Tag Archives: computers

Single Board Computer Workshop at Midwest Gaming Classic 2020

I’m doing a “build your own single board computer” workshop at the Midwest Gaming Classic 2020 in downtown Milwaukee this April.

The design is based on the classic Z80 (which they still manufacture believe it or not) and is quite small, only 3 x 3″. It has an expansion port, build-in OLED screen, Atmel MCU as screen driver/USB serial port converter and an SD card adapter for loading BIN, HEX and saving files or doing RAM dumps.

This workshop is meant to teach how memory addressing works and you also get to take home the sweet computer you build! Basic soldering skills will be helpful and there’s also a decent amount of surface mount (fairly large parts to make it do-able) so tips and tricks on how to work with that are also part of the experience.

Sign up using the links below! (limited to 25 spots)

Workshops

Here are the YouTube videos I’ve made discussing the design process. Once the design has been verified it will be posted to my Github if you can’t make it to the workshop but want to order your own copy of the PCB.

 

 

 

Benheck.com Podcast Episode 114

benheck_podcast

No Jones this time, so Parker and I discuss engineering topics:

  • Why use a Streaming Box with a Smart TV? Isn’t that redundant? Also Ben & Parker discuss Windows 10 Calculator.
  • Cars have too many electronics! (unless they’re Jeeps)
  • ESP8266 modules.
  • The challenges of making an Alexa controlled beer fetching robot.
  • Projects we’d like to do if we had the time.
  • 3D printers – techniques and what models we use.

We discuss the Amazon Alexa a lot in this episode, so if you have one and are listening with speakers, probably should mute it 🙂

Enjoy!

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Parker’s holding a thermal detonator!