ok, pretty happy with this now. Added a lot more filtering caps to try to reduce the noise and flicker, improved grounding (at least as best as you can on a breadboard) and tweaked the magnetic and electric focus a bunch more. I'm very happy with the result now!
For those wondering about the setup:
DIY HV is supply supplying 700V which is divided down for all the different electrodes in the vidicon tube, 600V on G5, 300V on G4 and G2, 65V on G3 for focus, -35V on G1 for beam current. 15V on the target. Raster is generated by 2 555 timers set up as ramp generators and amplified/centered by two opamps. Output from the tube is amplified by a transimpedance amplifier, amplified again and then output straight to the Z input of the oscilloscope. There is no blanking during either vertical or horizontal retrace, neither on the vidicon nor output, which is less than ideal but works. Vertical frequency is around 40hz, horizontal around 10khz.
I get a fundraising email stating "We have only 3 days to raise $24,456 so we can have the funds to launch our campaign properly [...]"
Where do they get this oddly specific number? What are the odds of winning if you don't get it vs the odds if you do? Is there an inflection point?
If you go to donate: "Make it monthly?" (they ask this TWICE) "Leave a tip?" You're asking for money to cover processing, that is not a "tip". They "suggest" 16%: that's a big processing fee.
@mavica_again They *are* caustics, but there's a specific term for that kind, and I'm irked that I can't remember it and have been unable to find it.
Continuing on the MacOS diskimagesiod vs youtube battle, it occurred to me I could update the plist for diskimagesiod to say the ProcessType is "Background" - the launchd man page says these should not distrupt the user experience. This involved a few reboots and arcane commands to allow me to edit a system file. However, it didn't work.
@ArchiteuthisFlux Come up with two more, and we can improve the names of quarks (except for Charm)!
I keep forgetting this isn't Twitter and external links won't effectively hide this post. So here's a @crowdsupply update where I talk about the rationale behind this.
https://www.crowdsupply.com/architeuthis-flux/jumperless-v5/updates/single-board-computer-fans-rejoice
@adafruit I agree on the Alex drawers: I use them with Target's "Brightroom" line of containers to organize Lego bricks.
@adafruit Here's my first computer, a Motorola 6800 evaluation board. It was maxed out with 768B of RAM. I'd write my programs in assembler, hand assemble them, wrap them in S-records, and key them in on a teletype (hooked up to a serial port connected by a 1/4" stereo plug). I still have it, it still works (but now sports 16kB of RAM. #firstcomputer #retrocomputing