oh yea, the *other* part of that machine I took apart last night was the screen, its some sort of ARM based computer, I'm not sure if this is a primitive windows gui lib or xwindows... nothing says microsoft.

ok good enough, for the base I'm making, now I need to do lots of digging....

Their Yellow, but this project has been sitting on the shelf too...

ha! look! I even got a message on the 5x7 display!

attiny26 for the "win" whats funny is that, the other solution wasn't really that many more jumpers.

ok, I CAN do this, but I just really really dont feel like doing all those jumpers....

oh, I got the 10kw UPS powered up, it says "nv ram failure" I think we all know what maintains the memory in an NVRAM chip, so, the question becomes, can I find the CR2032 in this thing?

And this is some sort of brushless precision blower thinger (with driver). I'm not sure what the motor would be useful for... ideas?

more valves!! (I sorries, I floods your social media feed, almost done for a bit)

Oooo 4F cap!

this is an AWESOME valve block. I need do more work on pneumatic actuators!

The valve block is meh, but its got a nice stepper motor on it!

ok, summary of keeper bits... I dont know where to start with this, its a 386, can I use it like it is and just rewrite software?!? Thats 4Mbits of static ram in the bottom corner there...

IT RUNS DOOOM!!!!!! OMG THEY USE A FREAKING 386 INSTEAD OF A MICROCONTROLLER.

oooOO this may be a cpld/fpga I can play with!!!

OMG OMG OMG THEIR IN SOCKETS AND EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!

going to be lots of goodies in this one!

Battery is ****ed, with a capital * (charge voltage too high for the operating temp, all the waters vacated)

Has battery, 2x 6V 4.5Ah lead-acid, the sum total of them is 0.7V, shot! They soldered to the battery terminals, but then used push-on connectors to the fuse... 15A

hehe Your added medication is an off switch.

ok, here is next on the stripdown pile..

ok, I have this on the e-waste pile, it works, but I have the feeling I shouldn't strip it down, as it could be handy if used with a microscope. Someone make a comment quick...

ok, I made a template for the light-pole so I can make a base for it, but it started raining, so I will have to continue that project later... what else is on my list...

The thought occurred to me that I might not need so many cdroms anymore.... Someone slap these crazy thoughts out of me...

OMG 8 down from the top of the pile, I swear, the effort I go to for some of these jokes is insane.

ok, I took a thing apart, Its nice when the components being kept are less volume than the assembled device. ( 5.25" floppy drives expand in volume)

changed the oil in my truck after funny oil pressure issues. Don't know if its fixed, cant load it up enough to be sure cause everyone is driving at 40km/hr today.

eeek morning random image! Bode chart of a mechanical servo. my fail on morning random image has taught me I cant learn new habits. :(

この前到着したPCBに部品を搭載した。 ちょっと半田が多くなってたようで、レベル変換用のICで半田ブリッジしてる。 6DoFのセンサーが旨く付いたか心配だな。 これ、ICの裏に半田の端子があるので隠れていて見られない。

(its electrical discharge machining....) bzzzzzzzzt.

short network cables, YAY!!!!!

These are power injector cables for the signature pads, they really dont have much value, I will put them outside in the "oh well, they got rusty, guess I'll send them to ewaste" queue.

These things, not completely sure why I still keep these...

These are awesome, transparent network port to serial bridges. They can be used with socat to make a virtual serial port on linux and run programs that otherwise think their talking to a serial device. I use one on my CNC machine.

There were a bunch of signature pads in this pile, but it seems I took them out at some point, I probably didn't want them stepped on anymore.... so I'll sort the remaining pile...

To make things more interesting, the main board consists of 74164 that drive the X rows via transistors, the Y columns also seem to be driven, but they also have 8x 24MHz r-r op-amps onboard with, I think, frequency filter modules. huh...

which means this pen must be interesting... so, it has a conductive bumper switch, and a single magnetic coil, but around a ferrite tube... There is a microchip PIC, but just two wires that appear to be power, to the pen is just a transmitter!? (or signal relay)

so I'm like "but how does it do pen position!?" and I'm staring at a PCB that seems to say "resistive touch screen" and then the PCB trace grid hits me... Its magnetic, but damn it good, cause its BEHIND the lcd module!

and as I'm holding it, I'm like, "wait a minute, where was the touch screen wire?" well, there wasn't one... and this is a generic lcd... but its a signature pad....

ok, ok, so I'm standing there trying to clean my shop, and decide to take part the signature pad I been stepping on for like 4 years. It turns out the 'broken' screen was really just a cover, the actual screen is ok!, generic lcd!!! (I got it broken)

But on the other hand, all the cat did was sleep and stare at the firewood pile.

I didn't get much done today, set up a light and planted some thimbleberry canes....

Interesting conversation with chatgpt about keyboards, where it insisted they were high speed devices. I was sure it was wrong and, based on some clues from it built this. If it lights red, its a high speed device, if its green, its low speed. The keyboards I have are low speed.

But the yard lights still won't fire up, the other board in there is a 'solar panels are under 1.4V, turn on the yard lights" board, but even shorting the transistors thru isn't working. I will resume tests tomorrow in the light :]

The lugs and the chips cant be coated in conformal coating, so I'm blobbing de-ox on them, this is basically mineral grease that creaps over the surfaces and protects them from moisture.

With that all working ok, I sprayed it down with silicone conformal coating. I should have done this earlier when its operation was proven ok. It protects from moisture, but pcb repairs after aren't as much fun.

After cleaning it up and doing a continuity check, I re-assembled it for a test. Watch the meter as I bring the voltage up, at about 11.5 the output led turns on, at about 14.5 its shunting enough current to trigger the led thats across the shunt resistor.

This is the battery protection unit. It does not seem to be passing power. Oh, maybe thats why :] Its job is to cut the load off if the battery is under 11.4V and shunt the solar is the voltage does over 14.5 (its a 200mA solar cell)

*this* is the controller box for my solar yard lights. I noticed a while ago that they weren't doing the light-thing at night, so I started cutting back the forest to get to it and check it out. Well, today I got to it!, I changed the battery, still not working....

oh... hello...