iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Refurbishing a Tektronix TDS7104 Oscilloscope tomverbeure.github.io/2026/08/23/T...

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Rohde & Schwarz AMIQ Modulation Generator - Reviving the PC System tomverbeure.github.io/2026/06/28/R...

Motherboard of the AMIQ. VGA monitor showing a BIOS boot screen.

Spectrum analyzer on top of the AMIQ on top of a R&S SFQ TV Test Transmitter

ATI Rage XL GPU plugged into PCI riser board

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

The end goal is a hardware RS decoder that can do 1 symbol per clock at high speed. But there’s a long way to go.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

A Galois Field Arithmetic Primer tomverbeure.github.io/2026/06/14/G...

tomverbeure.github.io

A Galois Field Arithmetic Primer

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Breaking Rohde & Schwarz AMIQ License Keys - the Hard and the Easy Way tomverbeure.github.io/2026/04/12/A...

Generated license key matches the original.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Let's just hope they don't rename themselves again.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Repair of 2 Agilent 54831 Oscilloscopes In the end, it comes down to fixing two early 2000s PCs… tomverbeure.github.io/2026/03/28/R...

2 Agilent 54831 oscilloscope in the trunk of my car

CPU cooler removed, next to Pentium III CPU

4 waveforms on oscilloscope screen. There's a lot of noise on the waveforms.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Polyphase Channelizers with Frequency Offset - a Bluetooth LE Example tomverbeure.github.io/2026/03/05/P...

Spectral density waterfall plot of BLE trace

DSP pipeline of a polyphase channelizer with half-bin frequency offset correction.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

It’s all draw.io. The snapping can be infuriating at times, but after a while you figure out patterns to avoid issues. You can find the file here: github.com/tomverbeure/....

github.com

tomverbeure.github.io/assets/polyphase/polyphase_het at master · tomverbeure/tomverbeure.github.io

Contribute to tomverbeure/tomverbeure.github.io development by creating an account on GitHub.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

The Stunning Efficiency and Beauty of the Polyphase Channelizer tomverbeure.github.io/2026/02/16/P...

Diagram of a single channel polyphase filter bank

Diagram of a multi-channel polyphase filter bank

Spectrum of a signal with multiple channels

Spectra of the individual channels at the exit of the channelizer

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Welp, now I'm this again: www.aholme.co.uk/GPS/Main.htm

aholme.co.uk

Homemade GPS Receiver

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Looks like the link was broken? Here's the corrected one: tomverbeure.github.io/2026/02/07/C...

tomverbeure.github.io

Complex Heterodynes Explained

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Complex Heterodynes Explained tomverbeure.github.io/2026/02/07/C...

Block diagram of the complex heterodyne with decimation

Spectrum of real heterodyne before and after

Spectrum of complex heterodyne before and after

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Notes about Basic Polyphase Decimation Filters tomverbeure.github.io/2026/01/25/N...

Block diagram of an FIR decimation filter split into 3 separate phases.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

Thanks! SRS must have some kind of test jig to debug those boards in isolation. It would have been nice to at least mention this in the manual (though I probably would have read over it.)

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

The Scenic Route to Repairing a Self-Destructing SRS DG535 Digital Delay Generator tomverbeure.github.io/2025/12/24/R...

Logic analyzer probes on Z80 of an SRS DG535

SRS DG535 up and running with new LCD panel

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

GPS is a great subject to learn DSP concepts.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Gorgeous! I could watch a 2 hour video where you route that thing. I try to make my PCB routing look nice, but it never comes close this.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

I currently don’t have a use for git-pages, but I read the whole thing. That’s a good sign. The documentation and writing style is great.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Yes, they are! I had never seen these kind of caps before. wiki.console5.com/wiki/Game_Gear

wiki.console5.com

Game Gear - TechWiki

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Fixing LCD Screen Corruption of a Tektronix TDS220 Oscilloscope (and other fixes) tomverbeure.github.io/2025/11/03/T...

TDS220 screen showing horizontal band screen corruption

TDS220 screen showing probe compensation waveform that's definitely not right.

TDS220 PSU PCB with arrows to places where there's fluid residue that shouldn't be there.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

I didn’t know I needed this, and now I do.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Inside an Isotemp OCXO107-10 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator tomverbeure.github.io/2025/10/26/I...

Inside of the OCXO, showing a Dewar flash and internal electronics.

Lab bench with oscilloscope, power supply, spectrum analyzer and OCXO

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

OTOH, I paid for the 16 channel MSO option on my scope, but I’ve never used it. The scope UI is just to terrible and slow compared to a Saleae or DSLogic SW.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

The easy of sending data to your PC for decoding and the length of traces. I’ve used a USB logic analyzer to extract the full contents of a large SPI PROM, for example.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

I had the 150-in-1. Spent a ton of time on it, but looking back, most of it was building stuff without having a clue about what I was doing. For some circuits, that would still be true today. :-)

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Maybe I missed it in the (interesting!) article, but while it mentions radiation intensity, it doesn’t say how it compares to the actual radiation intensity in the LEO where the cubesat resides?

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Reposted by Tom Verbeure

Cyber City Circuits @handle.invalid · 06/10/2025

My new article on Harold Black and the invention of the Negative Feedback Amplifier has just been posted. I start the story with the invention of the telephone in the 1870s, to a patent lawsuit in the 1940s. Check it out. Let me know what you think. emedia.digikey.com/eMagazine-Vo...

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

The longevity of the Cyclone II EP2C5 is amazing. 21 years after introduction, it’s still the FPGA that I use most for hobby projects.

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Reposted by Tom Verbeure

Sam Rose @samwho.dev · 01/10/2025

I'm writing about self-hosting and got wondering why ports <1024 are privileged on Linux, and require you to be root to bind to them. Found this explanation and couldn't help but laugh. I'd always thought it was a bit of a hack. utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/b...

$Based on the Unix versions available on tuhs.org, all of this appears to have been introduced in 4.1c BSD. This is the version that adds IPPORT_RESERVED to netinet/in.h and has the TCP/UDP port binding code check it in in_pcbbind in netinet/in pcb.c. In case you think the BSD people thought that this was an elegant idea, let me show you the code: if (lport) { u_short aport = htons (lport) ; int wild = 0; /* GROSS */ if (aport < IPPORT_RESERVED && u.u_uid != 0) return (EACCES) ; [...1 The BSD people knew this was a hack; they just did it anyway, probably because it was a very handy hack in their trusted local network environment. Unix has quietly inherited it ever since.$

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Reposted by Tom Verbeure

Tod Kurt (todbot) @todbot.com · 30/09/2025

Want easy capsense touchpad buttons? Just a PCB & 4 resistors. Coming soon to my Tindie store! If you want to make your own, files are here: github.com/todbot/touch... This demo in CircuitPython but also works in Arduino w/ my TouchyTouch lib #circuitpython #capsense #captouch #raspberrypipico

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

Yeah, if that’s all you’re pulling it should be totally fine.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

The 7805 is a linear voltage regulator. Its power consumption will be the current through it times the voltage drop. You have a pretty large drop of 14V, so the heat produced in the regulator could be significant. Something to keep in mind.

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Reposted by Tom Verbeure

Elise Cutts @elisecutts.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪 Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students. I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:

sciencenews.org

How a Harvard maverick forever changed our concept of the stars

At just 25, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin applied quantum physics to a treasure trove of astronomical observations to show that stars are mostly hydrogen and helium.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

My projects that require custom PCBs are on hold. 🥺

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Power Switch and Battery Replacement of an SR620 Universal Time Interval Counter tomverbeure.github.io/2025/08/19/S...

SR620 with analog oscilloscope on top of it

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

“… and a baby alligator.” Because of course.

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Reposted by Tom Verbeure

𝔅𝔲𝔱𝔱𝔬𝔫𝔰 𝔒'𝔊𝔥𝔬𝔲𝔩𝔦𝔥𝔞𝔫 @johnxuandou.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

"Application of AI for modelling and structural analysis of a parametric 2D frame with voice assistant" This has nothing to do with anastruct either. My only explanation is that the authors used AI to hallucinate a whole bunch of BS. I want my money back!

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

The paper is behind a paywall. But since the suspense was killing me, I bought the paper. There it in a black an white: "[anastruct] was developed by Tom Verbeure with the aim of making structural analysis available, ..." I'm flattered! It uses [16] as reference. Let's check that out...

My name highlighted in a paragraph that lists as developer of the "anastruct" open source Python library.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

I think AI hallucinated me into a paper about Modelling and Solving 2D Truss System! Something I know nothing about. A few days ago, I submitted a blog post to Hackaday. Today I googled my name to see if it had been picked up. Instead it found this weird hit. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Screenshot of a google search that says: "Wiley Online Library
Python‐Powered Structural Analysis: Modeling and ...
3 days ago — It was developed by Tom Verbeure with the aim of making structural analysis available, insightful, and efficient for students, educators, and professionals."

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

The Video Timings Calculator is my most popular webpage in Google Search by far, with most of clicks coming from Taiwan. Those are engineers working on monitors, TVs, laptops etc. Traffic drops on Friday morning and ramps back up Sunday afternoon. It also drops the week of Lunar New Year.

Search traffic to video timings calculator. A red arrow points to the drop in traffic around Lunar New Year.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

3 new features for my Video Timings Calculator: 1. 10K, 12K and 16K resolutions added. 2. HDMI 2.2 96/80/64 Gbps data rates added. 3. You can share timings by copy and pasting the URL. Thanks SnowSquire@github! Check it out here: tomverbeure.github.io/video_timing...

Drop-down with 16K, 12K and 10K resolutions

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

I have a 5359A, but other than creating short pulses, I don’t really know what to do with. The 5370A and the 5359A use the same chassis, power supply, reference clock board and CPU system. I believe they even share the dual vernier circuit to get below 5ns precision.

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Tom Verbeure @tomverbeure.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Me too! 😀 The electronics flea market is a wonderful thing.

HP 5335A on top an HP 8656A on top on an HP 5370A.

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