Category Archives: Projects

ISA POST Card v5.1

Posted on April 9, 2022 by Andrew

In November of 2019 I taught myself how to use KiCad by practising with the creation of the ISA POST Card v2.0. It was a passable first attempt at using the software, but some annoying bugs were discovered on the … Continue reading →

Posted in ISA POST, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

7 segment display decoder with HEX output v2.0 (Blanking Input)

Posted on March 29, 2022 by Andrew

Some readers may recall an older article that I wrote showing how to emulate a 7 segment display decoder with HEX output functionality, using an ATF16V8B PLD chip. The PLD programming was designed in such a way to mimic the … Continue reading →

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7 segment display decoder with HEX output

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Andrew

In seeking to improve my ISA POST card design, I became frustrated at the general lack of modern seven segment display decoders that could decode and display a hexadecimal output. Rather than buy an older second-hand decoder IC, I fell … Continue reading →

Posted in ISA POST, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Retro-CGA #6 – Character Font

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Andrew

The last post in this series covered the receipt of the Retro-CGA prototype circuit boards, and the soldering of all components onto one of the boards, making a completed prototype card: This post covers the last step in preparing the … Continue reading →

Posted in Retro-CGA, Retro-CGA | 5 Comments

Retro-CGA #5 – Fabrication and Assembly

Posted on January 24, 2020 by Andrew

The last post in this series showed some of the detail of the Retro-CGA as it has come together so far, and ended with the preparation of Gerber files in preparation of having some prototype boards fabricated. After a week … Continue reading →

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Retro-CGA #4 – Design Features and Fabrication

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Andrew

The last post on the Retro-CGA showed the gradual progression from schematic design to  board build-up, summarising a period of several busy weeks. This post acts as a summary of that whole exercise, showing some of the board design detail. … Continue reading →

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Retro-CGA #3 – Initial Board Design

Posted on December 27, 2019 by Andrew

The last post in this series covered aspects of the initial schematic design of the Retro-CGA. This post will crack on with the initial board design, using the magic of pictures to show the detail of the board build-up. I … Continue reading →

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Retro-CGA #2 – Initial Schematic Design

Posted on December 6, 2019 by Andrew

In one of my last posts I pondered the journey required to create an open-source video card inspired by the CGA card that I had repaired, in an attempt to preserve its historically-significant legacy. In this post I will share … Continue reading →

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Retro-CGA #1 – Starting the Journey

Posted on November 21, 2019 by Andrew

If you have been following the ongoing saga of my CGA card, you would have seen the recent progress in repairing the extensive damage to the card, and getting the card running with Sergey’s Micro 8088. Although I haven’t yet … Continue reading →

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Learning KiCad; Designing and Building an ISA POST Card

Posted on November 19, 2019 by Andrew

The last post in my series on retrocomputing covered the testing of my repaired CGA with the Micro 8088. The process of troubleshooting took several weeks, and it became apparent that a handy piece of hardware to have would be … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, Retro-CGA | 6 Comments