Stuff and Things.

[rubber_jonnie]

Had a few odds and sods arrive yesterday including this from of all places, Temu Turbo Fan

I have to say, it's really well made and really does push the air along and is very forceful at top speed. Hoping to use it in place of my can of air that I'll keep for cooling things down when troubleshooting.

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so the TI-51-III has a funny old power setup.

The TMC1503NL IC is apparently 9v but runs off a double AA NiCad pack that has voltage boosting circuitry inside that powers the calculator.

So definitely 9v then.

Info on the BP7 battery pack can be found here: BP7 for Ti 51-III

So I have connected it up to 9v, and still nothing, so wondering if the TMC1503NL is dead. Need to figure that out, but in the meantime I've re-painted the bezel and logo with gold and it looks nicer

IMG20251204110806.jpg (447.58 KiB) Viewed 180 times

[rubber_jonnie]

Hmm, that's a bit of a pickle.

It seems that the TMC1503NL was used in at least 3 different models and was programmed (It has a mask ROM) depending on the calculator it was in, so even if I could get a replacement, it would have to be from the same model.

I may have something that just looks nice but doesn't work...

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so I was looking around for a USB power bank of a decent capacity for my heated gloves for cycling and did a generic Google search to see what came up.

One of the items was this:

Screenshot 2025-12-06 at 09.24.44.png (725.38 KiB) Viewed 143 times

It got me wondering, do people really fall for capacity claims like this? It strikes me these claims are getting more and more absurd as time goes by.

[rubber_jonnie]

This arrived in the post the other day:

IMG20251206120501.jpg (172.22 KiB) Viewed 133 times

You can find them on Ali Express here: Modulator to HDMI adapter

It cost me about £16 shipped and comes with a non-uk PSU (It runs off 5v centre positive so not hard to replace the PSU) a remote control and the obligatory poor instructions.

It'll output in 720P or 1080P and works with a number of different TV and audio standards all configurable via an on screen menu. The audio type requires separate selection to the TV type, as I discovered when I got my Atari 600XL tuned in, but had no sound!

And it works a treat

Picture quality isn't anything to write home about, however it is more than adequate for powering on a machine to see if it works. Definitely reminiscent of using with an old CRT.

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Now most of my machines are at a minimum composite out, however when a machine arrives and it isn't modded and only has UHF (Or one of the other supported standards like NTSC, SECAM etc) then dragging out my old CRT TV is a bit of a bind, but with this I should at least bea ble to try with UHF first to see if I have a machine that powers on or is dead.

[exxos]

Had a few odds and sods arrive yesterday including this from of all places, Temu Turbo Fan

I have to say, it's really well made and really does push the air along and is very forceful at top speed. Hoping to use it in place of my can of air that I'll keep for cooling things down when troubleshooting.

Was trying to look but after 3 attempts I'm stuck

Screenshot_2025-12-06_143047.jpg (73.32 KiB) Viewed 132 times

I mean I thought Volly balls were bright red?! So gave up after 3 puzzles

[rubber_jonnie]

Had a few odds and sods arrive yesterday including this from of all places, Temu Turbo Fan

I have to say, it's really well made and really does push the air along and is very forceful at top speed. Hoping to use it in place of my can of air that I'll keep for cooling things down when troubleshooting.

Was trying to look but after 3 attempts I'm stuck


Screenshot_2025-12-06_143047.jpg


I mean I thought Volly balls were bright red?! So gave up after 3 puzzles

OK, odd, I tried through a different browser and get something similar but it does let me verify.

[rubber_jonnie]

I may have just PiStormed my A500...

IMG20251218102110.jpg (254.21 KiB) Viewed 38 times

It's happily sitting updating WHDLoad right now having done a Caffeine OS update first.

This is powered by a Pi Zero 2 W, so not as much grunt or memory as the PiStorm & RPi 4 in my 1200, but more than enough for the A500 and could be upgraded to a Pi3a + in the future. Of course the A500 is 16 bit too.

I thought I might have to use a CPU relocation board, but it fits in just perfectly alongside the RGB2HDMI

Next up I'll need to add the 2nd HDMI port as a permanent fixture. Not sure I'll add a remote SD card, though I do have a spare one and the machine is open...

I doubt I'll need any extra cooling but I do have some of the 25mm micro fans left if I do.

[JezC]

I may have just PiStormed my A500...

It's happily sitting updating WHDLoad right now having done a Caffeine OS update first.

This is powered by a Pi Zero 2 W, so not as much grunt or memory as the PiStorm & RPi 4 in my 1200, but more than enough for the A500 and could be upgraded to a Pi3a + in the future. Of course the A500 is 16 bit too.

I thought I might have to use a CPU relocation board, but it fits in just perfectly alongside the RGB2HDMI

Next up I'll need to add the 2nd HDMI port as a permanent fixture. Not sure I'll add a remote SD card, though I do have a spare one and the machine is open...

I doubt I'll need any extra cooling but I do have some of the 25mm micro fans left if I do.

That sounds like quite an 'accident'!

When I get any retro hobby time I need to look at the remaining A500s & A500+ to see what state they are in...so maybe I do need to create that list of known projects and start prioritising them...

[rubber_jonnie]

That sounds like quite an 'accident'!

It was quite horrific, but we're all OK now

When I get any retro hobby time I need to look at the remaining A500s & A500+ to see what state they are in...so maybe I do need to create that list of known projects and start prioritising them...

You definitely need a list, though I can say this wasn't on mine...