User:Asj: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:37, 21 April 2024

Asj

Name	Aaron Jackson
Date joined	{{{datejoined}}}
Manufacturer	{{{manufacturer}}}
Model	Human with upgrades
Website	aaronsplace.co.uk
Mastodon	@asj@hachyderm.io
Discord	asjackson
Callsign	M6PIU

Unlikely to keep this updated (it's a wiki after all). Website is aaronsplace.co.uk

I like making things in general - especially if I can go from having an idea to a finished "thing" in one evening.

Always happy to chat on Discord or Liber.Chat (IRC) with other members - I'm asjackson on both

Timeline

Born
School school school
Worked as a PHP developer for six months before realising it was boring
Went to Bangor Uni to study computer science
Went to Uni of Notts to study PhD in computer science https://aaronsplace.co.uk/research.html
Got bored of trying to publish in a field as crowded as AI/ML, got bored of working on application based research rather than something useful, started doing research computing support at Dundee University for a health informatics group.
What happens next???

Interests

Fixing and Poking PDP-11s and VAXen.
Electronics - I like analogue stuff but always need to learn more.
Napping with my cats.
Amateur Radio, particularly AX.25 packet stuff
Cycling, although I've definitely lost a lot of fitness over the past few years and now struggle to motivate myself to go on long rides

Projects

While finding photos of things I've built, I realised I mostly use the space to fix things. Also I have a lot of projects which have stalled. Hopefully the list will grow eventually. 😅

LED Dot-Matrix Clock in laser cut case, NodeMCU behind the scenes
Nixie clock, laser cut case, machined brass feet
Laser cut ear plug storage
Bodge fix VAX 4000 PSU, new +/- 12v module
DEC RL02 Spindle ground
DEC RL02 Spindle bearings replacement
Replacement PDP-11 BA11 backplate
Tektronix 604 refurbishment and new screen protector
Railway Departure Board
Departure Board Arduino Shield
Pager Transmitter for Nottinghack

2024 Pager Transmitter MB7PNH
2024 A POCSAG Pager transmitter using an Adafruit Feather LoRa board
2024 Train Station Display, external blog post
2023 A very stylish nixie clock
2023 The discord bot for Nottingham Hackspace
2023 ESPhome module for the Interstate75 RGB LED panel driver board
2023 A GitHub action pipeline for automatically building 2.11BSD releases
2023 An LED dot matrix clock, and an RFID powered catflap
2023 Bodge fix of a VAX4000 power supply
2022 giving a cheap doorbell WiFi powers
2022 ESPhome support for the AdaFruit MagTag e-ink display. In theory should do grayscale but I only got b/w working
2021 a GPIB driver for 2.11BSD running on a PDP-11
2022 a ridiculous deep drive into the innerworkings of a 10MB harddrive from the 1970s
2019 Leak Stereo 20 tube amplifier repair and restoration
2020 A 12AX7 preamp
2019 bleh - my phd thesis
2018 A lisp interpretter 2.11BSD written in K&R C
2018 a quick and dirty GPIB adapter based on arduino

Quite fun digging those out and reminding myself what I've been up to over the past few years.

Things I want to learn about

Amaranth HDL for programming FPGA, had some success with the built in simulator, waiting for real fpga to arrive. https://amaranth-lang.org/docs/amaranth/latest/
Screen printing (mainly the stencil making part)
Risograph
CAD so I can use the CNC router better
~~KiCAD because I currently wirewrap everything~~

Child Pages and Notes

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 While finding photos of things I've built, I realised I mostly use the space to fix things. Also I have a lot of projects which have stalled. Hopefully the list will grow eventually. 😅
-<gallery>
+<gallery  mode=packed-hover heights=180px>
 File:Asj_project_ledclock.jpg|LED Dot-Matrix Clock in laser cut case, NodeMCU behind the scenes
 File:Asj_project_nixie.jpg|Nixie clock, laser cut case, machined brass feet
@@ Line 50: / Line 50: @@
 File:Asj_project_pdp11_backplate.jpg|Replacement PDP-11 BA11 backplate
 File:Asj_project_tek604_refurb.jpg|Tektronix 604 refurbishment and new screen protector
-File:TDB_WorkingABit.jpg|The Rail Departure Board in Metalworking being bit-banged by an Arduino R4
+File:Departure_Board.jpg|Railway Departure Board|link=Train Station Display
-File:TDB_PCB_rendering.jpg|Rendering (cause it's not arrived yet) of Arduino shield for driving the Departure Board.
+File:Departure_Board_Shield.jpg|Departure Board Arduino Shield
 File:MB7PNH.JPG|Pager Transmitter for Nottinghack
 </gallery>
@@ Line 57: / Line 57: @@
 * '''2024''' [[Radio Group/Pager|Pager Transmitter MB7PNH]]
 * '''2024''' [https://aaronsplace.co.uk/blog/2024-03-30-adafruit-feather-32u4-lora-board-sending-pagers-pocsag.html A POCSAG Pager transmitter using an Adafruit Feather LoRa board ]
-* '''2024''' [https://aaronsplace.co.uk/blog/2024-03-02-train-departures-display.html Train Departure Board in Metalworking]
+* '''2024''' [[Train Station Display]], [https://aaronsplace.co.uk/blog/2024-03-02-train-departures-display.html external blog post]
 * '''2023''' [https://aaronsplace.co.uk/blog/2023-10-26-nixie-clock.html A very stylish nixie clock]
 * '''2023''' [https://github.com/AaronJackson/nh-discord The discord bot for Nottingham Hackspace]