Kahenraz wrote on 2022-02-23, 15:27:

Belts come in all different sizes. There are also square and round belts.

Round is so much more comfortable. Square sounds unnatural.

debs3759 wrote on 2022-02-23, 20:33:

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-02-23, 15:27:

Belts come in all different sizes. There are also square and round belts.

Round is so much more comfortable. Square sounds unnatural.

I guess it depends. If the wheel surface is flat (as opposed to curved) you want to use a square/flat belt because it will provide more grip.

PS/Edit: Most rubber bands you use day to day are usually square.

pan069 wrote on 2022-02-23, 21:02:

debs3759 wrote on 2022-02-23, 20:33:

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-02-23, 15:27:

Belts come in all different sizes. There are also square and round belts.

Round is so much more comfortable. Square sounds unnatural.

I guess it depends. If the wheel surface is flat (as opposed to curved) you want to use a square/flat belt because it will provide more grip.

PS/Edit: Most rubber bands you use day to day are usually square.

🤣. I guess my humour doesn't always work in text form. I was thinking of spongebob 😀

I made a SPDIF Out bracket for my AWE64 Gold.

Wasn't hard at all, and it seems to be working fine.

debs3759 wrote on 2022-02-23, 21:06:

pan069 wrote on 2022-02-23, 21:02:

debs3759 wrote on 2022-02-23, 20:33:

Round is so much more comfortable. Square sounds unnatural.

I guess it depends. If the wheel surface is flat (as opposed to curved) you want to use a square/flat belt because it will provide more grip.

PS/Edit: Most rubber bands you use day to day are usually square.

🤣. I guess my humour doesn't always work in text form. I was thinking of spongebob 😀

Ah, okay. 🤣. Yes, you have to work on that humor-text-format thing 😀

pan069 wrote on 2022-02-23, 21:02:

debs3759 wrote on 2022-02-23, 20:33:

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-02-23, 15:27:

Belts come in all different sizes. There are also square and round belts.

Round is so much more comfortable. Square sounds unnatural.

I guess it depends. If the wheel surface is flat (as opposed to curved) you want to use a square/flat belt because it will provide more grip.

PS/Edit: Most rubber bands you use day to day are usually square.

90% of them are too stretchy, before you get ideas... However, if you buy one of those giant bags of assorted bands from the dollar/pound or other discount store, you might find a dozen or two that would work as drivebelts... if they happen to be the right size for the thing you're trying to drive. Also found in those and around stalks of broccoli etc at the supermarket are some broad 1cm-ish wide bands that aren't so stretchy, possibly slicing those with razorblade into the width you need might work for some things. One thing with repurposed bands though is you have to eyeball them for thick and thin spots, which make it pull tight and loose as it turns, resulting in uneven speed. Potentially, you might find bags of large O-rings in hardware stores, farm/tool supply type places, which might work where round or square bands are required. Myself, I've had success in the past, when ordering from electronics surplus stores, by throwing in random surplus price belt service kits of whatever they were trying to get rid of for cheap, then mixing and matching. However, those don't come up as much nowadays.

Re: belts, it's probably not the cheapest option, but it is one of the rare options out there where you can choose from a range of specific belt sizes, and they ship worldwide : https://fixyouraudio.com/

I used them a couple months ago to get replacement belt for my walkman, after seeing them often referenced by searchers for such things, and subsequently found them to be reliable vendors - for what it's worth.

debs3759 wrote on 2022-02-23, 20:33:

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-02-23, 15:27:

Belts come in all different sizes. There are also square and round belts.

Round is so much more comfortable. Square sounds unnatural.

I think the idea is that a round belt is used if the surface is a cup, otherwise you use a flat or square belt. If you put a round belt on a flat surface it will roll off.

ALERT: Russia has just invaded Ukraine.

Anyone think this will affect retro computer parts prices? I know alot of the cheap compared to US stock parts on eBay ship out of there.

Poland, Romania, Czechs etc are gonna make bank. Russian stuff might be blocked by embargo, Ukrainian stuff might not get out.

Complex to predict, the overall effect.

It might trouble trade with directly affected areas.

While, in other parts of the world, the whole uproar could even make some people value their retro collection less (hard as that is to imagine, for we here at Vogons!) ...in a "welp, if the whole world is ending / degrading into shit, then I don't reeeally need these 15 x K6/2's anymore! reverse-yoink!" -like manner. /highly_speculative_imaginings

Also, toilet paper is gonna be out of stock this week 🤣

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-02-24, 04:44:

Also, toilet paper is gonna be out of stock this week 🤣

Not again.... 🤣

Two weeks of lockdown to flatten the roll.

It's all your fault, trees.

Finished the setup of my A20M :

New Battery, old was KO
Full clean-up.
Put some old-new P3 and Window stickers
Replaced Cd player by a new CDRW ( also have a DVD in its pouch )
Replaced the HDD with a 256GB SSD
Setup Windows98SE and functional Ms-Dos 7.1
Installed Acronis True Image 8 to get a recovery partition in case of issue.

NyLan wrote on 2022-02-24, 17:48:

Finished the setup of my A20M : […]
Show full quote

Finished the setup of my A20M :

New Battery, old was KO
Full clean-up.
Put some old-new P3 and Window stickers
Replaced Cd player by a new CDRW ( also have a DVD in its pouch )
Replaced the HDD with a 256GB SSD
Setup Windows98SE and functional Ms-Dos 7.1
Installed Acronis True Image 8 to get a recovery partition in case of issue.

2022-02-24 10.45.44.jpg
2022-02-24 10.45.20.jpg
2022-02-24 10.45.09.jpg

Wow..nice work!

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-02-24, 04:44:

Also, toilet paper is gonna be out of stock this week 🤣

That was the inspiration for my avatar. 🤣

NyLan wrote on 2022-02-24, 17:48:

Finished the setup of my A20M : […]
Show full quote

Finished the setup of my A20M :

New Battery, old was KO
Full clean-up.
Put some old-new P3 and Window stickers
Replaced Cd player by a new CDRW ( also have a DVD in its pouch )
Replaced the HDD with a 256GB SSD
Setup Windows98SE and functional Ms-Dos 7.1
Installed Acronis True Image 8 to get a recovery partition in case of issue.

2022-02-24 10.45.44.jpg
2022-02-24 10.45.20.jpg
2022-02-24 10.45.09.jpg

I've just spent the last three days with a very touchy Win98se installation, first it crashed every time I tried installing new hardware drivers so I did a nuke and pave which fixed the issue, then it decided to not get along with the PCI sound card it had previously been fine with so I swapped the card for an identical one (same settings) and all was well again then it decided to crash at random times quake 3 arena was running with a known good GPU and clean drivers. (tested both cards in another PC and they work fine, no issues or driver problems)

That third time was my final straw with that 98 install and it and the HDD it resided on was removed from the PC and sent to my sin bin.

New HDD and a ME install and its now working perfectly, now I know what you may be thinking .. it was the HDD causing the issues... nope that HDD was repurposed as a XP boot drive and its running perfectly.

I still hate Win98 just as much now as I did back in the day, its a picky whiny little child of an OS that randomly throws tantrums and wont take no for an answer.

Tested the newly acquired Compaq Portable 286. It would power cycle and after I took out the RLL/MFM controller, disconnected the drive (both data cables and power plug), and switched it on, it sprang up. I took the FDD/Serial/Parallel card out to see if it'll turn on and it does.

Granted, it might or will need a recap on the power supply, which is always a top priority.