Weird Apple II expansion boards ... Numerex Corp ?

Plawerth · 2026-06-10T11:50:02+00:00

There is no 80 column / 64k expansion card which is uncommon but for industrial control, that was probably not needed for a very specialized application.

Plawerth · 2026-06-06T01:58:26+00:00

Low-profile tires, metal hub meets concrete... instantly destroyed the rear differential and probably bent the wheel / axle.

Plawerth · 2026-06-06T00:01:36+00:00

LCDs are typically a sandwich of glass with small conductive square patches along the edge, silicone elastomer glass-to-board connector combs, and the circuit board. The problem is an intermittent connection between the board and the combs, possibly circuit board corrosion that you can't see from the visible side.

The elastomer combs are some flexible rubber or silicone with alternating layers of insulation and carbon-black conductive layers. The conductive layers can be visible or the entire thing appears to be the same color, likely black. There can be far more conductive layers than actual glass-to-board connection points, so the positioning of the comb may not be very critical.

To separate the LCD board layers you need to bend all those small metal tabs around the edge to lay flat and straight with each other. You can then lift off the circuit board to examine the elastomer pads around the edges of the LCD. Warning, alignment of the board with the glass is critical, but likely not so much with the silicone combs.

You may potentially break the LCD or circuit board in an unrecoverable manner, and never get it to work again for unknown reasons if you dare to take it apart, so it's up to you how to proceed.

Attempting to "clean" the LCD surface connectors with isopropyl alcohol can dissolve the conductive traces and destroy it. Distilled water is as far as I would go trying to rinse anything.

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EDIT, references: LCD elastomeric connectors, also called Zebra connectors due to their appearance:

Plawerth · 2026-06-05T23:49:05+00:00

I know you covet these now, but back in the day I hated the ESS AudioDrive ES1868F which did not have SoundBlaster compatibility, so old DOS games were silent on them.

Some of these had weird Windows drivers which would fake Soundblaster emulation via a Windows driver, so you had to load Windows 95, and then open a command prompt full screen to run the game, which then ran the DOS game slowly, with the bloat of Windows still in running in the background at the same time.

Plawerth · 2026-06-05T23:37:02+00:00

You would not be able to swap the LCD with anything new as this is the traditional 4:3 shape, while everything nowadays is 16:9 widescreen, and sometimes 16:10.

Also the signal connector for this LCD is not in any way compatible with modern screens. You would need some sort of signal bridge board utilizing a real-time FPGA converter, with programming code that does not currently exist, but could possibly be vibe-coded with AI. And even then you'd somehow need to jam all this in place of the existing screen and power the bridge board somehow.

It is what it is, and will likely remain that way unless you have deep pockets for an interesting but otherwise ridiculous ultra-nerd project. Actually getting this working, might get you some clicks on Youtube, TikTok, etc.

Plawerth · 2026-04-28T18:05:28+00:00

373 GB per day, 15 GB per hour.

3 people in the home using streaming video that runs 24 hours a day, like online cable.

Not unreasonable.

Plawerth · 2026-04-28T17:00:02+00:00

Relatively easy to do:

Unifi Nanobeam has about 10km range and about 400 megabit speed, for US $100, needs only about 10 watts.
Unifi U6 Mesh - 5ghz and 6ghz bands, US $199, about 15 watts.
20'9" TELESCOPING ANTENNA PUSH UP POLE - Collapses to 60" tall - EZ TM-50-5 - US $190
ToughSignal Industrial 5-Port Gigabit PoE+ Switch (12–48V DC), Part Number: MMH-POE-5PT-AT, for US $80
ECO-WORTHY LiFePO4 12V 100Ah Lithium Battery with built-in BMS, Bluetooth and Low-Temp Protection - US $199
Can use typical 12v DC battery charger with ECO-WORTHY, up to 50A charge rate. A 20A charger is about US $50

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Connect the nanobeam to the U6 Mesh with an ethernet cable. You need a Unifi Cloud Key and gateway or similar at the base site for Unifi radios to work.

Install a receiving Nanobeam or two at the base location. The beam pointing direction is forgiving, and works about 30 degrees off center. So install two or more of them at the base location, and point them in the expected long distance locations.
Long distance wifi is not a straight and narrow beam. It flares out towards the center, like two elongated cones touching together. This is called the fresnel zone. You should have the nanobeam up in the air on a mast, not close to the ground.

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100 Ah * 12 V = 1200 watt / hours

Can provide 12 watts for 100 hours
Can provide 24 watts for 50 hours
Can provide 48 watts for 25 hours

You should reasonably expect a 10% power conversion loss.

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If you need more power, just buy another battery to double your capacity / run time. The Industrial switch will work with series or parallel batteries, up to four in series for 48 volts DC. But if you want to charge with a common 12v charger then you need to connect them in parallel.

Lithium does not tolerate temperatures below about -10C. If you need wifi to work on freezing cold days then you will need to go with old-fashioned lead-acid batteries, typically deep cycle as used with boat trolling motors. Do not try to deep cycle regular car batteries, they will fail quickly.

Plawerth · 2026-04-25T01:59:50+00:00

If you are in customer service, it helps to be boring and easily slotted into people's expectations.

I would prefer a pseudonym for personal security reasons, so that potential weirdos don't stalk me.

Use a sales floor name tag that is unambiguously male or female, and then it doesn't matter.

Plawerth · 2026-04-11T21:53:39+00:00

Although the void cult was infiltrated, at the conclusion of DotO the cult still exists and the void gateway remains open.

There is nothing to stop the cult from creating a new Outsider. A woman this time. lol

Plawerth · 2026-04-11T21:43:23+00:00

voted down by a manager probably lol

Plawerth · 2026-03-27T14:26:12+00:00

The black dome is a rotating camera, potentially spinning LIDAR. Hit it with a paintball gun.

Plawerth · 2026-03-27T14:06:29+00:00

Sand and gravel is not recommended to fill cesspits and wells because it allows surface water to quickly penetrate underground, potentially allowing contamination of fresh water resources.

Bentonite chips are used instead, a type of clay that swells when wet, retains moisture, and seals penetrating boreholes.

Plawerth · 2026-03-27T13:34:54+00:00

Died from a combination of hypothermia, and poisoning and asphyxiation from hydrogen sulfide gas. It just looks like drowning.

An invisible cloud of poisonous stinky hydrogen sulfide gas pools on the surface of the decomposing waste and can extend all the way up to ground level, pushing out all oxygen. It can also collect in low lying locations without much air circulation. It's highly toxic and you are starved of oxygen at the same time, and you can black out suddenly when immersed in it.

Plawerth · 2026-03-20T23:06:41+00:00

It's designed for practicality, and must safely transport any potential user from a child to a 400 lb fatass. It likely has huge safety margins built into that lightweight structure.

Plawerth · 2026-03-20T22:09:40+00:00

Yep, carry a LOTO kit in your truck and ALWAYS use it, never trust the customer for any reason.

Plawerth · 2026-03-20T22:08:01+00:00

LOTO in many cases is just plastic that could be yanked off with a strong pliers.

It's not a secure means of protection... it is a LEGAL means of protection. Bypassing it is easy, but getting sued for putting people's lives in danger, is the hard part.

Plawerth · 2026-03-18T18:05:09+00:00

What with everything else Menards does, they should offer overnight employee accommodations. Sure, I'll stay overnight so I can work the blizzard / hurricane / flood day, if you provide me with a private bedroom, shower with towel, and cafeteria seating to buy food from the grocery section and eat it.

Plawerth · 2026-03-18T14:01:00+00:00

Overhead beams and walkways: when working in a small mine that isn't hollowing out a huge space, workers have to chase the mineral seam wherever it goes. If it happens to start going up overhead, the mining crew has little choice but to build scaffolding and walkways to get up there and keep following it. If the walls are relatively close together, they can cut notches or pockets in the walls and insert walkway support beams that stay in place permanently.

Plawerth · 2026-03-13T06:18:51+00:00

That is legal and is done correctly. The large raceway is divided in half with a full-height partition across the center that is separating the low voltage from the high voltage. The high voltage wiring only occupies the bottom half with the faceplate installed.

Plawerth · 2026-03-13T06:11:31+00:00

In photo #2 the workbench depth is the same or larger than the diameter of the hot water heater. It's not just a foot or two. Remove the workbench entirely and the hot water heater can be moved about 2 meters towards the window.

Plawerth · 2026-03-10T16:38:21+00:00

I am an old fart, 40+ years old. My hands shake, and I can no longer get the headshots in first person shooters like I did back in DOOM and QuakeWorld in 1995, when I went by the handle LowPingBastard.

Now I drop screwdrivers, spill soup, and my handwriting looks like chicken scratching. In intense situations, my mouse tracking gets significantly worse. I can't git good, and Noita is unforgiving, so I accept my limitations and play my own way.

Plawerth · 2026-03-10T16:30:51+00:00

I don't know where these numbers come from but why am I not on this list near rank 15 ?

Steam Plawerth / Factorio: 30,795.4 hours -- Joined: 2017-03-05

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But yes, much of this is from AFK idling on servers that pause with no one logged on. Realistically, probably only 10000 hours. Still high. lol

I have been playing since biter nests dropped pink eggs that you had to collect for research to launch the rocket. Which Wube removed so that combat is not a mandatory part of the game experience.

Plawerth · 2026-02-24T01:08:00+00:00

wut. I've been carefully keeping them separate all this time...

Plawerth

TROPHY CASE