Don Wilcher uses a Raspberry Pi Pico to build an adjustable clock with an LED display then integrate the clock with a vintage Radio Shack Science Fair Microcomputer Trainer programmed to function as a 7-bit binary counter.
Long before the Heathkit 6800 microcomputer learning system, the Arduino Uno, or the Basic Stamp, there was Radio Shack’s Science Fair Microcomputer Trainer kit. Introduced in 1985, this easy-to-program kit was intended to teach users how microcomputers worked.
In this project article, we’ll upgrade this vintage microcomputer by building and adding an adjustable Raspberry Pi Pico clock with an LED display. After assembling the hardware, we’ll program the trainer to operate as a 7-bit binary counter. Before any of that, though, let’s spend some time learning about the trainer’s features—and, in particular, about the TMS1100 microcontroller at its core.
Don adds a Raspberry Pi Pico programmed in MicroPython, making an adjustable digital clock.
Read the details in the post here.
On the heels of #SepTandy, Adafruit is celebrating #ShackToberFest, a celebration of all things Radio Shack and Tandy. Tag your social media posts #ShackToberFest!
The Houston Museum of Natural Science has a neat immersive exhibit showing connections between chemistry and physics and what’s new in today’s science.
Scientists are making new discoveries on a daily basis—from the nano-scale and smaller, to the galactic scale and larger. The all-new and considerably expanded Welch Hall: Matter & Motion, presented by the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation, will address these latest developments, and lay the groundwork for the basic chemistry and physics principles required to understand today’s leading-edge science. Highlights of the new hall include “The Houston Connection” interactive timeline, a walk-inside human brain, the “Quarks to Quasars” immersive theater, the gigantic Periodic Table of the Elements “dance floor,” the 16th century “laboratory” of an alchemist, and many more surprises.
Rachel Maddow looks at some of the reasons why a Trump supporter might claim to look past his many shortcomings because they consider their ...
