Stuff and Things.

[rubber_jonnie]

Have a good rest and enjoy your retro-free time.

I am, thank you.

[stephen_usher]

Well, it's been a bit of a rubbish week. I've had either a cold/flu/RSV and being diabetic it's knocked me for 6, and I've been off work since Monday afternoon.

When you feel so ill you can't even be bothered to replace a socketed chip in something, it's not good.

Starting to feel better and fingers crossed by this time next week I'll be back to normal as I have to drive to France next weekend.

Oh. Get well soon. Didn't know that you were diabetic. :-(

[rubber_jonnie]

Oh. Get well soon. Didn't know that you were diabetic. :-(

Thanks. Yeah, I was diagnosed about 13 years ago. I was having issues and my wife suggested I test my blood sugar so I got a tester from the local pharmacy and was about 4 times over the upper limit for 'normal' people.

I went to the doc and said 'I'm diabetic, this is why' and he went 'Yep, you are'. It's type 2 so easier to manage with just tablets, but it changes flu, colds etc into something far more serious.

Catching the Flu (I think I have a cold or RSV, it definitely isn't covid) can be fatal, hence why I get my flu vaccine promptly every year.

[rubber_jonnie]

Final 10000uF cap arrived for the Intellivision today, last one for the PSU re-cap, and it looks a lot better now the PSU is all good.

Always shocks me how much smaller modern caps are compared to the old ones :)

[alexh]

Thinking about buying anything new? I've been watching Atari 8-bits just recently. I have no nostalgia for Atari 8-bits as I never saw one or played one back in the day but I like the XE, it's like a baby Atari ST. But I don't think I can justify eBay prices for one having no nostalgia for it.

I have a working PS4 pro 2TB I could let you have. Boxed, I could let it go for the same price I could get cash from CEX. (£99?)

[rubber_jonnie]

Thinking about buying anything new? I've been watching Atari 8-bits just recently. I have no nostalgia for Atari 8-bits as I never saw one or played one back in the day but I like the XE, it's like a baby Atari ST. But I don't think I can justify eBay prices for one having no nostalgia for it.

I have a working PS4 pro 2TB I could let you have. Boxed, I could let it go for the same price I could get cash from CEX. (£99?)

TBH I have a 65XE I've owned from new, 2x 800XLs and a 600XL. The 65XE and one 800XL have Ultimate 1MB and VBXE installed, plus a SIDE3 cart, so I'm good for 8 bit Atari's :)

I had a 600XL and then 800XL when I was younger and therefore have more affinity for the Atari's than Commodore. They are very good machines.

I have 3 PS4's, 1 dead for spares, 1 to repair and 1 working, so I don't think I need another :)

I am getting an Amiga 500 from somebody off the forum though :)

[rubber_jonnie]

@alexh

Wow, just looking at Atari 8 bit stuff on eBay and prices are super high at the moment, I'm a bit stunned!!!

[rubber_jonnie]

Decided that the variac needed a slightly better outlet socket so installed this:

IMG20250116120458.jpg

IMG20250116120513.jpg

The original grey one was a bit crap tbh and plugs wouldn't fit all the way in.

I want to make a few other improvements but this'll do for a start.

[rubber_jonnie]

Hmm, got this here cap from a mains to 4x USB adapter that is playing up.

IMG20250120132334.jpg

Trying to figure it out, I can't quite tell if the top where it is dinged (It was like this when I opened it up) is split, but it still seems to read the correct capacitance when I test it out of circuit.

However, if I power the adapter on and put a load in the socket, it's behaving like a SMPSU (It is at it's heart) and pulsing on and off. Will swap the cap out in case it is split and dried out and if no change I will see if I can see anything else wonky.

[rubber_jonnie]

Turns out the fault was the negative leg of the bulk capacitor, it had a dry joint. Now re-soldered and working just fine :)

I did a re-cap while I was in there with higher spec caps of the same capacitance, and I think I'll use a bit of hot glue to hold that bulk cap in place.