I wonder who and why steals the brackets from the cards? I've seen a lot of cards in adverts (graphic, audio, network or I/O) that were missing. If they were nonfunctional, I'd say they're taken to metal, but functional? It is not easy to replace them with others due to differences in pitches and location of holes. Of course, cards can be used without them, but it doesn't look pretty. How do you handle it?
I see the same, especially from eastern European or Russian sellers. Perhaps the scrap value of the metal means they are the first (and easiest) to be taken.
My collection database and technical wiki:
https://www.target-earth.net
Maybe the cards were found in a electronics dumpster after the metal bracket was separated from the PCB for recycling.
Separating the bracket increases scrap value of the PCB per kilo. Same for other removable metal parts like screws and heatsinks.
PCB recyclers don't want to pay for relatively cheap metal parts while still having to manually remove them before trying to extract precious metals from the PCBs. They pay more for PCBs that have this already taken care of. (Not just roughly subtracting the weight of the metal parts.)
On the other hand in larger quantities cheap parts like brackets and heatsinks can be lucrative to sell as well.
If you're a scrapper it only makes sense to separate them.
That makes sense. But those cards are on sale in a private advert, so maybe the card seller was getting the cards from the recycling yard and reselling them. Too bad, they're worth more to us when they're complete. Do You have any tips on what bracket to replace or how to fix the card in the case?
Unfortunately, like you say, it's going to be almost impossible unless you find a non-working card of exactly the same type.
You might get lucky with generic things like multi-IO cards where they seemed to standardise on parallel + game port being on the card, but it's a long shot.
I see a lot of similar cards with missing brackets here: https://meshok.net/?good=2&search=ISA
My collection database and technical wiki:
https://www.target-earth.net
Ydee wrote on 2021-06-03, 10:14:That makes sense. But those cards are on sale in a private advert, so maybe the card seller was getting the cards from the recycling yard and reselling them. Too bad, they're worth more to us when they're complete. Do You have any tips on what bracket to replace or how to fix the card in the case?
I think so too. I share your frustration and sadly I have no ideas on how to deal with it.
Personally I don't buy cards like that anymore except for good offers on cards you rarely find. Without the bracket I just can't really enjoy using them. Stupid, I know.
I tried using a bracket from SB128 PCI on the Crystal card, the holes match, but the height does not (the ISA card is otherwise high than the PCI). Finding the same but non-working and unrecoverable card from which to use bracket is more of a rarity. I'm thinking of drilling holes into a full plug slot bracket, that are easier to find.
These guys [1] make custom brackets. I haven't figured out how to use their website yet properly. You can search for brackets by their cutouts [2].
I wanted to see if I could get brackets made here for my Snark Barker but I haven't gotten around to it yet, and I'm also not informed enough to actual know what I'm doing in these regards.
Any thoughts welcome... 😀
[1] http://bracket.com
[2] http://bracket.com/products/brackets/cutout-search.html
Unfortunatelly, I don't know what happened, but could not connect to the linked page:
Ydee wrote on 2021-06-03, 11:16:Unfortunatelly, I don't know what happened, but could not connect to the linked page:
Looks like something between you and them is running some sort of net nanny on your behalf, making sure you're not doing "unsafe" things on the Internet. 😀
Probably your ISP. What the reason is they are filtering this site, who knows 🤷
Ydee wrote on 2021-06-03, 11:16:Unfortunatelly, I don't know what happened, but could not connect to the linked page:
That site is not https , if you are using Chrome and accessing a site (such as Vogons) over https, you will find that Chrome will sometimes (not always) silently refuse to open an HTTP (non HTTPS) link that you click on without telling . I have very strong feelings about the cognitive skills (or lack thereof) of anyone who thought it was a good idea to implement HTTP link block in such an inconsistent, passive-aggressive way and without showing a warning .
Suggestions :
- Copy paste the link into the address bar of a new browser tab or window .
- Try another browser .
Full disclosure : both links currently work for me in Chrome when clicked, but I have found the behavior to be so inconsistent that I still believe what I suggested is worth a try . Sorry if this does not help .
Agree ! Cut and Paste into new Chrome Tab or window. Worked for me though generally use Firefox on my pc's (am not a big Google fan)
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
Thank you all for the advice, I've been using Mozilla for years (the fire fox was a lizard back then) and it should be on Gecko's core, if I'm not mistaken? I don't understand, but today the links work for me, and I get to the site without any problems or reports - I can't figure out why Sitelock cares about my "safety," perhaps it's an ISP solution.
