User:Asj
| Asj | |
|---|---|
| |
| Name | Aaron Jackson |
| Model | Human with upgrades |
| Website | aaronsplace.co.uk |
| Mastodon | @asj@hachyderm.io |
| Discord | asjackson |
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 with other members - I'm asjackson there
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 -
The Rail Departure Board in Metalworking being bit-banged by an Arduino R4 -
Rendering (cause it's not arrived yet) of Arduino shield for driving the Departure Board.
Other non-hackspace projects
- a GPIB driver for 2.11BSD running on a PDP-11 https://aaronsplace.co.uk/blog/2021-09-26-2.11bsd-drivers.html
- giving a cheap doorbell WiFi powers https://aaronsplace.co.uk/blog/2022-12-29-hacking-a-doorbell.html
- ESPhome support for the AdaFruit MagTag e-ink display. In theory should do grayscale but I only got b/w working. https://github.com/esphome/esphome/pull/4222
- ESPhome module for the Interstate75 RGB LED panel driver board https://github.com/AaronJackson/interstate75-esphome
- Leak Stereo 20 tube amplifier repair and restoration https://aaronsplace.co.uk/blog/2019-09-10-leak-stereo-20.html
- A 12AX7 preamp https://aaronsplace.co.uk/blog/2020-05-17-12ax7-pre-amp.html
- The discord bot for Nottingham Hackspace https://github.com/AaronJackson/nh-discord
- A GitHub action pipeline for automatically building 2.11BSD releases https://github.com/AaronJackson/2.11BSD-Distribution-Builder
- A lisp interpretter 2.11BSD written in K&R C https://github.com/AaronJackson/bnlisp
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