iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James L @baldengineer.com · 26/08/2026

Had a Star Trek II moment with a random word generator...

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James L @baldengineer.com · 22/08/2026

I may or may not have used AI to generate this infographic warning you about AI-generated infographics.

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James L @baldengineer.com · 08/07/2025

Just came across Visashot - A Python tool to create beautiful screenshots from vintage test equipment. Up to 120 instruments supported. damien.douxchamps.net/elec/visashot/

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James L @baldengineer.com · 07/07/2025

TDK introduced a 1uF, 100V capacitance in an EIA 0603-sized case. The press release suggests it targets 48V systems (like data centers.) At 50V, the effective capacitance isn't even 200 nF. product.tdk.com/en/search/ca... That DC bias effect is real.

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James L @baldengineer.com · 07/07/2025

Before PDFs, you could order a Microfiche version of test equipment manuals to stay up-to-date.

Also listed on the title page of this manual is a Microfiche part number. This number can be used to order 4 x 6-inch microfilm transparencies of the manual. Each microfiche contains up to 60 photo-duplicates of the manual pages. The microfiche package also includes the latest Manual Changes supplement as well as all pertinent Service Notes.

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James L @baldengineer.com · 01/07/2025

Maker News June 2025 Update. Lots of cool stuff to check out from great makers: Kayaks on treadmills, rogue sparks in shielded boxes, and a payment terminal that gives up root in 30 seconds makernews.substack.com/p/maker-news...

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James L @baldengineer.com · 01/07/2025

GuitarML on Github created an ESP32/Arduino-based Space Station Tracker. Add 2.8" LCD and watch its path around the world. github.com/GuitarML/Spa...

$20 "Yellow" LCD showing path of Space Station powered by an ESP32

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James L @baldengineer.com · 16/06/2025

CT Scan of Switch 2 (Animated GIF), including the Tegra SoC via Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/com...

CT Scan of Switch 2 with callouts for the 5220mAh Li-Ion battery, Realtek audience codec, SK Hynix 256GB UFS, Meditek WiFi/BT, 2x6GB RAM, and Nvidia Tegra SoC

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James L @baldengineer.com · 22/05/2025

Found an LLM for the Commodore 64 (with 2MB REU). It isn't a chat bot, but it will tell you a story... like a 3 year old. github.com/ytmytm/llama...

C64 Screenshot. Prompt: Zoo, Output: Zoo was a little girl named Lily. She loved to play outside in the park. One day, she saw a big, red ball. She wanted to play with it, but she didn't want to play with

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James L @baldengineer.com · 26/02/2025

What do you consider to be "high voltage"?

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James L @baldengineer.com · 05/02/2025

Electrochemical hour meter. (Saw it on Reddit). Current electrolyzes the mercury, which creates a moving dot... over time. www.reddit.com/r/AskElectro...

Fuse-like tube on a PCB. Under it is a scale. Silkscreen says 0, 1000H, 2000H. The fuse-object is filled with a thin line of mercury with a dot.

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James L @baldengineer.com · 03/02/2025

I transcribed the circuit an AI model gave me. Looks legit, doesn't it? Stop asking AI electronics questions.

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James L @baldengineer.com · 22/01/2025

This isn’t everything I have that runs CircuitPython. It’s just what I currently have in arm’s reach. Because, reasons.

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James L @baldengineer.com · 15/01/2025

Circuit Python makes 4.81 megabytes seem like an infinite space on a microcontroller. Like the first time I used a 1.44 MB disk after years of 400 kb .

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James L @baldengineer.com · 02/01/2025

Functional design is functional.

Circuit board of a test tool. It has gold finish. All of the components are through-hole.

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James L @baldengineer.com · 02/01/2025

I finally have this 32x32 LED matrix doing something that is almost useful. It took a FeatherS3 and some CircuitPython magic. I’ve had these panels for years but could never make things work out.

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James L @baldengineer.com · 15/11/2024

This footprint was fun to make. I can’t wait to try soldering it.

A grid of red squares which are pads for a land grid array (LGA) component package.

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James L @baldengineer.com · 12/11/2024

Me: I sure wish KiCad had a fast way to swap the position of two parts. Also Me:

KiCad Context Menu with the "Swap" command highlighted

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James L @baldengineer.com · 12/11/2024

I fell into the "it would be faster to make a PCB!" trap when I needed a breakout to breadboard this DAC. But it forced me to think about how to make a breadboard-friendly module. (In which case, the pins would go on the bottom.)

Rendered purple circuit board. The left and right side have 5-pin headers. The middle is an empty footprint (for a connector.) There is a small SOT-23-6 device, which is a DAC and the primary component.

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James L @baldengineer.com · 29/05/2024

Ironically, the battery is fine on this otherwise destroyed IIGS.

Apple IIGS with significant rust and water damage. but the battery hasn't leaked yet.

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James L @baldengineer.com · 20/12/2023

KiCad supports super- and sub-scripts...

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James L @baldengineer.com · 06/10/2023

It’s a silly design, but I love my compact Banana-to-USB adapter. github.com/baldengineer...

Bench power supply with an adapter plugged into it. The adapter has a usb cable connected to it.

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James L @baldengineer.com · 21/09/2023

Pick your PIC with this Uno-compatible dev board (via MH Electronics): bald.ee/zwmnf7

Red PCB in the shape of an Arduino Uno with multiple sockets for PIC processors.

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James L @baldengineer.com · 17/08/2023

At Hackaday's Supercon 2023, I'll be talking about that little Apple II project I spent over 3 years working on... I'm so stoked that I am smiling in Double-HiRes. hackaday.com/2023/08/14/2023-hackad…

Supercon Talk Accepted. Hi James, Congratulations. Your talk, Building the Apple II computer that Apple intended but never did, has been accepted for Superconference 2023!

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James L @baldengineer.com · 09/08/2023

Made a quick badge and used OSH Park's After Dark. It came out great. But need more copper! Next revision will have a SMD prototyping area on the back. And I'm going to change up the front layers. (Like, make the label area copper.)

Made a quick badge and used @OshPark After Dark. It came out great.

Next revision will have a SMD prototyping area on the back. And I'm going to change up the front layers. (Like, make the label area copper.)

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