EEVblog #1286 - Mailbag - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 18, 2020, 09:31:05 pm
content: More Mailbag!Subscribe on LBRY:https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@eevblog:7SPOILERS:BENQ Screenbar Plus monitor desk light:https://amzn.to/37BTXIO12:27 Circuitmess Ringo DIY Mobile Phone Kithttps://www.circuitmess.com/ringo/23:14 Essential Electric Circuits book:https://amzn.to/32elSxz29:45 Chumby teardown!38:02 SPO256-AL2 Speech Allophone chip41:47 PCB business card

author: Maxlor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 18, 2020, 11:14:25 pm
content: Is it me or does the video look less sharp than it's supposed to, like it's been upscaled? Doesn't look like it's really FullHD, let alone 4K. Compared to an older mailbag (#1254) it looks more fuzzy.

author: johnlsenchak
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 03:06:42 am
content: Full version !

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 03:50:14 am
content: Quote from: Maxlor on February 18, 2020, 11:14:25 pmIt wasn't shot in 4K, only 1080p.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 04:44:31 am
content: General Instruments. They also created the original PIC processor. I have the original companion text-to -speech for the SPO256. basically a PIC1701 preprogrammed with an algorithm.Note : that chip there is a fake. They were never produced with the microchip logo on em.by the way :http://spatula-city.org/~im14u2c/sp0256-al2/this has the rom dump.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 06:33:52 am
content: Quote from: free_electron on February 19, 2020, 04:44:31 amFake as in doesn't work? Or fake as in working clone?

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 09:46:36 am
content: What is old is new again....!(This picture immediately came to mind when I saw the DIY mobile.)

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 09:59:05 am
content: STET: When an alteration should be ignored (That is, it was right in the first place)

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 03:15:40 pm
content: Ah, the good old days when you could get really interesting chips at Radio Shack. They also had some of those various sound effects chips, complete with a really thick printed copy of the datasheet stapled to the back. I remember working on building up the example circuit from the datasheet for the sound synthesizer chip - basically a bazillion pots to access every feature of the chip. I even drew out a case design for it. But as a very young player at the time (I'm pretty sure this was even before I got my first computer), I rapidly ran out of funding to buy all those pots, plus I didn't realize the RS pots were pretty poor quality, nor did I have any concept of ordering them from anywhere else, since as a kid with no credit card, I had no idea how I would mail order from one of the advertisers in the electronics magazines. Took forever when I got my computer - I saved up my money, gave it to my Mom, who wrote a check, that took weeks to clear back then, even allowing that shipping across the US also took weeks back then.The SPO256, I played with that one around 1988. I was building an 8 bit PC card with one with my friend for one of our classes. Wire wrappng it, even. Unfortunately we ran out of time and never got it completed. Unfortunately, our professor for that course, which was on speech synthesis and voice recognition, gave us materials well into the semester. First thing I had to do was read the ISA bus documentation to learn how to design the decoding circuitry, and then interface the SPO256. Kinda want to build one now, maybe just a USB interface version, even if modern speech synthesis has gone way beyond that classic chip.If I was more into doing stuff with it, I'd maybe make it work with my first computer, which I still have and which still works. Problem is, it has no mass storage of any sort, not even cassette tape, so I'd have to build a workable interface for that first. As if I don't have enough other things to keep me busy these days.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2020, 03:16:50 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on February 19, 2020, 06:33:52 amAs in will probably smoke when you power it up ... just a random devices labeled as ...https://www.smbaker.com/counterfeitfakejustplainbad-sp0256a-al2-chipshttps://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/172157/output-voltage-on-pin-14-a5-address-input-pin-of-sp0256https://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Vintage-Speech-Chip/someone rebuilt it in verilog that can be synthesized ...https://namoseley.wordpress.com/page/2/https://github.com/trcwm/speech256it uses the original ROM from the real spo256 that can be found athttp://spatula-city.org/~im14u2c/intv/tech/sp0256_instr_set.html.

author: jonovid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2020, 10:35:03 am
content: BENQ Screenbar Plus monitor desk light:3:00 pc keyboard lighting is a thing, desktop also needs illumination without unwanted room reflections.backlit keyboards IMO do not always do the job.I for one like this type of beam lighting, poetically for pc gaming.38:02 SPO256-AL2 Speech Allophone chip39:00 tandy radio shack had a plug in cartridge for the TRS-80 color. pre-internet dayshaving the computer say anything offensive / tell jokes was the thing, we did with it.plug in Speech cartridge for the TRS-80 color \/

author: spicyjack
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 21, 2020, 02:31:19 am
content: QuoteC'mon Dave, you can find it! I was able to find my SP0256-AL2 project from 1986, I would enjoy comparing my work from that era with yours.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/first-eevblog-forums-post-homebrew-1986-vintage-gi-sp0256a-al2-speech-box/msg2797266

author: agtrbt
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2020, 04:50:00 am
content: 8:33Taiwan is not China, that'scorrect.

author: Kilrah
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 21, 2020, 02:30:17 pm
content: Looks like the carrier board and male-male USB connection in the Chumby is a bodge... The main PCB has the outline for the WiFi card on it, so they likely intended to plug it straight on but noticed they had too much interference/poor range after the boards were already manufactured, and that solution was the simplest to move the stick to a better place without reworking the board.For the monitor lamp: To get the rated brightness and power on these variable color temp things you need to make sure to set the color temp where all LEDs are lit fully, otherwise one set is dimmed and that obviously results in lower light/power.

author: mcsoftware
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2020, 09:16:17 am
content: I commented in your video about my experiences with the SP0256-AL2 speech synthesis chip when I was a kid. More specifically, I mentioned writing the driver software originally in BASIC and then later in FORTH (both VIC-20 and Commodore 64, but FORTH only on the VIC-20). In case anyone is interested, here's the FORTH code (in the attachment) (some of the code was for fancy stuff, not speech):edit: I first wrote "SP0256" but then edited my post to "SPO256" since that's what everybody was using. But, I looked it up - according to wikipedia, it's SP0256 (zero). But thanks to that search, there's an interesting twist - someone has made an FPGA version of this chip available on their github page (refer to the wikipedia page for SP0256). Just noticed the FPGA (verilog) implementation was already mentioned by another commenter.

author: CChin254
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2020, 04:45:45 am
content: Chumby IC Identification is in the .pdf file attached:Block Diagram: