Go Back to the BASICs with the Cobalt 3 Pocket Retro Computer
Leonardo Leoni's PCB uses an ATmega328 along with an OLED display and button keyboard array.
Like many of us, Leonardo Leoni started soldering using small electronics kits — readily available from a wide variety of sources. When he wanted to “level up” and build an entire computer, he found that while there are a lot of projects out there, none that he could just buy and build. Leoni instead involve sourcing components for them from around the world. His answer was to create his own pocket retro computer with through-hole parts that were already familiar to him.
This new portable PCB computer —which runs a simple BASIC interpreter — consists of an ATmega328 processor, a SH1106 OLED display, and a QWERTY keyboard with tactile momentary switches. A single AAA battery provides power and software for the device is loaded via a UART serial interface. The arrangement almost looks like a rather large feature phone from years past, or perhaps an early prototype of one.
Those wishing to check out Leoni's design in more detail can head over to the Cobalt 3's project page and GitHub repo for the schematics. The eventual goal is to share this with others as a ready-to-go kit on Tindie, though as of now it's listed as “out of stock” until he finalizes things.