Tom Verbeure
@tomverbeure.bsky.social
Plays with FPGAs. There can never be enough LEDs. Hardware engineer at Nvidia, but my views here are my own. he/him. Also @tom_verbeure at the woolly elephant and the former bird site
Fixing LCD Screen Corruption of a Tektronix TDS220 Oscilloscope (and other fixes)
tomverbeure.github.io/2025/11/03/T...
tomverbeure.github.io/2025/11/03/T...
November 4, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Fixing LCD Screen Corruption of a Tektronix TDS220 Oscilloscope (and other fixes)
tomverbeure.github.io/2025/11/03/T...
tomverbeure.github.io/2025/11/03/T...
Inside an Isotemp OCXO107-10 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator
tomverbeure.github.io/2025/10/26/I...
tomverbeure.github.io/2025/10/26/I...
October 27, 2025 at 5:08 AM
Inside an Isotemp OCXO107-10 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator
tomverbeure.github.io/2025/10/26/I...
tomverbeure.github.io/2025/10/26/I...
Power Switch and Battery Replacement of an SR620 Universal Time Interval Counter
tomverbeure.github.io/2025/08/19/S...
tomverbeure.github.io/2025/08/19/S...
August 20, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Power Switch and Battery Replacement of an SR620 Universal Time Interval Counter
tomverbeure.github.io/2025/08/19/S...
tomverbeure.github.io/2025/08/19/S...
"Application of AI for modelling and structural analysis of a parametric 2D frame with voice assistant"
This has nothing to do with anastruct either.
My only explanation is that the authors used AI to hallucinate a whole bunch of BS.
I want my money back!
This has nothing to do with anastruct either.
My only explanation is that the authors used AI to hallucinate a whole bunch of BS.
I want my money back!
August 13, 2025 at 5:08 PM
"Application of AI for modelling and structural analysis of a parametric 2D frame with voice assistant"
This has nothing to do with anastruct either.
My only explanation is that the authors used AI to hallucinate a whole bunch of BS.
I want my money back!
This has nothing to do with anastruct either.
My only explanation is that the authors used AI to hallucinate a whole bunch of BS.
I want my money back!
The paper is behind a paywall. But since the suspense was killing me, I bought the paper. There it in a black an white: "[anastruct] was developed by Tom Verbeure with the aim of making structural analysis available, ..."
I'm flattered!
It uses [16] as reference. Let's check that out...
I'm flattered!
It uses [16] as reference. Let's check that out...
August 13, 2025 at 5:08 PM
The paper is behind a paywall. But since the suspense was killing me, I bought the paper. There it in a black an white: "[anastruct] was developed by Tom Verbeure with the aim of making structural analysis available, ..."
I'm flattered!
It uses [16] as reference. Let's check that out...
I'm flattered!
It uses [16] as reference. Let's check that out...
I think AI hallucinated me into a paper about Modelling and Solving 2D Truss System! Something I know nothing about.
A few days ago, I submitted a blog post to Hackaday. Today I googled my name to see if it had been picked up. Instead it found this weird hit.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
A few days ago, I submitted a blog post to Hackaday. Today I googled my name to see if it had been picked up. Instead it found this weird hit.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
August 13, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I think AI hallucinated me into a paper about Modelling and Solving 2D Truss System! Something I know nothing about.
A few days ago, I submitted a blog post to Hackaday. Today I googled my name to see if it had been picked up. Instead it found this weird hit.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
A few days ago, I submitted a blog post to Hackaday. Today I googled my name to see if it had been picked up. Instead it found this weird hit.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
The Video Timings Calculator is my most popular webpage in Google Search by far, with most of clicks coming from Taiwan. Those are engineers working on monitors, TVs, laptops etc.
Traffic drops on Friday morning and ramps back up Sunday afternoon. It also drops the week of Lunar New Year.
Traffic drops on Friday morning and ramps back up Sunday afternoon. It also drops the week of Lunar New Year.
August 12, 2025 at 6:04 AM
The Video Timings Calculator is my most popular webpage in Google Search by far, with most of clicks coming from Taiwan. Those are engineers working on monitors, TVs, laptops etc.
Traffic drops on Friday morning and ramps back up Sunday afternoon. It also drops the week of Lunar New Year.
Traffic drops on Friday morning and ramps back up Sunday afternoon. It also drops the week of Lunar New Year.
3 new features for my Video Timings Calculator:
1. 10K, 12K and 16K resolutions added.
2. HDMI 2.2 96/80/64 Gbps data rates added.
3. You can share timings by copy and pasting the URL. Thanks SnowSquire@github!
Check it out here: tomverbeure.github.io/video_timing...
1. 10K, 12K and 16K resolutions added.
2. HDMI 2.2 96/80/64 Gbps data rates added.
3. You can share timings by copy and pasting the URL. Thanks SnowSquire@github!
Check it out here: tomverbeure.github.io/video_timing...
August 12, 2025 at 5:48 AM
3 new features for my Video Timings Calculator:
1. 10K, 12K and 16K resolutions added.
2. HDMI 2.2 96/80/64 Gbps data rates added.
3. You can share timings by copy and pasting the URL. Thanks SnowSquire@github!
Check it out here: tomverbeure.github.io/video_timing...
1. 10K, 12K and 16K resolutions added.
2. HDMI 2.2 96/80/64 Gbps data rates added.
3. You can share timings by copy and pasting the URL. Thanks SnowSquire@github!
Check it out here: tomverbeure.github.io/video_timing...
Me too! 😀
The electronics flea market is a wonderful thing.
The electronics flea market is a wonderful thing.
August 10, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Me too! 😀
The electronics flea market is a wonderful thing.
The electronics flea market is a wonderful thing.
August 10, 2025 at 8:55 PM
The SR620 time interval counter came to market around 1986, just before VGA was a thing. But analog oscilloscopes were everywhere, so it cleverly (ab)uses the XY mode to render images.
It’s unusable on a digital scope, it’s readable on an analog one.
It’s unusable on a digital scope, it’s readable on an analog one.
August 4, 2025 at 1:07 AM
The SR620 time interval counter came to market around 1986, just before VGA was a thing. But analog oscilloscopes were everywhere, so it cleverly (ab)uses the XY mode to render images.
It’s unusable on a digital scope, it’s readable on an analog one.
It’s unusable on a digital scope, it’s readable on an analog one.
The HP 5370A time interval counter accepts an external clock of 5 MHz or 10 MHz to create a 10 MHz reference clock.
The schematic is deceptively simple, but it's really interesting and I needed a Spice simulation to understand the basics: it's a cascade of 2 injection-locked oscillators (ILO).
The schematic is deceptively simple, but it's really interesting and I needed a Spice simulation to understand the basics: it's a cascade of 2 injection-locked oscillators (ILO).
July 28, 2025 at 5:36 AM
The HP 5370A time interval counter accepts an external clock of 5 MHz or 10 MHz to create a 10 MHz reference clock.
The schematic is deceptively simple, but it's really interesting and I needed a Spice simulation to understand the basics: it's a cascade of 2 injection-locked oscillators (ILO).
The schematic is deceptively simple, but it's really interesting and I needed a Spice simulation to understand the basics: it's a cascade of 2 injection-locked oscillators (ILO).
Digikey box arrived with components for 6 different projects.
What I should have done earlier is fill in the “customer reference” field for each component with the project name. Makes it so much easier to sort through the pile.
This baggie has a 450V cap for my TDS 220 recap.
What I should have done earlier is fill in the “customer reference” field for each component with the project name. Makes it so much easier to sort through the pile.
This baggie has a 450V cap for my TDS 220 recap.
July 23, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Digikey box arrived with components for 6 different projects.
What I should have done earlier is fill in the “customer reference” field for each component with the project name. Makes it so much easier to sort through the pile.
This baggie has a 450V cap for my TDS 220 recap.
What I should have done earlier is fill in the “customer reference” field for each component with the project name. Makes it so much easier to sort through the pile.
This baggie has a 450V cap for my TDS 220 recap.
The patient is reference clock buffer board A8 of the 5370A time interval counter…
It generates 10 MHz out of 5 MHz by using a very low Q factor 10MHz LC tank that syncs to the positive phase of the 5 MHz signal.
July 21, 2025 at 1:15 AM
The patient is reference clock buffer board A8 of the 5370A time interval counter…
It generates 10 MHz out of 5 MHz by using a very low Q factor 10MHz LC tank that syncs to the positive phase of the 5 MHz signal.
If you ever wondered why old test equipment needs beefy power supplies: 6 puny ECL logic chip running at 10MHz consume 2 W (-5.2 V x 0.4 A) !
July 21, 2025 at 1:15 AM
If you ever wondered why old test equipment needs beefy power supplies: 6 puny ECL logic chip running at 10MHz consume 2 W (-5.2 V x 0.4 A) !
HP 5370A repair: I had the short isolated to down to the components around 2 transistors, or so I thought. Soldered power supply and input wire for easy out of chassis debug.
The thing works totally fine and creates a beautiful 10MHz ECL signal. Now what???
July 21, 2025 at 1:15 AM
HP 5370A repair: I had the short isolated to down to the components around 2 transistors, or so I thought. Soldered power supply and input wire for easy out of chassis debug.
The thing works totally fine and creates a beautiful 10MHz ECL signal. Now what???
There was (and is!) a short and a burnt capacitor on the clock reference board of my flea market HP 5370A counter.
I was able to bypass the short with a bodge.
After that, it works fine! The only thing not working yet is the circuit that was bypassed: the external reference clock input.
I was able to bypass the short with a bodge.
After that, it works fine! The only thing not working yet is the circuit that was bypassed: the external reference clock input.
July 18, 2025 at 6:06 AM
There was (and is!) a short and a burnt capacitor on the clock reference board of my flea market HP 5370A counter.
I was able to bypass the short with a bodge.
After that, it works fine! The only thing not working yet is the circuit that was bypassed: the external reference clock input.
I was able to bypass the short with a bodge.
After that, it works fine! The only thing not working yet is the circuit that was bypassed: the external reference clock input.
The HP 5370A time interval counter was one of the first to use an MC6800 CPU. To make debugging easier, it has a service board that can send the MSB and LSB of the CPU address to 2 DACs, so that programming execution can be tracked on an oscilloscope in X/Y mode.
July 14, 2025 at 6:07 AM
The HP 5370A time interval counter was one of the first to use an MC6800 CPU. To make debugging easier, it has a service board that can send the MSB and LSB of the CPU address to 2 DACs, so that programming execution can be tracked on an oscilloscope in X/Y mode.
The PCB has this 40MHz XTAL with heat sink that’s floating in the air, suspended by some wire and rubber bands. Or maybe it’s not a heat sink but just weight to increase mass and move vibrations to a different frequency range?
July 13, 2025 at 10:45 PM
The PCB has this 40MHz XTAL with heat sink that’s floating in the air, suspended by some wire and rubber bands. Or maybe it’s not a heat sink but just weight to increase mass and move vibrations to a different frequency range?
The 5 MHz input is directly connected to that black cylinder. What is that???
July 13, 2025 at 10:21 PM
The 5 MHz input is directly connected to that black cylinder. What is that???
Anyone know what type of connectors these are?
July 13, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Anyone know what type of connectors these are?
One of the flea market treasures is this heavy box that’s marked “Syntheziser”. No company or model name at all, but it must be HP, based on 1820-xxxx components inside.
5MHz in, 10 and 100 MHz out.
After removing around 30 screws, you get to see this. Stunning.
5MHz in, 10 and 100 MHz out.
After removing around 30 screws, you get to see this. Stunning.
July 13, 2025 at 10:17 PM
One of the flea market treasures is this heavy box that’s marked “Syntheziser”. No company or model name at all, but it must be HP, based on 1820-xxxx components inside.
5MHz in, 10 and 100 MHz out.
After removing around 30 screws, you get to see this. Stunning.
5MHz in, 10 and 100 MHz out.
After removing around 30 screws, you get to see this. Stunning.
A shiny variac, a high precision HP 5370A time counter, a back-breaking, broken (“it worked 2 months ago!”) Fluke 6071A signal generator and a nondescript 10MHz/100MHz clock synthesizer, all for $80.
‘t Was another successful Silicon Valley electronics flea market, but being there at 6am is rough.
‘t Was another successful Silicon Valley electronics flea market, but being there at 6am is rough.
July 13, 2025 at 5:47 PM
A shiny variac, a high precision HP 5370A time counter, a back-breaking, broken (“it worked 2 months ago!”) Fluke 6071A signal generator and a nondescript 10MHz/100MHz clock synthesizer, all for $80.
‘t Was another successful Silicon Valley electronics flea market, but being there at 6am is rough.
‘t Was another successful Silicon Valley electronics flea market, but being there at 6am is rough.
Let's see if we can replace the switch? It took a while to get the switch out. (I still don't know how they were able to get it through the metal case hole!)
It's an obsolete ITT Shadow NE15 TE. You can find them for $7.50 on eBay + $5 shipping.
Part ordered, to be continued.
It's an obsolete ITT Shadow NE15 TE. You can find them for $7.50 on eBay + $5 shipping.
Part ordered, to be continued.
July 5, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Let's see if we can replace the switch? It took a while to get the switch out. (I still don't know how they were able to get it through the metal case hole!)
It's an obsolete ITT Shadow NE15 TE. You can find them for $7.50 on eBay + $5 shipping.
Part ordered, to be continued.
It's an obsolete ITT Shadow NE15 TE. You can find them for $7.50 on eBay + $5 shipping.
Part ordered, to be continued.
The unit works again without powering on and off all the time!
July 5, 2025 at 6:36 AM
The unit works again without powering on and off all the time!