This post will be a bit more brief than some of the others, I was relaxing around Thanksgiving and put this together. Only afterwards did I realized that I was having such a good time, that hadn’t taken too many photos.
The kit comes from Chris over at https://www.adwaterandstir.com/altair/. The version I have is The Altair-Duino v1.4, which came in a bamboo box. There are now other versions, some with acrylic cases! This post will be about version 1.4.
The Kit
The kit comes with all the parts you need inside the box. The main controller is an Arduino, hence the name The Altair-Duino. There is an SD card that you bend the prongs on (more on that later) which holds the disk images. This is a fun straight forward kit, that comes with everything you need minus solder. The Arduino came with the firmware it needed, and the SD card came with disk images preloaded onto it.
Assembly
The kit comes with a spiral notebook of instructions on how to put it together. These are great, color photos of step by step what to do. You can see them here, https://www.adwaterandstir.com/instructions-14/ , keep in mind this is for my specific version. Like many of the other kits, the longest part of this kit is soldering all the LEDs and resistors onto the board. There are a few ribbon cables that go into place, and you are set. Be slightly careful when putting the switches in, they can be a tighter fit into the holes which is great for stability, but they are at the center of the board and it can flex. Once you get it all in the case and screwed down, clearance is a bit low, so make sure the board is ready to go in, when you put it in.
The one part of the setup that is a bit scary, the system comes with a SD card reader that sits flush with the board; if you want it to be accessible from the back of the case you need to bend the 4 legs on it. I used my trusty Radioshack wire stripper/pliers for that!
Software
I connected over USB, the kit also supports Bluetooth on Windows, to get the serial line out and console in. The system supports loading a bunch of programs that are included. The creators website, https://www.adwaterandstir.com/operation/ includes a bunch of guides on things to do. I loaded up CP/M and for fun, of course Zork!
A easy kit to put together, and a fun little project. I now am amassing a wall of these projects, and will have to get a new shelf for this one. Then I will just wonder where Chris found 256mb micro SD cards!
BuildingTents 