A place to learn about coding, making things, and stuff that strikes my fancy.
So one of my goals of my series "Introduction To Digital Computers" is to show the design of a computer that can be built entirely out of NPN transistors. The idea is that by showing the design of a digital computer from the absolute ground up--from something you can hold in your hands rather than... Continue Reading →
I originally planned to try to get this video out by the end of October. But I just returned from a two week trip to Spain and the south of France--and before I release a video which starts to tie together the registers developed in the third video with the arithmetic logic in the second... Continue Reading →
It's been about a month, and here's the third video explaining how computers work from the ground up. In this third video I discuss flip flops. Starting with two not gates hooked together I discuss how a bi-stable circuit operates, extend this using NOR gates to Set/Reset flip flops, build data flip flops, edge-triggered data... Continue Reading →
I feel like, with making the first two "Introduction to Digital Computers" videos I've gained a superpower. And I've used that power to help me visualize and solve another problem I was having, figuring out the shape of spur gears (and eventually, internal spur gears, the next major feature I'd like to add to the... Continue Reading →
I've come to realize making something from scratch winds up building a bunch of prototypes as you both perfect the plans and figure out how to make the parts. And in my case, while the plans may be great--my ability to machine parts is... shall we say questionable? At any rate, I have a second... Continue Reading →
When we used NPN transistors to build our logic gates, it implies they can be used for building bigger things. In this video I've built a full 1 bit adder from our second Introduction video, entirely from discrete transistors. Build 8 of these--and you have an 8-bit adder. The show notes include the complete circuit... Continue Reading →
It took another couple of tries, and the trick for these gears was to get the outer diameter to within 0.002". Further, it required depthing the teeth to 1/32" == 0.625" (the precise measurement of the depth of the teeth) rather than cutting them a hair deeper. And I'm suspicious the Sherline divider may not... Continue Reading →
It probably doesn't help that I have no idea what I'm doing. Though I do have all my fingers and toes. So there's that. So today, after getting the M3 to M2 adapter, the M2 to Sherline adapter, and hooking up the Sherline 4-jawed chuck to the larger 7" lathe, I went to round the... Continue Reading →
So if you've been watching my Quick Videos you know I've been building a lot of circuits on prototype boards. I also took the liberty of 3D printing a couple of useful tools to help measure and bend wire. The first on the left helps measure lengths of wire; each wire is measured in each... Continue Reading →
