Bun's Lab – Telegram
Bun's Lab
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Electronics projects, vintæg computing, programming and repairs. A minimalist blog of sorts.
@BunsGarden @BunsNook
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And this is where he realized he didn't order enough parts
Bun's Lab
I've already replaced a bunch of 74F244 buffers and 74F245 bi-directional bus transcievers because they had wonky looking outputs or even inputs
Actually, I just found those ICs that I already pulled back when. At least one actually tests bad in the minipro.
Yeah, no idea what happened there. Three have outright bad gates. The rest is marginal. Guess they all got zapped by ESD.
Remember kids, ESD is real. Don't give your boards carpet time. Ever.
If you think it's fine, you are wrong. Eventually it will start to glitch and act weird. Good luck then replacing ASICs and hybrids.
In the bad parts bin they go, all of them.
Ordered parts! I hope I can finally break through my giant backlog
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Today on the bench.... yet another 286 board. Objectives here are to shotgun replace the tantalums, test it, fix any issues, then pack it up for its new owner
Someone's pulled some RAM and put empty sockets in. Interesting
Jfc I have to rant: instead of ~30min - 1h that this usually would take, it takes ages because for some reason one hole is not only super tight, but also has a ton of thermal mass behind it. So I have to apply heat for 30s and then still not get the old solder out. Only way is to heat it up with fresh solder and then wiggle the leg in.
Yeahhh .. that would have popped
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On board graphics ... but not VGA.
So, JP18 disables the onboard graphics chip. Making the use of a separate ISA VGA card possible
The board is from a Mitac Paragon MPC2000SL, it has a label of "PWA-286SL", but there is zero documentation of it on the internet. The version with VGA instead of this Paradise EGA chip is called MPC2000VE and that was sold, for a short while in Western Europe, as an Atari PC4. More on that here: https://www.atari-computermuseum.de/pc4m.htm
JP18 on this board disables the onboard graphics and is near the graphics chip. On the SL the jumper is in the very front. The trace however runs all the way to the back, and lo and behold, it does turn off the onboard graphics. Who knows, maybe the other jumpers are identical in function too?
Can anyone recommend a Bluetooth sound output module that isn't total jank but also doesn't break the bank?
Today on the bench .. just kidding, I just need a computer real quick to install DOS to a CF card. PCem didn't work out for some reason.
Tool-less design until you want to swap a card