iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

How did I do with this bit of my estate sale haul today?

Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

What are the chances that this has something to do with the video signal being weak? I see these right next to the output of the brightness control.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

There’s at least a 7% chance I’m going to be able to put this back together. 😬

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

What are the chances that this is flux, or something nasty was spilled in there?

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Good lord. It’s like Zenith took a bunch of separate products and wired them together to meet Sun’s spec. The RCA jack on the neck board is where the video signal comes in from the 13W3.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

I’d never thought of it like that! So my BBC micro makes a good Emacs keyboard? Here’s the full keyboard.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

And it runs the hotjava browser.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

@graffias79.bsky.social that was the encouragement I needed, thank you. I pushed on the grippy things and it became obvious (eventually) that I can put the pointy end of a spudger in the square holes of the front bit and push.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Ok. Now I’m stuck and a little scared. I need to work on the voyager’s LCD panel and have connectors to remove. Do I need to release the snaps at the end, or rotate the far side of the connector out? Get it wrong, and it’s broken 😬 Help!

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

I noticed this. These (red) potted components are likely pulse transformers made by VAC (a German company that Sun used for high-tolerance magnetic components).

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Dirty close ups of the GX (graphics accelerator) and microSPARC

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Here's the front. The graphics connector and floppy are disconnected in order to remove the bottom rear cover.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Oh hi. Actual black mesa on the way to Los Alamos here.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

I'll remember that for next time. Also significantly cheaper than the stuff I bought. Thank you @srfbob1.bsky.social !

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

It's not pretty when they blow?

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

It didn’t explode! Looks like the conformal coating fixed the anode lead just fine.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Okay. Well. I realized I needed something to store filament.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

What an all round awesome guy. 😢

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

The conformal coating went on perfectly. I used a dropper bottle to apply at the top and gravity took care of the rest! Now just need to leave it a week to be sure it’s cured.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Okay. Almost there. Just the anode wire to repair. Probably. I’m worried that that 1/2” transparent gorilla tape comes in too far.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

And wiring upgrade complete. That’s one project popped off the stack.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

My life seems like a world of nested side quests. My new printer arrived last Saturday, and so now of course I’m building a stand that won’t collapse at any minute.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Right tool for the job, right? I got into Tarn-X for cases like this. Not a great picture of the Z80 in the socket, but you can kinda see how all the legs are super oxidized from the CRT goop. And then after 10s of treatment (taken just now).

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

...and I knew I'd seen those keycaps somewhere before!

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

This time, I decided to try sous-vide method. Liquid Salon 20 in the freezer bag, run at 50C for about six hours. I also added a UV flood light and metal foil wrap just to be sure.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Comparing keyboard before and after retrobrite

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

I removed two of the ICs on the other path, all good there.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

The other two ICs on that path were also affected pretty badly, but cleaned up great. I needed to use some odorless mineral spirits to remove the last of the stubborn goop. Tarn-X helped clean up the IC pins once more.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

No surprise that the Z80 socket didn’t fair so well, but it cleaned up just fine. The CPU itself took a dip in Tarn-X that cleaned up corrosion on the pins.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

The CRT river of doom took two paths through the ICs.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

The anode lead on the fly back transformer is not in good shape 😭 The cracks and the chip in the wire are going to cause problems, assuming they didn’t already when the seller turned it on. I have some special conformal coating on the way. It comes in pints.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

The ribbon cable to the power supply is delaminating and corroding. Added a low profile socket to the power supply, and waiting for a replacement to arrive.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

The SMK replacements arrived for the superbrain. Small snag in that the stems were wrong, but swapped out perfectly! So that’s the keyboard repair complete.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

The next project arrived already. Was not counting on this DECwriter to previously be a mousey house.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Pic from work in progress - even the PCB cleaned up okay with some scrubbing followed by fresh flux and solder. And more scrubbing.

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Alex @devopslimeyninja.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

There was one key that was too far gone (switch on the left), the others cleaned up ok.

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