Personal computing discussed

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by SecretSquirrel
Sun May 02, 2021 3:30 pm
Forum: Cases and Power Supplies
Topic: UPS for dual power supply
Replies: 3
Views: 6164

Re: UPS for dual power supply

Probably, yes. You need to ensure the server is sharing load across both power supplies. It would be unusual for that not to be the case, but worth checking. If its an enterprise class server that has an web interface for its BMC, you should be able to find it under there somewhere.

--SS
by SecretSquirrel
Fri Apr 30, 2021 8:01 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: How do I cancel the stripe charges?
Replies: 1
Views: 3466

Re: How do I cancel the stripe charges?

BIF wrote:
Sheesh, I got ding'd again last month. How do I get that recurring charge removed?

Thanks!


Dispute and get the bank to issue a new card.

--SS
by SecretSquirrel
Fri Apr 30, 2021 8:00 pm
Forum: Cases and Power Supplies
Topic: UPS for dual power supply
Replies: 3
Views: 6164

Re: UPS for dual power supply

This will depend on how the system is configured. All my dual power supply systems are set to share the load across both power supplies, in which case it draws half the power from each supply. So, if it is using 250W, it will draw 125W from each power supply, and hence from each of your UPSes. There...
by SecretSquirrel
Thu Nov 05, 2020 7:54 am
Forum: General Software
Topic: Issue deleting a directoryish (Linux)
Replies: 12
Views: 6528

Re: Issue deleting a directoryish (Linux)

ls -b
will print any special characters as C-style escapes. I expect that '?" isn't actually a question mark, but some "unprintable" character.

--SS
by SecretSquirrel
Wed May 27, 2020 10:12 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Anyone repair anything today?
Replies: 1407
Views: 198288

Re: Anyone repair anything today?

lol squirrel you working right now? how do you have time for all that stuff? kids moved out? Good work though, like super dad. Odd seeing a breaker outside, here more of a disconnect outside and breaker inside. I got a pile of work, biggest priority gets the time, and other stuff gets the back burn...
by SecretSquirrel
Wed May 27, 2020 8:10 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Anyone repair anything today?
Replies: 1407
Views: 198288

Re: Anyone repair anything today?

lol squirrel you working right now? how do you have time for all that stuff? kids moved out? Good work though, like super dad. Odd seeing a breaker outside, here more of a disconnect outside and breaker inside. I got a pile of work, biggest priority gets the time, and other stuff gets the back burn...
by SecretSquirrel
Thu Apr 30, 2020 8:36 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Are there any fans on that old stuff, Secret? I remember what a novelty it was to encounter my first CPU passive heatsink (for a Motorola 68000 that had been double-clocked to 14.3 MHz). Fans didn't come along until later. Nothing I've worked with. Ms Pac has little passives on the DRAM chips. http...
by SecretSquirrel
Thu Apr 30, 2020 6:02 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

meerkt wrote:
Nice!

Would it be useful to put the electronics into cases to protect them better?


It's not really as big a deal as you might think. The cabinet is effectively a big case. Cooling becomes a significant issue if the board is enclosed. These old boards have a lot of old, hot chips on them.

--SS
by SecretSquirrel
Wed Apr 29, 2020 10:25 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

With the cabinet moved upstairs, I could really start putting it back together. Since the floor is carpeted, laying it over to put the wheels back on way much less trouble. Need to order levelers... http://kovarindustries.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/normal_IMG_20200425_163927_1.jpg Original...
by SecretSquirrel
Sat Apr 25, 2020 9:28 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

With painting done, I got to take down the pain booth. To be fair, I still have some painting to do, but nothing that requires the booth. This means I can actually start putting things back together. First up was a new pair of cabinet handles. http://www.kovarindustries.com/coppermine/albums/userpic...
by SecretSquirrel
Sun Apr 19, 2020 11:09 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Applying the black stencils took way way longer than expected, just like so much else in this project. I did opt to cut out the various pieces of the stencils. http://www.kovarindustries.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/normal_IMG_20200414_145123.jpg The various pieces were applied individually ...
by SecretSquirrel
Wed Apr 15, 2020 8:18 am
Forum: General Hardware
Topic: Tricky problems
Replies: 6
Views: 2205

Re: Tricky problems

Quite doable if you have access to an audio mixer with four buses. If you don't mind mono audio, you can do it with a dual bus mixer. https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-802-Premium-8-Input-Preamps/dp/B000J5XS3C Something like the above would suffice for mono sound if you have appropriate cables. Micro...
by SecretSquirrel
Sat Apr 11, 2020 11:01 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Got the pink layer done yesterday afternoon. Had to change out the exhaust fan filter first. http://www.kovarindustries.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/normal_IMG_20200410_144349_1.jpg The state of the filter above also shows why PPE is important when painting in a booth, with any sort of spray...
by SecretSquirrel
Fri Apr 10, 2020 8:10 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

I went through and re-stenciled both sides. I sanded down a couple of the worst runs and put another coat of paint on. http://www.kovarindustries.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/normal_IMG_20200408_202833_2.jpg http://www.kovarindustries.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/normal_IMG_20200408_...
by SecretSquirrel
Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:26 am
Forum: Echo Vale
Topic: Help Fixing FM Tuner Board
Replies: 10
Views: 5460

Re: Help Fixing FM Tuner Board

just brew it! wrote:
Cool. Always nice when it is something simple. Still surprised that something serious enough to fry a PCB trace didn't take something else with it.


Lightning is a weird beast. But, I agree with you -- pretty surprising.

--SS
by SecretSquirrel
Sun Mar 29, 2020 11:11 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Yesterday, I started tackling the horrible state of the yellow paint job on the front of the cabinet. After standing and staring at it for probably 15 minutes, pondering what approach I wanted to take, I decided to re-stencil and paint a second coat. To re-stencil, I covered the front with Press'n S...
by SecretSquirrel
Sat Mar 28, 2020 10:42 pm
Forum: Echo Vale
Topic: Help Fixing FM Tuner Board
Replies: 10
Views: 5460

Re: Help Fixing FM Tuner Board

A bit of searching and it looks like some Samsung tuner boards might be compatible, but its gonna be a shot in the dark and cost $50-$75 to find out. :(

For that price, you can pick up a component tuner on ebay and connect it to the aux in, assuming the system has one.

--SS
by SecretSquirrel
Sat Mar 28, 2020 10:20 pm
Forum: Echo Vale
Topic: Help Fixing FM Tuner Board
Replies: 10
Views: 5460

Re: Help Fixing FM Tuner Board

JBI is likely right. Enough of a current to leave a burn mark, melt solder, and blow a trace likely took out the pre-amp/tuner (the thing in the metal box) and probably the filter crystal and probably the receiver chip too. That said, lightning does the strangest things and if you have a soldering i...
by SecretSquirrel
Thu Mar 26, 2020 9:23 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Still pondering and I haven't actually be back to look at it since it's dried to see how it looks now. Very disappointing. But, I am at the limits of my current skills, and this is the first time I've done this -- hence the limited skills -- so live and learn. We all start somewhere. At this point ...
by SecretSquirrel
Thu Mar 26, 2020 1:20 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

This is probably a ridiculously naive question, but why don't you lay the cabinet down so that whatever side you're painting is horizontal? That should eliminate runs, right? Fundamentally the same reason the tape left texture in the paint. Laying it down would likely leave marks in the paint surfa...
by SecretSquirrel
Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:58 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

This is probably a ridiculously naive question, but why don't you lay the cabinet down so that whatever side you're painting is horizontal? That should eliminate runs, right? Fundamentally the same reason the tape left texture in the paint. Laying it down would likely leave marks in the paint surfa...
by SecretSquirrel
Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:00 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Krogoth wrote:
Very nice, don't hit yourself so hard over minor imperfections on the matte placements. You've done an excellent job so far.


The only part I'm really pissed about are the runs and show through of the blue on the front.
by SecretSquirrel
Thu Mar 26, 2020 6:57 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

I did some more paint testing, going all the way to 20% thinned. I laid down a wonderful, fine spray, but was thin enough that it would run horribly. http://www.kovarindustries.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/normal_IMG_20200320_090429068.jpg You can see the run in the above image. That didn't ...
by SecretSquirrel
Wed Mar 25, 2020 9:15 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

The stencils were $175. Why so expensive? Because you need a 4'x6' printer and cutter to do them, plus you have to do the vector art that defines the actual stencils. Add to that a low volume and the result is a relatively high per unit cost. And $175 is the cheap end. You can easily cross $300 bef...
by SecretSquirrel
Sun Mar 22, 2020 10:49 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

about $950 Without the tools? But yeah, time is more important. 100-150 hours sounds pretty good, I think? Considering the multidisciplinary nature of it, having to learn a lot as you go, and the attention to detail (nickel plating!). @ludi BTW, how much time so far on your project? :) Yep, without...
by SecretSquirrel
Sun Mar 22, 2020 10:44 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Well, I was curious about the cost myself, and interestingly, US$1k is about what I've hit for a couple of my own projects on this scale. But he was wondering about the time? Doh! No one usually asks about the time. That's much harder to estimate in any real fashion as there have been several side ...
by SecretSquirrel
Sat Mar 21, 2020 11:25 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Do you keep track of how much time you're spending on the project? Could be interesting. That depends on whether you count tools or not. As with many projects, this has been the impetus to pick of various tools, including the HVLP guns. They will all get use outside this project, so I tend to not c...
by SecretSquirrel
Tue Mar 17, 2020 5:48 pm
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

Have you tried using Frog Tape? That stuff is usually pretty good at helping to keep the lines sharp and preventing bleeding. For the actual stencils, it's not an issue. They are cut from a vinyl masking material. This was just a quick throw together test. Though I am slightly worried about the sec...
by SecretSquirrel
Tue Mar 17, 2020 7:10 am
Forum: The Back Porch
Topic: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.
Replies: 252
Views: 44676

Re: Stumbled on a new project this weekend.

I set up a stencil test board. The intent is to spray it with yellow and then remove the strips at varying times to see how the paint behaves at various levels of drying. http://www.kovarindustries.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/normal_IMG_20200315_191028390.jpg The notches we cut to provide t...
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