Recent content by Bentendo64

Commodore graphing calculator with RPN. Take the market that HP abandoned, and try to take a bite of TI's market at the same time lol. The thing that I remember about the textbook/calculator stuff is the textbook may even include key sequences and menus specific to the TI-84. So even me with a...

I buy the PX-99 isopropyl alcohol from the hardware store and clean and sanitize lots of stuff with it. I've never really used any PPE unless I'm using it on a cloth to wipe down large surfaces. It dries out your hands unless you use gloves. Any PCB I wash with water I typically hit with this...

Thanks everyone for chiming in. This is mildly interesting to me, perhaps I will do some of my own reading. I do find it kind of odd that people in the USA talk big about privacy, but then hand over all their data to big companies. But I know they're typically being coerced by these companies...

Zare brought up this in one of those threads about AI. Figured I'd start a new topic about it, as I am interested and don't know much about the technical side of this and where we're already at. I was reminded of an article written by John Walker 22 years ago...

Do you have a load on it? If there's a high pitch whine with no load, that doesn't mean much since it may be struggling to keep voltages in regulation and oscillating any over voltage protection on and off.

So the water heater shutoff and the heater itself has to move? If they just need some extra wire, they probably won't get an electrical inspection. But if they're moving the electrical shutoff (it is supposed to be in line of sight of the water heater), then they probably need to get an...

Luckily I was gifted an enterprise workstation from the recycle bin at work! Only 64GB RAM though (with 4 unpopulated slots). I suppose another hurdle is I don't have windows on that machine, nor do I plan on installing it. Luckily at work we've been told we're not hiring drafters any more, so...

I have no experience modeling, but a printed part would be great. I will have to see if there is space to add more material. I know on the side facing the paper, there isn't much space, and I have a hunch that's the side that gave way first. The whole paper tray is available for about $150...

Repaired some plastic on my LaserJet 5550dn recently. The gearbox for lifting the paper in my 3rd tray fell apart: I suppose it's probably 20 years old by now, so makes sense. I also had a full ream of 11x17 in the tray, so maybe I was asking for it. Anyway, broke out the tiny drill bits to...

I fall into the "obsolete" users I think. Much more fun to do something modern with old hardware than to buy a new machine that does it much better. I own one computer less than 10 years old...

It doesn't matter, per se. However, keep in mind that there is a voltage drop across a resistor when current flows through it. Typically, we reference all voltages to (-), and we call that GND. If you put a resistor on the GND side, odd/unpredictable things can happen. If you put the current...

Something I do in a pinch is simply soak some ABS bits in acetone overnight. Find some sacrificial plastic the same color you need, make it real thin, and small cracks should be no problem.

Last time I read temps in linux, I used a package called lm-sensors. You can apt-cache search for lm-sensors or similar wording, or do a search on the internet!

Presumably, this drive wasn't made in the 80's or early 90's, so generally speaking no, you cannot just swap the platters over. Also don't loosen any screws holding the platters in place, that will make things even more difficult. Lots of the things in hard drives are matched up and tuned to...

Could the "lasts" of an era be sought after? Like the last Intel Macbook. Or the last PPC macs. Or the last Thinkpad with a 7-row keyboard (I feel like these are a little bit desirable now anyway, since they are still mostly usable). You already see the T60/T61 being popular and thus a bit...