I have been very busy lately and it has been hard finding time to update the website. Still lots of exciting progress has been made.
Here is a picture of one completed bank of the Nixie Display running a test routine. I should have the other half completed and mounted on the control panel by the end of the week.
The final part of the ALU has been completed and the only circuits I have left to wire together is the conditional branching and the solid state RAM. I am also having problems with the power supply and will need to design another one as the power the whole machine draws is above what the one I have can supply.
I will hope to get some videos up soon!
Another update since my last and I have started wiring most of the boards together. The ALU and registers (far right column) work fine but I am having problems with the clock and sequencer and its looking like I may have to re-make the entire board. This would set me back a large amount and I really want to avoid that. Other than that I should get the rest mounted and wired up this week.
This thing is driving me insane. I have been spending all night after work making progress on i² for the last week but it is slow and frustrating. I keep finding small flaws that I overlooked or missed during production of the boards. For example I have spent the last 3 nights in a row fixing an ALU fault that all came down to one wire crossed on another.
Anyway, not to worry, it is getting there and I hope to give a video update very soon.
Found an old video of me testing the clock section of the computer. I show the adjustable speed and then in my idiocy break it. I have changed it since so cannot be broken this way again.
I have managed to drill out my panel and mount my switches and ammeter in the panel. I am still waiting for my LED holders but until that time here is a picture of them stuck in upside down.
Received the final version of the control panel today. I am going to try and get it drilled tomorrow so I should have some images of the switches mounted on it soon.
Spent most of today finishing off painting the frame. Also managed to get the metal strips mounted on the back to strengthen it.
Managed to get a quick compiler hammered out tonight which saves me having to convert mnemonics by hand into machine code. It outputs to a text file so you still get to enjoy transferring the program to i² by hand...
There was finally a big enough break in the last week of constant rain for me to get the base coat of paint onto the frame. I just need to add the metal reinforcement bars and then paint the top coat for the frame to be finished.