In the category of retro equipment I usually throw in descriptions of calculators, because they are the biggest part of my collection. However, it’s time to introduce a little more variety, which is why a description of a vintage display appeared some time ago, while today I’d like to introduce you to an electronic clock that is more than 30 years old, manufactured in one of the factories of the former Soviet Union.
The Elwro 105LN is one of the first office calculators to be produced at the Elwro Wroclaw plant. This device is a direct successor to the 105L model and, in fact, the first mass-produced one since the early 1970s. The design is very interesting both in terms of technical solutions, but also in terms of history, which is not so obvious.
I’m sure that in the mind of anyone who has worked with Arduino boards, the idea to build your own weather station has appeared at some point. Such projects are most often based on the simplest sensors for temperature, humidity possibly pressure. Sometimes a module is also added to measure wind speed. However, practically no project is equipped with a sensor capable of detecting lightning. This is a rather strange state of affairs, given that it is very simple to run this type of module in the Arduino environment.
On a cold December morning in the Czech village of Březolupy, a man stops his truck in front of a 17th century castle. He puts on thick gloves, gets out of the truck and opens the tailgate. Then, very carefully, he unloads more crates of heavy equipment and glass.
In my last article on retro equipment, I told you about a pocket calculator manufactured at the Unitra Eltra plant in Bydgoszcz. This time we will also take a closer look at a pocket design, or even several such devices from the times of centrally planned economy, with the difference that these will be calculators signed with the logo of Wroclaw Elwro.
There are a great many different kinds of displays on the market – LCD, LED, OLED, etc. We encounter most of them on a daily basis, but there are also some more classic designs, such as the HPDL-1414.
graphical interface. LEDs, displays, screens… there are really many ways to graphically show the progress of the program or task being performed. However, in order to display all the information correctly, you need to properly handle the chosen display. In this article you will learn how to run a 7-segment display on an FPGA chip.
Recently, I have been trying my hand at a bit more professional electronics photography. When taking pictures, I tried to force a particular type of lighting with several panels of WS2812B LEDs, controlled by Arduino. However, constantly changing the code is quite tiresome, so I built a simple device to control this type of LEDs.
During the communist era, pocket calculators were produced by two companies – Wroclaw’s Elwro and Bydgoszcz’s Unitra Eltra. We will take a look at the constructions made in Upper Silesia at another time, today’s hero will be a somewhat strange and already forgotten construction from the Brda River.
Anyone who starts playing with electronics sooner or later encounters on his way the chip numbered 555. According to many, this timer is one of the chips that changed the world. It is hard to disagree with this especially considering the scale of production and the multitude of applications, about which even separate books have been written. In this material I will tell you a little about this unique chip.
