Your latest purchase

6809 was the best 8-bit microprocessor ever made,

You know, Freescale still sells microcontrollers that are pretty 6809-like. Also microcontrollers with a 68000 core ("Coldfire") (my particular favorite, I think.)
TI's MSP430 is a pretty nice architecture as well, in the same sort of CISCy vein...

We used Motorola chips at work mostly but for my personal stuff I preferred Z8/80/180 etc.

I left the game for many years and never got back into either on my return. I guess times have moved on and for me it's all AVR and ARM these days.


Rob

westfw:

6809 was the best 8-bit microprocessor ever made,

You know, Freescale still sells microcontrollers that are pretty 6809-like. Also microcontrollers with a 68000 core ("Coldfire") (my particular favorite, I think.)
TI's MSP430 is a pretty nice architecture as well, in the same sort of CISCy vein...

The Freescale chips don't seem to come in any sort of convenient package and they require lots of decoupling capacitors to get them to work properly. Nice architecture though.

just picked up some blue copper clad. XD will be a fun little change!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/9-sht-Copper-Clad-Laminate-CEM-047-4-x-6-SS-BLUE-/310420464500?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4846806374

Not a purchase but I didn't want to start a thread just to brag. :slight_smile:

I got my FREE SchmartShield for Arduino today.

PapaG:
Not a purchase but I didn't want to start a thread just to brag. :slight_smile:

I got my FREE SchmartShield for Arduino today.

There was something out there for free and I wasn't notified? Damn.

They sent me a 50% off ad earlier this week and I bought some more Schmartboards from them. Those things work. Then again, so does "flood and wick" but I like the Schmartboard way of doing things.

JoeN:

PapaG:
Not a purchase but I didn't want to start a thread just to brag. :slight_smile:

I got my FREE SchmartShield for Arduino today.

There was something out there for free and I wasn't notified? Damn.

They sent me a 50% off ad earlier this week and I bought some more Schmartboards from them. Those things work. Then again, so does "flood and wick" but I like the Schmartboard way of doing things.

You snooze you lose! :slight_smile: Yeah, they had a giveaway of your choice of any of their boards if you posted a picture of a project using one of their products.
I really like the way their stuff works too, although "flood and wick" works perfectly for me as well.
I wish this week's sale had included their SMD to DIP adapters too, I would have really stocked up on those.

Bottom feeding again.. Hit a great one.

20 pcs AT90S4414... Fourteen dollars shipped. 40 pin (32 GPIO) AVR, same setup as the 8515 but with half the storage. I have a number of ideas for these, and at under a dollar for a 40 pin AVR, I can afford to blow a few up.. One is 8 channels of RGB fading per chip, with SPI interface.. I am thinking that using these even as support chips for a 328 or Mega is a fine use.

westfw:

6809 was the best 8-bit microprocessor ever made,

You know, Freescale still sells microcontrollers that are pretty 6809-like. Also microcontrollers with a 68000 core ("Coldfire") (my particular favorite, I think.)
TI's MSP430 is a pretty nice architecture as well, in the same sort of CISCy vein...

You prompted me to take a closer look at the Freescale controllers. Since Schmartboard makes an LQFP to DIP board, I decided to try a MC9S12 in a 48 pin package. The instruction set is very much like the 6809, as you point out.

sbright33:
Does anyone remember the "computer" from 70's made out of long plastic switches and wires and lights?

Yep. I had one. It came as a kit and I had to assemble it. The hardest part was the Ground wire, which looped past all the lightbulbs and more less around the box. The kit had one roll of insulated wire, so I had to get the insulation off wire for this. Edited - fixed some typos

As I remember each switch was basically 8 pairs of Break/Make (ie either the bottom wires was connect or the top wires) with 3 hoes for each and every connection. There were 10 switches and lights. This gave about 80 "gates" (ie you needed two to make an AND)

Nope, no leftovers of that in my attic. Only in the attic between my ears.

Back to the topic: Minor Xmas gift to myself - stocking filler - just for fun - an RGB LED Shield that was on xmas-sale on my local Arduino-pusher. 3 TLC5940s and 4x4 RGB LEDs.

Also purchased (the reason for being on that site) a replacement USB2Serial adapter as the previous one had lost it's blue magic smoke.

Half-purchase, half-gift, an Arturia minibrute analog synth.

I love it.

I've already posted 4 demos of it to soundcloud. And I haven't even tried hooking it up to my other gear yet, I've only so far messed around with its internal features and simple multitrack recordings in Garageband.

here's a partial cover I did of a song I like, all sounds including drums synthesized by the minibrute:

'Mini Brute' great name for a great bit of kit.

I treated myself to a stylophone, monotron and a nebulophone - I have spent hours playing the stylophone through the monotron filter - adding the stylophone to the monotron overcomes the common criticism of the monotrons hopeless keyboard.

Duane B

The latest package finally arrived from HK! Factory-direct deals. I got my stuff, the experience has been positive.

1 MP3 dev module
1 3-axis gyro module
1 3D magnetic compass module, 1-2 deg accuracy (won't be using it to survey with)
3 SD modules (I got a real good price)
4 ultrasonic range finder modules
2 10A 240VAC relay modules
4 4 digit 7 segment led display modules (uses 7 + 4 pins, but very low cost)
2 BT modules capable of host or slave operation

http://www.lctech-inc.com/Hardware/

Notice no prices listed? Minimal docs? Their business model is just ask. They do PayPal.
My contact: chinalctech@163.com

Just to be clear: I don't work for or have any deal with them except my own prices. I get nothing for or from what anyone else buys. My relation is purely as a hobbyist, I do no sales and get no commissions.
But I see those things and have a small collection, I just have to share especially with others like me who aren't so great at assembling hardware and also the ones who want to save time. All the modules have pins.

Jw how much did u pay for some of those thing like the slave,master bluetooth and the sd card slot?

They emphasize that the prices I get are -my- prices only. I gave some advice that maybe helped them or showed what they like. Or maybe I was just lucky that day but they will try and beat competition.
The less complicated modules, the things I bought more than 1 of all ran me less than $2 each, the more complicated ones were all under $10 for me. The BT master/slave units were less than $8, I have seen BT units on eBay and DX for less than $7 but I dunno the differences since LC sells BT master and BT slave as well as the dual-units and I can't read Chinese to know what-all the differences are so I ordered the best they make.

You have to ask. That costs sending an email referencing what parts and about how many.

It is the same process of seeking bids and getting replies that business ran by back in the 80's and 90's when I wrote production and cost estimation software. They're not geared towards small quantity purchasers but they welcome us perhaps because hobbyists do come up with uses that may 'go viral' in an industrial scale way.

Most of those Asian devices are available from many many Asian sellers on Ebay at I would guess the same price they are selling directly (but without listing their prices, who knows). It's just a matter of searching and comparing the offerings.

Lefty

Definitely, always ---- shop!

LC is a place I found with neat toys at good prices, not the second coming!

Swift 80 Series Microscope. 10x and 20x magnification. Got it off Ebay for 50 bucks. Think I got a pretty good deal. Been wanting one for soldering those fine pitched ICs that have been stuck in the parts bin for awhile.

GoForSmoke:
The BT master/slave units were less than $8, I have seen BT units on eBay and DX for less than $7 but I dunno the differences since LC sells BT master and BT slave as well as the dual-units and I can't read Chinese to know what-all the differences are so I ordered the best they make.

They are programmable from slave to master / etc, or it might be dependent on the firmware as to whether it can be switched. It's the same hardware, at any rate. I recall stumbling across a firmware download for these modules so ... something to look for perhaps.

Stuff to read if you're bored:

http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bluetooth_Bee