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The Queen's Head - 24/02/2026
by Sevan Janiyan 10 Feb '26

10 Feb '26

Hi, Should we meet up for old times sake as a one off, given the recent news about Ken? I was thinking The Queen's Head on the 24th of February (Tuesday), 6:30 onwards. 66 Acton Street London WC1X 9NB https://www.queensheadlondon.com Sincerely, Sevan

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Re: The Queen's Head - 24/02/2026
by Sevan Janiyan 05 Feb '26

05 Feb '26

Hi Lawrence, On 05/02/2026 17:41, Lawrence Archard wrote: > I think that's a great idea, but it is the night of IoTLondon. I'm sure > Alex would be pleased to combine the events if you get in touch. > Currently (as usual) oversubscribed. Thanks for the heads up about the event. The Queen's Head was a pub we used to head to after OSHUG, when it was held at the Centre for Creative Collaboration, which was just on the other end of the road to the pub. Sevan

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Sad news about Ken Boak
by Sevan Janiyan 31 Jan '26

31 Jan '26

Hi, This showed up in my bubble https://retrocomputingforum.com/t/rip-ken-boak-aka-monsonite/5536 apparently Ken passed away. :( Sincerely, Sevan

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ShrimpingIt website
by Sevan Janiyan 30 Jan '26

30 Jan '26

Hi folks, Hope you're all doing ok. I randomly looked up ShrimpingIt last night and realised the site is gone and the domain is up for sale. Seems like it was active up until early September this year. Anyone know what happened to the site? Sincerely, Sevan

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Free Barcode Scanners
by Andy Bennett 06 Aug '25

06 Aug '25

Hi, I have some old PTC-960SL Barcode Scanners that I bought many years ago. You know, because we all do a barcode project at some point and I know they have been popular on the swap table before. :-) Now is the time that I need to pass them on. They're free to a good home. If you're interested in obtaining them, read on! Here's what they are: * 5x Telxon PTC-960SL handheld barcode scanners. * The Telxon brand means they predate the Symbol acquistion in 2000. * They run embedded MS-DOS and have "RamSaver" (which means you can replace the battery without a reboot). * The software includes a TCP stack, telnet, rlogin and configuration menu. * Integrated laser barcode reader. * They only read 1D barcodes. No QR codes, data matrix or anything like that. * They have some kind of 2.4GHz spread spectrum radio that the software detects as 802.11. * i.e. original Wifi - no a, b, g, n or any of that other stuff. * You'll need to write your own app to make these do anything interesting. They have telnet and rlogin clients and you can switch the trigger and laser scanner on for the appropriate fields at the appropriate times. * 6 old battery packs. * They work but if you do anything serious with them you'll probably want to strip them down and replace the cells. * A 4-bay battery charging station with PSU. * They look very cool. * They beep and have lasers. Here's some photos of what you'll get and a link to some of the docs. http://www.ashurst.eu.org/download/tmp/gal-barcode-scanners/index.html Collection only from Battersea Accessible via Nothern Line to Battersea Power Station, Southern Rail to Battersea Park, South Western Rail to Queenstown Road, and Buses 44, 137, 452, 436, 156. Free to a good home. Caveat emptor. No returns. Best wishes, @ndy -- andyjpb(a)ashurst.eu.org http://www.ashurst.eu.org/ 0x7EBA75FF

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OT: Replicating functionality of existing blinds controller
by Chris Puttick 03 Oct '24

03 Oct '24

Hi all Seeking electronics expertise (when it comes to making I'm better at wood!). A few years ago we pushed the boat out while completing an "extension extension" and re-roof project by adding electrically operated between-glass blinds with solar-charged blind controllers to the windows. The controllers are starting to fail, mostly battery or charging circuit issues and without them the blinds don't work. I'd be not too bothered, except the manufacturer and their distributors are charging an eye-watering £135 for a replacement unit and the units are kind of flaky in use (need resetting often, which is done by plugging them to a (any) USB charger). The units consist of a USB charging port (for when the solar isn't enough to keep them charged), a 5 point connector and 2 touch sensitive areas with LED back lights, and a simple RF remote control, powered by a small battery (3.7V, 2700mAh). The most complex element is the ability to program (via reset and counting light flashes etc.) the units to respond to 99 different channels on the remote - I can imagine a commercial setup where that might be useful, or if you have the functionality in every room (though 99 is a lot of rooms...) but in practice we use the controller to raise/lower all the blinds at once, so only use one channel So the questions... how practical would it be to reproduce this functionality, with a similar physical form factor so they can attach to the window mounts (which are wired to the motors inside the window and the tiny solar panels on the outside), in part (no RF or simple RF controls all units) or in whole (99 channels does seem excessive...)? Given the price being charged for replacements, it might be feasible to replace the window mount and solar panel if that makes it more practical (requires popping the window from the frame but that's not a lot of work for someone who knows double glazing). At a simpler level, how easy is it likely to be to source suitably shaped batteries to replace battery units? All input welcome and if you need more info to provide better input please don't hesitate to request it. Cheers Chris -- @putt1ck Opinions in this email are my own and may not reflect that of my clients, past employers, associates, friends, family, pets etc..

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Thanks for a great weekend!
by Ken Boak 27 Aug '24

27 Aug '24

I would like to thank Andrew, Laura, Kevin, Shaun, the sponsors, the caterers, the Birchcliffe Centre, the IOU Hostel, the presenters, the attendees and everyone else involved with Wuthering Bytes Festival Day and OSHCamp 2024, for putting on such a great weekend. Hopefully there will be some videos and photos of this wonderful event online soon. See you all next year, Ken

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Fwd: Bit Serial Computer Workshop - OSHUG Sunday 25th August
by Ken Boak 23 Aug '24

23 Aug '24

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Ken Boak <ken.boak(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2024 at 15:55 Subject: Bit Serial Computer Workshop - OSHUG Sunday 25th August To: Andy Bennett <andyjpb(a)register-dynamics.co.uk>, Alan Wood < folknology(a)gmail.com>, Open Source Hardware User Group Discussion List < oshug(a)oshug.org> Hi All, We are rapidly approaching our long weekend of tech activities in Hebden Bridge. Al Wood and I will be jointly hosting a workshop session on Sunday 25th August. This year, following on from Al's excellent custom keyboard workshop last August will have something more of a RetroComputing theme. The goal of the workshop is to build from scratch, up to 20, 8-bit, bit serial computers, known as "Tick" based, almost entirely on 74HCxx series logic. For this workshop to run smoothly, there are a number of pre-requisites, needed to be downloaded which will allow us to get off to a quick start. If you wish to attend, could you please install the following packages: 1. H. Neemann's "Digital" simulator https://github.com/hneemann/Digital 2. Once you have "Digital" you will then be able to access the relevant schematics, simulations and build guides from my Github repo. The bulk of the teaching documentation will be held on my "Tick-Talk" repo, here https://github.com/monsonite/TICK_TALK/tree/main Ignore anything more than 2 weeks old - the relevant info is from the last 3 days. 3. You will be given a Pi Pico clone to act as the interface to the Tick CPU and it's memory. To program this, I have been using Arduino, with board files installed for the RP2040 microcontroller. The downloads are on this repo: https://github.com/earlephilhower/arduino-pico So, on Sunday, if you have all 3 repos accessible on your laptop - it will allow us to get off to a good start. I will have given an overview of the workshop and the "Tick" project during my presentation on Saturday. This will be a hands on, practical course, involving a fair amount of soldering of through-hole components. If you are not experienced in soldering, I am sure that you can be "buddied up" with someone who can guide you. The pcb is 110mm x 110mm and holds 28 small 74HCxx ICs plus a "ROM" and and RAM. All components including ICs and sockets, passives, connectors, switches, LEDs and the Pi Pico clone will be supplied. However the Pi Pico needs a USB C cable. There are 2 solutions - bring your own genuine Pi Pico with the micro USB cable or bring a USB C cable for the low cost clone Pico. The build sequence is broken down into 5 separate stages. Each stage covers a small subset of the components - about 5 or 6 ICs, and there is a scope available so you can test the stage works before you move onto the next stage. If we start at 10am, we should complete the pcbs before 3pm. I would strongly suggest that you organise yourselves into small teams of 3 or 4. Even if we only build 5 or 6 boards on Sunday, new pcbs will be issued in September, so its perhaps better to save your kit for the revised pcb. One should have a strong hardware construction skillset, another should be a competent programmer and the third should focus on finding documents and reading instructions for the other team members. Finally: A shout-out for anyone to bring in their personal soldering stations, flux, solder and rework tools and possibly fume extraction. There are about 650 IC through-hole pins to solder. A full kit component kit will be issued on receipt of £20. A V2 kit (pcb + connectors) will be offered at a discount, when available. All socketed ICs can be reused in V2. Don't forget either a USB C cable or bring your own Pi Pico and micro USB cable. Thanks in advance, Ken

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OSHCamp 2024 programme changes.
by Andrew Back 28 Jul '24

28 Jul '24

Hello, Unfortunately Matt Venn is now unable to give a talk on CI for Semiconductors at Open Source Hardware Camp. However, we do have a new talk from Chris Simmonds on Putting Linux into devices using Yocto Project. For details please see the updated programme at: https://oshug.org/event/oshcamp2024 Cheers, Andrew -- Andrew Back https://abopen.com

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Wuthering Bytes Social, Friday 23rd August.
by Andrew Back 28 Jul '24

28 Jul '24

Hello, Just a heads-up that, in addition to the OSHCamp Social on the evening of Saturday 24th, there will be a WB Festival Day Social the evening before. This will be hosted at Nelsons Wine Bar in Hebden Bridge town centre, with music, drinks and food as in previous years. However, one major difference is that we will not have exclusive use of the venue and in an effort to help ensure we have somewhere to sit and eat, we have a group booking for a large portion of the space. The way this will work is that, if you do plan to have a meal, you can purchase a separate ticket which is essentially a dinner reservation and can be redeemed on the evening for £10 towards your food bill. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wuthering-bytes-2024-social-tickets-95417953… Before booking please take a look at their menu and also see the T&Cs on the Eventbrite page to make sure that you are happy with these. It's a far from ideal system, but better than turning up en masse at a popular venue and then being disappointed when most if not all of the tables are booked. The plan is to announce more widely tomorrow and with limited tickets available it is advisable to book sooner rather than later if you'd like to eat. Of course, you could also just try your chances on the day or head down after having eaten elsewhere. Cheers, Andrew -- Andrew Back https://abopen.com

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