's later products. A $666 single-board computer, the product had some unique design features including using a shift register for video memory to save money. The shift registers of the day required high-current clock pulses that ranged from -11 to 5V and there was a DS0025 clock driver chip to handle the job. [Ken Shirriff] takes the unusual chip apart for us in a recent blog post.

The use of a shift register as memory isn't a new idea. Really old computers like EDSAC used mercury delay lines as memory which was essentially a physical shift register. In those cases, the ALU and other processing only had to deal with a bit at a time, further simplifying things. For the Apple, there were seven shift registers to store 6-bits of display data and a cursor position. The 6 bits of character data drove -- indirectly -- a character generator ROM to convert the data into dots for the display.

Driving all those shift register flip flops requires a lot of clock current, so the DS0025 uses an unusual transistor design. There are 24 separate emitters in two groups. It acts like a large transistor, but you could also consider it as two 12-emitter transistors or 24 separate transistors in parallel. The metal wiring, interestingly enough, tapers because at the start of the conductor, the current for all 12 sub-transistors flows, but by the end, it is only the current for the last sub-transistor, so the conductor doesn't have to be as wide. In addition, the two transistors have to have matched resistance which requires careful design so the transistors turn on at the same time.

The final result is an inverter that can provide 1.5 amps. This current helps overcome the relatively large capacitance in the shift register's clock line. The clock rate was 1 MHz and the load capacitance was about 150 picofarads.

We enjoy [Ken's] posts ranging from mysteries to space hardware. It is always interesting to see what is inside these devices or, at least, what was in the old devices we've all seen.

#retrocomputing #reverseengineering #apple1 #icdecapsulation #kenshirriff #shiftregister

Spectrum Display Uses Tiny CPU and Many LEDs

You would think the hard part about creating a spectrum analyzer using a pint-sized ATTiny85 would be the software. But for [tuenhidiy], we suspect the hard part was fabricating an array of 320 LEDs that the little processor can drive. The design does work though, as you can see in the video below.

The key is to use a TPIC6B595N which is an 8-bit shift register made to drive non-logic outputs. With all outputs on, the driving FETs can supply 150 mA per channel and the device can handle 500 mA per channel peak. At room temperature, the part can go over 1W of total power dissipation, although that goes down with temperature, of course. If you need higher power, there's a DW-variant of the part that can handle a few hundred milliwatts more.

A fixed-point FFT library does the actual work. The program simply reads samples, processes the FFT, and drives the LEDs through the shift registers.

The construction technique is also a bit interesting as much of the wiring is left over LED leads. We admire the neat work, but we think we'd have had better luck with PCB traces.

Although billed as a spectrum analyzer, a device like this is really more of a music visualizer. If you want a real spectrum analyzer, they have become reasonably cheap. As impractical as the LED grid is for practical output, it beats ping pong balls.

400

#arduinohacks #attinyhacks #attiny85 #fft #ledmatrix #shiftregister #spectrumanalyzier #tpic6b595

Apollo Shift Register is Discrete

We're unabashed fans of [Ken Shirriff] here at Hackaday, and his latest post about an Apollo-era transistorized shift register doesn't disappoint. Of course, nowadays a 16-bit shift register is nothing special. But in 1965, this piece of Apollo test hardware weighed five pounds and likely cost at least one engineer's salary in the day, if not more.

The incredible complicity of the the Apollo spacecraft required NASA to develop a sophisticated digital system that would allow remote operators to execute tests and examine results from control rooms miles away from the launch pad.

This "Computer Buffer Unit" was used to hold commands for the main computer since a remote operator could not use the DSKY to enter commands directly. Externally the box looks like a piece of military hardware, and on the inside has six circuit boards stacked like the pages of a book. To combat Florida's notoriously damp conditions, the enclosure included a desiccant bag and a way to fill the device with nitrogen. A humidity indicator warned when it was time to change the bag.

There is a lot more in the post, so if you are interested in unusual construction techniques that were probably the precursor to integrated circuits, diode transistor logic, or just think old space hardware is cool, you'll enjoy a peek inside this unusual piece of gear. Be sure to check out some of [Ken]'s previous examinations, from tiny circuits to big computers.

#teardown #apollo #dtl #kenshirriff #nasa #shiftregister #space