Re: Weird retro-light on old thermaltake Case

Posted on 2018-10-25, 04:39

by

by 133MHz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That looks like an electroluminescent (EL) light panel. Those are driven with a high AC voltage (100V or more) at low current so you need a suitable driver. You could probably get something from AliExpress that could be modified to work with that.

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Re: Why is this LCD monitor so expensive?

Posted on 2018-10-16, 03:30

by

by 133MHz

in Milliways

in Milliways

It's meant as a replacement monitor for industrial machinery. In a market like that such prices are the norm.

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Re: What's the best CRT monitor for DOS gaming?

Posted on 2018-10-04, 04:06

by

by 133MHz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I wonder if there is a picture comparison somewhere between monitors that are the same size, display the same images at the same resolution but have different dot pitch sizes. I did exactly that four years ago with a pair of monitors I restored (you can read about it here in an earlier post I made …

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Re: Anyone ever listen to shortwave radio?

Posted on 2018-09-18, 20:10

by

by 133MHz

in Milliways

in Milliways

I did, before widespread access to computers and the Internet were a thing, it was quite fun. Nowadays I imagine that if I were to try it I'd end up listening mostly to the chatter of LED lamps, switching power supplies and other China Pride™ gadgets.

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Re: Why 90s snack was delicious?

Posted on 2018-09-18, 20:01

by

by 133MHz

in Milliways

in Milliways

Isn't there some place to get fresh churros or brazo de reina? Are they going to legislate that bakeries change traditional recipes which have been around for decades? Well they were trying to mess up the marraqueta just like that (legislating the salt out of it) so I guess anything's possible …

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Re: Why 90s snack was delicious?

Posted on 2018-09-15, 22:20

by

by 133MHz

in Milliways

in Milliways

At least here in my country, taste has been systematically legislated out of the food. Things that I used to like now taste bland because they have to comply with the law, so in my case the older snacks were indeed better. Search the web for "chile food stickers" if you want to read about this.

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Re: LCD ribbon fix

Posted on 2018-09-08, 18:24

by

by 133MHz

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I have fixed such problems the McGyver way - wedging something between the connection and the frame to exert enough pressure to make the display work correctly.

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Re: Spam, spam, spam

Posted on 2018-08-29, 04:34

by

by 133MHz

in Milliways

in Milliways

YAMAHAOO7

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Re: AC filter capacitors in 90s computers

Posted on 2018-08-29, 01:48

by

by 133MHz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I had one fail like that on a 90s CRT TV a few years ago. It just filled up the room with stinky smoke and scared the hell out of the people present (it was at a local retro gaming event mind you!). Not me though, I knew that it had to be a mains suppression cap when I saw that the picture wasn't …

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Re: Worst retrogaming regret

Posted on 2018-08-29, 00:10

by

by 133MHz

in Milliways

in Milliways

Funny you mention Verbatim, those are exactly the CD-Rs I got because that's the only brand they had with any sort of recognition for quality. I wouldn't call them bad (I've certainly seen worse) but they are harder to read in older drives (and produce a higher correctable error rate) than the discs …

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Re: How to test an AT power supply

Posted on 2018-08-28, 23:52

by

by 133MHz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I use a combination of 4R7 7W ceramic resistors (each one draws roughly 1A @ 5V) and 50W 12V halogen lamps for load testing computer power supplies.

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Re: Worst retrogaming regret

Posted on 2018-08-23, 00:02

by

by 133MHz

in Milliways

in Milliways

I'm starting to regret not buying a surplus of quality optical media when it was more readily available. I always bought in relatively low numbers and replenished as needed but now that my stash has run out I went to get some more, turns out I can't find any of the good brands anymore and when you …

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Re: CRT Vertical Foldover

Posted on 2018-08-22, 23:47

by

by 133MHz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Under that plastic shell you'll find more coils, potentiometers, some resistors among other passive components for more complex geometry correction. The yoke normally buzzes at the frame rate frequency like a crude speaker, so if it's being improperly driven because of a fault it will buzz/whine …

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Re: CRT Vertical Foldover

Posted on 2018-08-22, 07:22

by

by 133MHz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If flexing the circuit board changes the symptom then you have cracked/cold solder joints somewhere in the vertical deflection circuitry. You should take a good look at the board and reflow every solder joint that looks even slightly off, that will likely cure the problem. If not, then you probably …

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Re: Microsoft Serial Mouse 2.0A not working? How to fix/test?

Posted on 2018-08-12, 01:17

by

by 133MHz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Windows should pick it up automatically. If you haven't used the serial port for anything else before I'd follow darry's advice and check that your serial port is working properly, preferably with a small loopback adapter that you can easily build inside a spare DE-9 plug. If the port is good the …

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Re: Worst retrogaming regret

Posted on 2018-08-11, 09:54

by

by 133MHz

in Milliways

in Milliways

Not picking up some stuff I didn't know I'd never see again (way back when this stuff was considered junk and worth almost nothing) because whoever was selling it wanted way too much and wouldn't budge. Back when thrifting netted you so much awesome hauls for so little money I tended to ignore …

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Re: ISA/PCI and GPIO?

Posted on 2018-08-11, 07:04

by

by 133MHz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

GPIO stands for General Purpose Input Output, it's not a protocol or a standard like say HDMI or SATA that is meant for interoperability and has a clear purpose. GPIO is pretty much the opposite - it usually refers to one or more digital I/O lines which don't have any fixed purpose and are directly …

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Re: HP LaserJet 5MP

Posted on 2018-08-07, 17:32

by

by 133MHz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

With more memory, you can download more fonts and graphics to the printer or process more complex documents. This. But contrary to your experience I did see the need for RAM with more mundane stuff. The LaserJet 6MP I mentioned earlier started printing more and more 'out of PCL memory' messages …

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Re: Cheapest way to erase an eeprom ?

Posted on 2018-08-06, 04:30

by

by 133MHz

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As said before, it depends on how cheap you can get a source of UVC light. In my case I lucked out years ago by finding an old small germicidal air purifier for around 6 USD (including the 12V wall wart to run it) at a thrift store - I spent a few more bucks on a project box and stuff to make it …

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Re: How's this CRT as an upgrade? NEC AccuSync 120

Posted on 2018-08-04, 01:22

by

by 133MHz

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

21 inches of 0.22mm CRT goodness? I'd take that in a heartbeat. But try it first, who knows if the tube is in good shape or worn out from heavy use. Just bring a laptop with some free pattern generator software like this one from NEC and have a good look at it.

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