Do you remember SIRDS (Single Image Random Dot Stereograms)?

This is a drawing I did during the peak of their popularity. I call it Forest Garden for obvious reasons.

Viewing this drawing (size is 166k) is a severe test of the strength of your eye muscles.

To view this drawing:
Look at the fence posts near the bottom of the picture.
Now "cross" your eyes until adjacent fence posts fall on top of each other and merge into one post.
Hold this focus for a few seconds and then slowly look at the other objects higher up in the picture.
Each new row of plants will appear farther away then the last row.
Once you have successfully done the plants you can try to do the birds and clouds. These are quite hard to keep in focus.
If you have difficulty getting the fence posts to merge, try viewing the picture from farther away. Once your eyes have adapted you can move closer to the picture.
 

 For a little history of the PIC microcontroller download some of these files.

These files contain some specifications of computer parts from the General Instrument Micro Electronics Data Catalog dated 1977. GI was the predecessor to Microchip.

I  found some interesting trivia on these old data sheets. Of special note is the fact that PIC stands for "Programmable Intelligent Computer" as seen the PIC1650 data sheet. Also of interest are the development tools available at that time. Most amazing is the TTL PIC Emulator. In the picture in the catalog this can be seen to be a board with over 150 14 and 16 pin integrated circuits plus a few 24 pin parts! Looking at the PIC1650 data sheet shows that there was the op-code for return from subroutine, the mnemonic is RET, that was not used in later PIC16C5x parts. They only kept the RETLW instruction for some reason.
Eric Smith wrote:
    "If you look closely at the PIC1650 instruction set descriptions, you'll find that RET is just a shorthand for RETLW 0, and has the same effect.
    They didn't have a real return instruction.  Arguably that's one of the biggest improvements of the midrange core."

RET is no longer recognized by MPASM however the RETURN mnemonic is and appears to generate an RETLW 0 which can cause a lot of confusion if you are used to the 14-bit core parts.. It would appear to be confusing in more ways than one about the RET.

The complete section of the PIC products is in these three files:

 pic16xx.pdf (size 2400k)  holds the specifications for the PIC1650.

pichw.pdf (size 900k)  has information on hardware support products for the PIC1650.

 picsw.pdf (size 2000k) has information on software support products for the PIC1650.
 

There is one other file. This is  excerpts of data on two other microprocessors, the CP1600 and the LP8000 series. The CP1600 was a 16-bit microprocessor for large systems. The LP8000 was an 8-bit  three chip set for small systems.
cp_lp.pdf (size is 2300k)  has this data.

The CP1600 has a lot of support and accessories shown in the catalog.
Support includes the IOB1680 Input/Output Buffer, a 16-bit or dual 8-bit bi-directional port in a 40 pin DIP; The DAC1600, a Dual Digital to Analog Convertor using PWM to get 10 bits (at about 1KHz), also 40 pin; the MUX1600, and an 18 Channel Analog Multiplexer with address latches in 28 pin DIP;
Accessories include: the GIMINI 16-bit Microcomputer System using the CP1600 inside. Several boards were planned and/or available to plug into the GIMINI: the AD1600, an Analog to Digital Module; the AX1600 Auxiliary Module, with PROM, UART, Interrupt, I/O ports and TTY;  the DA1600 Digital to Analog Module with four 12-bit D/A's; and the I/O 1600 TTY-EIA/Reader-Punch Interface Module.

The LP8000 had its own development system, the GIC8000 8-bit Minicomputer System.
Support chips included: the LP6000 Program Memory, 1Kx12 in size; the LP1000 Memory Interface Chip which includes an 11-bit program counter; the LP1010 Input/Output Buffer; and the LP1030, an 8-pin Clock Generator
 

Pseudo-random noise generation like the National Semiconductor MM5437N (size is 13k)

Have you been using the National Semiconductor MM5437N pseudo-random noise generator?  See my notes on using Microchip PIC and Ubicom / Scenix SX microcontrollers to do a replacement. The 8 pin PIC16C508 series of parts can possibly replace the MM5437N with NO change to your circuit board.

For a bunch of ideas for Microchip PIC and Ubicom / Scenix SX projects check out the
Stupid PIC Tricks list.

My first Stupid PIC Trick was a Printer Tester.

The Printer Tester program is not very complicated. As my first PIC program it could stand a lot of improving, I am sure.

A very simple Barometric Altimeter

A popular SPT is the barometric altimeter (size is 500k). This is an assortment of documents of varying quality; originals lost in antiquity.
The altimeter program is also quite old and in Parallax PASM syntax.

Don't throw those AOL disks away! (size is 79k)

This is my Kinetic Art project. The AOL (or other CD) disks alternate spinning through the other disks slots. Of course the disks never touch. The motions are preprogrammed in an interesting pattern.

Every year I go to the local electronics trade show and I see a high tech version of this using servo motors.
This version uses stepper motors which are a lot easier to use. The motors were removed from old disk drives. The Kinetic Art program runs on a Ubicom / Scenix microcontroller executing a beta version of the programming language XPL0 . A ULN2803A drives the motors. The entire circuit is built on a prototyping board made by MicroEnginering Labs.

The circuit (size is 39k)  for the Kinetic Art is quite simple. It is quick and easy to build.

Use this drawing of the base (size is 23k) to make your own Kinetic Art. Both of the base plates are identical. Copy the mechanical drawing at one to one scale onto sheet size label paper and then apply the copy to your precut sheets of plastic. Now drill out all the holes marked with cross hairs. No rulers or calipers are needed.

Display large characters on a graphic LCD.    No graphics controller required.

I wanted a way to display just a few large characters such as the score on a Jeopardy type of game. Thus was born the Big LCD project.

I found some graphic LCD panels that are 240 pixels by 64 pixels and have a active area of about  9 inches wide by 2.5 inches high for just a few dollars each. These displays are perfect for displaying 5 characters that are over 2 inches tall.

Picture of the BigLCD insides (30K ,jpg).
The BigLCD prototype board  (83K .jpg) is only 1.5 inches by 3.0 inches.

There is not much to the BigLCD wiring. (74K .jpg)

The BigLCD program as written to display fixed messages (22K .jpg) for my testing.
The program is in both Microchip MPASM and Parallax SX-Key syntax and includes the source code with information on how the graphics unit works.

Some reproduced data sheets and my schematic are in PDF format (900K).