General Stuff(tm)

[stephen_usher]

Given the slow but steady increase in retro stuff I seem to be acquiring, plus bringing a lot of old model railway stuff from my Dad's loft I've had to hire a storage unit in "Storage King".

Over the last couple of weekends I've been starting to move stuff in there, one car load at a time. It's quite a slow job but the unit is starting to fill.

storage.jpg (144.48 KiB) Viewed 60037 times

Other than the model railway stuff in the corner there are the two Apricots, four Sun workstations, a couple of DEC terminals, a couple of Mac Plus and various other stuff. This isn't even a quarter of what I have. There are lots of trips to go yet!

[stephen_usher]

Tried to use my old Psion 5MX as a terminal this morning but before I could do this it basically fell apart in my hands when I picked it up!

The core plastic part had become so weak and brittle that merely picking the machine up caused the plastic to shatter.

[rubber_jonnie]

Tried to use my old Psion 5MX as a terminal this morning but before I could do this it basically fell apart in my hands when I picked it up!

The core plastic part had become so weak and brittle that merely picking the machine up caused the plastic to shatter.

Damn, thats rubbish. Trouble is with old plastics they do start to go with age.

Once I get settled in the new place I need to try my Amstrad NC100 as a terminal.

[stephen_usher]

Yeah, it basically crumbled! I've never seen plastic, other than old Bakelite, just crumble like this, especially as it's only just over 20 years old.

[JezC]

Tried to use my old Psion 5MX as a terminal this morning but before I could do this it basically fell apart in my hands when I picked it up!

The core plastic part had become so weak and brittle that merely picking the machine up caused the plastic to shatter.

Damn, thats rubbish. Trouble is with old plastics they do start to go with age.

Once I get settled in the new place I need to try my Amstrad NC100 as a terminal.

Hoping my old Psion 3A/3C won't suffer the same fate.

I've still to try and repair the keyboard on my NC100... ...that retro job list keeps getting longer...

[rubber_jonnie]

I've still to try and repair the keyboard on my NC100... ...that retro job list keeps getting longer...

I hear ya...

[PeckPeekPoke]

Looks like a nice treasure trove you are building. You've probably got 100 cubic feet of unused space though. I suggest you put some shelves in the storage unit to facilitate random access of your computational booty.

[stephen_usher]

That’s just stuff that has previously been in my loft, and it’s only about a quarter of it.

As for shelving, the only shelving units I can fit in my car are too narrow to be useful for computer stuff other than the keyboards and printers/Macs so they wouldn’t help a great deal.

Oh, and after I posted this on my timeline on FB some friends have tried to fill this for me by asking if I want stuff. I got given a Sun Ultra 80 yesterday!

[Icky]

@stephen_usher I think I still have a Zero 1 train controller in my loft. They were well ahead of their time.

[stephen_usher]

@stephen_usher I think I still have a Zero 1 train controller in my loft. They were well ahead of their time.

They were, but the way it generates power for the motor isn't great (pulses of full voltage, not good for the motor) and it really needs some sort of "keep alive" power to help with point frogs etc. Potentially putting a large capacitor between the two motor brushes would help a great deal, but finding a large (capacity) non-polarised capacitor which is also small physically is a problem.