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The Earth is not only very flat - it's also very hard! 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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From the article:
Quote: "Mad" Mike Hughes, 64, crash-landed his steam-powered rocket shortly after take-off near Barstow on Saturday.
There's something about the term "steam powered rocket" that seems more English than American. Somehow I get the picture of something steam-punkish with pistons pumping up and down and clouds of steam everywhere. The pilot is in an open cockpit wearing a leather helmet with goggles, sporting a mad grin. "Tally Ho!"
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So much more appropriate than the "white suit and a fish bowl" the Americans prefer.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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His last words were "hold my beer"
Real programmers use butterflies
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honey the codewitch wrote: His last words were "hold my beer"
Mine are more likely to be "Get your bloody hands off my beer!"
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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That guy again?
That's exactly the outcome I was expecting.
I'd say I'm sorry for his family, but the article only has some brief mention about his cats.
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pkfox wrote: 'Mad' Mike Hughes dies after crash-landing homemade rocket - BBC News
... which contradicts popular wisdom that says "you can't fix stupid".
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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The earth remains round, Mad Mike however is somewhat flatter than before.
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Reminds me of my favourite phrase from "Oath of Fealty" by Niven/Pournelle:
"Think of it as evolution in action."
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Too bad he didn't succeed and once and for all told all those flat earthers they were wrong all along 
Of course it doesn't work that way.
He'd either lie or make something up like we live in a dome and the government is projecting a round earth.
Or he'd tell the truth and all other flat earthers would say he's now a conspirator as well.
Props for building a rocket that actually goes up into the air though.
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Earth isn't flat; Mike Hughes is, though.
"Five fruits and vegetables a day? What a joke!
Personally, after the third watermelon, I'm full."
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I did not have much time this week for MacGuyvered serial I/O on MacGuyver's processor. We had only this week to 'MacGuyver' together a working prototype of something that our customer only got nice six digit estimates for elsewhere. 'Macguyvering' is a broad field and unless you are professor for and against everything (or yor name really is MacGuyver), you have no choice but to train this skill a little. Look at Q&A if you want to see what happens if you don't.
Anyway, The serial I/0 now works fine. 9600 bps at 6 MHz clock frequency. Half duplex, of course. I don't want to have to work out the timing for a subroutine to pull off full duplex. Having an emulator for the old Elf that actually emulates both the Elf and the terminal and their interaction precisely was really helpful. I was able to develop a formula to calculate the timing constants for the subroutines at different clock frequencies and bitrates. I could conveniently test everything with the emulator. If my values worked there, then the Zwölf and the PC also could live with them. Every time. My compliments to those who wrote that emulator, did not cut corners and went through the trouble to emulate both sides extremely accurately.
And now something for all MacGuyvers here. A programming question:
I need a way to let the processor measure its own clock frequency. With that, I could calculate the timing constants for the serial I/O at initialization and let the processor find the highest possible bitrate, no matter how slow or fast it is clocked. With an independent reference, like a timer or a real time clock, that would not be a big deal. But without?
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
modified 23-Feb-20 7:48am.
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Just an untested idea:
If you have a spare output pin and a spare input pin, you could connect them with RC (resistor + capacitor) circuit. When the output pin goes to 1, the voltage on the input should rise according to V * (1 - e-t/(R*C)). Check for when the input value changes. The number of cycles, R, C, and V should give you the answer.
If you want a real McGyver solution:
Take a piece of radioactive material with short half-life, place it on top of the memory, and use the processor to count the number of random bit flips induced per period of time. Knowing the half life, the rate of change in the number of bit flips will give you the length of the period of time, which (with the known number of cycles taken by the code) will give you the frequency. 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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You forgot to mention to do that (RC) only if the input is a schmitt trigger. Otherwhise there is a chance to destroy the input if slew rate is to slow 
It does not solve my Problem, but it answers my question
modified 19-Jan-21 21:04pm.
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I'm a physicist, not an electronics engineer.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Not sure if this excuses you
It does not solve my Problem, but it answers my question
modified 19-Jan-21 21:04pm.
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote: If you have a spare output pin and a spare input pin, you could connect them with RC (resistor + capacitor) circuit. When the output pin goes to 1, the voltage on the input should rise according to V * (1 - e-t/(R*C)). Check for when the input value changes. The number of cycles, R, C, and V should give you the answer.
That actually is a good idea. I actually already have something like that as a simple power-on reset. I would add a Schmitt trigger[^] to make the transition from the analog RC signal to a digital input less bumpy.
Edit: MacGuyver just told me about this: 74HC24: quad 2-input Schmitt trigger NAND gate
I am going to need a Schmitt trigger anyway and with NAND gatesI can build a simple RC oscillator, a flip flop that clocks itself, and eliminate the need for the output bit, of which I only have a single one. With a variable capacitor I should also be able to calibrate the frequency precisely enough. Just what frequency? Something in the range of 100Hz - 1kHz should be comfortable and precise enough.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
modified 23-Feb-20 9:28am.
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My preference would be for something more stable than an RC circuit. If you already want to throw in some hardware, why not use a CD4521 [^] driven by a quartz. With a 8.3886 MHz crystal you can get up to 0.5Hz output.
Just my 0.02$
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Mircea Neacsu wrote: If you already want to throw in some hardware
The next step will be to replace the simple reset logic and oscillator by a PIC microcontroller. This opens up many new possibilities, including a multiprocessor system and a modest memory expansion up to 16 megabytes. Why not include support for a compatibility mode to the old Elf and put all the legacy hardware on a second optional board? At the flip of a switch the PIC will reset the processor, switch to the right clock frequency and enable the good old stuff. This way I could have both the compatibility to the old computer and all the freedom I need to go in any direction I may want to take the new one.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote: If you want a real McGyver solution:
Take a piece of radioactive material with short half-life, place it on top of the memory, and use the processor to count the number of random bit flips induced per period of time. Knowing the half life, the rate of change in the number of bit flips will give you the length of the period of time, which (with the known number of cycles taken by the code) will give you the frequency.
You forgot to say the radioactive material has to be glued to the circuit using chewing gum.
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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What is it that's dictating the frequency? There must be something pumping the CPU right?
Find that device. on a PC it's something like a PIC controller or something like that (i forget) but it has a timing crystal or whatever in it. Accessing that would be a trick on a PC but it depends on your setup.
If it's not using a timing crystal how is it regulating itself?
Real programmers use butterflies
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A simple crystal oscillator on the breadboard at the moment, but I intend to replace it with a PIC for several reasons, including controlling the processor's clock. Besides that, the PIC will also help with getting rid of any slow ROM in the processor's memory map and synchronizing up to eight processors on the same bus without any (dead)locks or bus collisions. Letting the processor(s) talk to the PIC usually is not done, simply because that feature would occupy 11 of the PICs I/O pins, of which you never seem to have enough.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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