EEVblog

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

So Dave, why is it that you're back in the old lab? Did you give up the new one? Or just use the old one as an extension to the new one? Somehow, I've never gotten a reply to that... Come on, Dave, take us on a lab(s) tour and explain what you're doing where and why! Pretty please!

[@EEVblog]

I have done video for supporters explaining this. Also available on my Library channel if you want to watch them.

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

@@EEVblog I now found it, yes, alright, thanks. Navigating lbry is quite different and unusual, compared to youtube, vimeo, dailymotion and what other video sites there are.

[@user2C47]

This is a fact normal people are not permitted to know.

[@julianreverse]

@@Seegalgalguntijak Can't find the video, what happened?

[@HighestRank]

1:24 “all the economics behind it”. Do you sleep through the first 2 min or are violated senseless by Dave’s shallow intel?

[@MrElbK]

Thanks, Dave! I almost lost my package because it wasn't tracked at all. Happy to see it in Mailbag :) -- Oleg from Kiev.

[@Vik_ru]

Я на английском не понимаю, но это там ваше рабочее место на фотке? %))

[@MrElbK]

@@Vik_ru Нет )

[@TymexComputing]

Good job! Hope the Crimea will be brought back to Ukraine - i noticed the nostalgy

[@foreignautomobiles]

Hope you are doing ok with everything that's going on.

[@MrElbK]

@@foreignautomobiles Yes. I'm okay.

[@tareqsu4972]

It is not uncommon to have antennas that "look" shorted. A very basic example is a loop antenna, which is simply a loop of low resistance wire, basically a short circuit. In fact, most microstrip antennas (The ones printed on pcbs) have a shorting pin or a shorting wall, by putting thees shorting pins or walls (among other techniques) you will be able to make your antenna smaller for a certain frequency. Of course in reality it is much more complicated than that, and nobody can look at an antenna and tell you why is it shaped that way, except maybe for the basic shapes. You usually start with some basic antenna shape, add your space constrains, and the software would iterate and optimize by simualting the antenna performance.

[@therealjammit]

I like to think of them as an auto-transformer. The input is a common ground plus drive, the output is the common ground plus the free end of the transformer. Sort of like an impedance matching transformer.

[@ramdasprasad3792]

Isnt that a fractal antenna.. the pattern repeats..

[@urugulu1656]

no dave its not 3.3 volts by the looks of it. i cant see a dot anywhere. looks more like 33v for what ever

[@eDoc2020]

It's probably for directly controlling the CRT. Don't know the specifics but I believe some screen or grid voltages are in that range.

[@TechnikZaba]

8:00 A lot of CEMI,- no longer existing Polish enterprise producing microelectronics. Was closed down in 1994. CEMI located in Warsaw produced: discrete components, bipolar systems

[@ITTom]

...zapewne wyprodukowane i eksportowane na mocy „przyjaźni polsko - radzieckiej” 😉

[@OblivionLPS.]

Przeoczyłeś zielony kondensator Iskra na środku płyty PCB. Widać nawet trójkąt ze znakiem jakości 1.

[@evensgrey]

And MERA was a Polish miniciomputer series in the 70's. At some point they would have likely built some VDT models, as teletype-based terminals are slow and obnoxious for many purposes. They would have continued to be useful even after the MERA line was discontinued, and might have found there way all over the place. The design principle looks similar to the PDP-11/110 and /130 from DEC (computer squeezed into a VDT case, although a micro instead of a miniaturized mini, in some ways like a Sol without an expansion system).

[@hikariyouk]

My Frequency Central Product modular synth module has a few CEMI components on it.

[@RobertPl0]

Dave. Mera's computer was made at the MERA plant in Zabrze Polska in 80's XX century. Mera 7209 was a computer terminal. Designation CM 7209 is a commercial designation, used on the international market; while the symbol MERA 7953 is a designation used on the domestic (Polish) market. Computers ware exported from Poland to other country soviet block

[@TomashPL58]

I would like to add, that UCY chips were usually logic gate chips and were very common from CEMI. I saw these very often since I was a kid, and I was born at 87. CEMI was an electronics manufacturing plant located in Warsaw, Poland. Very reliable chips they made. I'm still using some today (mostly logic NAND gates like UCY7400 ). Great piece of history tough!

[@JerrySmithKociak]

@8:23 - those CEMI chips were actually made in Poland. Prefix means: U - monolithic bipolar IC, C - digital circuit, Y - for professional use. Numbers are familliar, because those are the actual 74xx series IC's. I've got some of those, some are like 30 years old now, and they are still working fine. Greetings from Poland!

[@badstate]

ZIP was a horrible design. The edge of the disk was exposed in use. When the head got damaged, it would chip the edge of the disk. If you put the damaged disk unknowingly into another drive, the chip in the spinning disk would catch on the new drive's head, breaking it as well. This cycle would continue for every drive and disk you tried. Went through a whole office of four or five ZIP drives and multiple disks one afternoon before I realized what was happening.

[@erg0centric]

by design

[@danm3188]

Maybe not a great design, but very useful at the time (mid to late 90s). Otherwise we were still depending on the common 1.44MB floppies or dialup modems (56Kb?) for transferring data. The 100MB Zip drives were very welcome... while they worked. CD-Rs were available, but still not very common and still a good bit more expensive at that point. I had maybe 20+ 100MB Zip disks at one point, and only had a few disks go bad on me before finally getting a 4x CD-R drive for around $200 in .... 2000?

[@apatewnayeah9854]

Time to hang a big poster outside "dump your 70+ inch TV here"

[@OzRetrocomp]

"Free e-Waste Recycling Centre"

[@lordelectron6591]

Would rather a poster " all unwanted electronic dump"

[@SilverSpoon_]

@Dave Micolichek David isn't asking, it just ends there anyways.

[@jimmyramkisoen191278]

That green PTC 30:04 is used as a Inrush Current Limiting. During power on, a high inrush current can occur because the power supply’s link capacitor functions to dampen ripples in the output current. This capacitor acts like a short, causing an inrush of current. The inrush lasts until the capacitor is charged. Length of the inrush current depends upon the power supply and link capacitor.

[@neidan56]

CEMI was Polish manufacturer of 8-bit chips, it closed in 1994 :)

[@PiRX]

and Mera was Polish brand too ;)

[@thpeti]

MEV was a hungarian semiconductor company, separated successor of the semiconductor division of Tungsram, which was a lamp/tube factory, later bought by GE in the 90's. They had a serious fire in 1986, and the wafer fab wasn't rebuilt after. I've heard a legend that they were ready to produce Intel 8085/8086/8088(?) clones just before the fire disaster in the wafer lab. I have several MEV branded 74 series logic gates, some 741's, 709's and several TV specific components, like TBA 950 sync IC and TDA440 IF lying in my drawer. Also they had a large scale of bipolar transistors, like BC182/212, BD135 till BD249 series... The story in Hungarian can be read there: www.villanylap.hu/blog/4590-mikroelektronikai-vallalat

[@detalite]

Manufacturer of that MERA CM 7209 terminal is still functioning. Ealier known as Mera-Elzab, now just ELZAB.

[@mieszkogulinski168]

@@detalite the ones who product cash registers?

[@krzysztofkozorys516]

Pamiętam, pamiętam tamte czasy 👍

[@rasz]

7:00 Mera was a polish computer design and manufacturing unit. They started with paper perforators, then calculators, later licensed terminal designs from Swedish company, then TRS-80 clone. After fall of Iron Curtain they managed to stay afloat by restructuring and switching markets to point of sale systems, Today they are still a local leader in this field. MERA CM 7209 (MERA 7953) is a terminal dedicated to Russian RIAD systems, direct unlicensed IBM System/360 clones. 8:00 Some polish manufactured semiconductors on the PCB. Unitra CEMI UCY chips 74 series. MCY series are microprocessor clones. Unitra CEMI even cloned Intel 8085 at one point. All behind Comecon (cold war) embargo.

[@OfflineSetup]

Where my dad used to work (in the 70s) there was a electronics genius who had been at the company for years. So respected that when he died (he never retired) they "preserved" his desk and no one was allowed to sit there. I can't imagine that attitude would find a space in modern companies.

[@andyhello23]

I agree, nowadays companies will take every they can get from you, and throw you away.

[@demef758]

Apple preserved Steve Jobs's office, too.

[@sanches2]

I work in a modern company and we've preserved Slavi's (an colleague engineering tech fellow who suddenly passed away) desk untouched for 3 months just for the sake of remembering him, now we only keep his lamp there. He was the center of the electronics department, always hanging out and telling jokes with the young ones and a mathematician and a great electronics engineer. We still talk of him and miss him.

[@OfflineSetup]

@@sanches2 Perhaps things haven't changed. Sorry for your loss, all we can do is show respect and raise a glass to memories.

[@demef758]

Steve Jobs' office has been preserved as well after his death in 2011.

[@thecrikster]

Haven't seen a GUI that pretty since the days of MS Access!

[@vaguedirector_7342]

(29:00) ATX power supplies like that typically have this power path: Input filter -> Rectifier -> Active power factor correction boost converter -> bulk 400V capacitor -> push pull or similar transformer based step-down converter -> 12V DC bulk caps and 12v output -> secondary buck converters for 5V and 3.3V outputs. And some of the newer super high efficiency ones will have some sort of resonant converter doing the 400v DC -> 12V DC stage, which require some proper wizardry to design.

[@nathantron]

There's something terrifying but completely normal about some aussie waving around a giant ass knife without a care in the world.

[@Metroid1890]

I have nightmares about that pretty often

[@pixymisa8087]

@Emmanuel Goldstein This being Australia, we have more guns now than before they were banned.

[@SolaLupus]

Especially in front of a large LCD TV. I was anxiously waiting for the moment he accidentally pokes the screen.

[@HighestRank]

MichaelKingsfordGray supposedly Mozart was infatuated with feces. It is what it is.

[@johnvine5731]

That's not a knife .......

[@sircompo]

That Zip Drive head looks like the voice coil you find on hard drive heads. Miles ahead of stepper motors and not at all how-ya-doin'.

[@victortitov1740]

I wonder why no CD drives had such a positioning system. In CD drives, it is always combined crude (and noisy and slow) mechanical + fine voice-coil based positioning.

[@NiHaoMike64]

@@victortitov1740 The optical block is a lot heavier, so cheaper to use stepper motors.

[@rasz]

stepper is cheaper, you dont need precision in optical drives because lens assembly compensates on its own

[@sircompo]

@@victortitov1740 Possibly for cost. I don't think the seek time on optical media was considered that important, especially as the rotational speed was so much lower than hard drives.

[@eDoc2020]

@@NiHaoMike64 Actually all the CD mechanisms I've examined use regular brushed DC motors. Even cheaper than steppers.

[@douro20]

ES EVM was a series of plug-compatible mainframes first developed in the late 1960s. Both 360 compatible and 370 compatible versions were developed. IBM actually provided software support for these starting in the early 1970s. The chips marked "CEMI" were produced in Poland and actually use Western numbering conventions. The chip labeled UB880D is the CPU.

[@jolilos]

you should do a video wall made from dumpster finds. I mean a big TV is boooring - have some 19" , some vertical 30", .....

[@caromac_]

That souds amazing. can probably drive them with a scavenged desktop with 2 gpus.

[@jolilos]

@@caromac_ or simply from a media player displaying slides for the secondary monitors.

[@HighestRank]

MONSTER4242 & caseless mailbag power supplies.

[@lordelectron6591]

I have a 7" Tv

[@Alexagrigorieff]

8:43 - К573РФ5 is UV EPROM 2K*8. 9:08 - КР580ВИ53 is a knockoff of i8253 timer. КР537РУ10 is CMOS SRAM 2K*8 bit. First letter К means the part is for use in non-military applications. Second letter Р, if present, means plastic package (otherwise ceramic).

[@RobertBardos]

Dave, long time viewer to say , I think you should abandon the tv screen idea or have it up and off to the side as a additional background but not the main event. Dave your fans come to hear u talk about electronics and I personally like when you get the microscope out on interesting tear downs. Walk away from gimmicky bullshit other channels might be doing. Keep it fresh. You are the product. Not a background or a 70 inch tv or whatever. Keep it old school man.

[@mieszkogulinski168]

8:24 - UB880 and all 80A-... East German, KR580.. and later KR537, KR531.... are Soviet (as written on the package), UCY/MCY... are Polish (where MCY74011 = 4011 CMOS circuit, and UCY are TTL circuits), and 75...PC (around 9:13) are probably Hungarian.

[@jorditribo94]

28:30 Diode Gone Wild KZbin channel did a reverse engineering in a pretty complicated PC power supply.

[@nulano]

13:00 I have seen an antenna like that in old (only a few years) smartphones. It was bend around the corner. I'm sure you can find similar ones in modern phone teardowns.

[@Psychlist1972]

IMO, I would: Raise the TV. Move it to the left. Sit more towards the right and have the camera angled a bit. So rather than a full back drop, it's more of a 3/4 view and you are no longer centered. I think that will look a lot better. This is true even if you get a larger TV.

[@jorno1994]

Could get an overhead camera to show details when you want to. could use your old cam even.

[@EEVblog]

That's messy. I like opening all the packages and then filming detail as I normally do. Framing and angle is way better than overhead shots which I hate the look of. Would likely be more shooting time inefficient too.

[@lhxperimental]

Australia: Where you can hope to find a 70 Inch TV in a dumpster.

[@lcdconsultant5252]

helloworld and a working 70” HD TV by the way

[@stranger7968]

It's a business building dumpster though. Rent an office in your city and you might find working tvs too :P

[@UpcycleElectronics]

You'll see them here in Southern California on the curb in high rent areas. Half the time it's from evictions of some twenty something that got, then lost, their first real job. The $3000+ per month rent is a killer. The other half can't fit the thing in their Lambo to take it to the recycler.

[@HighestRank]

LCD consultant -no whackers!

[@Michael_Michaels]

8:52 Portugal!!! My beautiful country!! That chip is from the late Infineon, later Kimonda.

[@YSoreil]

That McDonalds bag packaging is so good

[@arekw7388]

MERA 7953 Z (CM 7209) is a computer terminal produced in the 1980s in the Mera-Elzab Computer Equipment Factory in Zabrze / Poland. Greetings from Poland!

[@SolaLupus]

26:14 If I remember correctly, the voltage is not applied across the Americium itself. It is between the walls of the chamber. In a normal state, the americium ionizes the air between those contacts just a little, so there is a constant small current, but if smoke particles enter the chamber, they are much easier to ionize and the current rises sharply (that is what the detector looks for).

[@hccaos44]

The "Video thing" at 8:31 is an Eastern Germany Z80 CPU Clone. The 80A CTC and SIO are from the same plant located in Erfurt.

[@marcop8273]

28:52, 100€ for a power supply with nice details, but... CapXon capacitor... I would expect them on a 15€ unit from unknown brand, not an 100€ from an famous brand... 43:00, like Siemens, Rockwell, and other industrial brands: they sell you 10.000€+ plc cpu and you have to spend 2-5000€ for related software.

[@dieSpinnt]

Yes. I'd prefer the 10k+ Siemens thingy and mature software + certified hardware instead of a 100,- "smart" LCD panel from a noname brand + the inevitable conventional penalty because that shit caused production downtime or worse, go to jail because that "smart" panel accidentally killed the user. Just playing devils advocate. Enjoy Arduinos, Chinese-Panels and other beloved botches:)

[@twicebittenthasme5545]

Cool stuff. Enjoyed the tour. Thanks for sharing!

[@sysghost]

38:13 - So *that* is how low profile caps are made? .. Gee... Who knew?

[@fk6536]

on the zip drive, the interior (where the drives pushes against, and the motor is mounted on) needs to come up to spin the drive.

[@DanielLopez-up6os]

A Ultra Short Throw Projector would work aswell as it could be behind you but still show Images up to 120 inch, without glare.

[@renatoencarnacao5490]

At 8:24, That oddball, made-in-Portugal, TI 74LS113 made me smile all day long!

[@twobob]

That widget set is really dated on the Tool 2019 look more like 2009 to me. I suspect that was built with a "how to build a program template" ten years ago and never got updated ;)

[@pourquoiunidentifiant]

Hey David, Why not use 2 smaller screens in portrait mode ? at the end, the junction between the 2 screens would be hidden by yourself in the middle.

[@TheDefpom]

@32:00 the green cap next to the dc board is dead.

[@Tangobaldy]

Buy a short throw projector instead?

[@TzOk]

MERA was a Polish company, so was CEMI, who did the UCY74xx chips used on this board. These are regular 7400 series TTL chips.

[@DjResR]

18:51 That flatflex is very brittle. It doesn't take much to break it. 30:37 That is a all-in-one SMPS IC for "always on" 5V rail so computer can boot up from a soft start button._

[@clemenswalter1984]

I have one of these 1$ usb powersupplies, but with the optional optocupler populated, bit it makes absolutely no sense, as some of the legs aren't even connected. Due to safety concearns i have never pluged it in. was wondering if I should send it in, but thought it wasn't worth the shipping.

[@englishrupe01]

Don't bother. He'd just open it with a hammer, like he did the Zip drive. Then make some inane comment like "Oops!" and throw it in the bin. Save your money.

[@SemiAmerican]

17:00 -- arent those 'cheapassactuators' the typical way read/write heads move in their required exact way? with voice coil actuators as in megaphones or the PS5 Controller's new Feedback mechanism replacing vibration motors....? maybe Dave can make a video about those...? any actuator specialists here?

[@arthurtaggart]

Nice idea for the backdrop! Maybe a projector would be better RE sizing?

[@AshenTiger]

What's the tldr of returning to the old lab?

[@mc_cpu]

Saving money, I believe he owns the old lab and was renting the new one.

[@ataria5609]

Couple months back he made exclussive video regarding rentals and his possibilities. He considered moving back and I guess he finally made the decision.

[@spacewolfjr]

I think Dave 2 aka David got bit by a bird and shrank so he no longer needs a full-size office

[@thomasbonse]

It was the LS-120 drives that were 3.5 floppy compatible, the zip drives weren't.

[@EEVblog]

Ah, that's what I was thinking of.

[@angelioto007]

42:00 Dave, does the screen have an SD-Card slot? I think how it works is you need an SD-card put in your computer, than at the top there was the "download drive" option, you choose the sd-card, and tehn you pop the sd-card in the display and it will update itself with the new interface. It's just my assumption though.

[@EEVblog]

Nope, it's a serial port driver issue.

[@angelioto007]

@@EEVblog oh ok, well I tried

[@RogerBarraud]

13:43 Triple/Quad-band antenna perhaps?

[@qwaqwa1960]

37:00 Nothing wrong with a lack of secondary feedback. In fact, some LTC parts use that exact concept.

[@rollerdragon]

3:11 well, bugger buying anything! how many flat screen monitors and tv's have you found? if any still happen to be about, multiplex... many monitors odd sizes, an array if you will.. quite defining...

[@rmy3918]

CCCP : ) send that 8" to CuriousMarc, he loves Russian stuff too, don't think u will get many Zip Drives for repair after that LOL

[@ZomB1986]

Or to The 8-bit Guy

[@BlackEpyon]

I was thinking of CuriousMarc as well. I'm also wondering if anybody has figured out how to repair the "click-of-death," because ZIP drives are gonna become hard to find before too long. Some of us retro-computer enthusiasts like to keep our stuff working.

[@HighestRank]

BlackEpyon the disc themselves is the culprit. You have to jimmy open the metal shield and manually-rotate the platter looking for chips on the edge before every insertion.

[@FruitMuff1n]

Sounds like you need an array of dumpster dive LCD screens all wired up as a single display :)

[@therealjammit]

11:24 Folded dipole antenna. They basically took a dipole and "squashed" it up. 42:00 Why do companies want you to install software to program their equipment? It's so easy now to make a bootable ISO or image you can put on a USB thumb drive. Just download a live Linux with the software pre-installed and boot. No worries about any viruses or incompatible updates, i.e. our software only works on Windows 7.

[@UberAlphaSirus]

Would you really want some randoms OS on your system or network? And what a PINA to reboot your system to program a device when you have all your other stuff on your daily driver OS.

[@leisergeist]

eeeehhh yeah I won't be running someone rando's OS on any system or network any time soon lol. if you're selling the hardware and just have free software with it, just open source it. off-loads some support work as well.

[@daa3417]

Sirus How do you figure that all Linux distros are someone’s random OS? There are more than a few that are widely used and many people have been through them with a microscope leaving little possibility of foul play with a mature distribution.

[@UberAlphaSirus]

@@daa3417 You don't get it.

[@therealjammit]

@@UberAlphaSirus For a stand alone machine, sure. With no hard drive and air gapped it's not an issue. And what about your daily driver machine? You're still running some software on it.

[@PeterHaida]

Displaying other viewers lab's in the background is a brilliant idea, please make it a permanent feature of your mailbag videos.

[@ranzee]

I'm not sure if a projector would work better?

[@denniswoycheshen]

Man that's such a cool idea with the tv... You rock Dave!!!

[@SteveJones172pilot]

I definitely remember that BYTE magazine cover... Great old magazine!!

[@mesolsot]

@13:00 If you want to see something else like that with an odd-ish antenna I recall seeing some pretty interesting chamber and bounce plate harmonic stuff going on inside the satellite dish receiver, the piece on the dish itself that is. One I pulled apart last (Direct TV late 90's early 00's dish if i recall) was an aluminium can that split apart to reveal a gold trace board and a bunch of chambers and discreet filters and just a real beauty to look at for hours. I have another 3 port dish receiver to take apart if you want pics. One I did was one port, channel with a plastic dome, focal point, whatever. 😁

[@zyspan]

Great idea

[@johnyu-eh4id]

It makes me smile to see Dave casually waving a dagger while talking about mailbags

[@dykodesigns]

8" floppy, maybe Curious Marc can read the disk for you. The Fairlight CMI used those 8" floppies as well.

[@guffaw1711]

23:42 "there's nothing really interesting in these things" caution radioactive materials inside "maybe we can tear that down" CAUTION RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL INSIDE

[@joaquins90]

What lens are you using? Maybe a longer lens further away makes the size of the required screen smaller. I don't remember the distribution of the old lab, being smaller maybe you don't have the space to get far enough for the longer lens, but something to consider... Cheers

[@mkylem]

My recommendation is keep the distance and don't feel bad about zooming in post. If you've got a 4k camera, record in 4k but just upload in 1080p, makes the zooming option way better. If the camera's autofocus is good, you can leave that on. Otherwise, get a lens that may allow you to have a long depth of field with the framing you want-like from the TV to as far as your outstretched arm. Cheers.

[@wolfiexii]

I love your precision percussion alignment tool

[@mutatedpixel8042]

I kind of like the framing that the TV provides when it doesn't take up the entire area.

[@MoritzvonSchweinitz]

How do they produce those power supplies? It looks like a complicated mixture of SMD and (huge!) through-hole parts. Is it all manual?

[@joselaw6669]

Not the idubbbz we deserve but the one we need.

[@TheAussieRepairGuy]

13:34 - looks like a high frequency double-dipole loop antenna to me. However, I may or may not know what I'm talking about. I'm sure someone will correct me.

[@ettyhatts]

I love the idea of a tv for real time pictures, it isnt distracting and it wont take focus away from the table as it normally would with a cut-away.

[@marcelvandenbroek537]

the plastic spacers prevent shorting of the metal transistor housing with the solder pads under the transistor.

[@johnpayne3953]

Could you not use a large translucent screen behind you with a projector behind it or do you not have room or will the lighting wash it out.

[@MC_AU]

Voice-coil head positioned were common before angular and stepper motors. Check out the DEC RK05 and similar platter drives from the seventies.

[@adamdboyd]

U thinking of the ls120 drive backwards compatible with 3.5" drive

[@HighestRank]

Yep, and how many blondes and blokes probably tried stuffing a 3.5” disk into a Zip drive and destroy the heads? Format wars are real!

[@steverpcb]

I like the old setup better with the DeLorean on the shelf and the number plate :) How about following up smoke detectors with the battery powered version and how they make a pp3 battery last over a year in one ? Could you convert one to 240v that uses "bugger all" to power it ?

[@bradgriffiths3370]

Happy days! I'm glad to hear you might be moving back, I may see you in the hallway one day.

[@KB1UIF]

Could that be a multi frequency Dipole antenna? I'm thinking about the symmetrical design. Maybe covers 2.4GHz Wifi as well as the 3G Cell tower frequencies? just a thought.

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

These "intelligent displays" embedded devices are basically a complete small computer, which is fascinating. In Germany, we do have a quite extensive bottle and can refunding system with different classes of containers and different prices, as well as different sorting behind the recognition, so the machines have to do image processing/pattern recognition, barcode reading and sorting. I've seen one of them boot up in 2007, and it was a Linux PC, a Celeron thingy. With this display, you could make it much more modular, have one dedicated unit for the bottle/can recognition, one sorter/crusher unit and a printer unit for the vouchers, and have it all be controlled by such a dinky little display screen.

[@arthurtaggart]

Would a polarising filter help with the reflections?

[@josephcote6120]

The ZIP drive carrier moves upward to engage the drive pin into the drive hole on the disk.

[@sloth0jr]

Definitely remember that Byte magazine. I still have my 1982-91 Byte magazines.

[@Sevalecan]

Oh, I remember the click of death. Actually I think I still have one of our old zip drives and maybe some zip disks somewhere.... Is there a fix for the click of death? Might be a fun project. But I think our latest drive had not incurred that issue yet.

[@saddle1940]

Dave, don't get a bigger screen, just another 55inch. Split the image over two screens. Where you stand in the middle means we won't see the join anyway.

[@ghlscitel6714]

I hope the dumpster is closer to the old new lab.

[@tad2021]

Another option, Find/get/acquire one to two more TVs and set them up for a fake window. Either two side by side to span the width of the frame at the top, or three in portrait across the whole background view. From what I remember, the click of death only affected the original ZIP100 devices and was fixed before the ZIP250. The big problem with the click of death was it damaged both the drive and disk, so an clicking drive would ruin a ZIP disk and an damaged disk, either from a clicking drive or physically damaged from being dropped, would give click of death to a susceptible drive. In school, some of the computer labs had ZIP drives, click of death quickly killed every early model drive and took a lot of projects with them; every replacement ZIP100 drive after that were immune to the fault.

[@John_Ridley]

The insidious thing about the click of death is that it was contagious. If the drive developed it, it would damage any disk that you put in it in such a way that if you then put that disk into another drive, it would damage that drive and it would then have the click. Zip discs were not backward compatible. There was an LS120 competitor to the ZIP disk that was 120 megabytes but backward compatible to floppies.

[@nelson1tom]

What about a projector instead of a large TV? Less reflection issues, expandable size. If the ceiling mounted ones are an issues in terms of install or having the light beam showing up on camera, maybe consider the up-firing ones that sit below the projection surface? IDK if they’d look like shit w/studio lighting though.

[@Biela2008]

36:03 I bet that charger is lighter than 91, 1 cent coins together.

[@VividNation]

Honestly, if you do it like that you loose a great deal of cozyness lab atmosphere of yours. I loved to see how you arranged everything behind you on your shelfs and the details and stuff. It was looking "homey" if thats a word. At the moment is just sterile ;) so pls keep that in mind.

[@Siktah]

Fantastic idea regarding the viewer lab background. Time for me to tidy up mine! Also grr I do kinda need a Zip drive...

[@nicknicolosi1]

That 3G modem, that antenna is pretty cool. I think it's separate antenna for TX and RX channels, that's why two separate antennas.

[@HighestRank]

I think one was an emitter and the other a reflector. It’s kind of odd to have two driven devices in such close proximity to each other unless the pickups are detuned with respect to each other.

[@danialboytsov6275]

Hey, Dave! May you shift Dumpster TV along the Z axis so that the edges coincide with the corners of the table, maybe this will be enough to fit it vertically to screen and will look not so bad, and for sides there maybe a racks on the wheels with cool stuff and 2minute testing equipment?

[@twobob]

And honestly I think you were clicking on the "Project content" not the "Widget Toolbox" if I recall stuff from that decade properly. There was likely a toolbar you could have "made visible" with inscrutable icons on.

[@Sir_Uncle_Ned]

Cooler master power supplies are generally good. That particular example can provide 650 watts with significantly less chance of combustion than a cheap Shenzhen special. Having a good multi voltage supply board can be very useful so hang onto that if you can.

[@MancaveEffects]

I would use a retro projection, it is more versatile and as you have control over lighting in your lab. There are special close proximity projectors and lenses that do not require to much distance to the screen as you certainly know. I work a lot with retro projection at work, it looks amazing when used right! Awesome video as usual by the way! 😎

[@SeanBZA]

Still have 2 Zip drives, and a disk or two as well, one external SCSI and one parallel drive, which both look almost the same from the front and rear, except SCSI has a switch to select between ID 5 or 6, so you could have 2 of them on a single SCSI bus. External terminator only.

[@TheOnlyPsycho]

You could try getting the TV to fill the background by setting your video camera further back and zooming in, not sure though if the effect will work with the space you have.