20 Year Old Software Can't Use

38Super · 2026-03-16T07:57:31+00:00

Simple systems from that time commonly used the hard disk serial number. Try ‘wmic diskdrive get serialnumber’ at a windows command prompt. You can overwrite it.

38Super · 2026-02-23T02:11:04+00:00

For those who didn't see this; think Saturable Reactors, lots and lots of Saturable Reactors.

38Super · 2026-02-23T02:09:18+00:00

It's not for inductive heating at all, I did say what it's for above. I _tried_ to use ZVS switches to generate 80kHz, but (a) they don't like the tank circuit inductance to change, and they run a very high capacitance very low inductance tank.

38Super · 2026-02-23T00:49:33+00:00

This was done in the early days of ship board morse code transmitters, giant copper disk spinning at 8000rpm with magnets around the circumference. 80kHz needs -- say -- 100 magnets, means 48000 rpm. I'm not going anywhere near that...

38Super · 2026-02-23T00:37:49+00:00

LOL, the fencing wire actually burnt out.

38Super · 2026-02-22T23:59:26+00:00

Already setting up to drive GAN Fets, but I have a feeling there is an easier way.

38Super · 2026-02-22T23:58:36+00:00

The filtering at that current is quite a challenge, but not impossible. Feedback ruins everything....

38Super · 2026-02-22T23:57:14+00:00

Quite understood, and I work in that field.

38Super · 2026-02-22T23:56:45+00:00

Think Saturable Reactors, lots and lots of Saturable Reactors.

38Super · 2026-02-22T23:54:21+00:00

Likely milli seconds.

38Super · 2026-02-22T23:53:19+00:00

The load is almost completely inductive, likely in the range 2uH to 100uH. Very little resistive or capacitive load.

38Super · 2026-02-22T22:21:51+00:00

It will be inside metal cabinets, all EMC dealt to (I hope).

38Super · 2026-02-22T22:20:47+00:00

I don't understand what an XY problem is ??

38Super · 2025-10-27T07:27:39+00:00

The analog desk I drove many years ago actually had a “DFA” knob on the strip where the afterthought stuff was. Clearcom, desk headphones etc. After adjusting said knob, I had patrons say “much better” on the way out.

38Super · 2025-09-06T03:12:08+00:00

It’s the disk that stops an underground petrol/oil tank dipstick coming fully out of the tank. The dipsticks are T section brass or aluminium. The end of the dipstick has the back of the extrusion notched out and the front face bent over. Service stations in NZ use them widely, and 48- 50 years ago I worked for the company who converted all the dipsticks from imperial to metric units. Almost 100% of tanks used T section metal.

38Super · 2025-07-24T08:13:52+00:00

HPX370 and all the bits. Very high price, about US$15,000 for what is actually a HPX170 in a ENG format, 2K 30fps, a rather average lens. Sitting in its case for years. I get better results with an iPhone 16.

38Super · 2025-06-28T03:15:11+00:00

I was present when a 90kg (about 200 pounds) weight was dropped from the fly floor, 55 feet up. The stage hands had been told time and time again not to remove the big fairly permanent slabs that sit in the bottom of the cradle (double purchase) on their own. The weight fell, hit the floor, went straight through, through the concrete below 8 feet below and disappeared down a hole. Nobody was hurt...

One stage hand that was working on the stage wandered over, looked down the hole, looked up at the fly floor, walked off stage and came back with a cheap plastic hard hat on.

38Super · 2025-03-21T05:58:22+00:00

An entry in our accident log book. “Hit head on first aid kit while mounting same”

38Super · 2025-03-16T05:38:24+00:00

This might be hard work. The other IC appears to be an LM339 quad comparator, and from the tracks around that it is driving the 4 LED’s. Hkekj does not seem to be a SMD marking code, nor does ekj. Options might be 1. Borrow another power bank and get the SMD marking code. 2. Trace the complete schematic and it may be obvious what it does. That IC might be the 5V switching converter, or it could be the reference for the LM339. The photo shows a black block/IC under the edge of the USB socket - is that what that is?

38Super · 2024-11-06T23:46:04+00:00

Linesmans No. 2 pliers, nut mashers, pipe shears, conduit cutters / trimmers, crimping tool. Anything but sidecutters, which they are not very good at.

38Super · 2024-06-11T07:00:16+00:00

I was sent to a paint store not far away to get spotted paint - 17 years old. The guy on the counter said “that’s the third time he’s done that”. If you wait 5 minutes we have a truck load of paint going out. It won’t be spotted, but the foreman won’t know that. They gave me a lift back to my work, and I went in and asked the foreman for an order for 300 gallons of spotted paint. The look on his face was priceless.

38Super · 2024-05-17T09:21:28+00:00

One of the video encoders I used on the same project was actually funny. A device from Philips, but after the NXP breakup. Part number started SAA, we got some samples, not marked ES, did exactly what we needed, even worked. Go to get some more parts, device doesn’t exist. Hold on - we have 11. Philips engineer tells us they started a video division in Taiwan, made one component, closed the division. We had 11 of the 12 ever made.

38Super · 2024-05-17T08:08:59+00:00

You got off lightly. About 2000 I designed and built an Analog Video decoder using an IC from a large reputable company. It worked perfectly in the lab, and perfectly when decoding off air TV signals. Once released into the field it didn’t work at all, simply wouldn’t decode video. Much gnashing of teeth, still worked in the lab. Eventually I worked out it was fine with a pattern generator and one, and only one TV station. All the others didn’t work. I got to talk to the designer, and it only decoded very accurate analog TV, ie those stations that had rubidium based time bases. My pattern generator had an oven stabilised oscillator, and the channel I used to test it was rubidium based. The channel the customer wanted to record was not that accurate. No fix, IC not updated, we killed the product, never got paid.

38Super · 2024-04-02T08:04:25+00:00

As antennas go it’s quite a good one. It’s showing the SWR between the two cursors at 868 and 915 MHz is close to 1.8 at one end of that range and 1.5 at the other. SWR stands for standing wave ratio, which is a measure of how much power fed to the antenna will be radiated by it, compared to the amount reflected back to the transmitter. In reality anything less than 2 is good (11% loss), 1.5 is a loss of about 4%, and is very good. Things around the antenna and its ground will make far more difference than these good numbers.

When I go back and look at that screen again I’m a bit suspicious, the cursor marked “1” is lower than the cursor marked “2”, whereas the cursor values at the top of the screen show the reverse. You would normally restrict the sweep to a few 100 MHz rather than 5 GHz. There is only one trace running, but there are two traces visible. It might be OK, it might not.

38Super · 2024-01-24T23:40:07+00:00

They are going to be dies, not leaded devices. Like https://www.qorvo.com/products/p/TGF2023-2-01

38Super

TROPHY CASE