mega IIe on Bald Engineerhttps://www.baldengineer.com/tag/mega-iieRecent content in mega IIe on Bald EngineerHugoen-USMon, 03 Jun 2024 23:35:12 +0000Retro Repairs RoundUp Appearancehttps://www.baldengineer.com/retro-repairs-roundup-appearance.htmlMon, 03 Jun 2024 23:35:11 +0000https://www.baldengineer.com/?p=8981The Retro Repairs RoundUp crew invited me to be a guest on episode 56 of their livestream. As their name implies, they discuss retro computers and, in many streams, how to repair them. We mostly discussed the Mega IIe project. Sean was another guest who talked about KansasFest 2024. KansasFest is an Apple II conference. This year, it moved its venue to Springfield, Illinois. The name and the location might seem confusing; however, it was long held in Missouri. So, it is a case of the name sticking for historical reasons.

Retro Repairs RoundUp Appearance

Mega IIe Supercon 2023 Talk is now Live!https://www.baldengineer.com/mega-iie-supercon-2023-talk-is-now-live.htmlWed, 15 May 2024 13:06:13 +0000https://www.baldengineer.com/?p=8974I must extend a big “Thank You!” to Lewin Day at Hackaday for this excellent Mega IIe write-up. Accompanying the post is an archived recording of my Supercon 2023 talk. That talk is where I gave a complete overview of the Mega IIe project and showed off the final case design for the first time! This project is where I took the Mega-II chip out of an Apple IIGS and built a fully compatible Apple IIe around it—something that not even Apple ever did!

Mega IIe Supercon 2023 Talk is now Live!

Measuring Apple II CPU's Glitchy Clockhttps://www.baldengineer.com/measuring-apple-ii-cpus-glitchy-clock.htmlWed, 20 Mar 2024 17:58:51 +0000https://www.baldengineer.com/?p=8915The Apple II’s CPU clock has jitter or a glitch. This issue is not new—it has been present since its original design in 1977! Bald Engineer uses an oscilloscope to show how often the glitch occurs and how to correlate that jitter to its source—which is useful when you are not testing 40-year-old devices. The device under test (DUT) in this video is the Mega IIe project. It’s a fully compatible Apple IIe built around the Mega II chip.

Measuring Apple II CPU's Glitchy Clock

A Vintage Computing Adventure (Mega IIe)https://www.baldengineer.com/a-vintage-computing-adventure-mega-iie.htmlWed, 06 Mar 2024 04:35:16 +0000https://www.baldengineer.com/?p=8901Your browser does not support the video element. Parker and Stephen invited me back to discuss the Mega IIe project on the MacroFab Circuit Break podcast. This discussion was far more casual than my past appearances. It was the first time I didn’t feel the need to do any prep work for their excellent questions! We talked through the overall experience of rev 1, rev 2, and rev 3. I appreciated the chance to talk about my motivations behind the Mega IIe project, why I like the Apple II platform so much, and getting to nerd out with Parker on analog video signal concepts.

A Vintage Computing Adventure (Mega IIe)

Mega IIe Picture Albumhttps://www.baldengineer.com/mega-iie-picture-album.htmlWed, 20 Dec 2023 13:36:00 +0000https://www.baldengineer.com/?p=8869Most of these pictures from the Mega IIe project did not make it into a video or talk. There were many “behind the scenes” style shots. Some of the pictures have titles and descriptions. I work on them when I have free time. Let me know your favorite! https://www.flickr.com/photos/cmiyc/albums/72177720312911955/ Mega IIe Album on Flickr Navigate one picture at a time with the left/right arrows, or follow the link below to see the full album.

Mega IIe Picture Album

Use Your Scope! | Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcasthttps://www.baldengineer.com/use-your-scope-unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast.htmlTue, 19 Dec 2023 19:34:28 +0000https://www.baldengineer.com/?p=8854Alvaro and Jen invited me to discuss the reverse engineering aspect of the Mega IIe project on the Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast. We focused on some of the finer details about the Mega-II chip’s operation. The discussion followed many rabbit holes. (Totally my fault and not theirs!) We also talked a little bit about how to (not) identify unlabeled capacitors when reverse engineering hardware. The to-long-did-not-read (tldr;) is that for multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs), there isn’t much you can do. You can use an LCR to determine the capacitance, but there isn’t a non-destructive way to determine the rated voltage. I did offer one suggestion related to waterfall tables.Mega IIe Supercon Linkshttps://www.baldengineer.com/mega-iie-supercon-links.htmlSat, 04 Nov 2023 20:56:28 +0000https://www.baldengineer.com/?p=8834These links accompany the Mega IIe presentation at Supercon 2023. Mega IIe Github Repo World’s first single-chip Apple II boots Twitch Mega IIe Livestream Archive Bit Preserve Project David Schmidt’s Tiger Learning Computer Project Pico VGA Library Social Media Links Mastodon YouTube (https://x.com/baldengineer) Facebook Bluesky Workbench Wednesdays HacksterIO Articles Live Streaming Slides PDF of the Slides (23mb) Thank You

Mega IIe Supercon Links