The good news:

  1. I made good progress on writing opcode implementations for the ARM7TDMI. Got through the ALU and some branching instructions for the THUMB set. Also realized that I don’t need to provide my own stack keeping track of the order of entry of CPU modes since the SPSR registers effectively do just that when switching (if you want to do nested interrupts of the same type, that’s on the programmer, not on me). It still is very slow going though.
  2. I managed to make a very over-engineered calculator in the process of following the second half of Crafting Interpreters. Which means that it’s going well! Need to implement stuff like variables and branching and functions.
  3. I started to design and build a theremin now that I have better access to a reflow station and electronic components. Some very nice people at NYCResistor are helping me with the intricacies of getting the rough design and good electronic construction hygiene (neither of which I have a good intuition for).
  4. I managed to print off the enclosure for the POV display. As expected, nothing fit together the way that I wanted and I had some serious design flaws (things like the nubbies didn’t properly seat in their recesses, the nubbies would snap off if you tried to take it apart, it was very difficult to take pieces apart once they were kind of attached and so many more). I managed to fix some of the issues, but I still need to test-fit all of the hardware and see if the interior volume is big enough.

Enclosure

  1. I started reading “Understanding Digital Signal Processing” by Richard G. Lyons since I know nothing on the subject and it would probably be useful for my PhD work. It’s interesting so far. Lyons writes on an oddly conversational manner, which is a nice break from most textbooks I’ve read.
  2. I moved in to my apartment (my first one!). I spend the last week of August setting everything up. It feels good to move out of my parent’s place. The thought of having to be a more mature adult terrifies me slightly, but I’ll manages somehow.

The bad news:

  1. Honestly, nothing really bad happened to me this month. Let’s hope it stays that way…

That’s all for now. See ya!