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Messages - Blodgar

1
General discussion / Re: Truly Dangerous Prototypes you've worked on
Back in '93 my organization was a big UniSys (formerly Burroughs) shop. The head of IT was such a UniSys love-slave that we bought these Koryo (re-branded as UniSys) 386SX-15s. They had a plastic CPU socket that would break down in the excessive heat the little POS generated, and the "fix"* was a metal overclip that often would not fix the problem, but also misalign the pins in the disintegrating socket so that power would flow over logic pins and vice-versa. Exploding chips and fire were common.  A good friend and former co-worker still has a small scar on his forehead from these mis-begotten kludges. However, one time I came out of the building and had a flat. I needed a wheel-chock. So the co-worker and I went to the store-room where these unpopular junk-boxes were, and voila! it worked just fine!
* We didn't get new PCs? I told you he was a love-slave!
2
General discussion / Re: Big Box Of Parts U.S.A. Only
Needed something to entertain great-nephew today, so we took  a small breadboard and one of the LCD displays from the BBOP , a Parallax RFID reader and a bullduino (he thought it looked the coolest of all the candidates in the box) .  We did a little research on the Arduino site, performed the assembly/test for one of the examples of both LCD display and RFID reader.  I then showed him how one could merge the  44780 LCD code and Parallax RFID reader code, replacing the one duplicate pin assignment, and we tested the result.  He now thinks Arduino and other DIY MCUs are *much* cooler than Lego Minsdstorm! Guess what he now wants for XMas?
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3
General discussion / Re: Big Box Of Parts U.S.A. Only
I agree with splitting the boxes.  Components (relatively fragile and possibly static-sensitive) vs. "Durable Goods". I  assume that switches would be split by the same method - e.g.surface-mount vs. spade-connector bat switches.
4
General discussion / Re: Seeed components at Radio Shack!
I usually make my own w/Keurig - excellent coffee @ .50/cup. Sometimes I have lunch with former work buddies at a local place called "Uncommon Grounds".  Great $1 coffee, free wi-fi and pretty University women - what could be better?
Good to be able to quickly get some DIY stuff within a 10 min drive on a weekend  (to get back on topic)
8
General discussion / Re: Big Box Of Parts U.S.A. Only
Many PCBs with static-sensitive components were loose. Used as many static-sensitive bags as I had to bag 'em. Put all ES-sensitive components in a smaller box. This added to volume, which is why I had to discard some pieces. If anyone wants/needs them, I'll ship them to you. Used a new USPS box. Shipped out Friday morning, well ahead of Sandy.
Took:
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Rail-mounted barrier strip set
Rainbow ribbon cable
Microchip PIC24 starter kit
Basic Micro Nano28 development kit
ETT AVR programmer
CF-IDE adapter
Sparkfun serial accelerometer for repair fun
1/2 of each reel scrap of 0.1uF 0805 caps,tantalum caps, resistors
5 each of the  TL431A, IN4148, 78L05
3 DB25 male/female pairs
USB-mini jacks
PCBs - AVR stick, ftdi basic, atmega32v4 breakout
All of the IN5819
Box of PIC/Atmel
XBee Shield
12v White LED Light Panel
30 of .01uf  through-hole caps
30 of .1 uf  through-hole caps
Sm bag of assorted resisters
2  2x16  LCD's V0020100 REV E - 1 to be used as the display for a hand-held RFID scanner, the other to be used in some future project - or as backup if I screw up the 1st one.
The LCD from sawn-apart  panel from blarson - trying to add it to a small video camera with a macro lens to use as magnifier for these Incredible Shrinking Modern Electronic Components (sounds like a sci-fi movie)


Added:
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1 Samsung LTV250QV-F07 2.5" 320x240 RGB, QVGA LCD
http://www.panelook.com/LTV250QV-F07_SA ... _9041.html
1 320x240 lcd of unknown origin
1 3yd Roll of 3M electrically conductive Z-Axis tape - conducts linearly on the z-axis, but not x- or y-axes
yes, axes is the plural of axis...
1 SMC reader - removed from case. tested - works.
2 Schmartboard .5 mm TSOP breakout boards - can be sawn in half to make a low-force on-board TSOP chip
socket. When wired to the SMC reader above or a XD card reader, it is possible to read/program a TSOP memory chip on-board..
I did it a five years back with an even less-stellar (more execrable?) skill level than I currently possess.  Since all the elastomer sockets for TSOP packages seem to be in the three-figure range of dollars or euros, not an inconsiderable savings. Given that the median skill level on this forum is considerably higher than mine, yours should be a far less arduous experience than mine. :)  also, I know there are more  sophisticated ways of doing this but I didn't know that in 2005-6 ;-}
1 TI MSP430 eZ430-F2013 Development Tool.
1 Touchstone TS9001 Demo Board w/ 3 TS9001-2IJ5TP
1 small roll of copper foil tape.
2 steppers
Small bag of assorted Electrolytic caps
RS Illuminated 12V Switch
Refreshed LED bag with some round ones

Discarded due to space constraints:
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Thumbscrew pushbutton
Several assorted heatsinks. one integrated with a fan
Transformer
Metal frame piece
Small proprietary power supply
Again, if anyone needs any of the discards, let me know, and I'll be happy to ship them to you.
10
General discussion / Re: Big Box Of Parts U.S.A. Only
BBOP arrived today - certainly very full! Box was in excellent shape. Didn't have time to sort through it - pounded 57 miles on bike on some horrible mountain roads with a guy I took my very first programming class with in '72 in HS.  We biked our age! Beautiful scenery too.
FORTRAN on Hollerith cards in batch mode on an IBM 360/50 if anyone remembers such things...
14
General discussion / Re: Parts from Scrap
Not as far as I know if you obtained the broken equipment legitimately. There may be intellectual property issues with firmware if you reverse engineer or disassemble said code. As far as the hardware itself, well if that was the case, I'd be writing this from the "Gray-bar Hotel"  ;)
15
Bus Pirate Support / Re: ***DEAD HACK A DAY PREORDER 2 PROBLEM, SOLUTION*** (v2go)
while I'm sure you did all of the following, re-checking them might give you a clue as to if the problem is win7 related:  Did you verify settings - e.g. correct USB to Com port #? did you load the FTDI virtual Com port drivers? Verify that your term emulation software was set to COMx/115200/8/1/N/Xon-Xoff? did you try a different term emulator/different OS - e.g. try Tera Term or XP or set your term emulator to run in XP compatibility mode?  Only had a little win7 experience, so...just guessing.

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