Recent content by Slob

On refinishing keys that have discolored, when I had time and un-diagnosed OCD, !!!AND AFTER DETERMINING THAT THE KEYTOPS WERE DOUBLE-SHOT MOLDED!!! (the ADM-3A's are), I would sand the keys with 1000-1500 wetordri (wet) and then polish them with automotive polishing compound by hand (machines...

I have two ADM3a's, one is beige with a brown base and one has a blue top. I put in new CRT's (old-timey blue-white, not the later paper white available in the late 80's+ color). I've been paranoid about burning those screens and on my to do list is a hardware screen saver for them. One of mine...

I have a several pieces of 1960's portable audio equipment (tape recorders, transistor radios) with positive ground adapters. I think that this fell out of favor in the 1970's. At one time, most cars had 6V positive ground.

Windows 10 is just awful. The enormous flaw in it is tthat they tried to make it usable on a tablet AND on a laptop, and they failed miserably at both. On top of that, the designers of it and all of the other Microsoft components obviously fell to the "leave your mark on the fire hydrant"...

I would say that a good number of adults, particularly young adults, need those classes as remedial classes.

I have seen a remarkable decline in self-sufficiency and even common sense among young people. This has profound effects in a society. I have read that "Home Improvement" type stores are panicking because young homeowners can't do ANY home maintenance, like, fix a toilet, change a faucet, change...

Having "restored" two ADM-3a's, They work and except for the CRT's and "doors" (which I replaced with aluminum, a magnet, and handle), as far as I am concerned they are "restored". Keep in mind that it's fairly common for antique radio restorers to pull the guts out of 70-year old capacitors...

I worked for a company that used HyType II subsystems, and then went to Qume, after designing a look-alike case for it out of the plastic foam that computer equipment like terminals were made of at the time. I had to repair both types. Pluses of Qume's: Likely cheaper Lighter Simpler...

I'm not sure how people on this board feel about emulators, but... I have been spending the evening playing with the LILYGO TTGO VGA ESP32 Module V1.4 and FAB-GL, a very nice Arduino library and it's "demo" IBM-PC emulator. Let me say, that for $18 and some stuff virtually everyone reading this...

I built (scratch, not from plans) a very small bartop with one of those "60-in-1" Chinese boards. This was the smallest design I've seen with a joystick, rollerball, and a coin acceptor. I feel that the coin acceptor is a crucial part a home arcade. If you don't put the coin in and hear the...

Tools for 4004 Development Tools for 4004 Development 2716/08 "Promulator" As I had mentioned, in order to develop the 4004/4040 boards I needed a "promulator" so that I wouldn't have to constantly "burn and learn" with UVEPROMS. Even the tedium of installing/removing a 28C16 EEPROM would be...

i built a few boards about 20 years ago that demo'ed the 8008 and the 8080 with scrolling descriptions of the chips. I pulled these out of storage to look at while I was building new 4004 and 4040 hardware. They didn't seem to want to reset anymore. It turned out that although my wire-wrapping...

Many years ago, I purchased some white UVEPROMS cheap that look a lot like Intel 2708's from the packaging. The seller thought that they were 1702A's but wasn't sure. The problem is, other than a datecode (7829) on the bottom, they are completely unmarked. I am fairly certain that they were not...

One of the more satisfying projects that I did this year was to modify an earlier project (described at http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?60670-Tiny-Wireless-8008-Emulator) so that it could be standalone. With just the ESP8266 (ESP-12E, ~3-4USD) and a few other components, this has...

So, I was playing with my VT320 terminals that I painted and cleaned a few years ago. One worked very well, but one was dim even when turned up to max brightness. Both had burned amber CRT's. I thought that it was now or never on the CRT's, so I searched around for replacements. I ordered a few...