elb on Technology

I unbox and assemble an MNT Pocket Reform mini laptop from MNT Research (mnt.re), and give some impressions of the build quality and process. This build is the RK3588 model, with a kit from July/August of 2025.

Before people come at me; I mention that even the Pi Foundation doesn't design and build their own processors. I know that that they did design the RP 2040/2350 and some of the motherboard chips on the recent Pi designs. The system on chip is Broadcom, however.

The video is pretty blurry here; I'm not sure if the camera isn't focusing, or what. It's about fourteen years old, so maybe it's time for a change.

A PDP-11 paper tape containing a BASIC program is read through a Decitek portable high speed paper tape reader.

Booting a PDP-11/34A to Unix V6 from an RL01 disk, then some minimal interaction on a VT-100 terminal.

In 2019 I had a PDP-11/34A, RL01 disk drive, and VT-100 terminal in my office at work. A student and I managed to get Unix V6 booting on it. This little wordless vignette shows the boot sequence in real-time, plus a small amount of interaction at the prompt. Notice that I forget that V6 used chdir and type cd instead!

A Transistor Specialties frequency counter from about 1960 running its internal self test.

It contains a 1 MHz ovenized oscillator, and provides a number of features, from frequency counting to period timing to interval counting.

A quick video of a homebrew opto-isolated RS-232 to 20 mA current loop adapter in operation.

The serial protocol analyzer sends a string of U*, waits a few ms, sends CRLF, then waits a few ms, and repeats. This is because U and *, with 7-bit even parity, represent binary 01010101 and 10101010, so every bit is inverted with every character. This tends to show "sticky" bits.

The lighting is terrible because I'm in my garage, at night, with the top for my Jeep between me and the light. Sorry.

This is a Teletype Model 35 ASR, an ASCII Teletype machine running at 110 baud, printing The Quick Brown Fox from a paper tape.

The model 35 is a rugged ASCII machine built on the same principles as the Model 28, but having functionality comparable to the better-known Model 33. The Model 33 was designed for intermittent duty in light commercial service, while the Model 35 was designed for always-on operation.

A quick demo of connecting a TI Silent 700 printing terminal to an IBM 5150 via modem connection through a homebrew line simulator.

The lighting, audio, and camera work are all awful because I used my phone; pardon the quality and enjoy the demo!