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s0 Traingirl Era
s0 Traingirl Era
@s0@cathode.church  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

So apparently there’s this neat thing you can get for a few bucks called a capacitor discharger which does what it says on the tin without making sparks and pockmarks in my screwdrivers?? Who knew.

Immediately bought a bunch to give to friends.

#tinkering

A probe labelled dual indicator capacitor discharger, discharging a large 10000uF capacitor with a green light.
A probe labelled dual indicator capacitor discharger, discharging a large 10000uF capacitor with a green light.
A probe labelled dual indicator capacitor discharger, discharging a large 10000uF capacitor with a green light.
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Hacker News
Hacker News
@h4ckernews@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

Patching 68K Software – SimpleText

https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/patching-68k-software-simpletext.4793/

#HackerNews #Patching68K #SimpleText #Software #Development #RetroComputing #Tinkering

TinkerDifferent

Assembly - Patching 68K software - SimpleText

Someone asked to have SimpleText open a smaller text window at startup. Initially, I assumed this would be a fairly easy fix by just overwriting a few constant values in SimpleText code. It turned out to be a pain -- but I learned a lot along the way. You need to have the code editor (from one...
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Hacker News
Hacker News
@h4ckernews@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

If you don't tinker, you don't have taste

https://seated.ro/blog/tinkering-a-lost-art

#HackerNews #tinkering #art #creativity #innovation #craftsmanship #taste

seated.ro

If you don't tinker, you don't have taste

programmer by day, programmer by night.
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jbz
jbz
@jbz@indieweb.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

I 3D printed a laptop / polymatt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I7mhI6s5cg

#diy #3dprinting #tinkering

I 3D printed a laptop
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s0 Traingirl Era
s0 Traingirl Era
@s0@cathode.church  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

2/
I opened up the one with the issues to have a look, and happily, the input section is on a separate board! Well then, hopefully I can swap it out for the input section from the newer unit, to A, confirm that the input section was the problem, and B, get the better amp fully working.

I removed the suspect input board and immediately my eye was drawn to these semitransparent yellow polymer caps. I can’t say exactly why, but I don’t trust them.
…

Photo of a populated PCB on an angle. It has ribbon cables, switches, misc little components and a cluster of caps near the top.
Photo of a populated PCB on an angle. It has ribbon cables, switches, misc little components and a cluster of caps near the top.
Photo of a populated PCB on an angle. It has ribbon cables, switches, misc little components and a cluster of caps near the top.
s0 Traingirl Era
s0 Traingirl Era
@s0@cathode.church replied  ·  activity timestamp 3 months ago

3/
I then went and opened up the other unit, and pulled out the input board. Under all the dust, a few things became apparent.
First, they revised the design to remove the stupid metal tab that you had to bend to be able to remove the input board without taking every other board out first. Nice.
Second, the only noticeable revision to the input board was replacing those exact yellow capacitors with a different kind of film/poly cap. Aha! Vindication perhaps?

Anyway, I was able to swap the newer input board into the older amp (after removing all the dust).
And then test, and yay! It worked great!
Nice quiet fans achieving plenty of airflow, chassis doesn’t get hot, no input popping. This 20-year old amp is ready for another decade or two of service, I hope.
And maybe I’ll get some filter foam over the front intake…

#tinkering #s0Projects

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Mike [SEC=OFFICIAL] boosted
s0 Traingirl Era
s0 Traingirl Era
@s0@cathode.church  ·  activity timestamp 6 months ago

I wrote a quick blog post about my Soldering Fume Extractor v4 finally.

It's a relatively cheap (~AU$120), compact, effective and quiet fume extractor, that uses cheap off-the-shelf filters.

Anyone who's interested in making one, check it out. If there's more interest I'll see about building a v4.5 with stronger 7mm ply.

https://blog.s0.is/blog/soldering-fume-extractor-v4

#tinkering#s0Projects

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s0 Traingirl Era
s0 Traingirl Era
@s0@cathode.church  ·  activity timestamp 6 months ago

I wrote a quick blog post about my Soldering Fume Extractor v4 finally.

It's a relatively cheap (~AU$120), compact, effective and quiet fume extractor, that uses cheap off-the-shelf filters.

Anyone who's interested in making one, check it out. If there's more interest I'll see about building a v4.5 with stronger 7mm ply.

https://blog.s0.is/blog/soldering-fume-extractor-v4

#tinkering#s0Projects

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s0 Traingirl Era
s0 Traingirl Era
@s0@cathode.church  ·  activity timestamp 6 months ago

Had a dead Soundcraft Ui12 needing repair. Was browning out any PSU connected.

Ruled out the CPU board and DSP board, meaning it was the analogue board.

Sheesh, three factory bodges! Early unit I guess?

Running it current-limited, the inductor for the 48V phantom power boost converter was getting warm.

desoldered the caps, and despite being bodgy, they weren’t dodgy.
Desoldered (and broke, whoops) the inductor just to confirm it was this section. Yep, board works fine without it! Next I need to find a replacement for this boost driver chip. And the jellybean inductor.

#tinkering

3 media
Closeup of a PCB showing a switch mode circuit layout, with the inductor missing. Below is an Atmel Atmega 48P microcontroller.
Closeup of a PCB showing a switch mode circuit layout, with the inductor missing. Below is an Atmel Atmega 48P microcontroller.
Closeup of a PCB showing a switch mode circuit layout, with the inductor missing. Below is an Atmel Atmega 48P microcontroller.
Photo showing the board section before inductor was removed, with an electrolytic cap bodged on top of a large ceramic cap.
Photo showing the board section before inductor was removed, with an electrolytic cap bodged on top of a large ceramic cap.
Photo showing the board section before inductor was removed, with an electrolytic cap bodged on top of a large ceramic cap.
Super closeup of the boost driver chip, marked U51, 741F / L5002 / MA
Super closeup of the boost driver chip, marked U51, 741F / L5002 / MA
Super closeup of the boost driver chip, marked U51, 741F / L5002 / MA
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s0 Traingirl Era
s0 Traingirl Era
@s0@cathode.church  ·  activity timestamp 7 months ago

fuck yeah, just made a huge breakthrough in reverse-engineering this 20-year-old software implementing an undocumented protocol by Yamaha for remote head-amp gain control, without having one of the other end devices to test with!
#Tinkering#s0Projects

screenshot showing some windows in Windows. there's a small applet with faders and preamp controls, a python window parsing serial values, and a debug window showing new values received
screenshot showing some windows in Windows. there's a small applet with faders and preamp controls, a python window parsing serial values, and a debug window showing new values received
screenshot showing some windows in Windows. there's a small applet with faders and preamp controls, a python window parsing serial values, and a debug window showing new values received
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