I decided to work on something a bit lighter (literally) and fun today and refurbished a 1975 scientific calculator made by #Commodore. It still works (except for the rechargeable battery which thankfully was removed by the previous owner before it could do any harm)! #RetroCalculatoring#InTheLabDoingStuff
Currently running it from my bench power supply because the original power supply is an unregulated very crudely made thing from, well, 1975. I don’t trust it. I wonder if I can just run it from a USB adapter? Original PSU is labeled as 6V 200mA unregulated (outputs around 9V without a load) so chances are it’s going to run fine on a 5V supply. Did anybody try? 🤔 #Commodore#RetroCalculatoring#InTheLabDoingStuff
Some #Apple#Macintosh#Performa 630 capacitor shenanigans going on in the Beta lab today. Main board got recapped although none of the caps had leaked. The power supply is not so fortunate, found 2 severely leaky smaller caps and some traces beginning to dissolve in the electrolyte. I think I caught it in time though, should totally be salvageable. #RetroComputing#VintageComputing#InTheLabDoingStuff
Something "new" to explore on the workbench today: a 1995 #Apple#Macintosh#Performa 630 in the "DOS Compatible" variant. It’s a bit of an oddball machine from Apple‘s otherwise quite bland (in my opinion) beige era. It has both a regular 68040 Mac and a full 486/DX2-66 PC inside. Should even be capable of running Windows 95 alongside MacOS 8! Thanks to a very generous donation from @markuspooch I’m going to get to play with it. Thank you! #InTheLabDoingStuff#RetroComputing#VintageComputing
Bertrand and Jesse who both worked on the project were kind enough to send me two kits to check them out and make a video. I’m going to build one and give the other one away. (As soon as I assembled one and made said video). :) #DecentXE#Atari#InTheLabDoingStuff#VintageComputing#RetroComputing#AtariXE
Thankfully, the (many) tiny surface mount components (LEDs, resistors and flat flex connector) are already pre-populated by the PCB manufacturer (PCBWay, anyone?) ;) Still have to solder the switches myself though so there’s going to be all the fun of repetitive soldering meditation. #DecentXE#Atari#InTheLabDoingStuff#VintageComputing#RetroComputing#AtariXE
Current state of my little streaming corner. Preparing for some retro gaming Twitch streams soon. It’s been a while! (2 years, maybe?!) #InTheLabDoingStuff#RetroGaming
In the lab, doing stuff. Bought this deck from a coworker years ago. At first glance, it needs new belts (the old ones turned into goo), new capacitors and some new lights. #Sansui#TapeDeck#VintageAudio#InTheLabDoingStuff
The capacitor with the leakage visible on top ate its own leg. Thankfully the solder pad was not damaged, just needed a good scrubbing with a glass fiber pen and some IPA. Power board fully recapped now and the deck turns on fine. Next up: replacing the belts. #Sansui#TapeDeck#VintageAudio#InTheLabDoingStuff
Mmmh, the signals on the PIA look a bit noisy. The port bits are used for bank switching the extended RAM, as far as I understand. Got some advice from Jürgen again (who created the mod in the first place) to check those pins. Might be a slightly wonky PIA that was the culprit all along. That would explain a lot. We‘ll see. 🤔 #Atari65XE#RetroComputing#VintageComputing#Atari#InTheLabDoingStuff
In the lab, doing stuff. This was a random 5€ eBay find. Hopefully going to give my drilling more precision in the future. It was really crusty but works well (pictured after my initial cleaning). #RetroDrilling#InTheLabDoingStuff
Been repairing an early 1990s #Sony 550ES amplifier over the last couple of days. The speaker protection relays needed replacing and all switches and pots needed a thorough cleaning. Took everything apart and cleaned it after replacing the old relays with modern equivalents and also adjusted the idling current to just about perfect. Works like a charm again, sounds great and looks nearly as good as new! Very satisfied with the result. 😊 #InTheLabDoingStuff#VintageHifi#Repair#VintageAudio