Had this wild old power transformer, forget what it came out of. 25lb thing, big steel can full of oil and copper, spark-plug looking post terminals all over the top. As I recall it has a 1960's date on it somewhere.
The thing had, for some reason, 240/120 input taps, and output taps for every 6 volt interval up to 1:1.
I soldered springs onto the terminals, like the Radio shack "200 in one" learning kits used to have. That transformer was a part of innumerable bodge machines on my desk for 20 years or so.
I think I finally melted it using it backwards as a step up in a spark gap kinda thing. The bolts melted and the gap was no longer a gap, leading to rich chunky amps being dispensed to the limits of that tool's ability.
My DEC VT 220, which I bought it back in 1997 for $20 from a company liquidation auction.
At the time, I had two computers: my gaming rig and my linux box acting as my router.
My gaming rig was hooked up to the at-the-time Sony flagship 21" CRT monitor which left little room on the desk. I also couldn't afford a KVM, so I set the DEC VT 220 on a little folding table (like you'd use to eat dinner in front of a TV) as the terminal console for my linux box.
Before that, I would hook the DEC VT220 directly to a Hayes modem and dialed into the University network.
Sadly, a few capacitors leaked and I was not good enough to figure out which ones, so I had to throw it away.
I'd buy another one but people want ridiculous prices for these things. :(
PRS 505, an old ereader. It was my first introduction to eink, it was such a fantastic device and so well thought through in terms of button placement, features, connectivity. This is before Kindles took over though, and Apple-ified the ecosystem.
A Sony camcorder for me, one of those that flipped open with a screen. I would take that thing everywhere. It had quite a bit of storage and battery life, and recovering those videos years later was a joy.
Comments
Had this wild old power transformer, forget what it came out of. 25lb thing, big steel can full of oil and copper, spark-plug looking post terminals all over the top. As I recall it has a 1960's date on it somewhere.
The thing had, for some reason, 240/120 input taps, and output taps for every 6 volt interval up to 1:1.
I soldered springs onto the terminals, like the Radio shack "200 in one" learning kits used to have. That transformer was a part of innumerable bodge machines on my desk for 20 years or so.
I think I finally melted it using it backwards as a step up in a spark gap kinda thing. The bolts melted and the gap was no longer a gap, leading to rich chunky amps being dispensed to the limits of that tool's ability.
My DEC VT 220, which I bought it back in 1997 for $20 from a company liquidation auction.
At the time, I had two computers: my gaming rig and my linux box acting as my router.
My gaming rig was hooked up to the at-the-time Sony flagship 21" CRT monitor which left little room on the desk. I also couldn't afford a KVM, so I set the DEC VT 220 on a little folding table (like you'd use to eat dinner in front of a TV) as the terminal console for my linux box.
Before that, I would hook the DEC VT220 directly to a Hayes modem and dialed into the University network.
Sadly, a few capacitors leaked and I was not good enough to figure out which ones, so I had to throw it away.
I'd buy another one but people want ridiculous prices for these things. :(
When it was Jailbroken, my OG iPod Touch was just about perfect. Nowadays though, I've been really enjoying homebrew/emulation on the Nintendo Switch.
Edit (rate limit reached): Don't have a Steam Deck because I've been gaming on Linux for the past 4 years :)
Any interest in getting a steam deck?
PRS 505, an old ereader. It was my first introduction to eink, it was such a fantastic device and so well thought through in terms of button placement, features, connectivity. This is before Kindles took over though, and Apple-ified the ecosystem.
A Sony camcorder for me, one of those that flipped open with a screen. I would take that thing everywhere. It had quite a bit of storage and battery life, and recovering those videos years later was a joy.
My Psion 3c PDA. I've never since found a piece of technology that had this level of usefulness and sheer ease of use.
MiniDisc player, then Dreamcast.