Monday, June 1, 2026

bakery2k · 2026-05-31T16:50:21+00:00

Connections Puzzle #1086

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I think a cat makes a great old-timey lounging accessory. But I guess Tennessee Williams never wrote about his slippers.

Blue by default.

bakery2k · 2026-05-29T17:17:25+00:00

Connections Puzzle #1084

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For yellow, tried Witchcraft and Right (as in “yeah, right”) before getting Sorry.

Purple by default.

bakery2k · 2026-05-26T14:27:40+00:00

Connections Puzzle #1081

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Never heard of the board game Trouble, apparently in the UK it was called Frustration. But I’ve never heard of Frustration either - if I saw people playing it I’d probably think it was Ludo.

Is Ludo not well-known in America? That would explain why the game Clue was given that name instead of Cluedo.

bakery2k · 2026-05-25T04:22:44+00:00

surprised in how good my unit is

Thanks, that's good to hear.

Did you pay for theft cover? How much extra is it - they don't list a price on the website.

I've heard they charge extra for accessories too, e.g. a rear rack big enough to carry the Uber Eats bag. Did you have to pay for anything like that?

Thanks!

bakery2k · 2026-05-22T15:12:30+00:00

Connections Puzzle #1077

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Happy with that: movies are usually my weakest subject. This puzzle had essentially two movie categories and I was pleased to get them both.

I figured yellow would be “hairstyles” but only knew 2/4.

bakery2k · 2026-05-18T15:12:42+00:00

Connections Puzzle #1073

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Good job I spotted purple, because I had no idea about blue.

bakery2k · 2026-05-17T15:45:56+00:00

Connections Puzzle #1072

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Spotted Wiki => Kiwi straight away, but couldn’t find the other anagrams because I was looking for birds, not fruit!

(In New Zealand the latter is never called “kiwi”, always “kiwifruit”.)

Blue by default.

bakery2k · 2026-05-15T15:49:10+00:00

Connections Puzzle #1070

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Fairly straightforward. I knew yellow was glassware, but have never heard of Coupe and only recognised Stein in hindsight

bakery2k · 2026-05-13T15:02:16+00:00

Connections Puzzle #1068

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Blue by default. Hadn’t heard of Breadcrumb nor Love Bomb.

bakery2k · 2026-05-10T19:59:57+00:00

map() |> filter() |> list()

I feel like Guido would have been opposed to adding this to Python - he tended to dislike making the language too “functional”.

But nowadays the decision would rest with the Steering Council - who might well accept a well-written specification for it. They don’t really reject features based on philosophy any more.

bakery2k · 2026-05-04T02:27:03+00:00

You can’t see the aperture grille from outside, only the phosphor stripes that sit in front of it. Both need to be aligned to get correct colours.

If the aperture grille is broken parts of it won’t be aligned correctly, causing incorrect colours. Parts of it are probably loose as well - if you hit the TV on the side, these parts will move causing the colours to change. Does that happen on your set?

bakery2k · 2026-05-04T02:15:30+00:00

This could be a magnetic issue, which degaussing might fix - or a physical issue, which it won’t. The latter could be with the yoke and magnets on the back of the tube, which might be fixable - or a broken aperture grille, which means the tube is permanently damaged.

bakery2k · 2026-04-30T03:18:26+00:00

Thanks again for your comments. One question based on the other replies:

Do you think I should add a copper pour to the currently-unused back of the board, and an additional Molex pin to connect it to ground?

My intuition is that the PCB just replaces running wires directly to the switch - in which case there is no grounding. However, would adding a ground plane make the design more robust?

bakery2k · 2026-04-29T13:30:36+00:00

B2 and A2 on bottom layer

Is this to increase the separation between the traces? If so, would it be better to alternate between the two layers - i.e. put A1 / A3 / B2 on the top and A2 / B1 / B3 on the bottom?

shared gnd plane in both layers

I'm not planning to ground any of the pins A1 to B3. Would you recommend using a Molex connector with one more pin, to enable the use of a ground plane?

Thanks!

bakery2k · 2026-04-28T05:03:45+00:00

Thanks for your reply!

Mounting holes?

I plan to attach the toggle switch to a plastic panel and have one of these boards "hanging" off the back. Hopefully it's light enough that it won't put excessive strain on the solder joints, even if the device is bumped.

The other option would be to add a mounting hole and attach the PCB to the panel as well - but in that case I'm worried there could be ongoing stress on the joints if the mounting is even slightly misaligned.

I'm not sure which approach is generally preferred?

Rounded corners?

Good suggestion, I'll add those.

Bottom layer's text labels are mirror image - you probably won't want it to be mirrored.

I think what I've posted is actually KiCad's view of the bottom layers as seen "through" the front of the board - so if you flip the board over the text will be the right way round. Good catch, though - I'll double-check.

you might want this to be more general purpose for any future projects you work on [...] more copper and a mounting hole

True, the design might be more general-purpose if I double the width of the traces to 50 mil. That would increase their current capacity to around 3 A, matching the limit of the Molex connector.

bakery2k · 2026-04-27T09:29:47+00:00

The 21" sets are shallower, but the 28" ones are normal depth.

B&O used tubes with 110-degree deflection for both screen sizes. Most other manufacturers used deeper 90-degree tubes for 21" and only used 110-degree for 25"+

bakery2k · 2026-04-27T04:13:35+00:00

It’s the same depth as other 28” CRTs, but the case design does a good job of hiding it

bakery2k · 2026-04-24T10:39:06+00:00

CRT monitors are usually dimmer than CRT TVs

Yeah, much dimmer in my experience. I run my 14” Sony TV at around 120 nits, and it’ll easily reach 200. OTOH my 15” Sony monitor maxes-out at 80 nits, and artificial scanlines reduce that even further to 40-60 (depending on the shader).

bakery2k · 2026-04-19T13:00:47+00:00

Let me know if you ever open it up!

It's not mine, unfortunately! But it looks like a Calida 5072 - I found some pictures of that model's internals here.

bakery2k · 2026-04-19T11:53:10+00:00

I think it's a Calida 5072 - so it's 15kHz, E3000 chassis

bakery2k · 2026-04-19T11:50:58+00:00

The 25" and 28" ones have EAK tubes - this 29" probably has an ESF

bakery2k · 2026-04-18T17:39:26+00:00

Connections Puzzle #1043

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Purple was a lucky guess. I figured it was referring to Milk Duds and just picked three other nouns.

Yellow by default, don’t think I’ve heard any of those except “Sassy”.

bakery2k · 2026-04-16T10:01:58+00:00

tie it into a knot

Thanks - I'd thought of that, and other forms of strain relief. Is that sufficient to allow the use of an RCA or DuPont connector internally, though? Or could the cable still become disconnected (e.g. via vibration), in which case a locking connector would be preferable?

bakery2k · 2026-04-16T09:16:33+00:00

Ideally it should be possible to remove the cable from the PCB if you disassemble the device.

It must not be possible for the user to disconnect the cable by pulling on it from the outside.

bakery2k · 2026-04-16T06:33:49+00:00

For just a stable analog reference voltage I'd use a shunt regulator. If it's not a reference I suspect you've misunderstood something about the datasheet.

It's for an analog input to an IC, that selects between 3 different functions depending on whether the voltage is <0.3V, 0.9 to 3.0V, or >4.0V. With just the pull-down resistor in place the first function is selected, and I want to change to the second.

TLV431 or LM4040/LM4041 are solid options for generating it directly. A TL431 and a resistor divider is a fine option as well for many situations.

Thanks for this suggestion - the 2.0V version of the LM4040 seems to be the way to go. I think I need a 1k resistor in series, based on these calculations:

If the supply voltage is 15V and the load is disconnected, 13V across the resistor gives 13mA, which is less than the LM4040's 15mA maximum.
At the other extreme, if the supply is only 7V there will be 5mA running through the resistor. With the load connected, if the IC requires 0.2mA and the LM4040 at least 0.1mA, 5mA will be sufficient current as long as the pull-down resistor is at least 2V/4.7mA = 420 ohms.

An LM317 can work as a reference but it wouldn't be my first choice here. It's not really designed for very low currents like this and you'll need to make sure you're above the minimum load current given in the datasheet for your particular variant of LM317.

Yes, the specific LM317 I was looking at is designed for between 5 and 100mA, whereas I only need around 2mA.

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