techtravels.org

inital results on error correction

While I have yet to actually implement the full-scale error correction as I want to, I did some manual tests today. I basically took a track that I was erroring out on, and swapped in 1-bit away values for the bad bytes.  In some cases, it appeared...

Latest articles

Using a 74HC132E to square up the wave

A nice gentleman from sci.electronics.* newgroup suggested I use a 74HC132 on his web page here.[local copy] Below is the result of using this design, it worked perfectly. Only required one IC, one resistor, and one...

interesting results

OK, I’ve applied the “double 1’s” fix that I talked about earlier today. This definitely helped things. I think my results are quite possibly the best I’ve seen them yet. Now, my SX...

still hashing some ideas around

I’ve been getting lots of good ideas from the smart guys over at Parallax. They are throwing out a variety of methods and ways I can get this job done. I will say that I’m a little overwhelmed at the pure...

AFP 0.2 WIP SX code

I’ve put some work into cleaning up the SX code tonight. I’ve removed some code sections no longer needed, and added documentation where it was lacking. Code should be commented pretty good. I’ve also...

FPGA eval board

One of these arrived today.  Very cool.  I’ve only done minor things with it so far — but I’m learning. I’ve got FPGAs by Example for Verilog coming within a couple days.  Looks like a good book...

PCB ordered from Seeed Studio

I placed the order late last night for the PCB! The PCB design is obviously finished, fully passes the kicad DRC checks, the problems with the footprints were solved. I’ve decided to go with Seeed Studio’s...

of bit-shifted sectors

I’m beginning to think more and more that my software on the SX is just fine. Perhaps minus the idle routine mentioned in the last post. I have to do something there. However, without the idle routine, I was only...

sanding a 556 timer IC to expose the die

So tonight, just for the fun of it, I decided to sand, by hand, a 556 timer IC. I just bought an extremely inexpensive microscope and was very interested to see what pictures I could get from it. Unfortunately, for me...

new read routine implementation started

Last night, until 3am, I spent redoing my read routine to incorporate the method discussed in the comment of the last post. Basically, I use the time between the pulses as an indication of the data.  I store 2-bit...