Pinebook Pro pre-orders open with shipping in August 2020.

Hello everyone, I’m sure many of you will be happy to hear that the next round of Pinebook Pro pre-orders have now opened. This production-run is expected to ship in late August, 2020.

July Update: biggest update in months!

I cannot remember the last time I had this much to report. With so many announcements and highlights, I ran out of time and didn’t cover a handful of topics that happened this month.

First sub-assembly – support of the stem – Project H #10

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=WycVNpdzJ-Y

It’s time to finish the development of the first parts of the H tube – sub-assembly of the stem and ceramic rods. I designed this connection to be done using ceramics adhesive and it seems it will work. It is vacuum safe and it will provide enough support for the rest of the internal system of our nixie tube.

Michael "mickeyl" Lauer: Feeling like Don Quixote

For some years now, I have been feeling like Don Quixote fighting against windmills. This is a multidimensional feeling that has its roots in both personal and professional circumstances. With regards to personal issues, I won't go into details as I want to keep this blog free from politics, society, and economics. With regards to professional circumstances, something that bugs me a lot is that I seem to engage in fighting wars that can't be won. Free software lost a lot of wars, most notably though in the mobile sector. As I have complained more than once before, over the...

Project update – Project H #9

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=1afJv1MN84E

A bit longer video – I wanted to give you an update on progress in: 1:18 – upgrade of the glassworking equipment 5:28 – residual stress in the glass after sealing 7:25 – solder glass testing 11:20 – nitrogen purging setup 15:29 – connecting wires insulation 20:17 – anode cup manufacture 24:52 – ceramic parts.

June Update: postmarketOS CE PinePhone, Shipping & PINE64 Cluster

Hello everyone! It has been a really busy time for us here at PINE64 as we’re working hard to deliver outstanding PinePhone UBports Community Edition and Pinebook Pro shipments. The big news of this month is that we’re excited to announce that a postmarketOS Community Edition PinePhone will be available for pre-order early next month.

Borax is not a suitable coating under high vacuum | Project H #8

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=RCJUwJUnJGs

Another test made – it turns out that dumet wire with its borated protective layer is not suitable for use in a high vacuum. Maybe at room temperature.. The borax layer (or the borated compounds) evaporates under high vacuum at 500C. I will need to find another solution.

ROCKPro64 Cluster Move June 5-10

The process of moving our end-user services to the ROCKPro64 cluster will be taking place in the coming days (5-10 June). I am not going to pretend like this is the best time for the move to be taking place, since it is not.

Is Borax Suitable Coating for High Vacuum? | Project H #7

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=ylmuYxDzRvI

A borated dumet wire would be a perfect solution for the insulated electrical connection between stem and digits inside the tube H. Borax would work as the insulating layer while copper-clad NiFe core would do the electrical connection which is easy to spot-weld to both stem and digit. Moreover, we have plenty of dumet already, it is low-cost, we can cut it to whatever length we need in-house, etc.. But – how does the borax behave during bakeout process under high vacuum, will it be stable once there is plasma around?

Thinking How to Drive a Panel of 121 Nixie Tubes | Project H #6

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=MYzIJkWOEIQ

While working on the tube H itself, we have to keep in mind also the design of the electronics – without an absolutely reliable driver, the panel will simply not deliver the desired experience. Our first idea was to use a master module with just a string of shift registers – we do this normally in our clocks.. However, it turned out the data flow required in this case would be too large – we will need to split the logic.