Almost there...

Most of the boards are OK now, I just need a few
more tweaks and that should be it. I am hoping
to that I will have the precious weekend to make
all of them working... and as for the notes, its
getting there.

New IC socket

Continuing where I left off my with BSG project, I finally found the SOIC to DIP adaptor again. So, this time I can create another makeshift adaptor board for it to fit into the programmer. Initially, I can just use the original adaptor on the Picstart Plus Programmer. But because its a 'mature' product, which is another way of saying its obsolete, the PIC I wanted to program it too 'new'. And I do not want to risk downloading the new version of MPLAB as the last time, it caused a lot of problems.

So, the easiest way is to create an adaptor for the adaptor to adapt to alternative programmer.

Its a very simple idea. All you need to do is to get
some sockets and some connecting pins and then
solder them all into a stripboard. The only problem
is to make sure no pins are short circuiting its own
neighbours or failed contacts.

And after testing and soldering and testing, the
adaptor is completed.

But because this is a 28-pin adaptor, it is very chunky
and tend to fall over. Which is a big problem because
of the pins beneath it.

Well, it sits comfortably on the programmer without
much problems. Now, all I have to do is to get my
old Toshiba working again to test if the PIC can be
programmed at all.

Tic tac Toe

Finally, after so long, I finally got the chance to play Tic Tac Toe with Kristine. Its going to be very exciting because she has never played before and I think, saw a few examples of other people playing.

First, she drew up a grid.

"I win!" I said, but she added, "I win too!"

OK, so this is going to take some more effort....