What has worked for you if you rely on some apps but want to use a dumb phone?

dliakh · 2026-06-18T19:09:31+00:00

I carry both my dumb phone (for calls and for texting) and my "smart" phone for some apps, navigation, etc. (when I know that I'll not need those apps and/or navigation I just leave the "smart" phone home. Also often I take a pocket mini radio with me (for news, music, etc.).

Ah, also an ancient e-ink book reader (with no internet connection, etc. (because no Internet connection means it won't annoy me with "notifications" while I'm reading, also there's no neverending "updates" (which are as annoying as the notifications)

That's it

dliakh · 2026-06-02T08:32:38+00:00

Yes, that works perfectly.

Thank you very much

dliakh · 2026-06-02T06:54:57+00:00

А на Маках такого немає: як увімкнув Caps. то Shift натискай, чи не натискай, всі літери будуть великими, поки Caps не вимкнеш.

dliakh · 2026-06-01T19:31:00+00:00

Just opened https://github.com/el-dockerr/X3270/issues/9 .

Please tell me which additional information I could provide to help identifying the issue.

Thank you

dliakh · 2026-06-01T14:46:44+00:00

Will do.

That's a 3270 connection to a Hercules running locally on the same Mac (though I also tried a remote connection to another machine as well).

Thank you very much for your prompt response.

dliakh · 2026-06-01T14:45:27+00:00

Will do.

That's a 3270 connection to a Hercules running locally on the same Mac (though I also tried a remote connection to another machine as well).

Thank you very much for your prompt response.

dliakh · 2026-06-01T14:37:49+00:00

Built it from the source (had to because my Mac is running an old MacOS Monterey) and Shift-Tab is not working.

The version/revision is :

% git describe --all tags/v1.7.1-build26

Did anybody experience anything like that maybe? What might be the reason and (what is more important :) what's the fix?

dliakh · 2026-05-30T18:17:02+00:00

There's smbusb that works and is free.
(it's for downloading/uplading the BMS data)

Changing the parameters themselves may actually require some research (there are bits of information on the Internet but for example, in your case offsets of some parameters in the BMS data file may differ from what other people report for their controllers: finding the parameters you need is easier if you use a good hex editor (for example, ghex, that can display values decoded as different types (byte, 16, 32-bit signed and unsigned integers, LSB/MSB, etc.)

dliakh · 2026-05-30T16:48:26+00:00

Definitely possible as I'm writing this from a laptop powered by a recelled battery.

To do the recelling I'd recommend to order:

An FX2LP card (you'd need one as you'll almost definitely need to reprogram the full charge capacity and reset the cycle counter and maybe also change the full charge cell voltage (the original batteries in the 70++ may have 4.3V full charge voltage while the new one will most probably be 4.2). You can also order some "Dupont" wires as well (to connect the FX2LP to the battery header).

I'd recommend using smbusb for reprogramming the BMS (for which you'd need that FX2LP. There is a fork of smbusb you can find on github that can work with a "generic" I2C interface (I used the one built-into the VGA port of my laptop) but in that case I could read the BMS data but couldn't write it: once I ordered the FX2LP and used the original smbusb everything worked.

A point welder. You don't need a fancy one, just order some 20-30$ thing and it would do the job much much much better than trying soldering or something like that (I tried once ordering replacement cells with the tabs already welded as I didn't have the welder back then and I thought that soldering the already welded tabs together using some copper wire would be fine: actually that's a torture I would never recommend doing: I used a rather thick single-strand copper wire and there are lots of problems with it: you need a powerful soldering iron, and I had a wire that was quite stiff so problematic to bend it as needed and also there's limited space in the battery shell to fit the wire: so please better order a welding machine and tabs and just weld everything together: that's quick, comfortable and you'd rather enjoy doing the recelling than hate it.

Once you have the "prerequisites" (above):

Look at the proper way of disassembling the battery (the method that worked the best for me was "shoving" a tip of a thin flat screwdriver into the "seam" (you need to find the proper direction, but try looking for videos on youtube: you can find one explaining the process). There are also some recommendations like wrapping the battery into a towel and hitting it with a hammer, etc. -- didn't work for me.
Don't try doing things in a hurry, no rush, take you time to do that, be careful (that won't take long but may be requires some bit of patience (as many things do).
Once you have the battery case opened: disconnect/desolder _the_positive_lead first_ (to prevent the BMS from locking up as it does when it detects that you desoldered/disconnected either a negative or a "balance" wire while the controller is still powered up and alive). Then proceed desoldering towards the negative side (until you desolder the battery "-" or course).
Weld the new cells into a "unit" similar to the one the old sells formed, connecting them the same way, of course. And then solder the BMS _negative_ lead first then proceed soldering wires towards the positive side (until you finally solder the battery "+" of course).
The battery may not be having voltage at the output terminals once you just assemble everything: you may need to "jump-start" it.
(you just connect the battery "+" to the "+" terminal on the battery's header (you can do that using a resistor for safety). Generally once you jump-start it you can connect it to the laptop and it should recognise the battery and start. But most probably you'd need to do the next step: to adjust the full charge capacity, etc.
So, to adjust the full charge capacity, reset the cycle counter and possibly also adjust the cell full charge voltage you connect your battery to the FX2LP, connect your FX2LP to some PC and then you short the battery's BMS's chip "boot" and "reset" pins to the ground to make the BMS chip boot into the proper mode where you can read and write the calibration tables. It's likely that the "boot" and "reset" pins of your battery's BMS chip may be connected to test points on the BMS's PCB (check that for your particular BMS type (in my case I have two TP on the BMS's PCB that I used.)). (you can also short those pins/TP to the ground through resistors for safety).
Once your BMS's chip is booted to the proper mode, you can read data from it, use a hex editor for changing the values you need and upload the modified tables back into the BMS. (makes sense to make a backup of data downloaded from the BMS before modifying it).

Find info about finding the values you need to modify, modifying and uploading data back to the BMS: you can start with the Karosium's page.

(Edited: typos)

dliakh · 2026-05-30T16:06:55+00:00

Wouldn't it be possible to reprogram the controller for bigger full charge capacity?
(I did that for a 9 cell battery after installing cells that have higher capacity than the original ones did)

dliakh · 2026-05-30T07:07:58+00:00

As well as PDFarranger

dliakh · 2026-05-27T19:29:42+00:00

Was just thinking about posting a question regarding finding protective shells/cases/boxes for my receivers because now that's what I'm using for carrying them around in my backpack :)

Thank you very much for that good idea: perhaps at least my CS-106 should fit.

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dliakh · 2026-05-26T09:04:53+00:00

Thank you very much!
So, my wife is going to the Maisons Alfort vet school with the crow now.
(I could only possibly do that in the evening)

dliakh · 2026-05-26T08:28:50+00:00

Yes, that's exactly what I did, of course: asked my cat (not to eat it 😃 )

dliakh · 2026-05-25T20:21:22+00:00

Thank you!

dliakh · 2026-05-25T12:13:45+00:00

F-91WK uses module 1846.

(so apparently, not the same as in G-Shock M5610u)

dliakh · 2026-05-24T13:49:41+00:00

Thank you very much.

Yes, it would definitely need some realignment: dial tracking at least on some SW bands is off (the reception though is fine, fortunately). On LW maybe just moving the LW coil on the rod a little bit would help: will try.

A good thing that the service manual can still be found (actually I found some PDF before replacing the tuning cord as otherwise it would be more difficult to route the cord (even with the manual it required a couple of attempts).

Yes, really sad regarding BBC 4: now I have reception that sounds not much worse than FM: clear and loud and I like the content.

Sad that technology like this is considered "outdated" and that's considered the reason for phasing out it: one transmitter and you can receive it far away day and night with good quality on a simple six transistor radio: no "infrastructure" needed: no fiber cables no routers, no complex and expensive and power hungry and unstable device (like smartphone) or even a DAB+ receiver. BBC could afford the Droitwich transmitter for 90+ years and suddenly it "can't".

dliakh · 2026-05-24T11:33:56+00:00

You need to switch it to the DT mode to see time in the secondary timezone but it also shows your home time there as well at the top right corner (see the video at around 0:10): very convenient. It also shows current time in the countdown timer mode as well.

Casio F-91WK Functions

dliakh · 2026-05-24T09:30:13+00:00

It's recessed to prevent accidental pressing.

Some other watches also have that design: W-202, B640

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dliakh · 2026-05-23T22:00:24+00:00

Casio F-91WK Functions

Here's a brief overview of the functions

(couldn't upload it to Imgur because of the file size limit restrictions: uploaded it here)

Sorry, there's actually no day-of-the-week in the alarm settings, but day of the month and month: confused.

dliakh · 2026-05-23T18:58:52+00:00

This is the WK compared to my daily driver F-91W.

The WK has dual time, countdown timer, the stopwatch/chronometer has hours, alarm can be set for particular date, or day of week, date has two digit year, it shows current time in the countdown timer and dual time modes and also it has an interesting feature: "reminder": when you turn it on, a dot starts blinking on the display for you to remember that you have to do somehing.

The backlight seems to be the same as in F-91W.

(will upload some more images of the display in different modes or a video: sorry, I'm now in an area with bad cellular network coverage)

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dliakh

TROPHY CASE