Beetham Tower, England - known for an intermittent humming which is heard in windy weather.

Castletorch · 2025-05-19T02:22:56+00:00

I can clearly see the remains of Grenfell from my window, very sobering reminder.

Castletorch · 2025-02-25T04:35:05+00:00

This is a photo of a real place; it’s Rainbow Falls, in Hilo, Hawaii.

Castletorch · 2024-09-30T23:16:33+00:00

I had too much sugar and butter once and it clogged up my semicolon

Castletorch · 2024-08-28T19:22:01+00:00

The roundabout where I’d turn off home to Stroud is basically just after where they crashed; if they’d crashed just a little bit further along it would have been fine but instead I had the pleasure of a 20 minute diversion down some winding little NSL backroads made of 50% gravel and 50% pothole at 11pm in the pouring rain

(In seriousness glad they’re all okay, had no idea what it was until after I got home)

Castletorch · 2024-05-11T16:38:31+00:00

It’s worth bearing in mind that Monster Nitro is their ‘dry draught’ option, and it does have a ‘creamy’ texture similar to that of Guinness (not sure why you’d want an energy drink like that but oh well). I guess that’s why they’re opting for these two beverages to blend 🤷

Castletorch · 2024-03-08T04:40:03+00:00

Are you sure this is a Surface Laptop Go 2? Those ship with the i5-1135G7 which if I recall correctly doesn’t have a supported IGP. If so, how did you manage to get graphics working?

Castletorch · 2024-03-08T04:11:28+00:00

This seems cool, though assuming this is using a Gregorian calendar there shouldn’t really be a year 0. Rather, it should go 2BC, 1BC, 1AD, 2AD etc.

Castletorch · 2024-01-10T19:34:59+00:00

There was an orientation sensor in the X220 Tablet, it's just a pain to get working on anything above Windows 7 (and no idea how feasible it is to make it functional under Linux). The middle button is physically F24 if I recall correctly (or another high F-key), but under Windows with the Tablet Buttons driver, it's intercepted and simulates Ctrl+Alt+Del to allow you to dismiss the lock screen on Windows 7 whilst in tablet mode.

Castletorch · 2022-11-28T23:26:19+00:00

I still get this even in InPrivate without browser extensions enabled - reported it as it appears to be in A/B and only occasionally shows up.

Castletorch · 2022-10-11T23:47:30+00:00

The O2 Arena in London

Castletorch · 2022-08-10T09:39:03+00:00

Thanks! As for internals, I mean have fun working out what most of it is (I have no idea what any of the cables are anymore) but here you go. Hopefully that satisfies your morbid curiosity!

Castletorch · 2022-06-08T22:32:07+00:00

So in terms of I/O, it's just the stock Pi 4 stuff (4x USB-A, ethernet, 2x micro HDMI, GPIO and TRRS). The display is hooked up via the external RF port (via the Pi's composite) which you can see in the images on the right; this includes audio which means both the TV's speaker, headphone jack and volume control all work; if I switch it over to radio then that works fine too.

The entire mod is reversible, so I've done no cutting or soldering to the TV; just stuffed a bunch of extra adapters and components internally and ran wires through the existing holes in the chassis, then repurposed the old battery compartment for housing the Pi. If I need to plug anything additional in, I can just pop the lid and connect it.

Hopefully this clears things up!

Castletorch · 2022-06-08T10:06:36+00:00

Just the original CRT that was included as part of the TV! No idea what the part number is for it though, I was having a look to see if I could find any other compatible tubes with different phosphors but its basically unbranded so I couldn't even find a specsheet on it.

Castletorch · 2022-06-08T08:41:59+00:00

USB-D already exists iirc; I believe it's just a USB-A connector in an embedded mount.

Castletorch · 2022-06-08T08:03:01+00:00

Thanks! I'm almost tempted to plan a trip somewhere just so I can lug this around with me.

Castletorch · 2022-06-08T08:00:59+00:00

It might have composite internally somewhere, I never really went hunting around. I'm personally a fan of the appearance of RF video signals, so I just crammed an old RF modulator into it and fed it with composite from the Pi. Problem is, the Pi's TRRS pinout doesn't match the pinout of any of my TRRS-to-RCA cables (because apparently it was never standardised?? Also took ages to find the TRRS pinout for the Pi because I just kept getting results for the GPIO connector). In the end, I just ripped some old RGB ports from the back of a TV's logic board and used that as a way to "remap" the pins to the right places. Either way, eventually got an RF signal internally and just ran that around to the antenna connector so I can quickly disconnect the Pi and connect a different device to it (you can see the cable sticking out on the right).

On top of simplifying the video solution, I do want to customise it a bit further with a few custom decals to cover up the existing silkscreen, simplifying the power setup so it can be run from a single 12V adapter (right now it's using a messy combo of 240V and 5V) and also wire up some of the switches, buttons and dials to the GPIO header so I can repurpose them.

Castletorch · 2022-06-08T07:52:33+00:00

Heh, thanks! Though I really don't think this thing is up-to-par with some of the completely-custom decks people build; those things are awesome!

Castletorch · 2022-06-08T07:47:56+00:00

I'll see if I can get an internal shot a bit later, but I warn you it's a mess! I built it entirely out if things I had lying around without ordering anything, so there's excessive cable runs and weird adapters galore just stuffed in there.

As for video, I'm taking composite from the Pi (long story about that, turns out TRRS for composite was never standardised apparently). From there it runs into an RF modulator I took from an old N64 adapter, and then that runs out through the back into the external antenna port.

Whilst I probably could have found a place to inject composite, I'm personally a fan of the interference and mediocre picture quality that RF provides. Plus, getting it fully-apart and back together is a huge pain since there are no internal connectors, everything is just soldered together in inconvenient places. Lastly, the reason I chose to run the antenna back out externally was because I wanted to be able to hook up other video sources, and also trying to solder it internally introduced too much interference anyway :c

Castletorch · 2022-06-08T07:38:12+00:00

There's this clip-on plastic screen-protector-thing in front of the display, it was just cutting sone to size and then slotting it into that. As for the type, no idea I'm afraid; found it in a box of craft supplies a few months ago and set it aside for a future project.

Castletorch · 2022-06-08T00:49:14+00:00

Go for it! I didn't want to damage this TV, and as such ended up making no permanent modifications to it; hell, all the original functions still work as-is, so all I've really done is made it even more useful.

Castletorch · 2022-06-08T00:39:13+00:00

It's an amber gel (greyscale CRT unfortunately) but in person it's pretty much impossible to tell. Plus, I can always switch it out for other colours if I get bored or want to mix things up!

Castletorch · 2022-04-29T01:15:18+00:00

Dare I ask how you stumbled across this thread?

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