Day 14 - I was on vacation in Germany... my hotel room had bolts in the wall! I was tempted...! #TWAAC

My book got spotted at the Christmas market on the Disney studio lot. I'd rather be there myself but that's pretty cool! (You can still go cancel your D+ sub though, haha) (sob)

Day 13 - The insides of the Heathkit IT-1202 Nixie meter, pre-cleanup. #TWAAC

Day 12 - Yes! That is more like it and looks like the expected schottky diode. Reversed anyhow. The original one was a flat line. Literally. #TWAAC

Day 11 - And another ceramic IC; this one is quite the beast. Not so much for density or functoinality, but it might be considered one of the first ASICs out there. It has a bit of ROM, and quite a bit of glue logic inside; The 9825 KDP! #TWAAC

Day 10 - Cross view of the main PCB in the HPIB analyzer. I love how neat the traces are. #TWAAC

Day 9 - Another breadboard prototyping thing! This time, built into a sturdy metal suitcase. I converted it to my standard magnet strip style, so it takes my metal-backed breadboards. #TWAAC

Day 8 - Bare metal debugging! What you see is a bit of a trace on the data and address bus of an old computer system. Looking up the numbers in the instruction set and checking against the expected source code... #TWAAC

And it's done! - almost at least. Join in at the top of the hour, for part one of the HP 9825A restoration and repair! youtu.be/pJiv1oe8C70 #YouTube

Day 7 - Hmmm... the question is: is this a 7448 chip from week 47 in '74... or is it a 7447 chip from week 48 in '74? Funny coincidence, and I almost sent the chip back for being the wrong one... #TWAAC

my stupid stupid brain had to draw this

Day 6 - Sometimes botches take weird forms... I needed to pressurize the water tank for my water supply. After rummaging through my leftover fittings box, I say: good enough! #TWAAC

Day 5 - Another calculator project that is waiting its turn! Nothing too special on the technical side about this one, but certainly a piece of history! #TWAAC

The face you can trust.

Day 4 - And digital troubleshooting on a revision 1 PCB. From my paddle game project: trying out a fix for a problem before ordering the re-made part! #TWAAC

Nixies! Some awesome calculator action here! This is the Sanyo caluclator, with the rightmost digit still bleeding into the leftmost during rollover, because there is a flaky short in it somewhere. #TWAAC

Day 2 - And coming up with an LED matrix display, made on top of a ceramic base. This beauty is part of the HP-IB tester. #TWAAC

Day 1 - Here we have an improvised fuse; to replace an SMD part until the spare part got delivered. I still think this is one of the more hilarious botches I made so far... even though it's only temparary! #TWAAC

You might have noticed: I'm doing my "Tinkering Advent Calendar" again. I am sorry in advance if the pictures might be a bit repetitive one way or the other, but with so much going on this year, I ended up with only a few unique ones. Anyhow: pleyse enjoy or ignore the upcoming daily images! Thanks!

‘ZOOTOPIA 2’ has become the first Hollywood movie ever to pass $100M in a single day in China ‘AVENGERS: ENDGAME’ was the previous record-holder. Read our review: bit.ly/ZootopiaDF

I went to the cinema yesterday and watched the first available screening of Zootopia 2 (in English and 3D) - quite the experience, I must say! If you go, be sure to stay for the post credit scene! Funny and foreshadowing! Somehow the "and what's your last name?" joke stuck in my head... #zootopia2

And here we go! Going live at the top of the hour, another "in-between" smaller scale project. A Heathkit ET-3400 microprocessor trainer! It features a breadboarding area for experimentation with the 6800 CPU. Join in live if you can! youtu.be/Fhy92l46zrs

Good news: I'm getting better and will start posting again on monday. Awesome news: THE PLUSHIES ARE BACK!

The owner of this business is a old, wonderful friend & a former employer of mine, so please, I need all of my Pacific Northwest followers keeping an eye out for this stuff, especially if you run in nerd circles, so that his dream business, built via decades of grinding, can keep running.

And coming on the top of the hour: A restoration of a Commodore 1084S monitor I did in January; yes, it took a while. It had some minor issues, but overall, a nice specimen! Join in live if you have time: youtu.be/LujrXr6KV5Q #youtube

www.pawpet.tv tonight! We’re gonna have some fun. We’re gonna play some games. We’re gonna tell some jokes we might steal a car drive around the city for a while dump it into a lake. Who knows what’s gonna happen?

Cats are liquid Especially on Halloween 🎃🐈‍⬛🎃

Coming up in in one hour: Another lab power supply, a Gossen Konstanter from the late 1960s. Join in live if you have time! youtu.be/HI3rQl1Wozc

🎦 Video for today is on track! Premiere in about five hours! Final announcement in four!

Author and illustrator, Nikkolas Smith, draws 'Portland Frog'

Congratulations @clairexen.bsky.social: #HotChips / IEEE TCMM 2025 Open Source Hardware Contribution Award

Coming up on the top of the hour: the TI 5100 Calculator project video! It's a shorter one this time, as the devise is small and the project went through without any major issues. Join in live, if you have time! youtu.be/ZXNMCmi8FSQ #youtube

Coming up at the top of the hour: Refurbishing and testing of an HP 59401 bus analyzer! With a bonus device for testing! This is a long one, bring coffee if you join live! youtu.be/IW1K_KsxLGQ #youtube

There are times, when I think that an electrical screwdriver might be a good investment... 🪛 #futureproject

Formal attire sucks

Coming up at the top of the hour: A Heathkit SG-8 signal generator restoration and slight correction. Join in live if you have the time! youtu.be/bqR5wiZSup0 #youtube

My hotel room is "modular"? Should I try? 😸

I usually take a few days off after a con; this time I am in Hannover again. 👋

Yeah... YouTube changed stuff indeed; As @adriansdigitalbasement.com noted, something seems to have changed recently and it is rather depressing for creators; both those who make a living from it and those who do it as a hobby. I wonder where they are directing the views now?

Every Saturday I spend 8 hours with hundreds of sweet & kind young nincompoops, then I have dinner with like 6 of the funniest and most talented coworkers ever, then I get on social media and am reminded we live in a lawless country ruled by a pedophile. The emotional whiplash is so real.

Slippery paws

Good Night, Anubi.