Assembler/machine language, hardware:  45 years C/C++:  39 years Delphi Pascal:  27 years owenlabs@aol.com short resumé (I still contrive numerous batch files in addled amusement, and the occasional C language or Delphi s/w, so I guess I’ll keep incrementing my vast experience as the years toll on — 1/1/23. ... Altho I think I missed a year or so along the way, so I correct with wild abandon, the zero-hour being 11/78 when I started at the glorious Ithaca Audio.) EMBEDDED SOFTWARE: Microcontroller real-time interrupt-driven systems in assembler and C language with multiple stacks and task switching, usually supporting the two or more lines of large-character print in Loveshaw industrial printers but also executing other system tasks — that is, my own custom RTOSs. Most projects included a user interface conducted in the background, from RS232 terminal to PC CRT to bubble keyboard/LCD — the systems were low-rent single-CPU systems that printed and also talked to the operator, often concurrently. HARDWARE: Bringing new microcontroller-based gadgets to life, finding/fixing hardware flaws, figuring-out operation (or not) from schematics, and writing/integrating firmware into hardware design — and modifying and creating hardware designs, culminating in a glorious DMA PC card. DEBUG: Chip-level PC-based debugging and/or the older ICE equipment, along with logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and other test/debug. Around 1985, I designed/fabricated my own 8048 h/w debugger + cp/m host software. ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE / C including Zilog Z80 and EZ80, Intel 8048, 8088 et al, Motorola/Freescale 68HC11, Microchip PIC. Also C language for a Freescale S12-based project, as well as numerous PC utilities. C++, OBJECTIVE C(++): Borland’s C++Builder and some Microsoft Visual Studio 2005/08/10, + a little Macintosh Xcode. ... Programs that compiled in Windows (Visual Studio, C++ Builder and MinGw GNU g++) and the Macintosh (X10.4 g++ — command line and Xcode), including an actual make file that works in both systems! (See C++ ini file demo project, and discussion of Microsoft’s NET flavor of C++.) DELPHI PASCAL with Delphi RAD programming environment since 1996, for numerous utilities, printer-control programs, the odd database project, and a TCP/IP client/server PC product. See reflections on Delphi class assignment, the dubious antique OwenShow Windows / Linux project, and MySql Considered Harmful.... *NIX: A few weeks now and then on the Linux/Mac/Unix command-line. I speak, read, and write English, and have created extensive DOCUMENTATION — see owenhelp — manuals, and diagrams. ... I like to comment code. ... I don’t lose source or documentation, over the years generating numerous BACKUP CDRs, zip and other disks, tapes, thumb drives, and I’ve preserved and used detailed records — source, operator manuals, graphics — from as long ago as 1985. Although I finally moved the last listings out to the shed.... EDUCATION: BS in Computer Science, New York State Regents External Degree Program, 1984. This institution, now known as “Excelsior” college, probably still provides access to no-classtime all-test (GREs etc.) degree certification, at www.excelsior.edu. EXTORTION: And then, in the harsh cold future, I noticed that my pitiful certification had faded, up there on the wall. I discovered while attempting to scan the thing, that it was copy extorted! — it was printed on probably the cheapest parchment paper in the universe, which scanned badly/intentionally, the better to goad the unfortunate receipient into paying extortionate fees to get another. It was contained in a stupid plastic frame which was probably part of the original package, although I seemed to have funtaked the paper presumably because it wouldn’t stay put. And there was no trace of the beautiful gold seal, which was no doubt printed and faded even faster. But I had obviously recognized these problems in my younger forgotten days and did indeed scan the thing then, into degree.tif, from which the image above is derived of course. IQ: 131 — at least according to the Tickle online test, which I took after the Monster job site goaded me. Tickle also said Your Intellectual Type is Visionary Philosopher. This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways. Like Plato, your exceptional math and verbal skills make you very adept at explaining things to others — and at anticipating and predicting patterns. Then they offered to sell me a report that would tell me more....

2013 ...

Shameless frivolity, with my virtual organs and silly cameras, in paradise....

... But in the still serenity and beauty ... something was missing. ... Pathetically, shamefully, after the dust cleared ... I missed work! ... So in commemoration of more than a few flawlessly joyful hours designing imaginary printers, I figured I could just as well do that here with my own brand-new enterprise and logo. ... So, a new paradisiacal biz card:

(Below, I preserve in tottery HTML my quaint antediluvian activities of yore....)

1984-8/26/13: Loveshaw (ITW) I developed large character ink jet printing (industrial box marking) and labeling systems for Loveshaw (a unit of Illinois Tool Works) including software, hardware, and PC Windows programs to control the systems through RS-232/422 ASCII link languages I designed. The devices printed dot-matrix patterns up to 32-dots high, consisting of letters, numbers, bar codes, and user-specified graphics patterns. Loveshaw thrived in a competitive market with exceptional support, including my rapid turn-around time on software projects — days and hours, rather than the typical months and years. The PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD project used the once-noble EagleCAD capture/PCB program — and finally I made a board, resurrecting a product suffering from through-hole obsolescence. ... I “made” the board in the sense that I paid a pittance to IteadStudio to transform my Eagle Gerber files into actual physical PCBs, which arrived after a month in a little box covered with Chinese writing. ... And, actually, Itead provided their own Eagle “CAM” files to make the Gerber files. ... But I made the simple-minded schematic, and the printed circuit design! ... Although I suppose Eagle’s autorouting helped a little. ... And in the end, it took the massed industrial forces of Loveshaw to actually solder the SMT device onto the board, and thus, it seems, I stumbled on the shoulders of giants.... But then again, I did do the first version (shown here) with the big chip on the wrong side of the PCB so it didn’t actually fit into the units; but all fixed after another Eagle run. ... And a few of these things were built, and somewhere they may actually print. ... It’s almost as good as the reported North Pacific tuna boat printer installation. ... Other LATTER DAY 68HC11-based product maintenance included Basic language and the Qlarity G55 terminal — a handy controller for various Loveshaw gadgets, including third-party printers used with the company’s labeler. It supports an RS232 interface, still common (and cheap) in industrial environments, which was used for utility features in Loveshaw products. The (free!) PC-based programming environment is reassuringly / alarmingly familiar to those of us who have used Visual Basic, Delphi etc.: you get to “paint” the GUI, and then write bits of Basic code to string it all together and actually do something. THE Z80 YEARS: When I arrived at Loveshaw in 1984 I took over a Z80 assembly language industrial printer project with a bubble QWERTY keyboard and 2-line LCD screen. I typed the assembler code into a CP/M Kaypro microcomputer from printed listings. The design used 556 timers for the central ink valve timing, controlled by thumb wheel potentiometers on the front panel. Which was odd since there was also a Zilog CTC “Counter Timer Circuit” LSI chip with four digital timers. Two of these were squandered on product delays — the interval from photocell trigger to printing, which were set by yet more thumb wheels; I think one timer was used for baud, with one left over. So I did a redesign with the CTC doing the valve timing, and everything else in software — which is why the Deity created microprocessors — and found only a few hardware cuts and jumpers made it work right, suggesting the design may have lost its way once.... The system went on to many glorious permutations over many years, including two advanced CRT terminal versions. Supporting these products were my PC control programs — at first, simple command-line / character-based in MSDOS, and then Windows 3.1, where I ingeniously reused existing C-language code from the character-based programs via a DLL and coroutines. In this and most of the subsequent printers, a single embedded CPU supports real-time printing via interrupts + implements the user interface (print message editing, menu features) in the background. In the late ’80s, the company entered the 8088 / 68HC11 era: a 6811 version of the Z80 product was designed, and then a more elaborate 8088-based system. My 6811 assembler code was basically a tidied-up translation of the Z80 products. My 8088 software was assembler + C, including coroutine code for multitasking. I wrote various PC programs to provide access to both the 6811 and 8088 designs. Both units used industrial bubble keyboard / LCD handheld units. The 6811 won — the hardware design was simpler/cheaper, particularly after the handheld was “absorbed” into the main chassis. Numerous variations on this basic printer continued for years, ranging from 5 dot single-head machines up to 6 heads, + newer technology higher-resolution 32-dot devices. I diverged the software to follow the hardware models — but the code was fairly common to all. Along the way, avoiding the endless struggles typical with cross-assemblers, I wrote my own. My Windows programs for the printers supported message edit/change and other features, including graphics: the letters in a printer graphics font were replaced with images loaded from the PC program . My industrial RS422 network for the 6811 design allowed multiple printers to connect to a single PC with longer cable runs / less cable, and also alleviated the then-limited supply of PC serial ports. I wrote multi-language “localization” interfaces; in the most elaborate cases including utility software to allow user customization.

LABELS: In 1999, Loveshaw acquired labeler technology and “microcontrollered” the hardware. Using schematics, I converted analog/digital circuitry (four dual 1-shots, some 40xx CMOS and a few transistors) to 6811 software. One-shot logic was translated to elaborate 6811 timer macros, with values based on the resistors/capacitors in the schematic. The potentiometers became software menu items which the operator could easily adjust without a little screwdriver. The software macros encapsulating input/output and delays look like ApSolenoidOn waitms ApplSolenoid ApSolenoidOff A variable-to-menu macro system made setting-up the timing and other variables a matter of making entries in a table like dataApplyPrint macro ;def, min, max makevar ProductDelay,defPD,0,BigMax makevar ApplSolenoid,200,50,20000 which were translated into variables for the execution logic, and entries in a menu for the operator. Along with saving and restoring timing / variable setups, my Windows program for the system could also document / emulate logic event sequences, for debug / verification during system design and test.

The eZ80 is a Zilog microcontroller — and an antique vacuum tube, a popular rectifier in some 60s guitar amplifiers. ... The eZ80 has its nostalgic features: you could run your old CP/M programs in binary Z80 mode, or in the modern style all the original Z80 16-bit registers magically become 24-bits wide; + the eZ80F91 came with 256 kilobytes of flash ROM, ethernet support, timers, 32-bits of general-purpose i/o, uarts, and more. ... In the illustration, I’ve persuaded Zilog’s demo board to talk to an LCD, even ’though the eZ80 is a 3.3 volt part, but cheap LCDs are definitely 5 volts — so I interfaced the LCD with general-purpose i/o bits, and minimized the required bits via the LCD’s 4 bit mode. This worked because (1.) the eZ80 happily tolerated 5 volts on inputs — it’s a feature; and (2.) the LCD sees a “high” for the 3 volts-or-so the eZ80 emits. ... Then in a burst of enthusiasm, I concluded things would go faster if I didn’t have to use the free/slow/cranky Zilog C-language compiler to concoct the user interface, but instead enlist the space-age (© 2000) Borland C++Builder environment in the cause. I compiled the numerous existing C files in a Builder project along with some mixed C/C++ emulation code. ... And it did speed things up, as well as providing a PC “demo” version of the interface for the company. ... Sadly, the product was never actually released, not an uncommon fate....

One of the great microcontroller families is the MicroChip line of PIC chips, which included the now-obsolete PIC16F877 which I used to create two printer accessories, starting with a port expander project to add-on serial ports and other functionality to our basic printer design. The second project was an LCD/bubble keyboard terminal, with the goal of reducing the expense of multiple printer purchases with a single operator interface device (i.e., a separate low-rent LCD serial terminal). I found a clever keyboard scanning technique on the web: In the average keyboard scanner circuit, the square root of the number of keys + 1 or so, times 2, is the number of microcontroller pins needed. But using the bi-directional capability of most modern microcontrollers, that can be reduced to the square root of the number of keys times 1, plus 1 or 2 or so, + a forest of diodes and resistors — which generally are cheaper than microcontroller pins.... One of the striking charms of the PICs — aside from their low-rent development equipment — is their utterly barbaric assembler. Fortunately MicroChip has an adequate macro language, essential in such situations.

At the frontiers of industrial science, a TCP Client Server project brought printer control into the 90s with a Win32 Delphi program + a TCP client / server connection. The printers themselves were stuck in the inexpensive past, with my simple RS232 or RS485 proprietary network designs. The new Windows + Delphi + third-party Internet components + Marshallsoft’s 32-bit serial DLL opened new vistas, supporting ethernet connections as well as USB serial (32 ports — or more!) and, with a little luck, actually running on the next operating system Microsoft© released — and, indeed, it did run without complaint on XP when it showed up — out of the box! ... On the other hand, there are numerous $150 industrial TCP/IP / RS232 / RS485 boxes that apparently do everything my server did, and no PC required. But the Win32 program, which also supplied normal printer control functions through the usual serial link, only took a bit of disciplining to work OK in Vista; and, later, Windows 7!

My SCRAMBLE utility randomly rearranges my link modules to optimally avoid the 68HC11 B600-B7FF EEPROM hole — a discontinuity built-into the program space. ... The EEPROM could be entirely disabled, but only in a special-mode manufacturing procedure ($), a decision Motorola eventually reversed in the “E” series but too late for us.... My linker has an option which bumps a module that might enter this forbidden zone, but that merely works and doesn’t optimize usage in the region. ... So I wrote SCRAMBLE, which would try random rearrangements of modules for the best fit. At first, SCRAMBLE was so optimal, it saved the bytes occupied by the EEPROM hole! — because a coincidental bug in both SCRAMBLE and my linker wouldn’t bump a module if it happened to just hit the B600 boundary (which might explain some mysterious bugs of the past). ... Astonishingly, SCRAMBLE + my linker would fill up that hole over and over again! ... It was like artificial stupidity! ... But I had told it to seek the best solution and, after all, getting 512 bytes in the forbidden EEPROM hole for free was optimal.... After I fixed both programs, the best solution is still when a module hits B600 precisely, so not a byte is wasted before the boundary, but now the linker and SCRAMBLE correctly bump the module to B800. SCRAMBLE does 100,000 iterations — about 3 seconds in 16-bit 1988 Turbo C — but the actual solution takes around 13,000 tries. ... Thank goodness for those Pentiums....

Less amusing was the “E series” imbroglio where I cursed Motorola when my code failed with the 68HC11E but not in an emulator and/or a 68HC11A and in the end, it was all my foolish pointer! Because it worked seemingly without flaw in the emulator, I burned around 200 EPROMs and resurrected my low-rent logic analyzer + homemade software before coming to the glorious outcome illustrated here. What did I learn? (1.) Debugging software without a source-level emulator is unpleasant and foolish, although occasionally necessary. (2.) But I’m going to keep a logic analyzer around in case emulation doesn’t work. (3.) Don’t make stupid mistakes: at least a few days before the beautiful trace (), I should’ve known where the code was erupting. But I thought I had looked and looked and checked every inch. ... In the end, it was just a stupid code error that I couldn’t see. Thoughtful peroration ... And isn’t life like that?! ... We struggle and suffer, only to discover there was a simple answer before us all the time?! ... When the dust settled, it seems the broken pointer was something like $0102, a location where the E-series 68HC11 has RAM and the A-series doesn’t, perhaps explaining the pathological randomness of the E-series failures — although I can’t help but feel that reading random bytes from nothing ought to have been at least as unpredictable.... Subsequently, I modified my assembler to detect suspicious absolute references — i.e. because “ldaa 20h” (load from memory location 20 hex) should almost always be “ldaa #20h” (load the constant 20 hex) — which, I hope, will tend to discourage this kind of thing — although sadly, I no longer remember exactly how....

Fonts: Two PC programs involved Windows bit-mapped “FON” files and the creation of numbers of special-purpose fonts — to emulate printing, for instance, as in the figure; for which I also wrote utility software to translate 68000 assembler font files. And of course numerous printers required font support and I wrote numerous “ASCII-to-font” programs, where patterns like are converted to the bits and bytes needed by the printer.

AD-HOC Debug: I created a debugging environment for an 80C166-based (Siemens) printer with download and breakpoint features. I wrote the debugger mostly in Turbo C and wrote C software to translate the output of this 8088 compiler to 80C166 assembler. In 1997, I used the Numega SoftIce tool to write a VxD (Virtual Device Driver) and Delphi program to demonstrate feasibility of manipulating DMA physical memory under Windows/W95. ... And the software is functional today! (Thursday, February 9, 2006) — under Windows 98 SE, to be sure.... I created hardware and software for two 68HC11-based PC cards. The first is described above; a second card did not require DMA performance, but involved more on-card intelligence and used 68HC11 C and assembly-language + 8048 assembly language. It included hardware / software for multiprocessor communication + coroutines, and used three PLDs.

Random acronyms/etc. I have known: 80X86, Z80/8080, 80C166 (Siemens RISC micro), 68HC11, 6809, 6800, 6502, 8048, 68---, Z8001/8002 assembly language; HTML, FTP, TTL, PLD; Basic, CP/M, MSDOS WordPerfect, WordStar, Word, PCWrite, HP LaserJet, RS-232/422, SASI (pre-SCSI); CP/M-86, MP/M-80, Apple II, Tandy M100, PX-8, Intel MDS, Futuredata, Motorola Exorset, Motorola RMS-09, VGA, MIDI, SQL, BDE. ... I dabbled in PHP, Java; web editors and HTML hackery; FTP, Intranet + Servers; Visual Basic; Delphi + Fujitsu Cobol DLLs. Innocent Arduino delvings. See my insightful discussion of Windows / Linux ticks. HW/SW for 25-IC 8048 emulator controlled by PC-based C software (notes, schematics in The Computer Journal starting 1/95, page 32). MIDI systems — hardware, translators, linker, performance program — for various hosts. MSDOS (early PC) TSRs: filter for disk read / writes to Hercules screen (DMA didn’t work with the Hercules circuit); bug-fix for Gateway / Phoenix BIOS keyboard lock-up problem; VGA dimmer; simple lap top battery timer; “WS4EVER” “diamond” control-key support. Wrote / use assembler-linkage package for 8048, 68HC11 and 80C166, including my own primitive source-tracing emulator software. Antique Tube-based test equipment, including tube testers, various meters, set testers. Numerous cranky letters-to-the-editor in technical magazines, before they all disappeared — the magazines; the letters of course are immortal....

1992 MIDI add-on for a 32-note AGO pedal board. My minimal design is a wall wart, 7805 power, 8748 CPU, 74LS244 buffer, 32 microswitches and diodes, + a lot of wire. I use the built-in pull-ups in the 8748 to read the pedals with a standard keyboard matrix, and “bit-bash” the MIDI output to the 244 buffer. The result supported multiple notes (two feet) — and produced, as I deluded myself, plausible baroque-organ pedal sounds I programmed into a Casio CZ-101 synthesizer, at least after the result, along with my other dubious keyboards, went through a cheap-but-good-enough Alesis Microverb II as I ineptly brought Buxtehude to a kind of life. And it did this at least through 2013! ... You might download pedal.zip with (sadly obsolete) 8748 source, a kind-of schematic, and an antique charm — but it’d be far wiser to google for “DIY MIDI kits” and get an Arduino project or something....

, golden days at Burroughs, bracketed by visitor’s passes; the second ’82 pass would be for the standard post-employment consultant call-back. ... , earlier golden days with National Radio Institute, where they pretended to teach me electronics....

Wednesday 10/23/24 4:48 pm