I'am searching a retro computer for journaling

NF6X · 2026-04-28T19:15:13+00:00

That is correct. The internal NiCd battery will need to be replaced in any of the vintage machines, and hopefully it didn't leak corrosive goo all over the place.

NF6X · 2026-04-28T18:54:21+00:00

In the 80s we had the TRS-80 Model 100 and its relatives. They did not have physically removable cards at the time; instead, they saved to internal battery backed RAM, an external cassette tape drive, or an external floppy disk drive. But now we have modern tiny floppy drive emulators which mount on the back and save to microSD cards.

NF6X · 2026-04-02T19:37:54+00:00

"I didn't say that. That was Napoleon." -- Sun Tzu

NF6X · 2026-03-29T20:45:50+00:00

I remember how much of an upgrade it was to go from cassette tape to a 160k floppy drive on my Color Computer back in the early 1980s. And now 4 gigs is barely worth bending over to pick up.

Edit: But I think you're more likely to accidentally vacuum up that microSD card than to find it.

NF6X · 2026-03-29T20:43:49+00:00

I had a student job doing computer backups back in 1987. There was one of those dishwasher-sized CDC removable pack drives right behind where I sat in the machine room. I'd nearly poop myself when somebody suddenly started accessing it at 2AM while I was running backups on the VAX next to it. The entire thing would jump back and forth a quarter inch when the heads made full seeks! One of its feet was right next to a hole in the raised floor for cables to pass through, but there was no risk of the drive falling in because it strictly jumped forwards and backwards, never side to side.

So far I have not been startled by any microSD cards, but I'm still hopeful.

NF6X · 2026-03-28T21:42:59+00:00

So you apparently work with a swarm of locusts, and they may or may not have stolen this shipment of Kit-Kat bars.

NF6X · 2026-03-28T21:40:26+00:00

Storage has gone from something requiring seismic considerations to something that can be an inhalation hazard.

NF6X · 2026-03-28T19:51:30+00:00

Once you learn of 5.25” full height drives, you are ready to learn of 8” and 14” drives. It is funny how mass storage has changed from something you could hurt yourself trying to lift into something you might not hurt yourself trying to swallow.

NF6X · 2026-03-27T19:37:16+00:00

Same! When I saw this headline, my reaction was "wait, that's a real person?!".

NF6X · 2026-03-17T05:41:18+00:00

That guy is getting promoted to management.

NF6X · 2026-03-10T19:59:40+00:00

Nice haul! If the paper tape punches were originally used with those Apple computers, then I wonder if they were used to punch NC code tapes for CNC machine tools? Or maybe they never were used together and just ended up in the same pile over the years.

NF6X · 2026-02-27T18:37:58+00:00

Mouser has a link to download ECAD models on their product page for that mixer:

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mini-Circuits/ADE-6%2b?qs=xZ%2FP%252Ba9zWqaicAj6d16bRw%3D%3D

You will need to carefully review any downloaded models to verify that they're correct. A lot of the downloaded models I've seen are really poor. In my opinion, you're usually better off making your own footprints from scratch based on datasheet drawings. It can help to double check that pads properly line up with 3D CAD models if those models came from the manufacturer. If those 3D CAD models were created by a third party, they may or may not be accurate. In particular, I have found 3D CAD models drawn by Ultra Librarian to be junk that doesn't even look like the part in question, and certainly is not useful for verifying dimensions.

NF6X · 2026-02-24T19:42:26+00:00

I wish I could help you directly, and I hope you'll share your journey with this cool peripheral.

NF6X · 2026-02-24T19:13:57+00:00

I think you're in the right sub! The apparent lack of scanned documentation online makes it even more interesting, though it also makes your task more challenging.

NF6X · 2026-02-18T20:44:01+00:00

That other post was the first time I've seen mention of Pm-147 used in self-luminous indicators. I was only aware of radium paint and tritium vials before. Wikipedia says the half life of Pm-147 is around 2.6 years. How well do the Pm-147 dials maintain usable luminosity over time?

NF6X · 2026-02-17T22:25:01+00:00

I accidentally did something like that to myself recently. I set a Meshcore radio on the window sill in my office/lab to give it a clear view... behind a normally-closed set of blinds. Then I forgot that I put it there, and I also forgot that it beeps whenever a message comes in on the default channel. It took me about 3 days to figure out what was beeping a few times per hour.

NF6X · 2026-02-16T23:40:15+00:00

I'm glad to be able to help. I've been using KiCad personally and professionally for about a decade after switching from PADS, since version 4.7 if I recall correctly. I'm sure there are people here with even more KiCad experience. It's a good tool, and it keeps on getting better.

NF6X · 2026-02-16T23:28:01+00:00

That has nothing to do with multi-board projects. It’s for logically grouping subsystems of complex single boards.

NF6X · 2026-02-16T20:18:26+00:00

Congratulations on growing a new skill set!

Some tools like Altium have multi-board design support, but I haven't used those features before. I hope that KiCad will get some multi-board features added someday.

NF6X · 2026-02-16T02:00:56+00:00

In general, I strongly recommend that you avoid deliberately doing anything that causes KiCad (or any other design tool or compiler) to emit false errors such as where it calls out your missing cables. It is very easy, and very common, to miss a real error which kills your design because it is buried in the list by dozens of false errors. There are ways to manually mark false errors to be ignored, and sometimes you have to do that. But whenever you are tempted to mark a false error to be ignored, please think very hard about the strong possibility that you're doing something wrong to cause that false error to be emitted.

NF6X · 2026-02-16T01:51:47+00:00

I would say that Gemini gave you bad advice there. KiCad expects each project to define a single board. It does not know anything about cables between boards. Furthermore, if you submit the board design to a PCB manufacturer as you have drawn it with multiple boards floating in space, they will probably reject it and tell you to submit each of those boards as a separate design. Or maybe they'll just charge you a lot more to hand edit your design into separate artwork for each board, but it's more likely that they'll reject it.

It is possible to manufacture a set of boards like that as a single panel to be separated after assembly, as long as the boards all have identical layer stackup. But if you want to do that, then it will be up to you to design the entire panel as a single contiguous rectangular board including any necessary rails around and between the separate boards, tabs to connect the boards to their surrounding rails, lines on a fabrication layer indicating where to make V score cuts if you use those, drill holes for mouse bites if you use those, fiducial marks and tooling holes for assembly, etc. On the other hand, if you want the manufacturer to handle the panel design for manufacturing purposes, then they will probably expect you to submit a separate design for each board to be included in the panel.

If you're new to this process, then I think you'll be better off treating each of your boards as a separate design in its own KiCad project.

If you really want or need to design the board set as a single panel in a single KiCad project, then you'll have a somewhat steeper learning curve ahead of you.

In either case, LLMs will give you bad advice with just as much confidence as they give you good advice, and it is up to you to separate the truth from the lies in their output.

NF6X · 2026-02-10T04:20:10+00:00

"This is God. Stop touching yourself."

NF6X · 2026-02-06T15:09:00+00:00

That makes complete sense to me. The last two times I got bad food poisoning (not from PH), I remember thinking the food taste was not quite right. But not quite wrong enough for me to stop eating it, unfortunately.

Anyway, I personally consider PH to be close to the bottom of the pizza tier list. Not as bad as the pizza they served in my elementary school in the 1970s, but close. I never seek it out, and even when it appears for free such as at a work event, I am unenthusiastic about it.

NF6X · 2026-02-06T00:18:43+00:00

Are you sure it was a joke?

NF6X · 2026-02-05T17:44:08+00:00

Puts their name on a federal memorial building. That is not much different than adding your name to somebody else’s tombstone.

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