[Jack] is famous ’round these parts for his modern reinterpretations of very early computers. He’s created a computer entirely out of logic chips, a microcontroller-powered multicore box, and even a very odd one-instruction computer. For his latest project, he’s stepped up his game and made something that’s actually fairly useful: a microcontroller-powered system with an integrated keyboard and display.
The DUO Portable, as [Jack] calls his new toy, is built around an ATMega1284P microcontroller. Also on this board is a serial EEPROM that acts as a very small drive, a 102×64 pixel graphic display, and enough tact switches to create a QWERTY keyboard.
The DUO Portable boots to a primitive operating system where files can be created, edited, and saved. The programming language for this computer is called DCPL – the DUO Portable Command Language – and can be used to create anything from a simple ‘Hello World’ program to a block-building game.
Like all of [Jack]’s homebrew computer projects, he’s written an emulator that can be run in a browser. There’s also video of [Jack] playing around with the DUO Portable available below.
If you’re wondering what music [Jack] is using for this video, I found it. It’s an Atari POKEY.
Quick one, it’s DPCL. If it was DCPL, it’d be one of those acronyms like php.
I wonder how much this one will cost. I’ve got the DuoBASIC but would love to buiild this one too.
Damn, very cool. Lol’d at block-dude (TI-calc people will understand).
Utterly elegant PCB layout as well, I love it when someone hand routes a board instead of being lazy and use autoroute.
Auto routing makes the PCB ugly as sin, so I never use it…
I’d add a Parallax Propeller to give me a capable sound chip and VGA/Composite
video. You would still have processor cores left over for something else as well.
i believe there’s something like this, but it’s just an add-on board to a quickstart board that has a vga port, ps2 port and audio
.. oh just looked it up, it was called the pocket mini computer,.. also has a place for sd card and a wii nunchuck controller
don’t know if anyplace still sells it
I found it on tindie here’s a link https://www.tindie.com/products/Propellerpowered/propellerpowered-pocket-mini-computer/
Great build! The PCB even has a “vintage” feel to it (and I mean that in the best possible way :).
Too bad there was only enough room for the Sinclair/Mac-esque single-row arrow keys… I guess with time and practice they’re probably okay, but I’ve been using an “inverted-T” for too long (and I’ve never been that good with my pinkies).
What a great design – the low complexity and long straight lines along with the full keyboard make it very aesthetically pleasing.
We need to get this guy a 3D printer so he can print out a case and bring it with him on the go. It’s great because it’s already battery-powered.
When I first saw the board it reminded me of the Enigma Cipher Machine kit
that is sold at Bletchley Park in the UK. Maybe it’s all those micro switches.
http://www.cryptomuseum.com/kits/enigma/desc.htm
pretty cool
this is an amazing project!!!! super job!!!
looks a lot like the old Sinclair or Timex computers.
This IS lovely. I wonder if the design might be improved by having the screen in a central position?
Very good but
can you go on-line and view the hackaday.com web site with this computer?
Of course it can, if you make an adapter for ethernet. Maybe it could even run Contiki, which has support for 8-bit AVRs. However you need to adapt it for the small screen.
http://hitmen.c02.at/html/tools_contiki.html