TRS-80 Model I restoration

Introduction In early June I went to the VCF Swap Meet in Wall, NJ and picked up a supposedly functional TRS-80 Model I. I haven’t been very interested in TRS machines (other than owning a CoCo 2 for a moment) until I watched a video by Dejan Ristanović, one of the creators of the Galaksija project, who shared some less known facts about the history of the Galaksija and its

Sourcing a replacement iPaq 3600-series battery

A few months ago I got a Compaq iPaq H3650, the same model that I had almost twenty years ago. This device left a strong impression on me, so even though I had (unfortunately) long ago gotten rid of my original one with a broken screen, I wanted to remember what these strange proto-smartphone devices were like. I got an iPaq on eBay for $10 (Pocket PCs are apparently not

Designing custom characters for the Galaksija

Galaksija computer stores its characters in a separate 2716 Character generator ROM. While these characters are fixed in the ROM, you can easily design new characters and burn them onto your EPROM. This article will cover how the Galaksija characters are programmed and where to find them in the character generator ROM. Each character is 16 bytes, or 8 columns by 16 rows: Each character consists of 16 bytes which

Yugoslav IEVT TY key switches – SMK style switches in disguise

Back in 2020 I built my first Galaksija computer, using the original single board design. Building this computer was quite a challenge for me, as I was pretty inexperienced with electronics. But the most difficult challenge was finding compatible key switches — so difficult actually, that it took me almost 3 years to find the right ones. This short article describes this journey, as well as a brief history of

Making a Galaksija computer FAQ

Last edited: 27 May 2024. Introduction Galaksija is a Z80A based microcomputer designed in 1983 in Belgrade (Yugoslavia, now in Serbia) by Voja Antonić. I’ve been documenting, exhibiting and speaking about the Galaksija ever since I assembled my first one in 2020. If this is your first time hearing about the Galaksija, I recommend you check out my three posts telling the story of the Galaksija: This post includes many

Macintosh in Yugoslavia – a belated #MARCHintosh2022 retrospective

It’s MARCHintosh! The month of March when the vintage computing community shares projects, creations and other content related to the Macintosh, in the vein of DOScember and SEPTandy. It’s almost halfway through March 2023, and due to my increasingly busy work schedule, I don’t believe I’ll get to do a project of my own. However, back in 2022 I did do a small #MARCHintosh project on Twitter, documenting the brief

Reliving my past and de-bricking a Compaq iPaq 3650 in 2023

A few weeks ago I got a Compaq iPaq Pocket PC, model 3650. While this device originally came out in 2000, I remember using it circa 2003 when my mom got it for work and passed it on to me because she had no use for it. While I probably only played around with it for a few months, it was a formative computing experience for me. Even though it

Orao WiFi/RS232 and Orao Terminal emulator

Edited May 16 2023 Orao was a Yugoslav 8-bit computer developed by Miroslav Kocijan for PEL Varaždin in 1984. Orao was common in elementary schools, mostly in Croatia, through the late 80s. Since 2021, I’ve been learning more about this microcomputer and developing hardware and software for it. While most of the information here is available on my Orao github repo, this page contains all the relevant information related to

Ode to Twitter

This is a translation of the article I wrote for Kulturpunkt.hr about the demise of Twitter, my personal history and feelings about what’s going on after Elon’s takeover, and my hopes for building better online communities in a post-Twitter world. It’s a direct translation from Croatian, so there are some references to “domestic” Twitter etc., which refer to Croatian and post-Yugoslav online communities. The article was published on November 15th

Remembering my grandfather for 100 days

Following Elon Musk’s takover of Twitter, I decided to finally leave that platform. I’ll be writing about my history and complicated feelings about Twitter in the future, but for now I’m archiving some important posts and threads that mean a lot to me and which I want to preserve. I’m starting with the 100 days posting photos and memories of my grandfather, after he passed away from COVID in October