Teensy: Technical nostalgia

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Pete1061

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I'm new to Teensy & dev boards in general. I got my start in games and web design, grew up on electronics, had some other electronic minor jobs.
Been more of a java/C# programmer, some c++ familiarity.

I see Teensy as a nice way to get back to the basics. I feel like we've been kinda spoiled by the huge 64 bit systems and gobs and gobs of ram and storage.
Teensy is like a mid 80's footprint to code on again, refreshing. Back to the fun many of us had back in jr high & high school with those machines.

Guess that's why retro-theme games and emulators are so popular. good 'ol nostalgia. Nothing at all wrong with it, it keeps us grounded to the simple things.
And hey, a good connection to gnd is essential.

I'm just excited about the possibilities and ideas I get from this board. For the physical size and performance, it just works out right for my needs.
It's also a nice chance to dig into those C++ skills I have been wanting to build.

For me I call it 'technical nostalgia' I'm more into the retro specs, than re-creating the look and feel.
More like what can I do with a few hundred K, and 72mhz, knowing the engineering practices that have been learned since then?
Sure folks can emu a mid-80's machine, but there are other aspects to Teensy (and dev boards today) that did not even exist at all back then.
anyway, my skills are nowhere near close enough to make an emulator. I mainly do geometry things in Unity.
Nothing against the emu world, mame was the first thing I installed when I got a smart phone.

I'm just kinda introducing myself and getting philosophical about technology.
Been studying a bunch of boards lately, Teensy is leading the pack :)
 
the //e ..... ahhhh memories..... libraries were loaded with them back in the day.

I was an Amiga head back then. But an Amiga emu may be a bit heavy for a Teensy.

But I might see what kind of a "GUI" I can cobble together to resemble something mid-80's. Classic-mac-ish.
Or as basic and 'crude' a 3D engine I can put on a 1.5" oled. Probably won't be capable of much, but it's the fun of it.
The old arcade game "I Robot" is a small footprint 3d engine.

I also do stuff in the Unity game engine, mainly mesh stuff.

Also, If I can get a pair of cameras working on a teensy, I'm hoping I can feed that in to a desktop as a 3D camera.
Not sure which cams would work in multiples on a teensy.
 
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I've run the trig to make a shaded polygon sphere for an artificial horizon (for kerbal space program) on a T3.6. Doing that left me in awe of the guys who did things like the Frontier series in far less capable cpus since the edges cases made my head hurt. Haven't found a portable mesh or voxel library yet, but in theory a 3.6 with FPU should be able to push a reasonably complex render to to 1.5-2inch LCD
 
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I already have dual oled running on a 3.6. When I get/assemble a 3D printer (kit), I will make a housing with eyepiece lenses (maybe from binoc's)
maybe make it all small enough to look similar to Jeordie LaForge's visor from next gen.
I have no starfleet uniforms though, lol.

Teensy VR.
But I'm thinking the cameras will likely have to be on separate boards for a basic AR/mixed setup. The two oled's are already taking a lot of pins. The cameras I have use a bunch themselves (arducam 0.3 mp), I don't even know if I can get two on one teensy working.

How easy is it to get multiple teensies working together? What sort of transfer speed can I get between them? 3.6 has full 480mb usb. I suppose I could get them 'talking' through usb.

I have an idea for an augmented vision system crystalizing. I'm thinking if I can get it working with regular rgb cameras, when I can afford it, hook up some Flir lepton thermal cameras, and attempt 3D thermal augmented reality. It won't be super detailed, those lepton sensors are only 80x60 infrared pixels, expensive though, almost $300 each.
I have one for my cell phone, thermal cameras are fun!

It'll start crude and not looking much like the real thing, I want to get functionality down first, but I want to try to make a somewhat functional real LaForge visor like I was talking about. (I saw those flir sensors online and started getting ideas :p )
I think it's theoretically possible. We'll see. I'll keep you guys posted.
 
Or how about "Teensy DOOM"?, speaking of 3D engines.
Has Teensy had it's version of DOOM ported yet?
Every other platform someone has managed to get DOOM running on.
 
Haven't seen doom on Teensy. Unsure if doom itself would run, but stealing the whatever 2.5D engine they use would have some interesting potential.
 
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