The Laboratory
Software
Electronics
robots000.jpg
Microcontrollers
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This is the lab, commonly known as the computer room. It's probably the busiest room in the house as everyone in the family is pretty computer literate. A wonderful feature of the room is a picture window to the right in the photo that overlooks Campbell lake and up into the mountains.

The main computer is an AMD 450 overclocked to 500 MHz, with 128Meg memory and a 15 & 5 Gig HD. I built this one from scratch. The monitor is a Digital 20" fixed frequency type that my son picked up for me off EBay. I have an HP500C printer - thats the workhorse and an Epson Photo750 - thats for the stuff the has to look real good. It produces prints virtually as good as photographs. The ink is expensive though, therefore the HP remains. I also have a UMAX 2000U scanner.

We connect to the internet via a DSL line at 340K.

I also have a 233MMX machine for auxiliary use, robot programming (it has 3 serial ports). It's connected by Ethernet to the main machine and can access the internet via Wingate software. I often get both machines involved during programming and monitoring microcontroller projects.

I also own an HP 1701A Oscilloscope -an essential machine, another EBay purchase. I'm glad I opted for a separate analog scope - it's just real handy. I now have a Power supply / Frequency generator that I constructed. I also own an HP logic analyzer - another EBay purchase - that I still haven't used.

Other than that I have a growing assortment of electronic parts, books, small tools, etc.