iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

over on Mastodon, i've been fixing up an Attitude Director Indicator (probably from a F-4 Phantom II fighter jet). well, today, i got the cockpit illumination working! mastodon.social/@tubetime/11...

an aircraft instrument, about 5" square (127mm square). there is a knob on the lower right, otherwise most of the instrument is a round glass window, behind which nestles a round globe with a light grey hemisphere and a black hemisphere. two yellow pointers cross in front of it, and there is a "W" shaped marker in between. in the lower left corner is a little flag, white with black text, marked "OFF".

the round globe from the instrument softly glowing deep red. the grey half has turned completely red except for the markings, which are black, and the black half is dark except for the markings, which are glowing. around the equator are letters marking the cardinal directions, along with longitudinal lines and angle markings.

520222

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

fun trivia for Open Circuits (our book): Windell and I drew all the little symbols for the endsheets about a week before we went to print. they represent many of the electrical components featured in the book. i found an early draft, can you spot any differences?

in white on a blue background, a variety of simplified diagrams representing a wide variety of electrical components. switches, connectors, cables, resistors, LEDs, transistors, photo interrupts, CRTs...

early draft symbols, black on a white background. there are some slight differences.

0350

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

ʟᴜɪs ʜᴇʀɴᴀɴᴅᴇᴢ ⚡ @beetlenaut.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Jazzpunk themed Pentode-O-Lantern

58916

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Chris Satterfield @compgeke.com · 30/09/2026

You can just do stuff and no one can stop you

310720

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Crazy Eddie's Used Computers @dectape.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Spent the afternoon cleaning up the basement in an attempt to find this set of drawings. I found it, finally, in a box in a forgotten corner. And even better, the drawings match the revision of the hardware I have to debug. Also: what a lovely bit of art on the cover.

Photograph of a copy of the "VT8-E video display control engineering drawings" c. 1973.

47213

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Peter Fletcher @rectapete.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

With the A.I. companies buying up all of the computer storage these days, I'd like to offer up the solution we used in the 1980's to double our storage for free. You are welcome. #old

2442360

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

(xpost from Mastodon) mini-repair monday: my EGA monitor has been slowly fading away over the past few years. at VCF West this year it was too dim to use and i had to borrow one. but let's go fix it now!

IBM EGA monitor on a workbench with a test color pattern. it's somewhat dim but the camera is compensating...

214017

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

new book just landed on my bench: The Secret Life of Circuits, by @lcamtuf ! (soldering iron not included)

9759

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

ahh so THAT's how the Martian gets the melons.

1322

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

it's the 70th anniversary of the IBM 305 RAMAC, the world's first hard drive! in celebration, here is a picture of a prototype RAMAC magnetic head.

nickel-sized round magnetic head with a tiny rectangular pole piece in the middle. it is mounted in a two-axis gimbal so it can rotate to align perfectly with the surface of the hard disk. on the back is a connection for an air line.

411622

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

it's the 70th anniversary of the IBM 305 RAMAC, the world's first hard drive! in celebration, here is a picture of a prototype RAMAC magnetic head.

411622

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

check out this cool IBM DisplayWriter!

3525

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

techknight @thetechknight.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

VCF Midwest had its first christening, went off with a bang

916622

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Rob Cruickshank @robcruickshank.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Modern remotes modulate the infrared signal at around 40 khz because the first optical remotes used receiver circuitry that was adapted from the acoustic receivers. So in a sense, they are still with us.

833691

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

this was caused by a bus arbitration failure

2685

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Ian Hanschen @furan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

One FPGA video card. Two monitors. Total debugger supremacy.

4948

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

nice, it comes with a little tool built right in

3668

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

i finally finished my Nuvistor video, starring one of the weirder projects i've ever built.

youtu.be

The Vacuum Tube That Almost Beat the Transistor

YouTube video by TubeTimeUS

923630

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

me: so i name all my cats after numbers! them: oh? me: cat3, cat5 them: you skipped four-- me (ignoring them): cat5e them: but 'e' is not a number me (continuing to ignore them): cat6, cat6a, cat7, cat8

816231

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Ken Shirriff @righto.com · 30/08/2026

Before semiconductor RAM, most computers used magnetic core memory. This is the 32 KB core stack from the computer on Spacelab, the Space Shuttle's experimental laboratory. Let's take a closer look...

The core stack from the Spacelab computer. This is a stack of six rectangular circuit boards, joined by blue connectors on each end. The cores are visible on the top board. The 294,912 cores are way too small to see; there are eight large reddish-brown squares, each holding a region of cores. 18 reddish and greenish stripes are slightly visible, showing regions for the 18 bits of storage.

218345

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

kerning problem? multiple issues detected.

"Insufficient power:
Connect Aux or PoE+"
but the kerning is bad and the baseline is inconsistent!

3310

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

If you built one of my Pico DRAM Testers, now is a good time to get the latest firmware binary. I fixed some nasty bugs so it is more reliable now. github.com/schlae/pico-...

100mm x 100mm circuit board with a color LCD and 5 ZIF sockets.

0775

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

i was recently reminded that this connector is real, and can hurt you.

a green d-shell connector, e-size, containing three (3) side by side pin sockets instead of the normal 9.

813216

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

シャポコ🌵 @shapoco.net · 17/08/2026

らくがき

018049

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

a friend of mine sent me these photos of an IBM MT/ST tape (magnetic tape / selectric typewriter). the third photo particularly fascinated me: it shows the flux transitions with a Magnaviewer! is it possible to decode? 🧵

a transparent square tape cartridge about 10x10cm with a large hub and a spool of dark brown magnetic tape inside.

from this angle, the tape's sprocket holes (perforations) are visible. it looks like 16mm film!

a round puck-shaped Magnaviewer held over the tape shows that it is divided into 9 distinct data tracks. each flux transition is at an angle and looks like a forward slash. there are a bunch of transitions that almost look like cuneiform.

510915

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

JamHamster @jamhamster.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

FluxCaster build thread! It's a self contained Bluetooth cassette adapter specifically for loading games on to older systems. It's got a Schmitt trigger onboard to tidy up incoming data, will pause automatically for the C64 and has some other bells and whistles. 🤓

1140885

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

omg the hakko nail clippers are real

1331

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

in honor of the IBM PC's 45th anniversary today, here is the original prototype motherboard! which side is your favorite?

a large prototyping circuit board with a grid of holes. it is covered with chips and red bypass capacitors soldered diagonally across many of the chips. you can tell it is a PC because of the 5 ISA slots and the keyboard connector.

the bottom of the board reveals a ratnest of yellow wires along with a few thicker blue and black wires, presumably for power and ground.

1928680

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

same facility, different beam line -- i once learned that you can crash an oscilloscope by placing it too close to the danger nozzle

a large-screen LCD oscilloscope with a Windows bluescreen on it. it's on an old cracked table with a concrete floor and a cinderblock wall in the background. near the right is a wooden shelf with a vise and a bunch of lead bricks.

1519

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

シャポコ🌵 @shapoco.net · 01/08/2026

らくがき

029667

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

going to do a little more right now.

1160

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

what do fingernail clippers have to do with electronics soldering equipment? the answer is stranger than you might think.

a Hakko FT-630 desktop machine that trims solder wick automatically for you, with the solder-loaded end falling into a removable collection tray. kinda bougie.

4617

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Thomas “Scary” Fuchs 🎃👻💀 @thomasfuchs.at · 07/08/2026

Imagine it's 1985 and someone gives you this. What would you create?

A original Commodore Amiga retail box, filled with the Amiga 1000.

3118010

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Catherine @whitequark.org · 07/08/2026

so i reverse-engineered the code that draws InstallShield's famous background gradient and text and reimplemented gist.github.com/whitequark/2...

10750218

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

doing a little 3d modeling livestream: www.twitch.tv/tubetimeus

3d model of some sort of joystick controller

1280

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

come on down to the Vintage Computer Festival West, here in Silicon Valley at the Computer History Museum. Saturday and Sunday, August 1-2! this is the ultra rare 3270 PC (left) and the XT/370 (right).

1012522

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/07/2026

Also, breaking news about VCF West: If you are there on Saturday, you’ll have the opportunity to buy a (replica) Apple-1 from the Byte Shop’s Paul Terrell, for the first time since he became Apple’s original dealer 50 years ago.

1283

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Keith Kaisershot @blitter.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Tomorrow (Sat 8/1) at 4:30pm PDT during the Vintage Computer Festival West, I will be moderating a discussion and Q&A with Ron Wayne, the oft-forgotten third cofounder of Apple Computer. vcfed.org/events/vinta...

vcfed.org

VCF West — Speakers – Vintage Computer Federation

1238

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Simulacra of a Girl @gewt.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

vcf exhibit pieces all together! come see atari st music production at the show at the computer history museum this weekend!

Atari ST monitor atop a roland vp-9000 sampler, and two clear plastic bins containing cabling, an atari ST, etc for a VCF West exhibit about atari st music production

0598

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Ian Scott @polpo.org · 01/08/2026

If you're in the Bay Area and want to check out a prerelease PicoIDE in action, go to VCF West and check out Xodium's booth!

1627

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

compu85 🌈 @compu85.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Xerox gear deployed. (Josh is standing in front of the Alto, I'm in front of the Dolphin)

4393

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Chris Satterfield @compgeke.com · 01/08/2026

Come dial up at VCF West tomorrow!

111112

Reposted by Tomb💀Time

Crazy Eddie's Used Computers @dectape.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

We are all loaded-in and set up for VCF West! Come by and see us tomorrow and Sunday at CHM!

23710

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Chip companies: you pick QFP or LCC NXP: this one is both!

bottom view of a package that has gull-wing leads and J leads

side view dimensioned mechanical drawing clearly showing both J leads and gull wing leads

a cursed footprint with two offset rows of pads on each of the 4 sides.

98410

Tomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

still surprising to me that Lattice would buy a company that makes the BIOS and BMC software running in most of the servers in the world. they've been doing BIOSes since 1986 back when they were called American Megatrends.

7374