Weekend weird crap, several-th edition...
Went to 3 sales with "computer parts" turned out to be keyboards, speakers, random hookup cables of no great value, one vaguely tempting monitor, but only if I didn't have plenty. Elsewhere, found myself talking to a dude who had had things to do with VERY retro computers, like 60s IBMs etc, though I was struggling to hold up my end of the convo though because I don't know a lot about that era, and he had a yard sale to run etc. He had a couple of SFF/OEM units, which were X2 and core duo so stuff I've got in spades, ended up coming away with 4 plastic drawer units of electronic components for about a whopper meal price.
Quite whelmed for the nice stock of components to go at, though haven't on first go through found anything super special. Mostly enough 74 series to build a Pong replica. I was hoping for a few DRAMs, some PIOs, that sort of thing, but not looking like it. Definitely some stuff i can use though, nice selection of small transistors and a handful of power transistors useful for 486 regulator circuits and HOT for CRTs. Some stuff that you definitely have to find a use for, like Jet Pilot quality communication mic elements, multiway switches that are like $50 a pop to order otherwise, with a bajillion poles and positions, gets you thinking purely electromechanical speed selector etc. Wideband video amps, get a real upgrade for a dim VGA, some nice pots and trimmers, some looking good for replacing glitchy monitor controls. Possibly has every diode I will ever need, my diode selection has been tiny for years. Then of course a butt load of random capacitors and resistors. Well not so much retro computer hardware specific, but there's a non-zero amount of this going to end up in some. Possibly some of the 74 series too, if I get as far as the 4th or 5th best XT board. Faint chance of some floppy drive fixing stuff, seeing TDA motor controller and feedback amps that look familiar.
The way I view this stuff, is if I fix two or three things with stuff from it, it has paid off. It's a bit of a project for next time I'm sick though, can do mechanical non-thinky stuff, with very light exertion, and sort these drawers into my system of drawers, because there's a lot of empty space in both so can condense a lot. Then one of these sets might get used for sorting SIMMs into or something, another SDRAM.
Edit: Further perusal of the haul. Enough 78xx and 79xx series linear voltage regs to last decades, enough multiturn trim pots to build several calibrated parallel port DACs (DSS kinda deallies). Found some 4000 series CMOS, which had a small selection of counters, now I was tying my brain in knots a while back trying to figure a counter chip replacement with D type flip flops, because I had a ton of them, and I can't quite remember why. Something to do with timing pulse generation for something. It's logically easy, but logistically not, figuring how to do it to fit in fanout and power budget for the mixed series crap I was trying to "use up" and the counters that would have made it simple were not commonly held at the parts places with decent single unit price and cheap shipping, so I was looking at spending $50 and waiting two weeks or something. Anyway, gotta find my way back to what I was trying to do and seeing if these help. It might either have been something to do with a terminal project, or a 8086 single board machine, or something else. Better buy a pack of 9v batteries though, gonna work my component tester hard.
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.
