Random thoughts about anything that interests me
With the prices for FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) chips coming down all the time, FPGA development has become affordable for the electronics hobbyist. I was looking around at starter boards and saw several recommendations for the Digilent Spartan-3 Starter Board. At $99, it is one of the cheapest boards available, yet it has some pretty impressive features.
LCD clocks powered by a potato used to be sold as novelty items in many stores. I don’t know if they are still available, but that idea is a common science project. But how much current and voltage does a battery like that actually generate? I found a good article by Hans Summers called Homemade batteries that addresses this very question.
I have always liked to visit Radio Shack stores. I owned several TRS‑80 computers (and still do), and I liked to examine the computers on display. It was somewhat less interesting once they got out of that business, but I still liked to look at their electronic supplies and tools.