VCF SE 10.0 -- How Retro Computers Ignited My Passion for Electronics Repair -- Adrian Black

[@prestongivens3594]

Adrian, my good man, you absolutely nailed it about the the dopamine rush of FIXING A PROBLEM, and bringing a machine BACK TO LIFE again! I became addicted to this feeling at a very young age, and I have applied this driving curiosity my entire life (I’m 69 now). It carried on a long path through agricultural equipment, into electronics, then into the computer business, then networking, finally retiring after decades as a sysadmin. My addictive curiosity has continually driven me to learn more, and unlock the puzzles in every broken device, every bad circuit, and every bug. It truly animates who I am, and it seems to me that it does you, also. It’s a wonderful life!

[@shiroshine7227]

*Goes to watch a Digital Basement video* NO but seriously can't ever get enough of him ❤

[@madnar9]

What a humble and thoughtful presentation- thanks Adrian.

[@R777-RLM]

Adrian Black has such positive energy. It's great to hear his backstory, and how he makes what he's doing understandable,

[@Daveyk021]

Excellent video! Thanks for making this available.

[@KennethSorling]

Adrian is a gift and a blessing to the retro computing community! Long may he live and enlighten us!

[@Agnarian]

This explains the uptick in videos from AB! I love this guy and meant to come see him at this show. I hate that I missed it, I work like 10 minutes from Cumberland area. Uggg! Congrats Adrian!

[@markae0]

I did not know Adrian had made the jump to KZbin full time.

[@deplinenoise]

Way to inspire Adrian! You’re doing so much good work. Hope the gig works out!

[@mogwaay]

Great presentation! I think what I'd love to know about Adrian is where did he learn to be such a good communicator! Tech knowledge is pretty common in the retro scene, but being able to talk so clearly for so long whilst doing repairs, man that rare! I can fix the odd thing, but ho boy, trying to make it sound interesting to anyone else, that's the gold there!

[@martinwhitaker5096]

Not only that but the presentation is always so calm and relaxing... Not a hint of frustration ever!

[@_SR375_]

oh Adrian... you are really bringing back the memories with VMS, as as a college student was working with IT running VMS on Vax and Alpha's , also LATCP is freeking awesome. And the form handing of VMS... but yah good times.

[@TheSulross]

clearly VCF SE is where to go to see the biggest celebrities :-)

[@Renville80]

I remember that 200 in 1 electronics kit! I also had the 160 in one and the 50 in one before that. I even have one of the schematics from the 160 in one kit squirreled away somewhere.

[@llary]

I had that exact same Tandy electronics set!! Had a very similar early exprience and dropped out after high school too, ended up starting a now fairly successful manufacturing company that lets me play with big machines and studio equipment all day.

[@Dukefazon]

23:14 - I feel similarly, finding Adrian's channel in the middle of the pandemic kicked off my hobby of getting broken stuff in hopes that I could fix them :)

[@JZB-2022]

Man, I can't believe SFGE has grown this big...

[@jessiec4128]

I was not aware you are a Canadian. That makes two of of us are Canadians!! I also used a dial up connection and connected to many BBS systems. At one time, While I was searching a BBS system and the sysop came online and was chatting with me. He saw me logged onto his computer many times. Well, that one night, I traveled to his house and met him. I also went home with a brand new hard drive. He indicated he had sent many drives in for repair or replacement. And he received many and gave me one. It was totally Awesome! We became long time friends after that night!! My very first computer was a Commodore, and I loved it! My dad purchased the entire thing, monitor and floppy drive. I had lots of shareware years after that computer. I grew up repairing computers for people who lived close to me. It was not odd seeing people carrying their computers to my front door. I worked many IT jobs, Microsoft was one of them. That job was not like any other IT job. It was much better.

[@JoshuaClarkTech]

Thank you for posting this, I was bummed to miss it in person.

[@RetroWK]

The thing that changed the course of your live (VIC-20) - I felt the same with a Commodore PET 2001 (from my best friends father) and later my own C64. I took me on a path and I don't know what I would have become otherwise. We both have to thank Jack Tramiel for that I guess.

[@InfiniteBrain]

Went through an initial programming class for electrical engineers in 1992. COBOL, FORTRAN, C.

[@dhpbear2]

8:24 - I can't help but notice that BULKY answering-machine! It's bigger than a breadbox! :)

[@acadiel]

It was a pleasure meeting you and listening to you speak! Thanks for visiting my TI-99/4 exhibit!

[@kyradanielle7644]

This was really great; I wish I had heard Adrian's advice regarding recaps BEFORE attempting on my Atari STF. All part of the learning process I suppose.

[@deplinenoise]

Also now that you’re making a living from this.. sorry to break it to you but your no longer an amateur. Your by definition a professional :)

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Hahaha! Fake it until you make it?

[@deplinenoise]

@@adriansdigitalbasement it’s a frequent misconception that pro is better than not. Pro just means someone paid.

[@mckinnon42]

​@@adriansdigitalbasementHI Adrian, thanks for everything! I had no idea you used to do infosec (sorry, not a Patron). I would love a 'my prior career' video if you ever want to do an easier 'sit and talk' -style video.

[@Colin_Ames]

Very entertaining, thanks for posting it. I live in the Atlanta area but couldn’t make the show.

[@AndrewHelgeCox]

I found Adrian through curiosity about LED lightbulbs back in the day.

[@JulienMR]

I wish the caps on my SE/30 motherboard are in the same health as the ones you took a picture of... ;) What a mess... They completely killed my Sony UB10/11 chips. Anyways : excellent speech !!!

[@DavePoo2]

34:00 "It's almost never the caps that's the problem" - unless it's the SEGA Game Gear, then it's always the caps.

[@delta911turbo]

Not sure what video I watched, but saw a video of someone replacing a CRT electron gun on a tv that he order the part from whatchania site, but the manufacturing date was withing the last couple years. So yeah... they are still making the replacement parts. I'll check and see if I can find that video and information for you if there is any interest in this.

[@radman999]

The caps depend on the decade for sure. Completely agree. No need to recap 80s stuff unless there is a good reason to. But if it's a 90s Macintosh, I replace them all because they are guaranteed to be leaking.

[@Jody_VE5SAR]

Yes, totally ran up the phone bill one month. ONE month. Lesson learned! lol

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Haha. I think everyone who BBS'd has that same angry parent holding a phone bill and yelling. LOL!

[@smcic]

Compuserve billed you by the minute! You really had to plan out ahead of time what you wanted to do online lol

[@Renville80]

@@smcicAOL billed you by the minute when using their 800 numbers. I had AOL for one month (I worked as a field tech for a small company), then I got a bill from them. After recovering from the sticker shock (it was over $100!!!), I closed the account immediately and switched to calling cards to dial into my home ISP. Cheaper by two thirds!

[@tim1724]

With regard to capacitors, the other problematic ones are those little tantalum caps that tend to short out. But yeah, those pre-1995 electrolytic are rarely bad.

[@InfiniteBrain]

I work in automation in a paper mill. People will change $20k in parts without a thought, when if they pulled the print and looked for 10 minutes (and understood what that part of the machine did) they would know it's a $500 valve rather than a VFD, 3 valves, a motor, and 4 or 5 control relays.

[@force4200]

I totaly agree with caps never the problem accept Amiga 1200 600. And the 2000 cap plauge. There are manny capacitor technicians :) sorry for my bad english i am from Sweden. Have a nice day and great show today :)

[@cgraefe]

Thank you for sharing your backstory of how you got into electronics, Adrian! There are so many things that I just perfectly relate to. I'm sitting here nodding vigorously every other minute while watching your video.

[@KernArc]

Knowing that there's going to be a QA session, the organizers really should have arranged for the questions to get recorded properly.

[@retrohaxblog]

Awesome stuff Adrian! I share pretty much the same story as you and... the caps conclusion :D lololol :D

[@lasskinn474]

hv danger in certain range is a bit more than just hurts or burns you, the dangers passing through heart and stopping it. we had to do some calculations in university on the medical electronics basics course(where it kinda matters since it's like stuff you attach to you) and there's some charts for it, like what amount of current through there is dangerous and it's not much but there's a lot to it it why tazer doesn't usually kill you etc. 120 v would be in the burning you up category more. with hv you can get zapped without touching too. anyway just take precautions and touch stuff with something else grounding first than your finger etc.

[@BooXdk]

HUGE thanks for uploading 🙏 Sitting here in Denmark and hoping to be able to visit one of the VCF´s next year, this is the next best to being there 😃

[@absurdengineering]

“Almost never the caps” Except Rifa and early 80-s “droplet” tantalums.

[@markae0]

FYI A 1 Hour presentation and a 20 minute Q+A at 56:28

[@TheGreatAtario]

Holy crap. A VP of InfoSec at Live Nation? And here I thought he had been a VCR repair shop owner or something

[@Vermilicious]

Adrian is my favorite KZbinr nowadays when it comes to retro computers and electronics repair. I think it's a combination of the topics he chooses, his fault-finding strategy and his charisma. I had no idea he actually quit his job to do this full-time now. It's quite mind-boggling that it's even possible. I wonder how long this is going to last though. I learned electronics in school ca. 20 years ago, and these things were old even then. I had a personal retro-pc period some 15 years ago. The things were thrown in the trash, and I did too. I couldn't have guessed someone would care about this stuff another 15 years later. When I look around at vintage computers and such, it's either nearly impossible to find, or it's incredibly expensive due to the current wave of retro interest. But, it seems to me it's already on the wane. Even KZbin seems saturated on the topic. I'm experienced with both computers and electronics, and I've tried running a business on it, and it's been a total fiasco up to this point. KZbin is the only way to make money on this subject, but I doubt it will last. Unless something really drastic will happen with re-use and repair of modern electronics, this is just going to increasingly be a dinosaur hobby. Even if it happens, the meaning of repair has changed dramatically. It's just not something for a layman to do. That's the unfortunate truth.

[@Anamnesia]

Adrian + Helium = *Richard Dreyfuss*

[@femboichik]

The last bit was 🤣🤣🤣 it freakin’ works!

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Mr. Carlson would disagree about power supply caps. He cautions not to buy vintage electronics and blindly turn them on because if the large power caps are bad they often dead short sending a large spike through the rest of the machine.

[@ClaytonGambrel]

I hated to miss it I got side tracked in another forum

[@_SR375_]

heh, I have had on-call, that took 3 days no sleep, you want to talk loopy..

[@PicaDelphon]

#256 or #257 on the new sup..HI..

[@nyccollin]

I called BBSes all the time. I never called a long distance one. I knew better than to do that. I don’t know how anyone could accidentally call long distance.

[@bozimmerman]

I don't buy his "I don't know nuthin" act. His intuitions are better than most people's expertise. Normal humans don't look at those black screens and say "Gee, I bet the third bus transceiver is intermittent and is pulling down A4 by half of volt!". He's a ringer! A ringer I say!

[@AdamKlein77]

Man...I really should have gone.

[@baghdadiabdellatif1581]

It is very cruel to die alone

[@chaoticsystem2211]

just don't impersonate yourself and youtube will leave you alone :D

[@13ClaytonM]

'views not dollars lol

[@mojoblues66]

1:03:49 basic math fail

[@ToomsDotDk]

hope that @EEVblog see this video some day for the impact he has on others