Oddware: The Monitor Miser

The Monitor Miser was a good idea, five years too late. As a result, most of them were forgotten in a warehouse for a quarter-century, before being sold as electronic surplus.
Time flow:
0:00 Introduction
1:23 Power consumption
2:30 The Monitor Miser
3:44 Unwrapping
4:14 DIP switches
5:30 PS/2 adapters
6:26 DOS test
7:41 Bonus feature
8:02 Windows test
8:54 Monitor Miser Plus
9:23 Teardown
10:06 Outro
Time lapse music: "Telesound 13" by Ben Minnotte: benminnotte.bandcamp.com/albu...
#vintagecomputing #RetroTech #crtgaming

[@uxwbill]

That particular PS/2 has a standby section in the power supply that's energized any time the machine is connected to power. It's been a while, but if you pull it apart, I think you'll find that power switch actually plugs into the planar. It's only switching a five volt "sense line". If yours has the MagneTek power supply, don't leave it plugged in, as the always-on part is said to conk out. I've never seen the MagneTek supply, only the Delta, Astec or AcBel Polytech supplies, which seem much more reliable. Even by 1993, the writing was already on the wall for this product (and the similar PC Green Energy saver I talked of years ago). The Cirrus Logic graphics drivers for the Dell PC I had at the time came with a special DPMS screen saver. Unfortunately, it only showed their logo bouncing around, instead of "multiplexing" a screen saver of your own choosing.

[@uxwbill]

The PC Green Energy Saver actually used the same relays as this device!

[@orinokonx01]

I've only just started the video, and your comment caught my eye. I have an IBM PS/2 Model 40SX. It's one of those weird 386 PS/2s that have ISA slots, and the same kind of power supply you mentioned. The thing ran fine for years and years, and then suddenly one day after not being used for a month or two (but plugged in), it stopped powering on. The power supply acts like it is very weak, only being able to power on the planar and that is it. No, no shorts on anything else, I doubt checked with another machine. The power supply has a fault. I will need to recheck what make it is, and report back. I'd love to get that system working again. Everything I threw at it worked amazingly well. The ISA slots support really helps!

[@TheSimoc]

​​@@orinokonx01That is usually caused by dried up electrolytic capacitors in PSU, which tends to happen over time especially if constantly powered up (applies to both the standby and main sections). Sometimes also a switching transistor, rectification diode, or a protective semiconductor component (shunt zener, crowbar SCR, etc.) subsequently gets blown. Those are relatively easy to repair and there are lots of generic PSU repair information available.

[@TheSimoc]

Aah! You brought back memories from that "special DPMS screen saver" with the bouncing Cirrus Logic logo. I had completely forgot that! I had it in an AST Advantage 486sx, and noticed it but was then too young to understand inner workings. Now I'm more technically savvy and I still have that computer, stored untouched in the basement for a couple of decades. On some good day I would like to refurbish it. Do you know if there are any documentation and software available anywhere for those integrated Cirrus Logic graphics? Including that special screensaver? And better yet, original software for those AST machines? I miss those preinstalled AST software, not so much for any usability but.. for nostalgia! The sad thing that happened while it that machine was still my daily driver, hdd got corrupted and had to reinstall everything, and I never had original software in floppies, and never backed up. I got it working with generic Windows and other software, but missing all those AST logos, special software, and also the Cirrus Logic DPMS screensaver.

[@mjverostek1278]

we had a power strip with a lighted power button

[@MrMegaManFan]

I think we should all thank Clint for making "Oddware" a ubiquitous term for any weird or unnecessary computer tech. We all use it now and I'm happy with it that way!

[@Mattened]

Ok, but what about this video? Did you watch it?

[@spartan117ak]

He left a comment for engagement, got a like from the upload, his comment was relevant... don't you have anything better to do then to moderate other people's comments? What does your own comment bring to the table exactly?

[@Tommi-C]

Do you know that when I clicked on it I thought it was LGR.

[@BillAnt]

Seems like this company was always a step behind the times. LOL

[@therackstar]

Every time I log in to Clint’s page, he’s reviewing a computer I used to own.. 😅 I had an IBM 70, almost identical

[@TheDZHEX]

"Yesterday's solution for today's problem - tomorrow!"

[@Purdey921]

My friends did not believe me that the sun on the solitaire game card back would wear sunglasses for a second or so at random. You didn’t have it on screen long enough, but I watched for it.

[@Petertronic]

Microsoft took all the fun things like that out on later Solitaire versions :(

[@Derekthepersonable]

I remember that! I also remember the deck with the hand holding the cards showing an extra card up the sleeve.

[@TechGorilla1987]

Back during these times, I had a small, flat box that sat on the PC and the monitor sat on that. It was essentially a power strip for your PC (with a footprint large enough to support the monitor on top), but each peripheral had it's own lighted rocker switch to kill the power. That was great for powering down things like monitors and printers when you stepped away from your PC. If I recall, it also had a "master" switch that turned the whole strip off. Those were the days.

[@stevencarlson5422]

I have 4 of these in my setup love using them

[@alexhajnal107]

I've got a power strip that switches its outlets on or off depending on whether current is being drawn on a separate "master" outlet. One of my UPS has similar functionality on a few not-battery-backed outlets. Kind of the same idea as the "master switch" except that it being automatic means you can hide it behind/under the desk.

[@donotatme]

My dad still uses one of those to this day

[@manoflego123]

I just found one of those at the thrift store! I've wanted one for years, even though I don't have any era appropriate tech to plug into it.

[@BillAnt]

Nowadays they have power switches for routers, which restarts the router in the absence of internet (pings an IP).

[@bobingabout]

5:10 If you actually do some maths on the switches... you end up with the binary number represented by the switch positions, multiplied by 8, then +2. 8B+2. So, the first option is 1, 1*8+2 = 10 mins. 2nd option is 2, 2*8+2 = 18 mins. 3rd option is 3, 3*8+2 = 26 mins. 4th option is 5, 5*8+2 = 42 mins. so the default position, switch 4 on would be 8 in binary, 8*8 = 64, +2 = 66 mins.

[@Lazerlike42]

I had the same idea but had worked it out as a decimal linear system so that switch #1 is worth 4 minutes, switch #2 is worth 8, switch #3 is worth 16, and switch #4 is worth -30. The first option then would be 4 - 8 - 16 - (-30) = 10 minutes. Option 2 would be -4 + 8 -16 - (-30) = 18 and so on. This would yield the default option as -4 - 8 - 16 - (-30) = 2 minutes. After seeing the suggestion of using binary, I'd say that makes more sense. I'd be curious to know which if either of these are true.

[@alexhajnal107]

@@Lazerlike42 Given that there's a 4-bit up/down counter chip in there I'd say that it's probable that the DIP switches represent a 4-bit binary value. The whole value (as opposed to the individual bits) is then used to tune the circuit's behavior. Would need to see a schematic/circuit diagram to be sure.

[@radicalquad]

i just thought of that too! if you had all the switches off, it would take 2 minutes to shut off the display. if you only had switch 3 on, it would take 34 minutes.

[@bobingabout]

@@radicalquad Yeah, 34 minutes, my Maths made sense, right up until I calculated 64+2=66 mins, should be 32+2=34.

[@megatronskneecap]

I love how this is just a basic sleep/wake function but it was revolutionary as late as the mid 90's.

[@jamesphillips2285]

I was kind of confused when I first saw an ad for that feature: "A monitor so advanced: it turns itself off!" I was like: how/why?

[@charlesswenson259]

Yo, coiled keyboard wires are back in a major way. They're available for modern keyboards and are considered quite stylish in the high-end keyboard scene.

[@steviebboy69]

Yes I remember my Amiga 2000 having a coiled cord, and one time old headphones back in the day had a coiled cord. But sometimes the coils would go funny sometimes or like the Landline they would twist up and you have to dangle the receiver to let the twist go out of it.

[@Derfboy]

Oh, that crackle at the end when the monitor cuts off.....I just went back to my childhood

[@Xeraser2]

At 80 bucks it'd have paid for itself in like what, a decade? What an investment.

[@beez1717]

The main reason to do this is to prevent screen burn in.

[@ZanHecht]

​@@beez1717 Screen savers worked perfectly fine for preventing burn-in.

[@Mostlyharmless1985]

Well, E star wasn’t really about saving money as it was to reduce load on the grid and use less power. The intent is everyone uses efficient devices, and that reduces pollution.

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

​@@beez1717 I think the kind of people who cared about burn in yet didn't want to turn off their screen or use screen savers would have just replaced the monitor. Everyone did this every few years anyway at the time because each new graphical standard required it. I found a catalog from 1994, and 14" VGA monitors went for $120-$200 with SVGA monitors going for $250 and up. It would probably have been a better value to spend a little more on a newer monitor, which may have included Energy Star support anyway.

[@Neomalthusiano]

At current interest rates that's actually quite an investment really. Thanks for destroying economy, boomers.

[@alexhajnal107]

In case anyone's curious, the chips it uses are: AN1339 Quad voltage comparator CD74LS00 Quad 2-input NAND gate MC14538BCP Dual monostable multivibrator (a pair of 100µs to 1s timers) MC14020BCP 14-bit binary counter HEF4029BP 4-bit binary/decade up/down counter I can think of a few ways these could used to make this thing work. Would love to see a schematic!

[@cassandrajoiner9933]

I was curious. Thanks for the info!

[@5cyndi]

6:40 I like that mug: “comments have been disabled” 😁

[@Linuxpunk81]

Watching the Screensaver at the end in silence brought a wave of memories and feelings. Thank you, great video

[@TheSimoc]

And even more importantly, not in silence but with a comfy HDD noise!

[@Markimark151]

Had this came out in the 1980s, it would’ve been enticing. Because in 1993, lot of computers in my school had standby mode, since those computers were pretty much on the whole day.

[@kubicajakub]

Love the message at the bottom - "does not represent EPA endorsement of any product".

[@syntaxerorr]

80 Bucks! That is crazy. Seems like it would take a really long time to recover the cost by saving electricity in the 1990's.

[@KanawhaCountyWX]

As someone that still uses a braille embosser from the early '90s that predates energy star, if someone were to develop something like this that would work over parallel or serial, that would be a big benefit to people that still need to use older printing technologies, and the equipment that powered them. My Juliet embosser in particular sounds like a small server when it's running because the fan never powers down, but something like this would be useful if it could just intercept parallel or serial print data.

[@wolfgangmcq]

Reading the document shown at 9:08, it sounds like the "Laser Miser" was exactly this but for parallel and serial port devices, if you can find one.

[@FabledGentleman]

8:38 - And the Academy Award goes to 🤣

[@Vuusteri]

Best "Hey" of 2024.

[@FabledGentleman]

@@VuusteriMost definitively 😂

[@daveash9572]

My 90s era PC, an Amstrad PC2086, contained a warning in the manual, advising that the monitor be switched on before the computer, and not switched off until the computer was shut down - apparently they were concerned about a power surge/spike affecting the PC.

[@zwz.zdenek]

It's a thing with poor power cables/joints that have high resistance. A monitor will make a high current spike to demagnetize the screen.

[@disgruntledfaerie]

Thanks for including the timelapse music link! It's a really cool tune.

[@XMguy]

I love the ambience of the lamp beside the desktop pc at 2:27

[@LeifES]

10:20 ooooh that crackling!

[@joshm264]

I was actually wondering when you'd make a video about this after rewatching the $5 video card video a couple days ago. Now all we need is the video about that sound card you got!

[@Aquatarkus96]

Was that Oddity Archive music I heard in a VWestlife video? Well I'll be damned :D

[@NALTOHQ]

Glad to see Oddware make a comeback here.

[@chebachaka]

Great content. You take me back to a more pleasant time in our lives when things were more simple and entertaining.

[@herbcraven7146]

I immediately recognized Ben's tune during the time lapse. Fellow Oddity Archive fan here.

[@AMDRADEONRUBY]

I really likes vintage computers videos they are still useful for older games too have a nice day.

[@Tommi-C]

I'm glad I live in the UK, I switched the socket off when my PC was not in use. In fact I still do.

[@hajow9303]

Yeah you Brits have that going for you. Here in NL we have to use power bricks or extention cords with lighted switches. Still use them though. Safer and less energy wasted

[@smartyhall]

It looks like setting the stitches to zero in binary would be a two minute timeout, and the dip switches count up in increments of eight minutes. So, the out-of-the-box setting would be 2+15x8 or 122 minutes.

[@oscar_charlie]

Since it seems to be just looking at data line activity, you could use a splitter and adapter to inject PS2 mouse signals into it, which would then keep the monitor alive.

[@whatbee]

The dip switch coding is interesting - the 4 time settings used here can be achieved with only 2 switches instead of 4, plus the fourth switch seems to be entirely unused? I'm also interested in the circuit, as it looks relatively complex compared to the RC timer I was expecting. If you do a deeper dive into the thing I'd be interested

[@zwz.zdenek]

Perhaps the engineer was of German origin. It surely could have been done with a couple transistors and some passive components.

[@XodiumLabs]

So I have a bit of an accessory that I didn't pay much mind to but this video made me think about: When you mentioned that some monitors back then had a permanently attached IEC cable. I actually have an adapter from that era that attaches to the end of an IEC power cord...and converts it to a US power socket. Wonder if that would have also been included with this to account for those monitors with permanently attached cables.

[@thisislilraskal]

My uncle had something similar that controlled the power input/output on a TV and a cable TV set top box. But I've only seen this in The Philippines. Back in early 2000's, the Australian government tried to be "environmentally friendly" by handing out / swapping to each household a 6 plug power board. It had a remote control sensor attached which also turned off all appliances with one press of the remote. They came to your house and swapped out your old conventional multi power board for the "environmental" government one. They ended up in landfill because they were useless, ugly and bulky and people were paranoid there were listening devices inside.

[@santajimi]

Only 9.10 and you're already going on a coffee break?! You're fired!

[@vwestlife]

It was 9:10 *PM* when I recorded the video.

[@bubexpress5435]

​@vwestlife the numark pt01 record players you can buy today come with The YD Clone cartridge

[@vwestlife]

@@bubexpress5435That's one of the better clones.

[@bubexpress5435]

@vwestlife hey um have you taken a look at the victrola revolution go its another great portable record player you should do a review on it

[@Hublium]

@santajimi lol, I know many people who work 6am-3pm; to them 9am would sound like a pretty reasonable time for a mid-morning coffee break

[@WolfmanDude]

Very cool that they made it work without a microcontroller!

[@Rauiklsnugt]

Love the way you presented this.

[@ShowRyuKen]

Loved the choice of music for the countdown section. It really increased the sense of jeopardy. I found myself silently willing the Miser on, hoping against hope that the monitor would conk out when the clock ticked round to twenty past.

[@JessicaFEREM]

coiled cables are making a comeback with the custom keyboard community, nowdays they have braided "aviation" cables that are just to look cool with a massive plug, it's meant to sit on the desk in front of the keyboard

[@forivall]

They cost like $30 though, for a simple usb 2 usb c cable.

[@JessicaFEREM]

@@forivall they're about $10-20 on Amazon Not that bad for a fancy cable.

[@Apokathelosis]

​@@forivall I bet you would find some even for $100. You have to pay premium for niche gadgets for show only.

[@forivall]

Unfortunately I'm also in Canada and thinking in Canada dollars, so the cheapest I see are $15, usually $30-40

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

8:40 haha, where’d my solitaire go? It seems like a pretty useful product, but like you said it would have been more of a success if it was released earlier. I’m sure offices would have used them but built in energy saving features caught up quickly. Great video!

[@NaoPb]

Cool. I did not know these existed. I agree, a little too late to be usefull. I'm thinking it might be a fun project (for me) to try to recreate this with an arduino. So I am adding this to my list and maybe some day I'll do a video about what it's become.

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

I wish we could add Oddware to the diconary officially

[@alphonsesynrem28]

Awesome and amazing product and as always a very interesting video. Thank you for the information.

[@tapeheads]

you never miss man. this was awsome and I actually want one now😆

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

Oh a new LGR Oddware video!

[@gamingguy9006]

Oddware is not a LGR coined term!

[@programmer437]

That timelapse soundtrack is hardcore.

[@TyphinHoofbun]

The moment it was shown that it monitors keyboard activity, I saw the problem. I used to run into problems with screen/power saving settings that didn't include a gamepad in the list of things to consider "activity", and it was REALLY frustrating to have it cut the screen in the middle of a game just because I hadn't touched the keyboard or mouse in a bit. It's left me with a habit of disabling all of that immediately, and just manually turning off monitors or putting a computer to sleep.

[@foxyloon]

The irony of having a usage monitor that controls your monitor. Hehe~ It's quite a clever device but definitely late to the game.

[@pkcell]

I’d love to find a way to get something like this for my Apple Thunderbolt Display, which is their old flagship model from 2011. There aren’t exactly a huge amount of them out there still being used, so it’s a niche use case, but those that are, including mine, suffer from a design flaw where the power supply is just barely too weak to fully control the large amount of power the display consumes and as a result slowly degrades over time. The only way to push away the inevitable failure date is to sometimes unplug it entirely so it can discharge, so something to auto-discharge it would be super nice. I want to keep it alive though because it’s a gorgeous display, especially for having paid only $75.

[@nickdee5764]

The Roy G. Biv nod brought a tear to my eye.

[@gustavrider5561]

Lovely video, I am still nostalgic for this particular era of computing.

[@kopspijker3515]

one thing to mention is that the more modern way of power saving leave the crt heater on. which is more gentle on the crt then yanking the power and starting it from cold each and every time.

[@brick6347]

Makes you realise how horribly inefficient skyscraper offices must've been in the 90s. Hundreds of PCs, and I assume the AC was running overtime. (I actually think the skyscraper might be far more transitory than people think)

[@Lukeno52]

Don't forget the fact that they would've all had much more power hungry lighting as well.

[@marksnethkamp8633]

Back then people were pretty religious about shutting off PCs. Also the about 100w draw is shockingly low.

[@olik136]

my current PC uses 240W, 600W when rendering something or playing a game

[@zeubilamooch]

@@marksnethkamp8633 On the contrary, in the late 80's and early 90s the "trend" in many workspaces was to leave pc running 24h (including the screen), because "repeated power cycling will damage the cpu" or other bullshit theories. My guess it originate from the mainframe computers, who were effectively meant to be powered on 24/7, and people who had experience with this machines applied the same rule with desktop / personal computers

[@forivall]

At least in the early 90s - I remember our family PC's monitor being energy star in '95 Edit: Aha, that '95 year is mentioned.

[@Bob-1802]

This is really a quality design. They even put tantalum capacitors instead of electrolytics.

[@GoldSrc_]

That CRT static crackling when the monitor shut off really brought me back some good memories. Now, if somehow LCD monitors did that it would be great.

[@dancoroian1]

I think the way it links the monitor's power to the tower's power button is really neat, actually. Surprised we haven't really seen another solution for that, it's still an annoyance to this day...I feel like PSUs should come with an external outlet for plugging in the monitor, kinda like how in old hi-fi systems you'd typically be plugging at least one component into the receiver for power

[@eDoc2020]

Most AT-style power supplies have a switched power outlet on the back.

[@steveg5122]

Nice to hear ben's work on your channel.

[@orangejjay]

This is random but wanted to share: As someone who was bullied CONTINUOUSLY in school, the whole "It gets better" campaign was a lifesaver and fortunately, it's true: It does get better and I'm doing what I can to have compassion for the bullies that made my life hell. Heck, it was said bullying that's helped me to be the kind person I am today. All that said, your video warms my heart to this day and from time to time I watch it and every time it makes me smile. Not sure why I didn't post it on that video but here we are...! 😂😂❤❤

[@Daniel-79]

Screen savers…they were so common place back in the day. Honestly, I can remember when I last saw one…it has to be at least 5 or so years

[@TheTrueVoiceOfReason]

"...between 10 and 42 minutes." So between 10 and the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything?

[@timseguine2]

I remember seeing these in places where these old machines were still in active use.

[@UEGIIVIRUSIIXO]

The monitor turning off at the end of the video? I was anticipating that outro, and was going to be heavily disappointed if you didn't do it. Fortunately for me, you did exactly what I hoped you would. Chef's kiss on that editing.

[@veganguy74]

I never understood why back in the day, facilities like offices, or what not just didn’t implement simple timers to turn monitors off at the end of the workday. It seems like whatever the cost for such a timer would be, it would be offset by the power savings. For my small home network, I just use motion sensors to turn off my monitors (via connection to my smart home system) when I’ve left the room for a few minutes.

[@kaitlyn__L]

They often already used mechanical timers for the lights, so it's definitely not feasibility. Even in the late 90s I remember people wrongly saying turning a computer off and on will damage the CPU, so I wouldn't be surprised that was widespread received-wisdom earlier. Businesses probably viewed the extra ~buck of power per computer as "protecting their investment" in the computers themselves.

[@electroshed]

Ooohhhh the crackle of the static when the monitor shut off at the end, memories right there!!

[@mchenrynick]

The only thing better would've been a monochrome monitor =)

[@simontay4851]

This device would still be useful today - at least for me it would. I use a Panasonic 37 inch LCD TV as my monitor. The TV doesn't automatically go into standby when there is no HDMI signal, so i have to turn off the TV manually with the remote when i turn off the computer. Otherwise the TV will just be a black screen.

[@mccuba48]

Nice video! I liked the section of the clock running for ten minutes... Like watching a science fiction film.

[@melo-7904]

Tries to save power - releases too late because the mouse - release updated version with mouse support - releases too late and PCs were already able to temporarily turn off the monitor because it was the mid 90’s and windows got its most important quality of life features (such as multiple monitors support, being able to go into a low power mode etc)

[@AntonSlavik]

Fascinating. I want these days back

[@Wormetti]

On my modern LCD monitor, I can feel the heat difference at 240Hz vs 60Hz. I wonder if switching to a lower Hz might reduce power on a CRT. I wouldn’t expect a 70Hz DOS prompt display that is mostly black to use more power than a 50Hz/60Hz full colour graphics mode.

[@eDoc2020]

Short version, no. The vertical deflection uses very little power. Most of the power draw is related to the horizontal deflection. So slightly longer answer, if you keep the same resolution but increase the vertical you will also increase the horizontal and this may have an effect.

[@netsurferx1]

Well, I wasn't expecting some Oddity Archive soundtrack goodness, but here we are. An unexpected, but welcome, surprise.

[@RFC3514]

A Raspberry Pi? You could probably do the whole thing with an AT Tiny and a handful of components.

[@xcoder1122]

My EGA monitor did not have a power saving function but my first VGA monitor already had one built-in. I think I had a 486 running at 33 MHz at that time but I cannot tell you what year that was. When enabled, this VGA monitor would go into standby if there was no image displayed for a few minutes or no video signal at all, so you had two ways of triggering this: If your computer had already support for APM in the BIOS (introduced in the early 90s), you could configure that to turn off the VGA signal if there was no keyboard or mouse input for a certain amount of time. The BIOS would just monitor the monitor the keyboard port as well as either a PS/2 mouse port or a serial port (some mice used that port instead); you could configure what to monitor. Being controlled by the BIOS, this worked in DOS as well as Windows, since no driver support was required. But if your BIOS did not yet have APM, you could still trigger that function in Windows by choosing a screensaver that just displayed a black screen with no content. The monitor would recognize, that no image data has been sent to it for a while and then also go into standby. And when saying image data, I mean no data at all, as analog monitors had no idea of the image they were displaying. Even when you were looking at a static image, in fact that wasn't a static image, it was a new image 60 times a second sent from the VGA port to the monitor, just that the image data always has been the same but without an image memory, the monitor would not know about that. So a static image would not trigger that function, only a totally black one did.

[@deepblueskyshine]

No need for a Pi, a grain of rise sized 8-pin 20 cents microcontroller would be far more than enough. A single full Pi 4 or 5 can be used as an office server for 5 dozens 486s without ever struggling or cluttering.

[@Purdey921]

I had that same computer. That was in the days when it was a big controversy whether to shut off each evening and restart next day, especially at work. When I saw your screen saver I thought “What? No flying toasters?” I miss those.

[@jhonwask]

As usual, your video was great.

[@random832]

for $79.95 you have to wonder how long it took to pay for itself. In 1993, Electricity cost 9.2 cents per kWh, so at 40 watts it would have to turn the monitor off for over 20,000 hours to be worth it. And, sure, maybe you can't measure the value of energy savings in money alone, but those 20,000 hours are the equivalent of only 25 gallons of gasoline. I'd love to see a reverse engineering analysis of what the dip switches actually do - four switches seems like way too many for only four settings, switch 4 doesn't appear to do anything at all.

[@aydenlokey3641]

According to a different comment, the dip switches when on have their value represented in binary, then the calculation 8B+2 is done where B is the binary number. This would make the switch 4 default delay the screen turning off for about 66 minutes.

[@Neomalthusiano]

Electricity should cost a lot more above a certain level of consumption. This way, people wouldn't waste it on "Bitcoin mining farms" and other follies.

[@straightpipediesel]

There's 2080 9-5 working hours a year out of 8760, so 6,680 non-working hours. If the monitor was never switched off, and it cost 20,000 hours of electricity, you'd break even in almost exactly 3 years. Reasonable. The savings are going to be more in most of the US because the monitor heat is going to cost air conditioning power as well.

[@TRONMAGNUM2099]

You make the mundane interesting.

[@2bithacker]

Weird, I'm subscribed, but this video doesn't show up on my Subscriptions page, but it did pop up on my Home page.

[@mateuspinesi]

Man, I had forgotten how inefficient incandescent light bulbs were. 40w for a bed lamp is crazy

[@elphive42]

I’m surprised devices like this weren’t more of a thing. You’d think devices to turn the monitor power off automatically would be worth it for companies, given how much it would save in power costs.

[@jussikuusela7345]

With the price of the unit, you could have kept a monitor on for 2+ years doing nothing.

[@--Lam]

I subscribe to this channel. I'm still subscribed. I don't see this video in my "Subscribed" feed! But it's not shadow-banned, as the main page showed it, thank you KZbin and all... I haven't seen this before. People talking about getting unwittingly unsubscribed (BS, never happens, they just click the wrong button while browsing drunk), but this is something else. I'm worried.

[@beefeeb]

It’s just software bugs, you don’t run a website at scale without them

[@--Lam]

@@beefeeb True, it finally made it to my sub feed. I think it might be some side-effect of uploading videos unlisted for patrons etc., where making them listed later is resetting the "upload" date and putting it in the feeds. One of those processes must have hung.

[@Ale.K7]

Interesting product!

[@BilisNegra]

On top of being a tad too late to come up, this also took some time to pay for itself. With modern energy prices, you could power that monitor 24/7 for at least a year before you have spent 80 bucks worth of electricity. In real use, that year becomes a minimum of 5 maybe, quite probably more? (remember, only the time the monitor is on AND you are away counts)... And that's BEFORE we adapt calculations to energy prices from 30 years ago... Of course, you should save energy for more reasons than to save money, but maybe it wasn't an easy sell after all.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

That IBM model was definitely common but not so much in the home. I feel like they were used in POS cash register systems a lot.

[@Purdey921]

I had one in my home, purchased through an educational loan at a university.

[@CursedCamel]

Ive been watching you since I was in 5th grade dude. Im 21 now

[@SPGWhistler]

I'm guessing if you turn on switch 1, 2, and 3, you'd get about an hour. Also, looking at the board - it looks like switch for connects to that white jumper... ? Perhaps that was for a future ps/2 style connector?

[@beanMosheen]

We'd use a single microcontroller. That's way more guts than I expected for that!

[@davesecx]

"Cable spaghetti" is a neat term I've never heard used before. I like it.

[@bradallen8909]

Coming from the Amiga, those jerky Windows screensavers used to drive me insane. Absolutely no excuse for them not to run at a silky smooth 60fps on that hardware.

[@TomNimitz]

It looks like the DIP switches 1, 2, and 3 represent 8, 16, and 32 minutes, with an extra 2 minutes added on. The as-received setting might have been a 58 minute delay.

[@Caseytify]

A long time ago I had a (mono) version of that screen saver running on an Epson QX-10. You'd think it would be slow, but instead it was blazing fast. ... Yet more evidence the QX-10 was a good machine; Valdocs was the dog.

[@seancearley]

I notice they added support for SPARC in the second version. A curious addition. Maybe they realized the cost of the unit meant mostly business sales?

[@JonathanSwiftUK]

Lots of these, like the automated WiFi/ ZigBee plugs we have today, controlled by Home Assistant, or a phone app, don't make a whole lot of sense. I paid about 120GBP for plugs, for lamps and other devices, most of which only use 10-20 watts. I'll probably only save 10-20GBP per year for all of them. I would have been better off just paying the extra electricity. I did much better replacing the last of the filament lamps, which was an outside security light. A nice reminder of the past.

[@FuS3D86]

I learned two things here. 1. i think i now understand what energy star way and 2. The blue thing is a metal oxide thyristor👍

[@MasticinaAkicta]

Not a bad idea, and yes I remember the "always fully on" nature of very old pc's

[@smittywerbenjagermanjensen9802]

Switch 4 isn't used on the chart at all, I wonder if it has a separate function from changing the time.

[@TheStanHill]

My guess is it does nothing at all. They probably didn’t have a 3-switch DIP available, so they went with 4. It’s hard to tell for sure, but I think there is no trace coming to the fourth pin on 10:03.

[@Bob-1802]

​@@TheStanHillYour guess is probably right. I don't see any trace either on the 4th pin but the board could be a dual layer.

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

I'd love to see if the grounded dark glass filters that were supposed to catch the electrons from the crt actually worked. Works bed done sort of a detector though

[@rdqsr]

I grew up with computers in the early to mid 2000s so it's really neat to see stuff like this that works around the limitations of early home computers.

[@renakunisaki]

Pretty clever bit of kit, but way too expensive. Also would have been more sensible if it had an outlet instead of a power cable, so you could plug any monitor (or other device!) into it. The mouse problem is funny because that same problem would reappear again later, with some OSes not counting gamepad input as activity to delay the screen saver. What's old is new again! The numbers seem arbitrary but there's a binary pattern. The lowest possible setting is 2 minutes. Switch 1 adds 8, Switch 2 adds 16, and Switch 3 adds 32. In other words, the timeout is the binary xxx010, where xxx are the three switch states. So, you could actually set it to other delays as well, from as little as 2 minutes (all switches off - 000010) to as much as 58 (all switches on - 111010). I'd wager, then, that switch 4 is connected to either a higher bit (adding another 64 minutes) or the next lower bit (adding 4 minutes). Or, it might enable some factory test mode where the timeout is extremely short, so they can quickly verify that it works. But I wonder why they only printed those particular settings? Do other settings work as they should, following this pattern?

[@SkiBumMSP]

"But I wonder why they only printed those particular settings?" - I am guessing those particular settings that they printed are the ones that make the most sense for most typical use cases. But yes, it would be an interesting experiment to try other settings and see what happens. After proving it worked in the 10-minute setting, would've been interesting to see what happens if it was put back into the default setting and then put a timer on it and see how long it takes to shutdown.

[@sonic2000gr]

Today you would this with a very cheap microcontroller. A raspberry PI or even Pico would be an overkill.