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A project log for Altair 8800 front panel Ardiuno shield

A very small fully-functional interface for an Arduino Due emulating an Altair 8800

justin-davisJustin Davis 02/24/2017 at 18:250 Comments

I originally want to have an LED array like this one:

I wanted to match the LED with each DIP switch to maintain the same look as the Altair. I was looking for an array of 8 with 0.100'' spacing. Turns out most of these arrays are 10 LEDs wide. Additionally, they are quite large and I need two rows of these. In the end I couldn't find one that was just right.

So I decided to use individual surface-mount LEDs. This way I can get two rows and placement exactly in line with the respective switch. It will be a pain to solder all of these and making sure I have them all in the correct orientation. They are in an 0603 package. I will also need a resistor for each of the 36 LEDs. And I found a dual transistor, so only one of those for each pair of LEDs. Still lots of tiny soldering.

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