An Updated Memory Module : Part 3a - Main Board Build

We have boards!

02/08/14, AM: Main boards arrived yesterday!

A little slower than usual (just under 3 weeks, vs just over 2 weeks in the past), but I'm not going to complain. I'll reserve my complaining for the idiot who ordered the wrong voltage regulators (TO-263 vs DPAK/TO-252); he has been given the task of finding the correct regulators on a Saturday morning. Not easy in a world where the main electronics hobby chain stocks more farting toys than surface-mount components…

For a change, I think I'll keep updating this post as I build and test the board - you don't want to dig through multiple posts, and I don't want to make them.

More when I get back from my search…

An Updated Memory Module : Part 2a - Hardware Changes, Demo Software

I know, I know … last time I said I'd post some very basic software soon. And, slackly, I haven't. Here's why…

The short version: after the first home-made prototype of the interface board I made a few changes to the circuit, re-designed the board, sent it out to have a small run professionally made, started work on schematic for the main board, ordered the parts for both, and planned to release a quick demo package after building a new interface board (rather than release my mess of spaghetti code and half-arsed functions as a 'demo' that'd need modification to work with the new design).

Most of that went swimmingly. But…

An Updated Memory Module : Part 2 - A Bare-Bones Prototype

Since I said in Part 1 that knowing most of the the detail of how the memory module works was unnecessary, and reckoned you could just about build a memory module knowing nothing more than the basic inputs and outputs, I suppose I'd better put my money where my mouth is.

Well, here we go…

An Updated Memory Module : Part 1 - How the hell does it work?

Have you ever looked at the memory module circuit?

I mean, really looked at it?

It's actually pretty trick, and a nice example of how analogue & digital electronics were being married in the 70's. It's also deceptively simple in what it does, and only slightly more complicated in how it does it.

And I'm designing a new one from scratch…