pentiumspeed wrote on 2023-02-23, 20:47:

Modified two Dallas DS1397 modules. […]
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Modified two Dallas DS1397 modules.

In 15 minutes I made a spacer tool made of thick cardboard from a drill package card and took old 32 pin eeprom and beat over the pins to keep that cardboard in place and at same time allow Dallas module fit over it and allow me to clamp both together in a vise without damaging the dallas pins.

Just a fine tooth hacksaw and small sharpened screwdriver and a screwdriver as a hammer. Sawed four slots then chipped out plastic to expose the pins and broke open internal connection for negative side battery to complete modifications. All I do is to finish is solder battery holders to them. I rechecked and marked positive by scratching a plus sign.

Just that, I don't like make big mess with dremel.

Cheers,

That sounds like a great method. I also prefer not to involve power tools when possible. Power tools generally make a lot more mess than what a hand tool makes. Plus, there's far less of a chance of ruining something or injuring myself with hand tools. 🤣

I helped my brother-in-law clean up his storage, and I asked him if he would sell his old horizontal beige case to me, which he agreed to. It has a UMC board with a 486 CPU and a Realtek ISA video card.

pentiumspeed wrote on 2023-02-23, 20:47:

Modified two Dallas DS1397 modules. […]
Show full quote

Modified two Dallas DS1397 modules.

In 15 minutes I made a spacer tool made of thick cardboard from a drill package card and took old 32 pin eeprom and beat over the pins to keep that cardboard in place and at same time allow Dallas module fit over it and allow me to clamp both together in a vise without damaging the dallas pins.

Just a fine tooth hacksaw and small sharpened screwdriver and a screwdriver as a hammer. Sawed four slots then chipped out plastic to expose the pins and broke open internal connection for negative side battery to complete modifications. All I do is to finish is solder battery holders to them. I rechecked and marked positive by scratching a plus sign.

Just that, I don't like make big mess with dremel.

Cheers,

I've read it twice and can't follow 🙁 Photos would be so helpful..

I'm doing a deep dive clean on an old Compaq\HP Evo D510 Small Form Factor PC.

Specifically I'm wondering why on gods green earth would they ever use paper "air guides"?

Stuff like that I've seen before was more like vinyl than paper.

tomcattech wrote on 2023-02-25, 04:30:

I'm doing a deep dive clean on an old Compaq\HP Evo D510 Small Form Factor PC.

Specifically I'm wondering why on gods green earth would they ever use paper "air guides"?

Price

Found time to play with my new Aoyue 852 hot air station today. First practiced a bit with an old SMD project I totally messed up with a regular soldering iron. After deciding I'd figured out how to solder something successfully, I got out my real project.

Before:

After:

Not been able to test yet, need to flash the card from Philips to regular GUS PnP first and figure out drivers (which seem to require installing Win3.11 first...)

That's interesting. I wasn't able to attach a CMOS socket with paste and hot air without melting it. I had to use my iron. Good job if you managed to do it successfully.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-02-25, 20:29:

That's interesting. I wasn't able to attach a CMOS socket with paste and hot air without melting it. I had to use my iron. Good job if you managed to do it successfully.

I used a fairly narrow nozzle at 390C, waving it around from quite a distance, combined with low-temperature SMD soldering paste. Some edges did get a bit crispy, but it looks like bits near the connectors aren't deformed. Look forward to updating as soon as I have time for testing.

The solder paste I used at the time was very old, not a low temperature solder, and I was using a large nozzle. I had many factors working against me. It's great to see some success with this. I'll consider trying again in the future.

I use a cheap AliExpress hot air station, as I don't feel that I require anything special for the kind of work that I do. What kind of station are you using?

Made some improvements to my compact PowerVR machine
- changed from a SATA HDD to an SD card adapter with a round and short IDE cable for decent airflow
- Slot that was used for the SATA controller now hosts a ATi Rage Pro LT, more suitable for PowerVR gaming than the integrated i752 (the ATi card is both faster and more compatible as a primary card)

In the future I'll change the 6x2.5cm front fan since it's what cools the Matrox M3D on the other side of the case. I'll opt for Noctua or PAPST.
I also need a Molex to 4 pints floppy adapter to make my floppy reader back.

dionb wrote on 2023-02-25, 20:37:

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-02-25, 20:29:

That's interesting. I wasn't able to attach a CMOS socket with paste and hot air without melting it. I had to use my iron. Good job if you managed to do it successfully.

I used a fairly narrow nozzle at 390C, waving it around from quite a distance, combined with low-temperature SMD soldering paste. Some edges did get a bit crispy, but it looks like bits near the connectors aren't deformed. Look forward to updating as soon as I have time for testing.

The low temp solder paste likely made the difference there, 390c will melt pretty much anything that's plastic.
With my 816DA hot air station I've found that ~250C is the upper limit for removing / replacing plastic-based connectors, so I use high air flow and that seems to work for me with leaded solder items. For lead-free it'd need heating from the back of the board instead.
Of course I haven't calibrated this thing in a few months and my temp probe isn't that accurate so it's probably somewhere around 240C to 265C 😀

Thermalwrong wrote on 2023-02-26, 14:52:

[...] […]
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[...]

The low temp solder paste likely made the difference there, 390c will melt pretty much anything that's plastic.
With my 816DA hot air station I've found that ~250C is the upper limit for removing / replacing plastic-based connectors, so I use high air flow and that seems to work for me with leaded solder items. For lead-free it'd need heating from the back of the board instead.
Of course I haven't calibrated this thing in a few months and my temp probe isn't that accurate so it's probably somewhere around 240C to 265C 😀

Tnx. Still very much a hot air beginner - will try this next time.

On a 86box VM, i tried out installation of Windows 95 D 1.6. Looks great! No massive amount of updates needed after installation of the OS.
Gonna be my go-to approach from now on.

I just got back from an anime convention. I was organizing a retro gaming zone together with 2 other hardware owners. We've set up like... 11 machines (consoles, computers) for people to play with. Was fun, was a lot of work.

I had a 'TÜV sagt nein' moment. Just for testing purposes of course.

That's a live AC connection for an AT style switch, right?

Yes correct. 😀

I don't collect AT systems and had no idea that it runs live power up to that switch. I only discovered this after someone mentioned it elsewhere on this forum sometime in the past few months; and I've been collecting for years!

That would make me real nervous, having hot and neutral neutral being to precarious somewhere inside of the case. I know it's already like this inside of a power supply, but I don't go poking around inside those very often. I wonder if a cheap case and a bad wire job could accidentally set the whole chassis live.

That's where proper grounding comes in, an earth leakage circuit breaker, (the green/yellow wire).
But without grounding, hopefully, somewhere a fuse (box) should trigger.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-02-28, 17:11:

I don't collect AT systems and had no idea that it runs live power up to that switch. I only discovered this after someone mentioned it elsewhere on this forum sometime in the past few months; and I've been collecting for years!

That would make me real nervous, having hot and neutral neutral being to precarious somewhere inside of the case. I know it's already like this inside of a power supply, but I don't go poking around inside those very often. I wonder if a cheap case and a bad wire job could accidentally set the whole chassis live.

If you had leakage to ground it would trip the differential breaker. And even if the computer itself isn't connected to protective earth (say, for example, if you use a deathdapter or ram a Schuko plug into an italian "bipasso" socket) it often could ground through the connected devices. The only way it could shock you is if the switch is miswired AND the whole setup lacks PE.