About me
My name is Steve, but in the retro community I go by Suavek. It is the phonetic equivalent of my birth name Sławek, which I’ve learned is difficult for most English speakers to pronounce. By calling me Suavek, you’re actually pronouncing my birth name exactly right.
I am a professional electronics circuit and PCB designer with over three decades of experience, working in commercial environments on both sides of the “big pond.” I have designed electronic controls, peripherals, sensor circuits, inverters, and power supplies for the automotive, access control, gaming, and food processing industries. For the past six years, I have been designing critical applications for the medical industry in the California Bay Area. My home, however, is in Florida.
In my free time, I am a hardcore retro computing enthusiast, spending countless hours tinkering with my collection of computers from the 1980s and early 1990s, including Amiga, Atari, Sinclair, and Commodore systems. I always enjoy repairing these old machines, discovering new ones, and sharing my experiences with the retro community and anyone who “wants to know more.”
The educational aspect of both my career and my hobby play an important role in what I do and how I do it. I gladly welcome and interact with anyone who wishes to exchange ideas, tips, and tricks, and to help spread knowledge.
Thank you for visiting my website!
Electronics infancy
Here is a bit about myself, my electrical engineering experience and its origins.
I was just 13 when my uncle gave me an unusual gift: an electronics hobby kit.
This mysterious kit contained a handful of electronic parts, a large speaker, and something that looked like a printed circuit board. To my surprise, it turned out to be just a piece of heat-resistant plastic with no copper at all.
Because I had already been poking around inside my parents’ TV and stereo equipment, I knew that a real printed circuit board has a layer of copper that provides electrical connections between components and also holds them in place. The board that came with the kit didn’t look anything like that.
Using a bunch of hookup wires, I made the necessary connections based on attached circuit diagram (one of five available for assembly) and after a long day of cutting and soldering, my circuit came to life!
That moment defined what I wanted to do with my life.
I wanted to become an electrical engineer.
Teenage years
The appearance of discrete LEDs in the local hardware store fueled my curiosity and deepened my desire to build electronic circuits. When I received a bag full of red LEDs for my birthday, I became completely obsessed with optoelectronic components - LEDs, 7-segment displays, and anything I could use to present useful information around the house. I especially wanted to use LEDs as indicators for whether devices were on or off, often by combining them with relays.
My parents didn’t have to wait long before every light switch in the house was fitted with a red LED. The LEDs would turn on whenever the lights were off, and turn off when the lights were switched on. I secretly installed them while my parents were at work one afternoon, right after I had come home early from school.
Building stuff from Electronics magazines
In high school, I didn’t yet have enough knowledge of electronics to design much beyond hooking up LEDs with a relay and a battery. Still, I spent nearly all of my free time plowing through electronics magazines, devouring page after page of homebrewing projects. Some of these articles described meters and counters using 7-segment displays, which I later built meticulously based on their description - etching the PCBs myself, raising money to purchase components, and investing in my first real micro-drilling rig and soldering station.
To my delight, the home-built devices all worked right from the start. Was I just lucky, or was it because I was detailed and analytical in my work? I suppose it was a little bit of both. At the same time, though, I desperately wanted to understand exactly how the circuits worked - and that knowledge was still yet to come.
During my high school years between 1985 and 1988, I built myself a dozen of circuits based on publications in popular electronic magazines including: (1) Zener based power linear power supply; (2) Simple A/D converter voltmeter with 3-pos 7-seg LED display; (3) Adjustable power supply with voltage output readout which was a combination of (1) + (2); (4) Table clock with MC1204 integrated circuit; (5) Melody alarm table clock based on MC1206 integrated circuit; (6) 6-Digit frequency & period meter; (7) Stereo pocket size FM Radio; (8) Resistance, Capacitance and Frequency (RCF) multimeter; (9) Handheld DMM with 3 ½ digit LCD readout based on MC1209; (10) LED running lights with programmable TTL controller; (11) Clap ON/Clap OFF light switch; (12) Programmable 12-Tone melody doorbell; (13) TMS1122 based Programmable Clock/Timer.
Most of the homebrewed electronic devices I built did not survive the test of time or the many relocations I went through in my lifetime - including moves to different countries and even between continents as my professional career progressed. I wish I still had them all, but only a handful survived. The ones that did are pictured here, and I am happy to share them on this page.
The photo above shows my TMS1122-based Clock/Timer - the pinnacle of my high school electronics homebrewing at that time. I built it when I turned 18, not only etching and assembling the PCB but also meticulously crafting the enclosure, including hand-filing all the rectangular holes in the front panel so it would match my mini stereo system.
In 2024, I revived this design by porting it into modern CAD tools (Altium Designer), bringing it back to life in a contemporary form with a professionally manufactured PCB.
College years & PC aided designs
I was fortunate to have great parents who funded my first PC-compatible computer when I was admitted to Technical University. It was a machine based on an 80286 CPU, with 1MB of RAM, a 40MB Western Digital hard disk, and most importantly, an EGA video adapter with a color monitor. I still own this PC today, and it continues to work perfectly, storing all of my early designs from that era.
Back in 1989, this configuration not only allowed me to keep up with the pace of university studies but also to begin designing and simulating electronic circuits. Equipped with an educational copy of OrCAD for schematic capture, the crude but effective smArtwork PCB designer, and MatLab, this computer opened the door for me into the world of electronics design.
As I learned more about the basics of electronics during my first year of college, all the pieces of the puzzle from my high school designs finally came together, and I truly began to understand how they worked. From there, I started creating new circuits and developing fresh designs for my homebrewed devices.
First electronics designs
In the early days of learning electronics, I paid special attention to the basic logic circuits from the TTL family. I practically memorized the entire Texas Instruments catalog and could tell you exactly which gates, flip-flops, or other functions a particular TTL chip had—just by its number.
Funny - 35 years have passed, but I’ve still retained most of that knowledge, even though I rarely use TTL anymore.
My first PC-aided project for a printed circuit board (not my own circuit design, but a 100% from-scratch PCB layout) was the “TTL Clock Based on Discrete LEDs” published in an electronics magazine in 1984. I originally built it in 1985 using the hand-etching method, after manually transferring my paper board layout design onto the copper-clad board.
The original clock did not survive, but the picture shows a replica I recreated years later.
Another significant project I undertook was the design of a computer/controller system based on the popular 80C51/52 microcontroller of that era. It was equipped with 64kB of RAM/ROM, a serial port, two parallel ports (including a Centronics printer port), and a reconfigurable address decoder. Although it was never published, it became an important development and debugging tool in my later designs. The system ran a custom monitor program I developed, similar in concept to the one used on the first Apple I computer.
Further down this page, you can see a photo of its early version, housed in a black plastic enclosure.
This time, equipped with a personal computer and CAD software, I was finally able to learn OrCAD, gaining valuable experience by transferring the schematic from the magazine into CAD format. The PCB layout, however, was designed entirely from scratch using smArtwork, since the originally published project did not include a layout. This became my very first PC-aided, 2-layer PCB design.
During my first year with a PC, I transferred PCB artwork to fabrication by printing it on paper and then manually tracing the PCB. Later, when I acquired a Roland DXY pen plotter, I used a Staedtler permanent marker to transfer the PCB artwork directly from smArtwork to the board, thanks to the PLOT.EXE utility that was included with the software package.
During my five years of college, I designed and built several devices, including many PC peripheral cards—some of which were even commercialized. Here is a short list of them:
Full turnkey systems:
(1) Automatic Music System for Sony TC-FX33 cassette deck
(2) Post office ticketing controller with 7-seg LED display set.
(3) Robotic photometry system for mapping luminance of commercial and residential living/workspaces.
(4) Datalogger for Panasonic PBX office telephone switch/system.
(5) Microcontroller based Car Ignition Module for commercially available vehicle. (my master project).
(6) Universal I/O extension ISA card.
(7) 64kB SRAM Emulator add-on to (6).
(8) PC ISA EPROM Programmer.
(9) Sames ASIC based multiport I/O ISA Extension card
(10) Custom A/D and D/A music sampling/player ISA card.
(11) MCS-51 Universal Computer
(12) Universal User interface controller panel.
(13) Development platform for PDA (Personal Data Assistant).
Some designs survived, here is a gallery.
(6) Universal I/O extension ISA card.
(7) 64kB SRAM Emulator add-on to (6).
(12) Universal User interface controller panel.
(11) MCS-51 Universal Computer
(5) Microcontroller based Car Ignition Module
(13) Personal Data Assistant development platform.
Professional career
After graduation in 1994, I worked for an illuminated signs company, where I designed an electronic module that played back electronically pre-recorded messages (using the well-known ISD series chip of that time) to attract passing pedestrians and promote the products advertised on the illuminated signs—such as beer, cigarettes, or bottles of fine scotch. The module was ultimately installed in tens of thousands of advertising signs.
After about a year, I was hired as a Technical Editor for Practical Electronics (Polish edition), the largest electronics magazine in Europe at the time, second only to Elektor. In this role, I not only ensured the technical accuracy of the magazine’s content but also designed and published around 30 of my own projects - many of which appeared on the front cover.
At the time, the magazine sold nearly 50,000 copies per issue.
It was a highly creative period for me, filled with interaction with readers and collaboration with other designers.
Selected published projects I designed circuits and PCB for and developed software
(including PC and embedded).
MCS-51 Microcontroller family programmer
89C51/52/1051/2051/4051 In Circuit Emulator
PC ISA Extension card
PC 5.25 inch Drive Bay Multimedia Audio Amplifier.
Educational home computer.
Modular MCS-51 Flash microcontroller development system.
Casino Gaming designs adventure
One summer day, I received a phone call from someone at a large local manufacturer of casino-style gaming machines. He asked if I could help with a video game motherboard. That call marked a major turning point in my electronics journey.
It turned out the gaming company was facing a serious problem with component obsolescence in one of their most popular video poker machines. The issue centered on a PLD chip from the already obsolete PAL series, and my job was to reverse engineer it.
Because my past experience as a technical editor included several projects based on PLDs—such as GAL devices and Altera Max series CPLDs—I decided to take on the assignment. To decode the PAL chip, I built a test rig that allowed me to safely analyze its output responses to input triggers. I only hoped there was no sequential logic hidden inside, which, while still possible to reverse, would have required significantly more effort.
Two nights later, I was holding a GAL chip equivalent in my hands. I delivered it to the customer two weeks later—making sure not to make the job look too easy (and it truly wasn’t, given my busy schedule). Once inserted, the GAL chip performed exactly to the motherboard specification, which made the company very happy.
Later that year, I got another consulting job from same game maker, and it turned out to be successful as well.
After that success, the gaming company asked if I could design a complete electronics motherboard for a new video gaming machine. The system needed to support a wide range of peripherals: coin acceptors, bill acceptors, ticket scanners and printers, mechanical counters, lights, buttons, and more. The list of requirements was daunting—especially considering that, up to that point, my only step into the industry had been a couple of reverse-engineered PAL chips.
After careful planning and reviewing both the available technology and my own knowledge, I accepted the assignment. I left the editorial role and began working full time on the new motherboard design. Six months later, I had a working prototype, equipped with two separate software packages I had developed entirely on my own. One ran on the embedded microcontroller, managing all the peripherals in real time. The other handled the user interface, game display, and network communication (not shown). The UI portion of the motherboard was based on an 80486DX CPU and the Chips 65550 video chipset, which I had to program from scratch using nothing but its lengthy technical manual. In the end, everything worked as intended, and the motherboard I had solely designed and programmed was adopted for manufacturing a year later.
My new gaming motherboard was professionally packaged by the company in an industrial-grade modular metal chassis, equipped with a 19-inch LCD touch panel and all mandatory onboard peripherals. The design was fully tested for electromagnetic immunity and received certification from the National Gaming Board, sealed with an official GID number.
I used my “all-in-one” motherboard and display combo module in a special development station (shown in the photo below), which contained all the required slot machine peripherals. The setup was designed to allow easy disconnection of components whenever debugging was needed.
One of the key deliverables for the project was an example game application, which I researched, evaluated, modeled, and coded entirely myself. The customer requested a video poker game, and I delivered it. With SVGA screen resolution and 64-color graphics, it was a true novelty and a step up in quality on casino floors at a time when NTSC and PAL resolution video games were still the mainstream.
All the graphical elements for the game were created by me using CorelDRAW, drawing on my earlier experience at the illuminated sign company where I had used the tool extensively. When coding the poker game, I didn’t use sprites—since the Chips 65550 chipset didn’t support them. Instead, I implemented animation synchronized with the vertical refresh of the video frame, combined with dynamic color palette modifications. This approach provided more than sufficient visual effects on the screen during gameplay, fully satisfying the requirements with good design margin.
Another critical element of the development was the random number generator implementation, with proper seed initialization. To validate it, I wrote a separate simulation application that tested the algorithm by running tens of millions of deals overnight while accounting for various player strategies. This ensured the odds were consistently in the operator’s favor, as required by strict gaming regulations enforced by the Gaming Board.
After the success of my motherboard design, I was offered a position with the gaming company as R&D Manager. Around the same time, I was completing my second video game, Triple Deck Poker, which turned out to be another success among operators.
I assembled a team of skilled software developers and graphic artists, and in just two years we developed several video games for the very electronic platform I had designed.
That motherboard went on to become the gold standard for the decade, ultimately manufactured and installed in over 50,000 gaming machines.
The 1990s were the golden era of the casino gaming industry, a time when demand for new and innovative games far exceeded supply. It was an exciting industry to be part of—the floor for creativity was limitless, and my team and I embraced every opportunity.
In the following years, I designed and led the development of various casino-style peripherals, including smart displays and networked transaction hubs, both of which were used in local and nationwide jackpot systems.
With a variety of products in the company’s portfolio, it was time to showcase the fruits of our creativity and hard work at one of the largest exhibitions in the casino industry the ICE show, held annually in London, UK. Currently renamed to EAG. See more info about event here:
The ICE show was my first exhibition experience. As an engineer, I was rarely present on the stand itself, leaving that role to the sales team. Instead, I kept to the side, carefully observing and listening to customers’ wishes and demands.
Example of another cool project I co-designed during casino industry tenure.
A contactless optical sensor was developed to detect the winning number on a roulette wheel. Combined with a multicolor LED matrix display, it provided real-time winning number announcements directly on the casino floor.
The sensor used a dual-color light source: red to detect the numbered pockets and blue to detect the ball. Thanks to the presence of the green “0” field, which appeared black under red light, the built-in controller could identify the reference point (zero) on the rotating wheel. From there, it counted alternating black and red pockets and their assigned numbers. When the ball was simultaneously detected in a pocket, the system “locked” the result, identifying the winning number. This number was then transmitted via serial interface to the LED matrix display.
The sensor also incorporated intelligent ambient light filtering, ensuring long-term reliable operation even in variable casino lighting conditions.
As we used to say in the industry:
“There is no room for mistakes in the casino business. A single error means product removal from operation and huge losses for the manufacturer.”
The pinnacle of casino gaming design based on my motherboard was the “Black Diamond”—a multiplayer automatic roulette system. It featured eight player stations, each equipped with a touchscreen interface, and a fully automated roulette wheel supplied by Cammegh, the UK-based, family-owned world leader in high-end casino games and accessories.
The electronics and peripherals were housed in high-gloss piano-black cabinets with polished stainless-steel railings, making the system a true eye-catcher on casino floors. The entire setup enabled completely attendant-free operation, thanks to its smart design—even in the event of a failure at one of the player terminals.
I am proud to say that the entire player terminal and networking application control software for this system were coded solely by me during my final year with the company, before I moved on to the next chapter of my electronics journey.
The graphics were designed by one of the most talented artists I had the pleasure of working with - Mariusz Maciejewski, while the voice messages were pre-recorded by two high-profile actors during a company-organized studio recording session.
A user-selectable multilingual interface, combined with touchscreen operation, was the key to the product’s success. It continued to be manufactured for several years even after my departure from the company.
The “Black Diamond” automated roulette system supported the connection of additional remote player terminals. Each remote terminal was equipped with a secondary local screen, allowing players to observe the live wheel and check winning numbers. A single system could support up to 60 terminals simultaneously.
Product gallery.
VGA51 Project
One of the coolest electronics projects I worked on was a multiplatform VGA-compatible video adapter. I designed it in my free time for use with retro computers such as Atari, Sinclair, and Commodore.
This dual-monitor–capable adapter, which I named VGA51, was based on a single FPGA chip and required only a handful of resistors for the DAC implementation. To operate, the host computer needed to provide at least 4kB of free address space and an 8-bit data bus.
The FPGA was mounted on a mezzanine board I called the “stamp,” equipped with a pin header that allowed easy installation onto a baseplate interface board. The baseplate design could vary depending on the type of host computer.
For example, on the Commodore 64, the base interface board could be designed in the form of a cartridge that plugged directly into the expansion port at the back of the machine. Similarly, versions for Sinclair and Atari 8-bit computers followed the same approach.
I tested the VGA51 in an old PC 286-12 system by mounting the FPGA “stamp” onto an ISA-compatible expansion card, which plugged directly into a free ISA slot on the motherboard.
The VGA51 is easy to configure and can be adapted to any 8-bit computer system with a bus speed not exceeding 20 MHz. Users can choose to work with either one or two monitors simultaneously. More information about the VGA51 can be found by clicking the button below.
Cobra project
This was retro-community computer project that I pulled entirely in just 8 months. From start to finish.
The "Cobra" computer was originally published in 1984 popular electronics magazine to encourage hobby enthusiasts to build one at home. During 40-years this design had its comebacks and latest was around 2011 when group of retro enthusiasts raised the original design from the ashes on one of social media forums and started to support it by coding new software applications.
When I picked up the subject in Jan this year, I found fragmented documentation of the design with schematics made in Windows "Paint" and no enclosure - still after 4 decades of this computer existence.
In just few months I managed to pull it all together, transfer documents into Altium Designer including schematic and PCB, debug it; then find a professional to design custom enclosure for the Cobra and have it printed in 3D to make it just for the of the 2025 VCF (Vintage Computer Festival) show, where I exhibited Cobra among few other exhibits from the 80's era.
Click below if you want to learn more about this homebrewed computer project.
My Electronic Designs abroad
For more than two decades, I have continued designing electronic controls and power devices in the U.S. for a variety of commercial and consumer applications.
Most of my designs were commercialized in the U.S. and sold on consumer and commercial market including:
* Eye-Trainer – a medical-grade device for visually impaired patients. This lightweight binocular headset was equipped with micro-OLED panels and controller which hooks up to host PC compatible running dedicated software, customer coded specifically for this application.
* Electronic ignition controller for gas powered swimming pool heaters.
* Rapid Gate operator for controlling access to restricted areas or for use in highway tool passes.
* Robotic pool cleaner controller. I improved old design, got rid of component obsolescence. Improved efficiency and error detection.
* Variable speed 3HP drive for swimming pool pump.
This was the 1st US market product that received Title 20 Energy Efficient certificate in state of CA in 2011. Multiple patents.
I designed entire 3kW power supply with PFC front end, the inverter circuit and 3HP BLDC motor controls. Circuit design, simulation, pcb layout, bring up and debug.
* Water cooled energy efficient variable speed BLDC/PMAC motor inverter.
Company Innovation of the year. Patent.
Designed entire electronics for this inverter form scratch.
* Automatic Groundwater monitoring system.
Broadband connected & "mesh-network" enabled system allows easy 24/7 data monitoring and collection for analysis and water maintenance.
A dedicated Android app provides quick on-site access for service and maintenance. Multiple patents.
Product exhibited during NGWA organized Groundwater Week Show in 2018, Las Vegas
About the same time, I completed my 1st design around NXP i.MX SoC chipsets, an emerging at that time technology that defines embedded industry today. This was next level of PCB design where the knowledge from early years at the University about transmission line theory, became critical to design reliable circuit and printed board.
Multilayer high density high speed PCBA design became my daily bread as I mastered methods and techniques to achieve desired performance with sufficient design margins to meet most demanding applications. A 8-layer PCB accommodates over 1,250 components on a surface not larger from 1/3rd of textbook page.
One of first i.MX based designs was UI Touch controller for commercial appliance used in food processing by large food chain restauranrt networks.
The design was ahead of its time. It was commercialized and implemented in manufacturing 4 years after my company departure.
For last few years I work in medical industry designing controls for FDA regulated treatment devices utilizing lasers. One significant product I designed main electronics controller was 1st laser device to treat acne. Product established a new baseline in the industry bringing relief to many patients suffering from chronic lifelong acne symptoms removing them from daily drug regimen. For many patients it was a life changing positive event.
I designed entirely from scratch "Aviclear" main controller PCB assembly, display interfacing and laser handpiece PCBAs. New product was showcased during the 2022 annual ASLMS Exhibition in San Diego, CA.
Here I had a chance to take a photo with my newly designed "baby".
The electronics design journey continues.
Thaks for reading my page and making it that far!