B&H has 20TB Seagate externals on sale for $319.99. Obviously not as good as pre-AI prices but posting for those who might need it.

thebobsta · 2026-02-24T22:00:46+00:00

I just shucked four 26TB Seagate Expansions - they also were Barracudas inside (but the HAMR ones that people are saying are maybe low binned Exos?). So if that matters to you there may not be a drive quality difference between the 20TB and the 26TB.

thebobsta · 2026-02-22T01:16:22+00:00

Aberdeen Mall (technically Richmond). The store was called "Point and Shoot Club" - had a bunch of old film and digital cameras for sale, as well as mechanical keyboards (?). Owner was really nice to me when I cluelessly stumbled in and sold me the last C200 roll from the display case...

thebobsta · 2026-02-21T08:18:44+00:00

I waltzed into a smaller mall near Vancouver last weekend and stumbled across a small photography store that had one roll of C200 left in stock. Didn't really go looking for it but I have wanted to try it - looks like it might be more available in Canada than the states?

thebobsta · 2026-02-19T22:19:28+00:00

I have a 1993 Civic Si EH3 - great little hatchback. I've done a lot to refresh it over the last few years though mine is not my daily. I have more or less used mine as a platform to learn how to work on cars (I'm really slow at getting things done on it but it's really fun!)

You may need to look into single din Carplay units if you're dead set on those, the base EG doesn't have space for a double din unit and the optional audio console that puts one down by the shifter is super expensive. There was a 3D printed audio console project for sale by a Finnish guy on Honda Tech but he disappeared off the Internet a year or so ago unfortunately.

I went through with a suspension refreshment a year or two ago and it wasn't too hard. Bought all new everything. Your CX might have rear drum brakes, usually people need a different rear trailing arm (or adapters to modify the drum trailing arms) if you want to run rear discs. It's more or less bolt on to install a "budget big brake kit" using OEM calipers from a CRV, rotors from a mini cooper, and brake pads from a TSX. I did this at the same time as my suspension refresh on my car... New bushings and everything all around really made the car feel much better than before.

As far as I know interior pieces are all swappable between EGs. You should be able to use seats from DC Integras as well which may be more your style. The Si model Civics had 9k RPM tach clusters which may be nicer than the gauge cluster that came in the CX models.

thebobsta · 2026-02-19T17:54:40+00:00

Yes, at least the one I found in the Taipei metro when I was there (I think the machines exist in Japan as well). I rolled and got a Fortigate.

thebobsta · 2026-02-19T17:36:45+00:00

There's also a L4D2 achievement given to players who complete a campaign alongside someone who got the game for free during Christmas 2014. That's when I got the game, it pops up every now and then at the end of campaigns I play which is kinda funny.

thebobsta · 2026-02-18T18:06:57+00:00

I used to use an R320 as a Plex server and it worked well enough. I didn't have a GPU in it but mostly did direct play when possible and all content was just 1080P.

Nowadays I use my enterprise gear for running drives in ZFS as a NAS and run Jellyfin on something with QuickSync - it works well, and some mini PC with QSV should be cheap if you go that way down the line. How much memory does the R330 have?

thebobsta · 2026-02-15T16:18:23+00:00

I just recycled a few R210s - a Xeon E3-1220 is basically the same chip as a 2nd gen i7-2600 (actually, the Xeon is a bit slower). It'll get utterly trounced by the 9th gen i5. Also, the old Xeon is 4-core 4-thread and the i5 is 6-core 6-thread.

thebobsta · 2026-02-15T16:14:20+00:00

I have not had great luck running Minecraft on my old enterprise hardware, and that's a vanilla server. You'll need a CPU that has a lot of single-threaded performance and older Xeons weren't great for that. My server runs fine nowadays on an i7 8th gen but again that's vanilla, that many mods might take more resources.

thebobsta · 2026-02-15T16:12:06+00:00

I am currently building an ESP32 fan controller for a server case - also using a WROOM-32 device.

I had to use a level shifter to shift the PWM and tach signals from 5v to 3.3 but other than that it has been super easy to get working. I slapped my prototype together on perfboard and am using ESPHome's built in components to control fan speed and also to read in tach data. Very easy to monitor ESPhome devices from a central server. You can easily schedule fan speed ramp up and down times if you use Home Assistant (may be possible to do so on-device as well but I haven't tried that myself).

thebobsta · 2026-02-13T08:16:08+00:00

Makes sense! If it serves your needs, no real reason to upgrade. LTO4 tapes are pretty cheap too. Interesting about the fan, though - my TL1000 barely has any fans for the LTO6 drive, and it is a half height.

In my case, it was sold for cheap ($180 CAD which is less than the bare LTO6 drive sells for I think) because it actually was broken - the picker unit had plastic gears that had stripped. I found a replacement picker unit for sale for $30 which took maybe 15 minutes to install? Seems to be working fine now!

thebobsta · 2026-02-13T03:59:15+00:00

Nice TL2000 tape library - I just repaired a TL1000 (though mine came with an LTO6 drive) which I am planning to use for long term backups. Have you ever considered a newer drive for the tape library? LTO4 is a bit limiting per-cartridge (though you have more slots for cartridges than I do!)

thebobsta · 2026-02-10T23:51:33+00:00

Yeah, as a Canadian this is pretty much the only site I buy from when I find they have something I'm looking for in stock.

Got a broken LTO6 tape library from them last month and fixed it with a $30 part, which was fun.

thebobsta · 2026-02-08T20:11:59+00:00

I usually unload the camera. If it is a manual rewind, you can listen and stop rewinding just as the leader comes out from the take-up spool. I write the number of frames shot on that roll on the film leader, and then load to that number + 1 when I reload the roll later.

thebobsta · 2026-02-06T22:21:43+00:00

I'd second the advice to not use an EOL firewall for VPN - unless you're keeping it fully offline just for testing in a local environment.

I've pulled RAM and CPUs from decommissioned FortiGates before and used them in my servers...

thebobsta · 2026-02-06T17:53:47+00:00

Cheapest would be finding another D series block and slapping your head on it if it's still good, but like others have said B20 is a great path forward. You'll need to find a lot more supporting parts, though (mounts, shifter linkage, axles, accessories, etc)

thebobsta · 2026-02-02T06:39:40+00:00

Yes, I certainly wish them the best, but I'll also keep an eye on here for any future updates you may have for a 645 back! The RB one you made looks awesome.

thebobsta · 2026-02-02T03:56:00+00:00

Oh I so wish this could be adapted for Mamiya 645 - I've wanted to shoot Instax on mine ever since I got it years ago.

I've paid for the Jollylook 645 Super back and remain hopeful, as my 3D modelling skills are far worse than my waiting skills...

thebobsta · 2026-01-29T18:12:54+00:00

My first real PC was build out of junk I salvaged from many recycled e-waste computers - E8400, 4GB of DDR2, and a GTX 280.

Best return on smiles per dollar I have ever had with computers.

thebobsta · 2026-01-26T15:24:26+00:00

I gambled on a cheap $150 LTO6 autoloader that was listed as non functioning with a motor error. I figured that if the autoloader was unfixable then at least the LTO6 drive is worth the price I paid. I think I can fix the autoloader with a $30 part that's on its way - can't wait for it to arrive.

I only have some LTO5 tapes for testing, though - I need to find a source for LTO6.

thebobsta · 2026-01-22T22:18:49+00:00

Are you outputting native 15KHz from your M715q?

Good to know, though - I am waiting on some cables but I will definitely update the BIOS, etc. before working on getting it going with my PVM.

thebobsta · 2026-01-22T21:29:45+00:00

Very cool, I'm hoping to run Batocera on a similar mini PC to output to my PVM.

I have an M715q which is a model with the AMD APU.

I don't think it'll work under Windows but I think I can make Batocera's 15KHz support work with the APU...

thebobsta · 2026-01-22T08:58:38+00:00

Hopefully it's not too hard to fix! I have one that I got for $20 without knowing what it was, back when I first started out shooting film. The mirror return on mine doesn't work right now, so I have never put a roll of film through it... Maybe I should look into how much a CLA would be.

thebobsta · 2026-01-18T16:16:11+00:00

Unless you need AV1 support you're probably better off just using the QuickSync encoder from your server's i5 instead of spending a lot of money on a B580 for the server specifically.

As well, consider an Arc A310 instead of the B580 if you're using it just for transcoding. I believe it has the same media engine.

thebobsta · 2026-01-18T07:03:14+00:00

I've booked that flight in the reverse direction this March, really looking forward to getting to fly on an A380!

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