AkBKukU

VIC-20 Repair-a-thon

Hello!

This is a very special video to me because I was finally prepared and equipped to go back to my first vintage computer and the first project I ever tried to record to make a video of. A Commodore VIC-20 that I got for $30 nearly 8 years ago that was dead as soon as I took it out of the box. It's been eating away at me for years I could never fix it, but the stars aligned for this video to give it one more shot...because I'm also taking a look at two oth...

MC-505 vs MC-303: Supporter Bonus

Hello!

Here is the bonus section I mentioned in the last post. This was originally going to be part of the Roland MC-505 repair video but both the repair and description of the device were really too long to have both in one video. So I decided to break them up. But, if I'm making a dedicated video about using the MC-505 I don't really want it to be presented in the way I did here. So later I'm going to be creating a new video entirely on the MC-505 that will be scripted and cover thin...

Roland MC-505 Repairs

Hello!

This project took way more time than I planned and I actually ended up deciding to scrap about half of what I shot. But I should I should go back a bit to explain that more. This video is about repairing a Roland MC-505 that I was given. This is a device I've been after for years after getting my MC-303. The 303 is good, but the 505 takes it and makes it better in every imaginable way. And that MC-303 is something I've been using on a regular basis, so I've been really ...

Supporter Update - 2023-08-14

Hello! I thought I'd give another update with stuff because the server stuff I've been working on is finally over with after quite a lot of effort. Nearly all of the public facing sites I run are self hosted now and are working much better! It was a lot of work, but worth it.

And two addendums to keep in mind while watching this:

1. I still have a year left on my lease
2. The cat wanted out of the room, the cat never leaves the house
   
   Video Link: 2023-08-14 20:39:07 +0000 UTC View Post

HP CAD Digitizer - 9111A Graphics Tabliet

Hello! This was the other video I was working on before I started the change up with my server. That's going well and is nearly over now, I'm hoping to make an update video talking about it next week. This one though is about a CAD tablet for the HP 9836C that gives you graphics input capabilities! I still don't have access to CAD software, but that didn't stop me from demoing it by just writing some software myself!

Video link: 2023-08-05 23:10:39 +0000 UTC View Post

Big HP Hardware Haul

This one was nerve wracking and exciting, after some back and forth I worked out getting a huge amount of HP hardware shipped half way across the US which is something I never do. I have probably bought 95% of my hardware locally because shipping big things is costly and risky (as we will see in the next video...). But Jim who was sending these items was very diligent in packing them and it turned out extremely well in the end!

I'm also pretty pleased with the demo program I w...

2023-07-24 Updates: Server Upgrades and Time for Projects

Hello! I've got a video coming up soon but thought I would take some time to give you some updates on what has been happening in the background. Mostly that I've been spending a bunch of time on preparing to redo the entire software stack on my main project server.

An addendum to this video, my idea for multiplayer on the tictactoe game I wrote ended up getting left on the drawing board. But I was able to replace it with something else cool so I'm still looking forward to showing it o...

Printing From the Past - HP 2671G Thermal Printer

Hello! I've got some more stuff for that HP-9836C computer I picked up on plate (and even more planned for later). This time I was able to get the printer made for it and get it fixed to be usable again! And somehow this is my first time using a standalone thermal printer and I've got to say, this is the best way to do vintage printing!

I'm still working on the floppy disk stuff as I allude to at the start of this video, but I've made some extremely good progr...

Supporter Updates - 2023-06-27

Hello! This is the update video I wanted to make to talk about some stuff like how I made the 9122C repair video. As a tease, I didn't edit this video after shooting it in any way other than adding some text and color work, but it still has multiple cameras, video capture, and a fully cut timeline in my editing software!

Also the pressure relief from the schedule change has allowed me to finally get some things done around the office I've been needing to tackle for a long time as well....

HP 9122C Floppy Drive Refurb

Hello! That floppy drive I got for the HP 9836C I showed at the end of the last video? It didn't work. But I was able to get it going again after a deep cleaning which I hadn't done on 3.5" drives before. And I think this 9122C drive is going to be a dream to use with that computer going forward!

Making this video was somewhat unexpected and I'm not exactly sure what I want to do with it. This was originally a test of a new editing workflow for making videos during a stream th...

1981 CAD Monster - HP Series 200 9836C

This is a shocking video for me to make, I picked up this system a couple weeks ago now and have been working non-stop to get it going again. It is amazing and I cannot believe how much HP was able to pack into this thing considering how early it was made. I've used the Series 80s computers a fair bit now and this thing feels like you brought that concept ahead by a whole decade despite having been sold at the same time! As I get even more comfortable with it I think I'm going to rea...

Update: Biweekly Videos

Hello again, thank you all so much for the understanding and feedback on the last post. I got a lot more response to it than I was expecting and wanted to mull over a lot of the input you provided and finish the physical copies while I thought about it more. After that, I think keeping a deadline but making it biweekly instead will be the best balance. I like having a fixed point to work with, it makes it easier to "budget" time to make videos so I think extending it right now is the best opt...

A Question for Supporters About Weekly Videos

Hello, there isn't going to be a video this week and that happening finally gave me the incentive to make this video. Basically, I want to know what everyone here thinks about moving from a release schedule focused on weekly videos to one that favors more production time for them. I go over this a lot better in the video so I'll recommend you watch that to see why I think it may be a better idea based on the analytics of my channel over the last year. But before I make any changes I would lik...

Greaseweazle External 5.25 Adapter

Hello! This is a simpler video for this week, mostly because I almost completely forgot to make this video! I was cleaning up recently and found all the parts to put it together and realized I never made the video on it, oops.

I designed this adapter late last year that allows you to connect an external floppy drive directly to a Greaseweazle floppy interface. I had two different external drives on hand when making the adapter and created versions for both, but from what I've heard the...

Troubleshooting the 1996 Micron Millennia

Wow this one was a lot more of pain to put together than I thought! This computer has clearly lived a troubled life and when I sat down to try to get it working again I completely underestimated what it would take to do it. But with some perseverance, luck, and help this computer is getting a new lease on life!

It's also my first time getting to use a Voodoo 1 in a computer, which didn't go quite as I was expecting. But I think that's on my using Windows 98 here. Now that I did it this...

1980 Terminal with Linux - TeleVideo 950

Hello! Now that I've got my capacitor reforming setup dialed in I want to start getting some of the much older hardware I've picked up running again! I want to start on the S-100 computers first to see what I'm in for, but first I figured I'd get one of the terminals done to sample what condition they might be in. I'm pretty happy with the results overall!

But I figured while I was working on it I would revisit the idea of using a proper vintage terminal on Linux which is not very stra...

Reforming Capacitors - Everything you wanted to know

This video has been a very long time coming, a detailed breakdown of how reforming capacitors and how you can do it. This has been one of my most researched and tested videos to produce because I wanted to make sure I got every single thing right with it.

I'm pretty sure I'm good calling the video done here, but I'm putting it up extra early here in case anyone else notices something. I would have liked to provide some more visuals for some things but this video was really ab...

Learning to use an Apple II Plus for the First Time

Hello! A couple weeks ago a listing popped up near by me that had an Apple II plus in it that I was absolutely dreaming to get. I called them, only to be told that someone else has reached out first about them but if they flaked out I would be up next. Well, a few days later the listing was pulled and I never heard from them. At least a week went by, and then much to my surprised, it was listed again, I called them within four minutes of it being up...and here we are!

So to say I was e...

MailCall 0x0D: Mail from viewers like you!

Hello! So first, sorry for no video last week. I tried, but the concept fell apart at the last minute and it just wasn't possible to make a video. I meant to post about it but have also been thinking about making some changes to how I plan video production that I didn't know if I wanted to get into yet and it just slipped past me. I'm still thinking that over and will probably do a supporter video to get your thoughts about some things.

Anyway, on to this week's video! This is jus...