User:Asj

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
Boards for Pager Transmitters
Laser Display Arduino shield
Studio Display
Tie Dyed Lab Coat
Satellite dish rotator
NOAA HRPT image

2024 Antenna Rotator for tracking satellites
2024 Jasmin Display board with Ethernet for the Laser and Studio displays
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
2022 a ridiculous deep drive into the innerworkings of a 10MB harddrive from the 1970s
2021 a GPIB driver for 2.11BSD running on a PDP-11
2020 A 12AX7 preamp
2019 Leak Stereo 20 tube amplifier repair and restoration
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
2017 fixing a PDP-11/23+ power supply

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