A C64 datasette alternative, Lumafix test, Mac robot, and a yoyo for a Powerbook G3

It's time for Mid-Week Mini Mail Call #19! This week we have a random and interesting assortment of stuff.
0:00 Intro
0:35 Assortment of C64 and electronics
14:39 Installing 64C keyboard brackets (And a dance party)
20:14 Testing another Lumafix on my ZIF64
24:45 Strikelink Wifi
28:05 uCassette (C64 tape drive interface)
32:18 Yes, more RAM!
35:15 ClassicBot Classic (Macintosh robot)
39:55 Paint Pen, Shammy Pads and some candy
50:53 PowerBook G3
--- Video Links
FormatQM (DOS disk formatting utility)
archive.org/details/msdos_fes...
TapDancer for Android
apkpure.com/tapdancer-virtual...
uCassette (Micro Cassette)
www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/%C2%B5C...
Smarties:
news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/new...
ClassicBot Classic:
classicbot.com/store/Classicb...
--- Tools
Deoxit D5:
amzn.to/2VvOKy1
store.caig.com/s.nl/it.A/id.16...
Jonard Tools EX-2 Chip Extractor:
amzn.to/2VazxDS
www.jonard.com/Products/EX-2-...
Wiha Chip Lifter:
amzn.to/3a9ftWw
www.wihatools.com/precision-c...
O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)
amzn.to/3a9x54J
Elenco Electronics LP-560 Logic Probe:
amzn.to/2VrT5lW
Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:
amzn.to/2ye6xC0
Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:
www.rigolna.com/products/digi...
Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens Flip-In Head Magnifier:
amzn.to/3adRbuy
TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)
amzn.to/2wG4tlP
www.aliexpress.com/item/33000...
TS100 Soldering Iron:
amzn.to/2K36dJ5
www.ebay.com/itm/TS100-65W-MI...
EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:
www.eevblog.com/product/121gw/
DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:
amzn.to/2RDSDQw
www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Logic-DS...
Magnetic Screw Holder:
amzn.to/3b8LOhG
www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-...
Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)
www.ebay.com/itm/14-16-18-20-...
RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)
www.retrotink.com/
Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)
www.ebay.com/itm/1-2-5-10PCS-...
Heat Sinks:
www.aliexpress.com/item/32537...
Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)
amzn.to/3b8LOOI
--- Links
My GitHub repository:
github.com/misterblack1?tab=r...
Commodore Computer Club / Vancouver, WA - Portland, OR - PDX Commodore Users Group
www.commodorecomputerclub.com/
--- Instructional videos
My video on damage-free chip removal:
• How to remove chips wi...
--- Music
Intro music and other tracks by:
Nathan Divino
@itsnathandivino
Outro Music:
Abyss by | e s c p | escp-music.bandcamp.com
Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
creativecommons.org/licenses/...

[@P5ychoFox]

When Adrian says, “Lets get right to it.” and Nathan’s music starts up everything becomes better in the world.

[@Flashy7]

"do not send RAM, I have a bin that is overflowing" - gets sent a bunch of empty bins :D

[@CorySticha]

Or bins full of RAM.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

LOL! I have to excuse this batch of RAM as I got this stuff before I was saying "I'm all full with RAM!" on the videos. Haha

[@AmstradExin]

@@adriansdigitalbasement Well, it depends on the type of RAM....64MB 72-pin Kits are always useful, since they mostly work on everything from PC's, Mac's, Amigas, etc. SDRAM? Not so much.

[@maxheadroom22and26]

I always thought, a Ram overflow was something at a programm in a computer... Would really love to see an actual Ram overflow happening...

[@frogz]

@@adriansdigitalbasement half tempted to send adrian a bin that is pre-filled with ram lol

[@PgWsLRoiEeyZFdXRWGMPNyiFrWpmSo]

Hi Adrian! I’m actually the one who had the Classicbot Classic drop-shipped to you... it seems that playsometoys in Hong Kong accidentally shipped it to a guy in Virginia who was kind enough to contact them and forward it on to your PO Box! Loved watching the Mac Classic repairathon series and thought this was fitting. Thanks for all the hours of entertainment!

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

I'm glad it made it to me in the end! Thanks for sending it -- such a cute little thing.

[@minty_Joe]

@@adriansdigitalbasement Peanut. Hahaha! That Mac robot reminds me of the Banana Jr. (Google "banana jr 6000 computer" for a laugh). Are Smarties in the US still packaged in plastic containers a la Tootsie Rolls? I remember them as a kid being more of a chalky PEZ candy instead of like an M&M. Incidentally, the yoyo power supply's weakness wasn't just the 2-prong cord, it was the cable that plugged into the PowerBook G3; the weak point is where the wire feeds into the center of the yoyo. Also, the PRAM battery is the 2-wire connector near the trackpad. The battery will be encased in a round, plastic brown package. You might also have to press the reset button on the back panel after you reconnect the PRAM battery (it'll be a small button with a triangle label located between the SVGA and phone modem ports.).

[@ericpaul4575]

Adrian's Digital Basement it looks like the legs on the bot were cracked at the hip joint.

[@awilliams1701]

I used to do IT work at a school. I bought one of those PSU testers because we had a lot of PSU failures. I loved it. It was so much more convenient than another testing method. If I had a faulty PSU I could Identify it in like 10 seconds.

[@judgebeeb1967]

Glad you liked the little goodie bag. I have indeed now opened up my Mac SE and found that all the caps (indeed all the components) are through hole. The battery had a 1989 date on it (!) but had not leaked, so just replaced it with a new one. The computer works just fine. But is in desperate need of retro-brighting, plus a couple of upgrades (RAM and a solid state hard drive replacement.)

[@frank-t6857]

I think Adrian has plenty of RAM. He might send you some 😁

[@Zeem4]

When I checked the battery is my SE a couple of years ago, it had a 1989 date code, and still showed the full 3.6 volts. I snipped it out anyway just to be on the safe side.

[@judgebeeb1967]

No snipping required. Mine had a battery holder.

[@Zeem4]

@@judgebeeb1967 Interesting - mine was a battery with wire leads attached, soldered to the board.

[@droopysloopy]

You can heat up the stem of those sham swabs and then put a 45 degree bend in it, it will help getting in between the drive heads.

[@thomasfeller337]

100 Base T splitter: I believe 2 of them needed (one at each end) to allow 2 100 Base connections over a Cat 5 cable. I have some from a different manufacturer that I used in the past.

[@AureliusR]

Yeah, you need a pair. You also needed CAT cable with all pairs installed, some cheapo Ethernet cables would eliminate the unused pairs to save cost though I don't think that's common anymore. Basically it would move one of the pairs onto the unused pair, and then at the other end move it back to the correct pair so you could put 2 connections down the same cable. I have a feeling that you'd run into issues with long cables, though, as the different signals while sent balanced and with the conductors wrapped, there would still be some small capacitive coupling that might cause problems. You'd normally never see that because of course only one connection would be sent at a time; the reason it's not an issue with Gigabit is because the two pairs are synchronous.

[@MrTmwilliamson]

I have used the Chemtronics strips to clean VTR and VCR heads a million times during the thirty plus years that I worked in TV stations.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

That's cool. Did they require this manual cleaning or did cleaning cassettes ever play a role?

[@MrTmwilliamson]

Adrian's Digital Basement we had to clean heads by hand several times a day. Back in the days of two inch tape they had to be cleaned every couple of hours because the head drums ran so much faster. I never saw a cleaning cassette for either three quarter inch or Betacam machines.

[@gallgreg]

Every Halloween my kids end up with a ton of Smarties in their bags! They aren't so fond of them, so we always seem to have an endless supplies of them in little treat boxes! Love the PowerBook G3!! I have a couple myself!

[@BobDingleful]

Kudos on the Canadian Smarties connection. My dad used to swear he could tell the difference between the colours - we just thought he was crazy.

[@retrogamer33]

I'm eating Smarties while watching this video. Also yes the shells do have a slight taste to them.

[@chewabledrapery]

@Martian Android Agree!

[@JARVIS1187]

"This thing has taken so much abuse and it just keeps working forever! ..." - keyboard does not work first when trying the Strikelink. :D Adrian, great video! Really enjoyed it! :)

[@blahza12345]

Hey Adrian, in case nobody else says it: I'm very much appreciative that you mention the states and cities in the USA. As a foreigner, it definitely helps! Lovely video as always

[@Zeem4]

The 10/100 Ethernet splitter has to be used as one of a pair - one in the wall socket and another in the patch panel at the other end of the cable run. It works because 10/100 Ethernet only uses 2 pairs of the 4 pairs in the cable, so the passive adapter allows you to use all the pairs, which saves running extra cabling to expand a network.

[@kriscoryn5202]

yep i make them myself for at home so i have two surveillance camera's on one ethernet-cable with the two spitters at either site works fine no interference so far for these purpose

[@twiddler71]

I remember these were popular in the patch panels. They were too lazy to run new patch cables so they split them. Works ok for slow network printers, but caused all kinds of issues when used on computers.

[@eDoc2020]

Nobody's specifically noted this here yet but Gigabit Ethernet uses all four pairs so this adapter won't work with Gigabit. However, most Gigabit devices will fallback to 100Meg after several seconds so you still will be able to get a connection. But switches are cheap nowadays, there's little reason to use these adapters nowadays.

[@kriscoryn5202]

@@eDoc2020 yep of course but if i'm at adrians basement so 10 Megabit is already fast also if it is 100baseT adapter likes he say it wil have problem's with heavy traffic and modern switches also doesn't like it its like we are making a timejump to the last century in the 1900's to see the old goody's it just also fantastic to see how people implement modern things for the old C64 like faster loading with sdcards interface or so to replace a cassette recorder thanks to adrian for do this on youtube

[@thesillyhatday]

I found this out after running industrial ethernet cable. It only has 2 pairs!

[@Ringmaster860]

the splitters definitely work, you need 2 of them tho. You plug one on either end and can use 2 devices over a single network port.

[@wbfaulk]

100baseTX only uses 4 wires out of the 8 conductors in the cabling, but the cabling usually has all the conductors connected properly, so you can use these "splitters" to use the other half of the cable.

[@ThorLite]

I enjoy the weekly mail call videos a lot,great work.

[@nyw11]

It's been a rough week and I was running out of subscribed content. Glad to have a MwMMC!

[@williammckeown4768]

Thanks for these. They're really fun. For the Lumafix, the book should say "enjoy image with fewer stripes" 😁

[@dantaraska9410]

Awesome, something good to watch on my lunch break!

[@andrewd4906]

Smarties were made by rowntree mackintosh when I was a kid before the company became part of nestle and the stopper in the classic tube had a letter from the alphabet on the underside. The Orange smartie contained Orange flavour.

[@stevesstuff1450]

Yes indeed...came here to see if anyone had made a Smarties comment yet! You beat me to it - swine!! Joke! And yeah, the different colours do have subtle flavour differences...especially, as you say, the orange one! I've always loved Smarties...and Jelly Babies :-)

[@IanRomanick]

"Go home, Classicbot. You're drunk." 😂

[@BiggusDickusMontePython]

I really love how well organized and thought out these mail call videos are. Definitely a step above the rest! Please never change your content, its so genuine and unique! Thank you for awesome videos!!!

[@BonkedByAScout]

@11:14 The 8 pin is 2x4pin EPS connectors for CPU power, the 6 pin is a PCI-E power. PCI-E connectors are 6 pins or 8 pins, with the 8 pin PCI-E connector being introduced in PCI-E Gen 2 (2007), after the 6 pin in Gen 1 (2003).

[@dukethecat]

For the PowerBook G3 the pram/cmos battery cable is the red,black, and white cable seen at the bottom middle of the keyboard area. Unplug that and it should boot up. I have this issue with my G3 but leaving it unplugged the machine will work fine.

[@elkmonttrout2103]

Thank you for posting this ....was about to tear down my unresponsive PB pismo...booted right up

[@AndyHullMcPenguin]

Some CMOS batteries fail short circuit, so try simply disconnecting it and leaving it disconnected. You should be able to find something suitable to replace it on ebay. You may need to save the connector and cable from the current one to solder on to the replacement, if you can only source the bare cell.

[@CrazyTechReviews]

oh duke! neat to see you here!

[@dukethecat]

Crazy Tech Reviews of course I’m here!

[@parrottm76262]

Just guess which videos get watched first and completely when I get the notification? Oh, yeah, ADB, ADB! Just love the MWMMC.

[@catcam]

Argentina ... i love your easter eggs .. thanks for great content and stay safe

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Yep!

[@kaitlyn__L]

As a UK viewer, appreciate the way you talk about the US states in this video. I was familiar with Michigan, and I was familiar with Detroit, but I wasn't aware that Detroit was in Michigan. I've noticed when watching Kim's Convenience (set in a convenience store in Toronto), that half the sweets on his shelves were US and half were UK. It looked like a good mix. I used to save up to buy imported American candies. Seems like Canada had the best of both worlds. The Apple MagSafe laptop chargers were similar to this older one. They're squared, sure, and the connector is on the corner instead of on the bottom, so it can lay flat. But the cable management is still only for the brick-to-laptop side of things. The extension cord still flops around aimlessly. At least there's a direct-plug option, but if you need the extra length, and need to carry it with you, it's just as awkward today. (I honestly have no idea how their recent USB-C chargers are built. Do they have any cable management at all?) I must admit to have been one of those, surprised you weren't able to identify the prior PowerBook, back then. Not because I expected you to know it already, but just because "powerbook g3 identification" is a Google search which gives you many resources, I believe one is even on iFixit. So when you were spending hours in vain looking up instructions for how to get inside a different model, and complaining about how you don't know which one to look up, I specifically was surprised that you didn't try Googling to see if anyone had an ID-ing guide. I presume you've had to use similar resources for other company's machines once or twice.

[@ActionRetro]

That's one heck of a lovely Pismo!

[@wskinnyodden]

That Classic Mac Classic bot has an Amiga briefcase, what a turn coat!

[@johnpilkinton1592]

I'm liking these 60 minute mail calls

[@hellhound-si5oz]

The plasticizers in the PVC wiring affects the ABS plastic boomboxes have the same thing I got to say little Boombox from the 80s that the power cord was wrapped around it and it did the same thing and it's an ABS tight plastic

[@greybush1079]

Binge Watching !! Thx For the Great Content

[@siberx4]

As somebody who's worked with computers and electronics for decades in the Pacific Northwest, I can also confirm that I have never used one of the antistatic wrist straps and, to my knowledge, have never killed a component or device as a result of static. Our climate here means that static build-up really isn't a major problem basically year-round.

[@mikesilva3868]

Excellent review

[@frugalprepper]

The Intellinet Ethernet splitter is just that. 10/100BaseT connections only use 2 pairs (4 wires) out of the 4 pairs (8 wires) available. So you would plug one of those onto each end of your Ethernet drops and have two 100 base T connections on one cable drop. Today Gigabit uses all 4 pairs. I used to use home built versions of these and also use to make custom spliters so I could use 4 of the wires for a serial connection to a mainframe with Xon Xoff 4 was enough. Ground, Signal Ground, and pints 2 and 3 for TX/RX.

[@rmx77]

that powerbook is called the pismo. the pismo g3 was the first powerbook that had firewire in it. nice machine none the less

[@GeeFunk84]

I used to use one of those car stereo adapters to download t64/prg/p00 files on my PC, convert them to wav, copy them over to an mp3 player and load the files from it to the C64. My mind was blown that I was playing something on my original hardware that I had downloaded from the Internet.

[@nathanielbest3541]

Adrian, please keep this format to your videos!! I like how you go from opening and "to the bench"!! ... At the end...well, by the time we're viewing it, its Oct...lol

[@granitepenguin]

Yay. 8-bit dance party for my 25th anniversary. Makes up for missing it on my birthday. :-)

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Happy anniversary!

[@granitepenguin]

@@adriansdigitalbasement Thanks! I've been having a blast living vicariously through your channel playing with all the 8-bit goodness. It both satisfies and begs me to dig into some retro myself at the same time. The fact I'm not buried under a pile of my own retro HW is probably a big part of why I've made it to 25 years ;-)

[@Diggnuts]

Smarties vs. M&M's. Never realized this, but it is the only question that really matters!

[@cs121287]

Thanks for the dance party, Adrian! Its been a while

[@1stage]

Adrian: It's another mid-week mail call! Adrian's Pancreas: Oh, crap... Eli Lilly: Aww, yisss!

[@darthrevan2063]

?

[@philstephes]

@@darthrevan2063 Adrian is diabetic.

[@jefersonfischer]

Yes, these candies are not sugar free!

[@colinpye1430]

This made me laugh more than I should have…

[@hamiltonguy6922]

“When you eat your Smarties do you eat the red ones last?”

[@CrazyTechReviews]

ooh cool I've seen those little mac classic toys before and I really want one of them!

[@LilyBloomVee]

Smarties are also being sold in Germany and I love them since my childhood. Back then I often ended up trying to "draw" with them by placing them in such a way that it represented a picture. Of course the most fun was eating them!

[@winstonsmith478]

For antistatic grounding without a wrist strap, set up a DIY grounded touch point through a 1M ohm resistor and make a habit of touching that after returning to your workbench and before working on something ESD sensitive. I don't even bother with that. I just touch an item on my workbench with a known to be grounded metal case which, from what I see in the video, should be the front plate on the outlet box to the left of your monitor.

[@BrainSlugs83]

The wrist straps are really not necessary in the pacific northwest. I've worked in IT for decades here and have never encountered anyone wearing them or even advocating for them.

[@Retrocatone]

About Smarties, back in my young ages, both rectangular boxes or tubes were available here in France. Remind me some nice memories !

[@FarnhamJ07]

The 100BASE-T splitter makes perfect sense! In theory, you don't need a switch at all for Ethernet; It just means only one pair of devices can be transmitting/receiving on the shared link at a time. I'm a bit surprised you don't remember the good ol' days of dumb hubs with their collision lights permanently on!

[@mapax5]

Also, i don't know if you knew, but M&Ms were actually designed to NOT melt in your hands, and were actually designed so soldiers could still eat candy while not worrying their hands would be sticky to still be able to use their weapons. Pretty ingenious.

[@zaxchannel2834]

Klax is a game where you match colored tiles. It's a basic puzzle game. You move the little holder to catch the tiles as they come and drop them where you think they match best

[@HoldandModify]

Funny, cause in the USA “Smarties” are a very old tablet style tart hard candy.

[@quayzar1]

Which in Canada are sold as Rockets.

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

Well as a kid Smarties were actually kind of like an M&M sort of thing I think they might have been something like a Reese's like peanut butter but they could have been chocolate but I don't remember it been so long ago I think it might been in Canada also they came in a box that you would tear open the corner at an angle and poured them out also a later having Smarties but different box maybe different product but don't know where or what they were like either

[@jeffnorris5735]

I love this guy and his content! Looking forward to seeing more!

[@alerey4363]

20:14 that's an impressive modded C64 and a must-have standard u self made for the repairing video adept!

[@StarDollar]

Gamers Nexus Has Mats with Grounding point. Great video also.

[@Chace957]

Erik Rognerud just thinking this

[@Dreams_Of_Lavender]

When I think about smarties, I think of the sweet and sour tablet type candies that come in plastic wrappers.

[@QunMang]

Odd there don't seem to be many replies about US Smarties- a completely different candy from the Nestle Smarties which we don't have (apparently only in Europe [Especially Northern and Central Europe], Canada, South Africa, Australasia, Middle East according to DuckDuckGo)

[@colinpye1430]

🇨🇦 Here they call those Rockets.

[@JohnMiller-mmuldoor]

Yeah weird... i’ve eaten smarties a lot as a kid But they were like miniature sweet tarts

[@AureliusR]

@@JohnMiller-mmuldoorThose are Rockets!

[@kevywevvy8833]

The original maker of Smarties was the famous british chocolate maker Rowntrees, (a rival of Cadbury's) who were taken over by Nestle (which was known in the uk as Nestle's without an accent on the E) long after I grew up! And in the electronics industry, Chemtronics are well-known as a premium american brand, owned by ITW, which is Illinois Tool Works. I sometimes use the Sodermop and I have one of their silver loaded flexible paint marker pens for track repair.

[@EsotericArctos]

The different food colourings used in Smarties do have different flavours, so you will get a slight difference between the different colours. It's not a flavour addition. It is just the flavour of the colouring agent.

[@thepiratepilot1507]

I have an idea for your dead parts bin, call it the chip coffin

[@infinitecanadian]

Aww, that's kinda sad.

[@metroboytartu]

Just placed an order for some Edding markers! Did not know these were available! :D

[@TheAnkMan]

Although Adrian mentioned they were made in Japan (why not China as many other markers I came across?) they are from a German company.

[@kenkobra]

Thanks. I'll be able to get this in before watching the VP debate!

[@robertclark8351]

Plastics are typically only flexible because solvent is present in the mix. If that solvent migrates to the surface of a cable, it may effect a nearby plastic (solid) peripheral case.

[@stanburton6224]

M&M's were specifically developed to prevent melting so that they can be packed in the army rations being sent to the african theatre. The conventional chocolate was melting in the high temp environment.

[@jeffmasson1979]

Take the nib out of the paint pen and turn it around. You get a smaller nib. Also Smarties do have a flavour due to the natural colours used in the shells.

[@Andrew_Sparrow]

11:14 It usually puts a load on the +12v via a large resistor inside (is not on long enough to require heatsink). They can give additional info such as timing for power ready and it's quick and handy to see all the voltage readings at once rather than having to jumper the power supply on and then checking each voltage in turn. TLDR: handy if you have a lot of PSUs to test :)

[@dizzym9554]

Oh hey, hi from southwestern Virginia!

[@athf226]

It's probably been said, but I'd heavily suggest the Silver Sharpies as well for marking on dark surfaces. There is a silver, gold, and bronze variety that all show up well on ICs. You can get them at Walmart or any stationary store pretty easily.

[@TzOk]

My type is a silver EDDING 792.

[@dimensiongamer534]

Haven't seen Klax in a looong time, it was included on a combo cart for the 64 if I recall loved that cart Klax and Flimbo's quest being my favs.

[@WY.C64-Guy]

Aside from going through the regular online jungle routes (Amazon), paint markers are a regularly used tool at my work. I think we typically get them through our welding supplies distributors here in the States (Norco, AirGas, etc.) and I believe I've seen them at Home Depot and Lowe's, etc. Also check out craft and hobby stores, especially if you want different colors than white and yellow, or want metallic colors.

[@mohamededrees979]

Your intro music amazing it's art sir

[@richardbrobeck2384]

Adrian I also have been looking at one of those Mats lately I have been repairing a lot of chromebooks and laptops hopefully you will come up with one and post a video about it !

[@frank-t6857]

Not easy to impress Adrian. Cotton swabs and white marker pens does the trick 😁

[@00Skyfox]

Adrian, just today I picked up a silver metallic Sharpie and a gold metallic Sharpie. I tried them on a chip and the gold metallic works excellent for marking chips. It's very bright and readable. The silver also works, but not quite as well as it seems thin so the black chip ceramic makes it dimmer, if that makes sense. (Neither one has any kind of electrical conductivity.)

[@expertmax32]

11:18 The 6P connector is for the graphics card. Sometimes they come as 6+2P or 8P as well.

[@JacGoudsmit]

0:50 Pro tip: wrap a bit of packaging tape around it to make a "flag". That'll stop it from rolling off the table. 43:39 Smarties are not sold (like that) in the USA because here, there's a company called Smarties and they own the trade mark. In the USA, Smarties is hard candy. That was weird for me too when I emigrated from the Netherlands, where Smartries were "always there" when I grew up, and M&M's didn't show up until the late 1970s or so. But not as weird as the Jif and Skippy brands of peanut butter: In the Netherlands, Jif is (was?) a scouring cleaner and Skippy is (was?) dog food.

[@mgas1237]

I use little masking tape 'flags' on all my rolly stuff :)

[@MultiArrie]

Jif heet nu cif. Skippy geen idee heb nooit honden gehad.

[@twocvbloke]

Here in the UK we had "Jif" cleaner, but was later renamed to "Cif" (pronounced "siff"), presumably because we had a lemon juice product called Jif too, and I guess someone was dumb enough to put Jif cleaner on their pancakes or something...

[@3DGECASE]

And because Nestlé owns the Smarties trademark in Canada, the candies called Smarties in the US are known as Rockets up here.

[@basvanharen2904]

Ik heb ook het idee dat de Smarties hier kleiner lijken??

[@philsbbs]

I live in the UK and Nestle 46:00 main office was in Croydon until a few years ago..... And Poppets another sweet firm was also based in Croydon.

[@TimSedlmeyer]

My Slice ceramic opener like yours has an opening for a lanyard at the end. I put a piece if string through it and tied some knots in it to prevent it from rolling.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Good idea!

[@RetroTinkerer]

I really like these ORICO adapters (I also was a bit disappointed they were plastic) I can insert then easily in the same 51/4" Tool /drawer less HDD adapters that my 31/2" standard drives

[@olepigeon]

55:24 I believe the PRAM battery is the white-red-black plug right of center at the bottom . It's actually two batteries connected in series. At least, that's where mine is located.

[@kevynbrownell719]

Those paint pens should be available in your local art supply store. We have candy called Smarties here in the US, but they are like Sweet Tarts.

[@talideon]

Here in Ireland, we had/have the Smarties boxes and tubes, though you usually see the tubes.

[@evensgrey]

The Microcasette would work with all the 8-bit Commodore machines (although the Plus/4 series needs an adapter as the port is physically different but electrically identical) because Commodore new changed the tape format from the Pet 2001 to the Commodore 128.

[@mjaerkens]

Let's send all our spare ram to him guys! He's just being humble. It's just a matter of time now before it gets worth it to extract all the gold from it!

[@tubeDude48]

At 2:45 *AGREE!* I'm 72 and have *NEVER* used a grounding strap and have *NEVER* destroyed a component!! *Just* *use* *common* *since!!* At 11:15, it will also show current. At 27:35 issue the Echo command *ate1*

[@basvanharen2904]

Modern components are more vulnerable to ESD. Your not able to tell if you never destroyed a component. I'm also not using protection, but the chance is there.

[@monchiabbad]

@Adrian You have to eject the battery on the right hand dock with the eject lever on the front edge. Many of those older laptops batteries will shortcircuit when beyond empty

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Oh if you mean the Powerbook it was already empty.

[@troyquigg4411]

Those are loopback adapters for things like CheckIt to test serial/parallel ports. The network dongle is a "poor mans" way of adding more network lines to a run. It adds a 2nd ethernet port and wires it onto the 2 unused pair (brown & blue). you usually use them in pairs - 1 in the nework closet to inject 2 ethernet ports onto 1 cable run and another at the other end to split them back out. I've used these in the past; they are "ok" but not great. especially if the cable guy didn't care about terminating blue/brown pairs very well. The power supply tester is for testing ATX power supplies for functionality and voltage output. Used when you need to determine if the "no power on" issue is the motherboard or the power supply. This will power on the power supply without needing the motherboard. I didn't ship any of this but have used them all at one point or another....

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Oh cool thanks will need to try those out with Checkit! That would be handy to have a set!

[@RambozoClown]

Looks like the loopback plugs that came with Check It Pro.

[@pkneeyahx]

Lol. I just sent you a batch of ram! If I had seen this video earlier I wouldn't have.

[@daw7563]

The 100base-T splitter works, but you have to use two of them. One in each end of a patchpanel/outlet. In other words two cables into one cable, then split up into two again. 100Mbit only needs four of the wires in a Cat cable. It was common to use when 100Mbit was the standard and you wanted to split up one outlet into two, either for a desk phone or another computer. It does not impact performance unless you try to use gigabit (which needs more than four wires).

[@kd7cwg]

Some diagnostic software used those loopback adapters for testing Parallel, and serial ports

[@seshpenguin]

These mail call videos are always the highlight of the week!

[@zacharyadam-macewen8723]

Canadian here: we have smarties, super common here, but they come in flat packs.

[@gbowne1]

we'll be calling you the king of RAM now lol

[@tstahlfsu]

Those connectors are test adapter for something like a PC diag tool.

[@luis46coco]

10:43 If I did not misunderstand what I saw. The network splitter 100 is used so that through the same cat5 utp cable you can pass 2 lines for 2 pcs without a hub or switch to take out several computers from one line This can be done because the utp network only needs 4 wires, 2 to send and 2 to receive and as the UTP 8 cable can maintain 2 lines it has complete. It must be ensured that the pairs are twisted with their negatives or the signal will not pass after about 20 m. you also need an adapter at the other end that sends 2 signals (lines) from the HUB or Switch or Router. Only save the cable, which can be used for 2 computers that are close and that are far from the router.

[@dhonzik]

yes, the power supply checker does just check the voltage rails and beeps if the voltage is under spec letting you know if the power supply is bad

[@valentine_puppy]

Looking forward to the Apple G3 repair.

[@cantliff9]

KLAX I played on my Megadrive 32bit. The basic concept is to drop the tiles into the bin below and then drop matching colours to make them disappear. You can match horizontal, vertical and diagonal. Up threw the tile back onto the top, down made the tile come down to the catcher thing (me and my mum called that the Pallet), and on mega drive it was A to drop it into the bin. Each match earned you a 'klax'. Each wave had different challenges and requirements. One particular hard level for me was when you had to get 13 diagonals. You lost the level if you dropped 3 or 5 tiles depending on the level. Every time you drop a tile - it made a 'wah' noise (at least on the mega drive version) My mum once played it so much she could see the tiles coming towards her whilst she was asleep. I once played it for a long time and ending up doing the same. I can still play the game on a Sega Mega Drive emulator called Fusion, that I have installed on my PC.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Hah it's like a variation on Tetris. Sounds like a very fun game -- I could see getting really addicted to it. (Like so many were with Tetris.)

[@cantliff9]

@@adriansdigitalbasement IT IS addictive

[@cantliff9]

P.S - Mac Classic robot is very very cute!

[@crowbarviking3890]

cheapest esd protection is being barefoot on a stonefloor xD

[@opticburn]

Still blows my mind that the only C64 I've gotten over the years is a short board NTSC 64C. I had no idea how hard those are to come across.

[@williamsquires3070]

Those “shammies-on-a-stick” would probably be good for cleaning the gunk out of your computer keyboard, or you could dip them in IPA and clean the edge connectors on game carts (or peripheral cards for computers.)