iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 28/09/2026

It seems bonkers the CPU was released in 2021 and isn't even officially discontinued, and yet the GPU portion is already unsupported... Thanks AMD.

120

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 28/09/2026

Rebooted my lab PC, and I got a pop-up when the GPU drivers tried to auto-update. Claims my AMD Ryzen 5600G integrated Radeon graphics aren't supported anymore? Has AMD given up on consumer graphics entirely? Either that or their drivers are track. Probably both...

Screenshot showing that AMD Radeon drivers won't install on a computer with AMD Radeon drivers because it says that the hardware isn't supported anymore

6280

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 23/09/2026

Yaaaaas! This is great. My holder thing like yours is too big so I use it for screwdrivers and other tools. I need to find the smaller one like yours.

110

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 23/09/2026

That looks handy!! I do like the drill bit type you rotate by hand it really clears it out well, but I'll have to get one of these too. Plus it won't roll away!

010

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 23/09/2026

I had this happen for an RGB LED from my clock project, I didn't even bother to look when it pinged out of my tweezers. I'll probably live forever in the vacuum cleaner.

140

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 22/09/2026

*SIGH* Even in all the clutter down here in the basement, I very rarely misplace things... But I have misplaced the cleaning drill bit for my Hakko desoldering iron. I should just order another one versus spending a bunch of time looking for it. It's small and probably rolled off my bench... :-(

16570

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 22/09/2026

RIFAs don't typically make burning smell before the go ... but maybe this is a RIFA adjacent problem as the machine does work. :-)

000

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 22/09/2026

Yeah it's a 4P! It appears to turn on and work normally too. Have not investigated yet. LOL!

120

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 22/09/2026

Just going through my pile of projects and this note just makes me laugh.

141225

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 19/09/2026

Awesome. I say there is no age to which one should stop trying to learn!

140

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 18/09/2026

HAHAH! I know they all will die after 10 years... and yes of course it has to be when you are sleeping.

110

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 18/09/2026

Why do smoke detectors always start beeping "low battery" in the middle of the night? It has to be temperature related... this one started at 3AM but the basement temps never really change at all, day or night.

The smoke detector that woke me up last night

14560

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 16/09/2026

Yeah just assume things that cost this little are cutting corners on the DMM side with HV protection. For the price, I think it's going to be hard to beat for the functionality you get.

010

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 16/09/2026

It was $83.84 on Aliexpress and there was a $9 coupon for orders over $65, so it ended up being $74.84. Currently the same seller is $91.28 but the $9 off coupon is still there for me: www.aliexpress.us/item/3256812...

120

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 15/09/2026

I just picked one of these up. It's very similar to the 703 that you might see me using on videos, but I figured why not get this. $74 shipped. The major difference on the ZT-706S is the 66,000 count multimeter. Plus It has a (slightly more) useful frequency generator.

Zoyi ZT-706S : visually the scope looks slightly different but I think the underlying hardware is unchanged.

6901

Reposted by Adrian's Digital Basement

Xodium @xodium.net · 14/09/2026

Rootie went on a #VCFMW rampage of cuteness! Appreciate @torbar.bsky.social agreeing to be her handler. And appreciate @jeffgeerling.com and @adriansdigitalbasement.com being great sports and allowing themselves to Get Slugged. (As well as @museumjoe.bsky.social and @bluescsi.com)

5404

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 15/09/2026

The back of the VCFMW 21 (2026) T-shirt had a tribute to the Z80 CPU with all sorts of interesting computers listed which used the Z80 CPU. How many of the machines do you have in your collection?

2613610

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 10/09/2026

Haha. I should put a lock and chain around his neck!

010

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 10/09/2026

In a way, it's sad how all these companies got gobbled up ... And air travel seems overall worse versus when we had more choices.

180

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 10/09/2026

It likely works well for consoles but it really struggles to work correctly on many old computers. They often output fussy and non standard video signals which really confuses it....

110

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 10/09/2026

On our way to Chicago for VCF Midwest! Rammy and I both appreciate the retro livery on our plane. 🕶️

American airlines plane with retro TWA livery

141153

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 10/09/2026

This 6X CE is actually "affordable" especially compared to the full 4K model.

150

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 10/09/2026

Just picked this up. Maybe I can finally stop complaining about the 5X Pro? 🤔

101050

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 28/08/2026

MartyPC.net, the web based cycle accurate IBM PC emulator has gotten a massive upgrade including tape loading support! This is just so cool to all be running inside your browser. Highly recommend you check it out.

martypc.net

MartyPC Web Edition

An IBM PC/XT emulator written in Rust - Now compiled for the web!

08415

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 17/08/2026

My first modem was a Hayes 1200 clone. (The modem is long gone and I have no good pics to know what brand it was.) Now I have a real Hayes 1200 but with the ESP32 replacement board inside so it's a Wifi modem, and I love it.

130

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 17/08/2026

Yes, I extensively used AppleWork back in the day on my Apple IIc and Apple IIgs. All of my school work was done on it up until I got my Commodore Amiga... and yes I missed it as the productivity apps on the Amiga were pretty bad IMHO.

040

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 16/08/2026

That's a really good guess! Can confirm those beige keyboards were sold super cheap as surplus at Radio Shack stores in the US and Canada. (And in the back pages of magazines)

020

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 13/08/2026

I wish I could give more than one thumbs up to this!

020

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 13/08/2026

That's some amazing sleuthing!! Romanian. How exotic and awesome. Interesting is all of the docs you found had their own internal part numbers listed, but this one that Commodore was using had the conventional 7406. Either way the logo and date formatting match as well, so yes, that has to be it.

180

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 13/08/2026

I absolutely adore BOTH sides of that prototype!

3814

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 13/08/2026

Can anyone identify the logo on the 7406 IC? (The DRAM chip to the right is sporting the Matsushita logo.)

75010

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 11/08/2026

Indeed, clearly this will do nothing more than just move air around inside the case. So do you think this is an actual Apple part? I'm amazed to not have been able to find any photos of a fan that looks like this. Oh also, it's also really noisy!

110

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 11/08/2026

Some others have suggested that when no one bought the IIe upgrade kit boards, Apple started using them as warranty replacement and even in newly manufactured IIgs machines until the ROM 03 board revision came out.

210

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 11/08/2026

Got it -- that makes a lot of sense then. I somehow have never run into a ROM 01 board with them, perhaps all earlier boards.

000

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 11/08/2026

I wonder if this is just something Apple did if you had the machine in for service and it needed a swap?

120

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 11/08/2026

I have about 5 or 6 of the ROM 00/01 boards/machines and none have the connectors installed, only the footprint. Similar results for a Google image search, only footprints... Strange it's all you've ever seen!

140

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 11/08/2026

I think the JVC 1702 also was a commercial grade monitor with inputs and outputs and BNC jacks. This JVC actually only has composite input too. The EIA-J8 or whatever that multi pin connector is the VTR version which carries audio and video AFAIK.

010

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 11/08/2026

Ah yes you can definitely see the family resemblance! JVC sold a version of the 1702 although I think it lacked the Chroma/ Luma inputs. I've only seen photos of it but this one is clearly a higher spec model than that.

010

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 11/08/2026

That's really cool. I'm lucky to have spare switches from parts boards but many people are not so lucky.

010

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 11/08/2026

I wonder if they are in the typical non working state like so many of these machines?

100

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 11/08/2026

I have a Woz Apple IIgs with a motherboard from 1988 (chip dates) but it has the IIe PSU and keyboard connectors installed. It also has what appears to be an OEM-like PSU fan installed onto a 1987 Week 01 IIgs PSU. Warranty replacement board perhaps? But why the IIe connectors?

Apple IIgs top cover with the Woz Limited edition badge

Machine running off an Apple IIe PSU. Showing the Duracell battery which was soldered into the machine.

Original Astec PSU with a fan mounted in a very OEM looking holder.

IIgs motherboard with 1988 Week 31-37 chips installed. Also it has a small bodge board near the sound chip. Note the Apple IIe keyboard connector.

111184

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 27/07/2026

This is a fun project: Use FFMPEG to simulate the sound of audio cassettes. I converted a few albums and it sounds extremely authentic. github.com/AARomanov198...

https://github.com/AARomanov1985/Audio-Cassette-Simulation/blob/master/assets/cassettes.jpeg Several audio cassettes

510618

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 19/07/2026

There is a new AMI BIOS customizer and option ROM injector for 386SX-era boards. Super cool and I can't wait to try this out. youtube.com/watch?v=f-AG...

youtube.com

Made a new AMI BIOS Editor (AthAMIed). Enable hidden options. Inject Option ROMs.

YouTube video by Atheatos

110010

Adrian's Digital Basement @adriansdigitalbasement.com · 09/07/2026

Someone is already working on the MiSTer core -- porting Alex's work over

010