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Author: Ed

  • From my notebooks: optical ray tracer

    From my notebooks: optical ray tracer

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    Once my optics bench is finished, I plan on measuring all the lenses I have on hand and building something with them. To do that, I’ll have to try out designs using software. But since the design space is limited by what I actually have on hand, I have the opportunity to write a tool…

  • Console Mandelbrot in FORTH

    Console Mandelbrot in FORTH

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    I really like to play around with FORTH. It’s a “weird” programming language compared to all the other ones I’ve learned over time. There are already many articles out there about why you should give it a try, the best probably being this one at Hackaday. One little program that is often demonstrate on old…

  • WIP: Optical Bench

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    I’ve always wanted my own optical bench sense working in an ellipsometry lab in undergrad. After getting into photography, I increasingly wanted to design my own photo lenses, so I even had a use for an optical bench eventually. My Prusa Mini+ has unlocked so many projects and this is one of them. But the…

  • Recommendation: Developments in Structural Form by Rowland J. Mainstone

    Recommendation: Developments in Structural Form by Rowland J. Mainstone

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    I thought I’d share a book recommendation: Developments in Structural Form by Rowland J. Mainstone. While definitely a textbook from some intro architecture class, it’s also part history book and part architectural engineering primer. It traces how new techniques and materials were put into practice and, like you really want, has lots of pictures. I…

  • Showing Some Work

    Showing Some Work

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    I recently read Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. It is a short read and I recommend grabbing an electronic copy from your local library and reading it over your lunch hour. Ryan sent it my way and that has been helpful Kleon provides some practical advice, some of it perhaps a little conflicting, but…

  • Kaypro BIOS

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    I’ve recently gotten back into retro computing in the IBM XT clone genre. I obtained a set of Kaypro PC-compatible boards – a CPU card, a backplane, and a RAM card. I’ve been slowly working with them to build a 8088-based PC of the late 80’s. My CPU card came with a BIOS that isn’t…

  • OPL2 FM Synth Module, part 2 – Prototype

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    Ed
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    I wrote earlier about a new eurorack synth module I’m working on. I left off having made a test bed that made some sort of sound but wasn’t integrated with the synth. This weekend, I built out the test bed to a full prototype and really got to take it for a spin. Guess what?…

  • OPL2 FM Synth Module

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    The OPL2, aka the Yamaha YM3812, is a multi-voice FM synthesis sound chip. It was used in early PC sound cards such as the Adlib and a variety of other arcade machines and computers of the late 80s and early 90s. It operates completely digitally and produces sound via a specific DAC chip, the YM3014.…

  • Eisenhower Method for Hobby Projects

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    If you’re like me, you have a zillion unfinished projects sitting around. One of my goals in 2020 is to get some completed. But where do I start? In this post I describe an adaptation of a popular time management technique I’ve created to help complete my stack of projects.

  • Planning the expansion of my modular synth

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    I have a very modest modular synth which I have been building for the past year. I recently watched the complete “Modular In A Week” (MIAW) series on YouTube and was inspired to follow its example of making solid incremental contributions to my rig. The MIAW series follows a conceit of each “day” of the…