UPS package finally corralled, and will be delivered tomorrow. A 74HCT245 will complete a long-delayed final revision of a certain secret prototype.
We prepared for tomorrows workshop video on serial port interfacing.
We arranged a giveaway for a coming week, and perhaps the first sponsor of the 2012 Open 7400 Competition.
Today we continued contacting sources for our part kit. We also had time to add the credit card sized PCB to our standard sized rectangular PCBs, as per TonyD’s suggestion in the comments.
We also continued working on the secret project’s firmware, but only to the extent that we tested it for all user interface possibilities. We also worked on updating some wiki documentation.
The HD44780 emulator went through yet another total redesign. To respect the HD44780 timings, we had to add logic devices to the project. The latest revision will feature a PIC32 in a 28pin package, a XC9536XL CPLD, and a 3v3-5v level shifter. The overall cost of these three chips is actually lower then the PIC18F2550 by itself.