EEVblog 1619 - Mailbag: Featuring Don McKenzie

[@Ziferten]

That Sanyo wasn't using a conventional vacuum fluorescent display. Looked more like a panaplex, which is much rarer to find. Very interesting tech-- actually filled with neon rather than a vacuum.

[@JSMCPN]

Wonder how much of the 4-watt rated power consumption is by the display.

[@qwaqwa1960]

Not a Panaplex...you can see a screen grid. Yeah...weird! I'd guess VF but with a very "neon" phosphor...??? Or.......MAYBE a Panaplex with EMI shielding... Hmm...

[@qwaqwa1960]

After seeing the closeups, could it be a Panaplex-like neon display, with that grid as one electrode? Hmm...HTF did Panaplex even work? I mean, what was the non-glowing electrode? Thin film? Perhaps this is the THICK-film variant :-)

[@paulcohen1555]

Seven segment "nixie"

[@cambridgemart2075]

@@qwaqwa1960 Panaplex used a grid anode and cathode segments

[@milohoffman274]

I knew a guy named Dave who used to do these type of mailbag videos all the time.

[@EEVblog]

Every Monday so the legend goes.

[@barrieshepherd7694]

@@EEVblog A legend in his own time - back in the day

[@D95SI420]

Your not alone on having to take in that 80's/90's smell from old computers and boards. Always reminds me of walking into my local computer junk shop back in the day.

[@AdamLangford]

I still have a bunch of SimmStick boards and old PICs in the parts bins. A few PIC 16C84A ones that I started programming MCUs on before the fancy F versions came out. I even have the Easy PIC'n and PIC'n up the Pace books - bought them from DonTronics too.

[@bluelightningnz]

DonTronics - there's a name I haven't heard for a while. I got started programming AVRs with one of his boards (DT-006). Legend!

[@cornwallonline]

Great mailbag, thanks!

[@rolfdieterklein]

the display of the sanyo calculator is really fantastic and still working. very packed inside.

[@johnsonlam]

Web Ring was such as nostalgic term, it's vanished so long that nobody mention it for more than 15 years.

[@monad_tcp]

posed to come back, because google doesn't work anymore

[@jnharton]

Doesn't help that unmaintained ones can lead you into sketchy websites when the original site goes permanently offline and someone else gets ahold of the domain.

[@azepromidi]

hey Dave i know for a fact there are some progmaners out there that are writting code for that long life camera in linux

[@ziggfreud9820]

Yes Dave California, only the fifth largest economy in the world! No worries. 😉

[@rockyrivermushrooms529]

that calculator is a work of art

[@KeritechElectronics]

A thing of beauty and a joy for ever.

[@jessicav2031]

I really like the concept of that book. Let you know what you don't know, and tell you common cheats that everyone uses. Can't count how many times I could have used something like that and instead had to learn the trick by reverse engineering some existing product.

[@anthonyshiels9273]

I bought my first calculator when I went to University in October 1974. It was a Sinclair Cambridge and soon afterwards I got a Sinclair Scientific because I was reading Experimental Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics and I needed the Logarithmic and Trigonometry functions that the Cambridge lacked. At this stage I don't remember how much they cost me but the purchase was funded by my Government Grant.

[@barrieshepherd7694]

Still have my, working, Sinclair Cambridge! I think it was about £17 (a lot back in 1974) The Scientific was available in a build it yourself kit for about £29 I think.

[@cidercreekranch]

We moved back to California after I retired. Today was our shopping day and there were plenty of people in the stores. Don't believe what you read on the Internet.

[@jessegraham417]

Yeah I don't get where the "California sucks" crap came from...I miss it every day. I'm planning on moving back to California at some point. Its expensive to be sure but the sun always shines.

[@julesl6910]

I live in Southern California, I did not understand his reference. If anything, we all think Australia sucks and has a ridiculous government.

[@littlerock8926]

I actually ordered a lot of PICs from Don back in the 90s when in undergrad and graduate school. It's amazing to see this.

[@richfiles]

Oh man, it's the Sanyo that has long eluded my calculator collection! Those things are _ALWAYS_ in high demand on the ol' bay... Every time I've tried to get one, I always got out bid... _violently!_ The classic transistor radio look, wild construction, and gas plasma display are absolute peak Japan, and It's just *desirable!* You are a lucky man to be gifted one!

[@mtt8244]

I think because of the wrong VFD assumption, Dave should send you the device 🤗

[@monad_tcp]

Bring back web-rings. google is useless to find anything nowadays. Just make a webring using the more info on youtube.

[@frankgrudge8823]

Book on order. Great mailbag cheers Dave!

[@mk500]

Still here enjoying my home in San Francisco. Stories of our demise are greatly exaggerated.

[@EEVblog]

Have you got the poop map app?

[@jacobcooper373]

@@EEVblog They power wash the sidewalks pretty often in SF. That map only exists because it gets reported into public record, yet promptly cleaned up. Seen more dog poop than anything else... on par with most other countries (albeit not Japan!)

[@VandalIO]

Please don’t throw dons stuff in the bin , donate to ACMS … this need to be in a museum and preserved

[@mk500]

I grew up in Wisconsin. The kids with maple tree farms would bring those maple candies to school when it was the season. Those are some of the sweetest candies I have ever consumed. Only for those with hearty pancreas!

[@LBCAndrew]

I still live in California and you're right, the place is really going downhill fast. Not only are the taxes insane, but nobody can figure out where the tax money is going since it's clearly not being used for things like road repairs, putting criminals in prison, keeping the streets safe, or maintaining city landscaping along roads and freeways. Where I live in SoCal, we've had more blackouts in the past 4 years than the 40 years before that. The only thing keeping me here is family. I keep hoping the people here would realize it's all due to how they're voting and make a coarse correction, but apparently it hasn't gotten bad enough yet.

[@Woodturner88]

In the process of escaping myself. I can tell you one of the places the tax money goes is to replacing all the stolen copper wire for the street lights. It is multiple full time jobs just replacing the stolen wire.

[@JC-jw2kw]

.... call that a knife .... 🐊

[@KeritechElectronics]

...THIS is a knife.

[@frankmcalinden3699]

Also had the Newfound Electronics Programmer , i think the guys name was Jim Robertson, i think from Geelong....

[@UnreasonableSteve]

I was also confused about why Dave was thinking people were fleeing some of the well-known most desirable places to live - as someone living in those places, nobody's fleeing as far as I've seen? I think you'd be hard pressed to find a country or state that isn't trying to pass some boneheaded backwards laws, Dave... Are there any boats left in Australia or are you just stuck there now?

[@EEVblog]

I'm not sure how you could have missed the news about all and sundry leaving California, in particular San Francisco.

[@UnreasonableSteve]

@@EEVblog Still not sure what "news" you're talking about. I could say the same to you about Australia and I think you'd be equally confused. What *is* on the news constantly is that we can't build housing fast enough for how quickly population is growing, exactly the opposite of what you're saying

[@ElectronicControl3R]

@@UnreasonableSteve view the travel maps of american citizens moving states in the past 4 years. the population growth you are speaking of are not citizens.

[@ColinMcCormack]

California's a good place to live, if you have money. Texas seems OK (big place, I've only seen a fraction.) Too bad if you expect the lights and heating to stay on over winter. Southern states would be OK unless you're black ... you can just *taste* the racism there

[@youtubeviewer7077]

@@UnreasonableSteve it's not just the news, there's even a wikipedia article about this, look for "California exodus". Domestic migration is negative by a few hundred thousand people per year.

[@comput3rman77]

It’s not just a yankee plug on that calculator Japan also uses that type of plug also 😏

[@frankmcalinden3699]

I built a couple of Don,s Printer buffers, one for myself and another for a guy who used it to send info to his vynyl cutter . Bought simmstick boards as well..one i recall was for i2c chips , i think another one had a video display chip...stvxxxx.....Dave did you do a video display board...??

[@pretzelogic2689]

Wow, SIMM sticks! I had so much fun building stuff on those. Forgot all about 'em. Thanks to Don.

[@kevincozens6837]

Wow. II had completely forgotten about printer buffers. I remember some of those at a company I was working for back in the day. That PPEX board is interesting. I wonder if it stood for something like Parallel Port Expander. Looked a bit like it was a way of either supporting more than one printer off a single printer port on a computer.

[@JSMCPN]

PPEX is a generic I/O signal interface. There are four 34-pin headers, each with sixteen signal, sixteen ground, and two +5 Volt pins wired such that you get 32 outputs and 32 inputs. Multiple boards can be chained.

[@ahayesm]

You might be able to pull the pictures off of it with Photorec

[@EEVblog]

Tried it, nothing. Probably because they are raw image files from the sensor, not an image format.

[@mbn65]

Did I missed out on something (living in Sweden), what’s wrong with California for the moment, “down the drain”?

[@AlwaysCensored-xp1be]

I had one of those Pbuffs Don is a legend.

[@xani666]

"I'm sure you know who that is" Bold of you to assume they'd license any actual character for random gadget rather than draw a generic girl

[@oskimac]

hate all that MAC apple crap. all the ecosistem off productos software fanboys prices etc

[@redherring3110]

Same with linux gurus stuck in the in past thinking they are holders of the secred sauce.

[@TobyRobb]

I remember the web ring, because yes i am older than the internet!

[@retrozmachine1189]

Was it Don that did the printer buffer that had no RAM for the CPU at all? All it had was DRAM for the print buffer? I used to play quite a bit with Z80s and the RAM-less design made me wonder if I could do the same, so I gave it a whirl and made up my own breadboard buffer with no RAM for the Z80, just a single 256kbit DRAM for the buffer. The Z80's alternate register set gave enough on-chip storage to make it all work without RAM for the CPU, but the program I wrote was pretty convoluted and no doubt could have been done better.

[@EEVblog]

I don't recall the exact details, but it was something like that.

[@DonMcKenzie451]

Writing a program on a Z80 microprocessor without static RAM presents significant challenges, especially regarding the implementation of the stack and subroutine calls. The stack is crucial for managing function calls and returning to the correct point in the program after a subroutine is completed. Without RAM, you cannot dynamically allocate space on the stack to store return addresses and local variables. I wrote PBUFF using static RAM. Don...

[@jjjacer]

those USB cable testors are very useful due to the huge amounts of charge only cables, or USB2 cables when you need USB3 for speed

[@vincei4252]

In 2024 Pick Me means something totally different.

[@EEVblog]

I don't get it?

[@simontay4851]

So what does it mean then?

[@Wormetti]

“The term pick-me girl is used to describe a woman who obviously and obsessively works to gain men’s attention or acceptance. Typically, a pick-me girl talks about how she’s not like other women, especially in ways considered typically feminine”

[@douglas2lee929]

Especially in Tijuana.

[@SidneyCritic]

If you don't want to sell many make it MAC only - lol -, ie, it's why the Chinese hardware stuff is usually only Win software/drivers, eg, programmers, etc. I've bought stuff off MAC guys on the cheap when their HW stopped working after an OS update, because Win10 can still run Vista drivers - lol -.

[@gamerpaddy]

technics had wide dual complimentary pnp npn transistor modules in their SE-A3 flagship amps called 0D-503AQ that are now unobtanium or overpriced one side was just the usual BCE with TO3P pin spacing, but the other one was inverted, ECB. great for pcb layout but horrible if you need replacements. you couldt just mount two normal to-3p in there but one had to be upside down, not great for heat transfer or just flip those two legs

[@notathome13]

Ewaste is cheaper sent to Dave than dispose of in Victoriastan! What a treasure of bits from the past!

[@andymouse]

Disposal is a problem there I take it !

[@p_mouse8676]

Can somebody explain why these books @48:00 these days have almost all the same font, layout and art style? Looks like an interesting read btw, hopefully there is an ebook available?

[@TheAVJedi]

I still have and use a Dontronics USB > Serial convertor. Awesome bit of kit.

[@sleepwalker6825]

Dave .. Would You be interested in a Commodore 64 Retro PC with Tape Deck .. It was My PC in the Early 80's .. No power pack for it and 1 missing Key ( Thanks to my Cretinous Sisters Friends one night at a house Party ) But Seems ( Seems Fully functional ) can provide 1 cartridge game and a Tape Game .. Let Me know and I'll send it to the Mail Bag Department .. Cheers for the Vid

[@MarkGovier]

Real engineers don’t touch Macs.

[@YoutubeBorkedMyOldHandle_why]

Canada gone downhill? News to me ... things seem just fine here. Maybe you should come for a visit, see for yourself. I recall 'Many Many' years ago, some Australian military college cadets from RMC Duntroon came to visit us at RMC in Kingston, in the dead of winter. They were on their summer vacation. Pure madness! ... I mean, it was -30°c with a meter of wretched snow everywhere, and they were wasting their perfectly good summer to visit ... this??? Most of us would have killed to be down in Australia at the time. Anyway, they turned out to be really great guys, so we took them on a tour of all the local pubs, had a grand olde cultural exchange, and drank a LOT of beer. Seriously ... a LOT. I'm pretty sure they had a good time, despite the winter weather, and we did too. Countries are about a lot more than just whatever boneheaded politicians, happen to be making whatever boneheaded decisions, at any given moment in time.

[@humble2246]

I speak to Canadians all the time. Everyone outside of quebec has said canada is going downhill. With special thanks to people like Trudeau

[@YoutubeBorkedMyOldHandle_why]

@@humble2246 I am Canadian, you are speaking to me right now, and I think that Canada is a Great country, vastly preferable to many other countries. But in fairness, others will agree with you ... even some Québécoise. My own sister absolutely despises Mr Trudeau, whereas, I don't have an issue with him. I think he is a vast improvement over the turkey he replaced. Surely this is meaningless drivel though, since anyone can find support for any sort of opinion, especially on today's social media. I suggest that we put this to rest, talk about electronics and other things we can actually agree on.

[@TimoNoko]

"We will lock your savings account, if you don't take your government-prescribed medication."

[@humble2246]

@KZbinBorkedMyOldHandle_why "I don't have an issue with him" LMFAO. Yay for government controlling every move of your entire life.

[@nathantron]

When they say Mac Only, it's not Mac only, it's Unix filesystem. Which means you CAN open it on windows, you just need to get the driver. Or if you have Ubuntu, you can load that up there too. Mac's suck, they aren't the center of the universe. Sorry fanboys.

[@andymouse]

The book looked like an awesome reference guide to have on your bookshelf !....cheers.

[@barrieshepherd7694]

Agree the possible lack of (excessive) detail is in its favour. Gives you the basics , if you want the detailed science go WWW it. Often when text books go into excessive scientific detail the practicality of how to use the device gets lost.

[@andymouse]

@@barrieshepherd7694 :)

[@jaro6985]

The book looks great but why put such an old PCB design on the front?

[@alexdockery6003]

I'm studying to become an electrical engineer/ physicist and your content is some of the most entertaining to me and I cannot describe why. You do a great job.

[@christophernetherton9389]

Calc display appears to be gas plasma,; very similar to Panaplex displays. It is beautiful!

[@questy44]

That MT-200 guy has a convincing story and product, impressive

[@ChrisJackson-js8rd]

as a canadian i misread that as "doug mckenzie"

[@KeritechElectronics]

Great Scott! If you're going to San Francisco...

[@unmanaged]

“USB2BT PLUS” is a conversion adapter that converts USB HID devices to Bluetooth and allows you to operate iPhones/smartphones/computers.

[@rw-xf4cb]

I ordered some PIC and his programmer from Don at DonTronics!

[@mjaerkens]

Obvious cry from Don to be invited again! Try and reach out for another interview Dave!

[@jaykayin]

Still in northern California and still glad I live here. Nice that the younger suburbia raised "tech bros" have left. Violence and theft are no different than all the other US cities today, and declining. Basically the same problems across the nation. California has by far the largest population so everything gets noticed, and naysayers find anything they can to dis this state. All that said, PLEASE keep on saying that California is going down the drain..It just makes here more enjoyable, more affordable, and more of a creative nexus. Helps bring back some of the incredibly creative ",pre-techie era" life

[@IanScottJohnston]

As a kid, I designed an RS232 to parallel (centronics) interface for my ZX Spectrum......but I never even thought about adding buffer memory, DANG!.....opportunity for further fun missed!

[@scotshabalam2432]

I really like the USB to Bluetooth. But if the maker is doing that I'm wondering about making a good dongle for BT? If you shop anywhere for them they all come from China, are poorly made and break easily, and have terrible software so there's probably a niche in the market to sell quality bluetooth dongles.

[@cambridgemart2075]

I do not understand why any engineers choose to use the Mac platform; if you want a rock solid platform, use Linux, but consider that >60% of your audience use Windows

[@scotshabalam2432]

Hoppes Brain could use heat pipes to a cooler and/or fan for even better thermals. Liquid cooling is also a option but personally I'm not a fan reason is fluid leak risks.

[@niemusze5078]

i miss web rings soooo much

[@captmulch1]

Classic! I’d forgotten what the old memory modules looked like. I’m sure I’ve got some in a drawer somewhere.

[@theeuda]

How about challenging the MCM KZbin channel to a travel blog on the Ghan train where you take the train and Moog & Marty use a car at ÷ or lesser v 2:21 alue to the cost of your ticket?

[@leppie]

Damn, havent heard webring since 1994 probably.

[@KeritechElectronics]

Early 2000s for me, but that was indeed a thing, especially with blogs. Finding each other when search engines were not really good.

[@MatthewSuffidy]

I got a MacOS Cantalina VM up on my Linux Fedora Core. I think the point is it is running under hypervisor of a mac hardware wrapper. It was kind of fun because I tried to run some mac software. I also passed my AMD pcie mottherboard sound, and USB ports to it using IOMMU. In Linux they also support the macos filesystem. As well there is some HEIC to jpg tools out there. Did you try to connect the usb? because it may just be a mass storage device regardless of what it says.

[@EEVblog]

I have no idea what you just said...

[@MatthewSuffidy]

@@EEVblog I put up a video called First Experience With MacOS in Linux VM [hyTQUmCsGmE]. That shows me using it, but I added some of my hardware later from my box to make the sound work properly later.

[@simontay4851]

Same here. "I think the point is it is running under hypervisor of a mac hardware wrapper." What the fk does that mean? What are IOMMU and HEIC? This is what i don't like about Linux users, you just assume people already know what all the acronyms mean. To put it simply, i think what you're saying is that you're running MacOS in a Virtual Machine on a Linux host OS. Correct grammar would've also helped. There *_are_* some HEIC to JPG tools... Under *_a_* hypervisor.

[@frankdevinlp]

Ahh 3:00 the good old 80s, 90s vintage smell. Nicotine, cigarettes, leaded solder and real tree rosin. Cancer in a bottle 😂

[@Michael-n3y6z]

Michael Redding says Glad you like the calculator

[@floodo1]

Any MSP430 fan bois?

[@ekenpad8482]

Dang that USB cable tester is nearly 300 USD over on Ali (and that's the cheaper of the 2 options!). Clearly not yet copied.

[@EEVblog]

Yikes, I didn't check the price!

[@jaro6985]

Why buy from Ali, the official site sells it for 5400 JPY ($35 USD). Very reasonably priced.

[@leaveempty5320]

Get Linux it's much more compatible with many file formats.

[@saultrecktom]

Ever hear of ellistronics growing up down there in Australia?

[@ligius3]

That camera is indeed nice, but with mac-only software is indeed a niche product. I'm sure other OSs will come, just seems like a very strange choice, perhaps the one the author was most familiar with. I would have chosen something like JS which can be used across all desktop and mobile platforms and even in browsers, since it doesn't look like performance is critical. Or, since C is required anyway, make a toolset in plain C/C++ that can be compiled across platforms and make an OSX skin for it. Just my 2c.

[@evensgrey]

If you want to see a POST diagnostics card in action, Adrian's Digital Basement uses one frequently in diagnosing problems with boards with ISA slots.

[@SomeMorganSomewhere]

Yeah, was gonna say that half-arsed mains solution in the calculator looked like it was a retro-fit on a battery unit, though the output wiring is a bit howyadoin in that case.

[@joetkeshub]

Oldie Don sent you his dump bin... Forgivable, he's over 82...

[@DonMcKenzie451]

No, I'm actually only 81 :-)

[@kyrylolashchenko1977]

I think, I'm going to buy this book. Nice one, and not too comprehensive is a plus for me as a hobbyist.

[@LawpickingLocksmith]

Jabidaby I was hoping for some miniature "bird" watching safe?

[@shawnmccori]

I wonder how past dave in 1994 would feel about modern cellphones.

[@samh6761]

Web rings... wow that brings me back

[@joekenorer]

Tell the haters to kiss ass Dave, they're just internet minds anyway, not real people. Love mail-bag!!

[@ElectronicControl3R]

true !

[@gentlemanhk]

29:49 I think you could now open your own electronics museum Dave!

[@simonstergaard]

The photon...just make it ExFat, should be readable by mac and windows

[@rdoursenaud]

I suspect the card is not even formatted and the FPGA's just writing directly to it as a block device. The overhead of using a partition table might use too much energy given the goals.

[@danman32]

What file system was the SD card formatted?

[@abitofabitofabit4404]

"Sorry" to all my Canadian viewers...

[@robertpeters9438]

Love the smellavision!

[@DimasFajar-ns4vb]

peace be upon you sir

[@anthonyshiels9273]

Did Dave test the calculator with this sum: 5 + 5 / 5 = ?

[@GodmanchesterGoblin]

Most likely 2 because, like almost all basic calculators of that time, it has no stack to allow a hierarchy of operations. That's still true of most four function calculators today that don't use RPN or that dont support parentheses.

[@jacobdavidcunningham1440]

lmao he casting shade on places

[@muhsinsahindal8252]

Hey dave 🎉

[@EEVblog]

Hey!

[@devicemodder]

canadian here. don't get me started on the state of my government and country...

[@ElectronicControl3R]

well said !

[@hugosantos1476]

"That's not a noife"

[@CollinBaillie]

That metrology joke inspired page... Nothing harder than trying to think of one system using another system. The cool thing about metric is, (as far as cm/mm) everything is just 1/10. No other fractions needed. Forget yer 1/4s and 1/8s and 1/16s... Just use 1/10s. You can have up to 9 of them, and then you go up a whole number. You got 6 of em plus 3 of em, hey, you got 9 of em. Easy Peasy

[@Hartley94]

02:59 😂😂

[@AffordBindEquipment]

I live in California and it's worse than you think... Camera: 50,000 pictures of the inside of the box.

[@monad_tcp]

34:32 the nipple ! (are we allowed to call it that way still, I'm too old for that already, I'm just version 3.5)

[@jurgenkruger3932]

A smellie snuffie guy😂😂

[@MadawaskaObservatory]

the knife is too small

[@EEVblog]

That's what she said.

[@AdamsLab]

$200 and only works on Mac = how not to make a hardware product in 2024.

[@keithweathersbee1]

125 back in the days? How about using a more varied vocabulary ?