Wavicle's store Retro and Neo-Retro Hardware

In the meantime, everyone is welcome to place orders at my new Lectronz store: lectronz.com/stores/wavicle

A text rant about how Tindie's lack of communication is doing as much damage to community trust as the extended outage is doing.

I've left this comment on the latest update to the FB page for @tindie.com :

It appears that @tindie.com is approaching the end of its 5th day of downtime. I'm looking for a secondary option to sell my products. My apologies to everyone who saw @adriansdigitalbasement.com's video and would like to get a VERA X. If you "need" one now, DM me to arrange a purchase via PayPal.

What's the big deal? I just quit eBay on Monday. And two weeks ago. And also three times during the month of December.

I'm happy to announce that OtterX's first official VCF exhibit will be at VCF PNW! Feel free to come say hi if you're in Seattle May 2 & 3 this year.

vcfpnw.org

An early render of C-Otter Pup - a smaller form factor, low cost OtterX/X16 compatible computer!

Many major functions live on daughter and mezzanine boards to lower R&D spend. These will move into the motherboard as the design stabilizes and matures.

No promises on cost except for "$149 or less"

OtterX 8-Bit Retro Computer by Joe's Retro Sto' on Tindie 6502-based computer with Commander X16 compatibility

Next batch of OtterX are available now on my Tindie store. I now sell faster oscillators as an add-on option which overclocks the system 10MHz.

www.tindie.com/products/wav...

Front of Otter Power PCB

Back of Otter Power PCB

A new version of Otter Power! will soon be available through my Tindie store. Now with +12V fan header, holes for external power source, larger power inductors, and 2oz copper traces on outer layers. Works with #OtterX, #CommanderX16, and the original F256 Jr.

I don't post here nearly often enough, and... The next Calypso prototype has been put in for production! For those of you not aware, Calypso is a peripheral that attaches to VERA and adds USB keyboard, WiFi + file server, RS232, VERA recovery, and now NTP time sync! #OtterX #CommanderX16

I think they universally think "Wow, if Americans will pay that much for our products, maybe we can increase our prices once the tariffs go away and sell it to them as a generous discount just for them."

VHS re-encodes the signal. VHS tapes have ~3MHz of bandwidth to encode the video signal (half 6MHz NTSC). For "acceptable" picture quality, luma was overemphasized and chroma QAM is superimposed at about 400KHz. The horizontal chroma resolution is ~40 pixels. And we liked it!

OtterX 8-Bit Retro Computer by Joe's Retro Sto' on Tindie 6502-based computer with Commander X16 compatibility

The current situation with retaliatory tariffs may force me to retire some products in my Tindie store. Most notably my flagship OtterX computer www.tindie.com/products/wav.... There is no guarantee that I will be able to restock after the current batch has sold.

About like this? The N in QFN stands for "no-leads". Makes standard rework methods less than ideal. Usually I tin all the pads, make sure all the pads have a good bit of flux, put the IC in place, and let the hot air at it. Occasionally some IC pads don't wet and I go back with an fine-tip iron.

Is that a QFN chip? I hate reworking those. They show up in both VERA and my OPM2151 so I've done it a fair bit, but I've never been happy about having to do it.

65Cxx CPU switcher for OtterX and X16 (should also work on anything that can take either a 65C02 or 65C816 CPU) appears to be passing all tests thrown at it. Also fixes an issue in the X16 PCB which allows for this combination of 65C816 + Cartridge + 10MHz overclock. #OtterX #CommanderX16

Yes, that is wrong. You should get two and double the extra RAM that it provides.

ROAM Commander X16 Cartridge by Joe's Retro Sto' on Tindie Commander X16 ROM and Memory cartridge for software devs and enthusiasts

Despite what the Tindie page says, I have a stack of these cartridges in stock. Assembly available for an additional fee. www.tindie.com/products/wav... #OtterX #CommanderX16

My latest X16 / OtterX related distraction: save wear and tear on your CPU socket and have the best of both worlds! Coming who-knows-when.

OtterX 8-Bit Retro Computer by Joe's Retro Sto' on Tindie 6502-based computer with Commander X16 compatibility

If you want a smaller form factor, one community member has his own fully-compatible ITX board called the OtterX. And it's over-clockable (to 10 Mhz)!

It's also available as a kit.
www.tindie.com/products/wav...