0056 A "motion tracker" snall TV, the Tandy WP-2, the Cosmo Communicator, a gallon of WD-40 and more
![Adrian's Digital Basement ][](http://yt3.ggpht.com/ytc/AIdro_k7CrQRe71qN6c0Ua7A1P_I8KkxjqLa70u0zYeCvdvnKw=s48-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2023
- Welcome to a "maxi edition" of the Super Mini Mail Call, episode number 56. This time we have a big assortment of things with some interesting tech! There is a lot to cover here, so I would recommend setting the playback speed to 1.5x to speed things up a bit!
-- Info
RetroTink 5X Pro
Tandy WP-2 Word Processor
Cosmo Communicator
Panasonic Ranger 505 / National Commando 505
-- Video Links
Adrian's Digital Basement Merch store:
my-store-c82bd2-2.creator-spr...
Support the channel on Patreon:
/ adriansdigitalbasement
Adrian's Digital Basement (Main Channel)
/ @adriansdigitalbasement
-- Tools
Deoxit D5:
amzn.to/2VvOKy1
store.caig.com/s.nl/it.A/id.16...
O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)
amzn.to/3a9x54J
Elenco Electronics LP-560 Logic Probe:
amzn.to/2VrT5lW
Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:
amzn.to/2ye6xC0
Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:
www.rigolna.com/products/digi...
Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens Flip-In Head Magnifier:
amzn.to/3adRbuy
TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)
amzn.to/2wG4tlP
www.aliexpress.com/item/33000...
TS100 Soldering Iron:
amzn.to/2K36dJ5
www.ebay.com/itm/TS100-65W-MI...
EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:
www.eevblog.com/product/121gw/
DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:
amzn.to/2RDSDQw
www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Logic-DS...
Magnetic Screw Holder:
amzn.to/3b8LOhG
www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-...
Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)
www.ebay.com/itm/14-16-18-20-...
RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)
www.retrotink.com/
Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)
www.ebay.com/itm/1-2-5-10PCS-...
Heat Sinks:
www.aliexpress.com/item/32537...
Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)
amzn.to/3b8LOOI
--- Links
My GitHub repository:
github.com/misterblack1?tab=r...
Commodore Computer Club / Vancouver, WA - Portland, OR - PDX Commodore Users Group
www.commodorecomputerclub.com/
--- Instructional videos
My video on damage-free chip removal:
• How to remove chips wi...
--- Music
Intro music and other tracks by:
Nathan Divino
@itsnathandivino - Наука та технологія
Fun fact: the Panasonic Ranger 505 was what the prop department based the motion trackers on that the crew of the Nostromo used in the original 1979 Alien film, although they were most likely the UK branded equivalent (National Commando 505) as the film was shot in the UK. I really dig these rugged looking little TV's and own three!
Neat! Some pics: avp.fandom.com/wiki/Tracking_device_(Nostromo)
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 btw: @UsagiElectric just got a PDP-11 which is missing an FPU... e0FXy1Mho3c @23:55
the cosmo costs 750 bucks
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 do you know why VHF/UHF analog TV stations are better than digital TV stations ? 📺
The movie 'THEY LIVE" gives a clue.
@@Spongman I was gonna say the same thing. If Adrian doesn't need the FPU, send it to Usagi.
Adrian: gesticulating wildly with razor knife
Me: [ screaming internally ]
What could possibly go wrong? :D
🚑
@@welbow YOU BLEW A HOLE IN THE FLOOR!!
I still say Adrian should have a youtube channel called "Adrians analog Attic." For all the old TV and other analog equipment he works on. It just fits so well.
Triple-A, perhaps? 😁
@6:25 SCART has indeed S-Video without any Trick on the adapter itself 😄 ...but... The Luma input shares the COMPOSITE pin on 20 and Chroma shares the same pin from RED on pin 15. Therefore, the SCART device just as a TV or VCR must have S-Video capabilities on the appropriate input.
I've used such S-Video to SCART adapter quite often, back in the days, due the lack of a dedicated S-Video jack on the back of the TV (the jack was only at the front and therefore quite "ugly" for a permanent usage).
Indeed as you say the devices must support the reallocation of those pins, but it was also suuuper common except on really early SCART gear
Some TVs will have several scart inputs and labeling to show what the ports can do, using symbols. So you'd have maybe one port each that could do RGB, s-video and CVBS.
I remember as a teenager back in the 80's I was working as an agriculture tractor driver and radio did not work so using my Kit Kat wrapper around the fuse gave me radio entertainment.
BTW: if you do automotive repair, the larger set of picks are handy for removing rubber hoses (like the ones on a radiator) if they’ve got crusty corrosion on them. Learned that trick from Rainman Ray’s Repairs (YT channel). After removing the hose clamp, slide the pick (the right-angled one) into the seam between the hose and the metal/plastic fitting, then run it around with the bent part parallel to the fitting. This’ll help loosen up the hose. Of course, it goes without saying, NEVER work on your car’s cooling system when the engine is hot; you’ll be SORRY!! 😬 Oh, and don’t poke holes in the hose with the pointy end! 🤣😆
I remember using a Game Gear via the cigarette lighter in my mother's car (well, the one for the back seats - she was using the drivers one at least every ten minutes). I also recall adverts for the UK Amstrad PPC computers saying you could power them from the lighters..
As an European I can tell you that S-Video is definitely supported via SCART/Euro connector. For example, I've recently picked up a Panasonic TX-29PS12P with two SCART/Euro inputs, one supports component+composite, and the other S-Video+composite. I'm using the exact adapter you've shown in the video and it works with S-Video.
I suspect the confusion is due to there being two conflicting SCART pinouts for RGB or SVIDEO. Some devices had a switch or menu to switch between, while as you say most better TVs had at least one RGB SCART socket and generally two SVIDEO SCART sockets.
WP-2 has a membrane keyboard. I fixed mine with conductive paint. For floppy support, Tandy actually made a disk drive that works over RS-232! There is software out there you can run on a raspberry pi or whatever to emulate a floppy drive. (I haven't tried it)
I have one of the later model disc drives, neat little thing. It's a 3 1/2" drive but has a very nonstandard disk retention system... put it in the slot, press down on the top to latch. Sort of like a cassette deck, actually.
I´m the same age as you Adrian (born 1975) and it´s kinda funny that a lot of young people probably don't know about the cigarette lighter/12v output formfactor thing LOL I've been in plenty of cars with the actual lighter in it so hehe!
I’m 28 and remember burning myself on a new car’s cigarette lighter, but yeah honestly most people 3-5 years younger than me probably never saw them with anything but a wee plastic cover!
The TRS-80 Model 100, etc., were popular with field news reporters, because they included a modem. They could type up their stories remotely and connect via phone/modem to upload their stories.
Yep, and when I went to high school in the early 90's, the school bought a whole bunch of them for English classes.
TMYN TRS 100 etc are also still installed in some small towns as traffic light controllers
Adrian giving a history lesson of the car cigarette lighter. I love it. 😁
The CPU in the WP-2 is apparently a low-power Z80 clone. I found a service manual with complete specs down to timing diagrams. You can have a lot of fun with that thing! You could get CP/M running on it pretty easily.
Usagi Electric might be able to use that DEC PDP-11 math co-processor in the PDP-11 he's currently working on.
Usagi Electric might have a socket that PDP coprocessor can go in
I was going to suggest that very same thing. He showed off some of the boards he has for the PDP-11 he has and one of them had an empty socket that he said would be for the math co.
Yeah, wasn't he starting a new series based on the PDP-11? I imagine he might have an actual use for it.
@@tarzankom Yeah, he was…
Though exactly that! Do we retro nerds all watch the same channels?
@@bollux78 yes 😂but they're all awesome!
Holy crap, what a haul. :)
That Cosmo Communicator would be perfect as an 8bit emulator, (Spectrum/ZX81/C64 ect), thanks to the keyboard. (Shame about the top screen, that's why I never try updates on old tech.).
God I loved Space Quest when I was a kid. King's Quest, Space Quest...those games taught me how to type as a little kid. So much fun.
I remember the tv antenna clips vividly especially when it managed to occasionally slip a bit and have a bad connection on the back of the Panasonic made JCPenny color TV we had. Usually, I'd wait to "reclip it" when I needed to change the channel and rotate the antenna to the correct direction on the roof with the rotator control to pick one of the 3 less than perfectly received channels.😂
Dude! Lagniappe is pronounced "Lan-yap" (with both of the As being the short sound as in "apple"). It's French, and means "a little something extra". It is common parlance in the New Orleans area.
Wow, you get all the cool tools and toys! Try to load up Ubuntu on that Cosmo Communicator...
If that Ranger505 case is made from ABS, yeah, it can become brittle over time.
I thought he was having stroke while reading that.
That Cosmo Communicator had my interest piqued with its actual keyboard and whatnot, then I saw they cost £599, and now I'm back to normal again, given my current Asus Zenfone I paid just over £100 for a few years back, shiny and new too, albeit from Banggood... :P
F(x)tec Pro 1 .. is way superior that the comunicator..
I love those orange and black pick sets. I've lost track of how many sets I've bought, because I have no problem modifying them for a specific purpose. They're not the hardest metal, but if you want hardened steel, you're going to pay multiple times more.
Oooh, very cool FPU! I'm still learning my way through PDP-11 stuff, but that might potentially fit in an 11/73 CPU card, which I happen to have a few of. Perhaps we can work something out and we can marry your chip to one of my boards!
Speaking of the devil! 😄
was that just an FPU or is that the whole CPU for later PDP-11 models?
Just love those Sierra floppies with the postage-stamp sized image of the Sierra mountains. What a classy design!
FWIW, we use WD-40 at my shop to remove sticker residue from various devices (PC 'feature' stickers on palmrests, etc). It's safe to use and works very well without damaging surfaces!
The Balun bit is funny many folks mis-pronounce that. Stands for Balanced to Unbalanced hence the Bal - Un. Thanks for the great videos.
I use a RetroTINK 5X Pro with my Amiga over RGB SCART and it works incredibly well. Its ability to keep up with switching between interlaced and progressive video modes is excellent.
"Super mini mail call" and the video length almost 1,5 hours. :D :D Great!
There are still those of us who don't use USB-C much, yet. And I imagine people needing a video converter for compatibility with older equipment, are less likely to use USB-C, also.
Adrian, your like me. Finding tech more interesting than eating and forgetting all about it. Late lunch as usual 😆
Given the run time, this should be labeled, "super movie mail call!" ^-^
Now we’re talkin'. Maxi midweek mail call. Love it.
That Wyse pad is both a notepad and a (terrible) mousepad. When an org I was managing about 16 years ago switched to Wyse thin clients, they sent a few boxes of these. IIRC, the actual brand name for the product is "Mouse_Pad_" with the play on words of mousepad+notepad being the obvious intention.
That's too funny! No wonder it had the shape of a mouse pad. Funny!
4:55 At work, they gave these away as door favors for the Christmas party. It was unbranded and had our company name on them. Still have it.
Here in Europe The cigarette lighter connector is a quasi standard for connecting all types of 12V devices. It's equipped even in new cars with a dummy cover instead of a lighter.
In the US, too. It's SAE J563, so not exactly "quasi".
When we cleared out my grandparents house we found out that my grandpa had shoved tin foil in one fuse. It had apparently popped regularly and his old legs and bad heart had made it too much to go down to the fusebox in the basement.
Oof. Glad nothing unfortunate happened as a result of his bypass!
@@kaitlyn__L well the house was fine, but that's probably more about luck. Or maybe they undersized the type of fuse in the house even if the wiring was fine, but idk how that's determined.
I loved an old cell phone i had where you could flip it open along the long side, and it had a full keyboard inside. I hate the onscreen keyboard, because it's hard for my big ass fingers to hit the keys accurately. Whereas a physical button is easy to feel. I miss my crackberry global edition to this day, because it had an actual keyboard.
5:00 The Miniware TS101 now supports PD3.1 and 28V and man is it fast when using all 90W. Love that little soldering iron. 🤠👍
SCART can suppport S-Video. And depending on the TV you have, some SCART Ports might only support S-Video and not RGB, others RGB but not S-Video.
Don't know if both are a thing, haven't tried it as S-Video is VERY uncommon in my region.
RGB all the way, since the 1980s or so, back then with DIN Plugs like the Mega Drive 1 had (I think)
Can't wait to see the Ranger 505 video. I look forward to that Those small sets are just too cool.
ChargeASAP stuff is pretty decent and probably does have the stated capacity. I have a lower rated one and it works as they say it should. It'll happily charge my MacBook at full rate
13:00 When a can runs out of propellant, you can repressurize it with a quick shot from an air compressor. Take spray tip off can to expose the plastic stem, use a rubber-nub ended nozzle on compressor, and hit it with a quick shot.
This is Just Like Christmas . Really Interesting Rare Items , I am so Happy we all get to See this . Keep Curating Man , and Make Videos that Document these finds , Yes More Binders of Books and Byte type Mag Rags of the Day . I Love Collecting Paper that Describes How to Use Products . I Hope you are still Doing this into your Late 80's by then your computer collection will be Worth a few Years of Taxes and you can Pay the Bills in your 90's :) QC
Loved the bonus long mail call
@Adrian: As I did a lot of video stuff with SCART back in the days, S-Video is part of the SCART standard and was widely used here in Europe.
Also Wikipedia agrees with me that it was extended in the 80s to include S-Video signal.
I backed the crowd source campaign for the Chargeasap Flash and got the Flash2, which is the Flash Pro without the display, it is really amazing, I would say that it is a contender for the worlds best pocket sized battery bank, the biggest selling point that they had from the campaign was the new battery chemistry from Panasonic that was only sold via special contract when the campaign was running. Congratulations on getting one for free, they are not cheap :P
Great video , thankyou 👍
In Calgary, I can find the tools, funnels, and WD-40 at Princess Auto, All kinds of great stuff there! its like a toy store for me!
Looking forward to seeing the TV repair and the Tandy repair. :D
Oh man. I had to lug an Amstrad nc100
, a rebranded wp2, to school for years. The joy of being dyslexic in the early 90's
The DEC PDP co-processor, maybe send it to Usagi Electric (UA-cam chan) as he is just getting into a PDP11, and I seem to remember him having a board with an empty co-processor socket.
The Cosmo Communicator would make for an terminal into old serial computers, like a SWTPC-6800, Altair etc. maybe via that Ethernet to serial adapter you also received. (I tried a similar setup on an iPhone, but the terminal app I had sucked)
Just gotta try connecting two PineCil together to make desoldering tweezers!
(21:15) That is the PDP11 [micro]processor on a chip... Check hack-a-day there are a few projects using them...
I have two from the early 80s that were in a touchscreen Ampex ACE VTR editing controller. I kept one of the memory boards, but not the processor flip-chip PCBs.
Maybe someone already mentioned this, but Tech Tangents had a review of one of these in Sep 2020 and it even shows him cleaning the keyboard which although he doesn't open the keyboard on camera just by the ribbon cable it most definitely looks like a membrane keyboard, but may be repairable with automotive defroster/defogger repair paint.
Usagi Electric has all the info you need about that DEC PDP math co.
Freaking space quest. Loved it
What does 3-D stands for when you talk Space Quest? For the Larry games it means "3-D EQUALS DANCING, DRINKING, AND DAMES!"
I didn't had original Sierra games as a kid either but when I grew up and had disposable income I bought all the Leisure Suit Larry games. I even wrote Al Lowe in 2020 and talked about how things were in my country in the 90's and I donated some amount to him too :) He"s such a nice guy, it would be awesome to shake his hands one day but he's not young (meaning I don't think he'll travel much to Europe) and I won't visit the US any time soon.
I love that USB-C soldering iron. Works great on everything I've had to solder.
Can't wait for a 12 hour normal-size mail call at some point :^)
Oh man. Imagine in 80s going to someone's basement and finding out he has 4 portable tvs there.
People did that in the 80's if they had the budget for security surveillance.
Man, I had to use a pick set like that to clean years and years of old paint off the radiator in the nursery a couple of years ago. I swear my hands still hurt from cleaning out all the little details and filigree on it. It looks so much better and there's so much less risk of lead paint flaking off, but that was a major pain!
i had one of those small tv long ago the tube went in it was great nice to see they have them over there this is Australia i hooked mine up to the close circut tv at my front door was a great little monitor i had modified to two sockets audio and visual
SCART most definitely has S-Video (That was how I connected my S-VHS VCR to my TV back in the day.)
Must be some kind of a hack? www.leadsdirect.co.uk/technical-library/pinouts-wiring-diagrams/scart-wiring/ The official SCART connector only has Composite, audio R+L and RGB signals. (Plus a blanking and sense pin.) It looks like S-Video Chroma is using the Red RGB input pin.
He’s definitely supports s-video, most tv only supported svideo in though. I had my c64/128 connected via svideo over Scart and could switch the c128 to 80 column display by changing the input to rgb which I made a rabid to analog rgb converter for.
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 The manufacturers used different SCART configurations on their TV sets.
My German-made LOEWE ARCADA for example had two SCART inputs: one would accept RGB and the other S-Video - but not both.
I had a load of SCART adapters when I used to do karaoke, and some of them had a RGB/S-Video switch, and those you could get S-Video to work on some TVs by switching it to "RGB" ! So it seems different TVs had different ideas about how to wire the S-Video inputs.
@@IanSlothieRolfe Definitely! In Germany, for example, S-Video never had the same importance it had in the US (S-VHS wasn't super popular thanks to the high prices of the recorders and the quasi non-existant tapes).
The barricades around the water curtain were down today and it and ocean waves were working. I noticed the water curtains were stantioned off about two weeks ago, barricaded a week ago and back up and running today. Everything seemed to be working today.
Amazing video Mr. Black, i must say, you should fill up the report and send it to apple, that will surely piss them off! :D Remember, the apple that exists now is only related to the original one by name.
I am excited to hear more about how the 5x works for you as I currently run a 2x in my living room but wouldn't mind potentially upgrading to the 5x at some point.
I just got a Retrotink exactly like that, it's pretty good most of the time.
My first job was with Microlytics ... they were outside of Rochester NY and came from Selectronics which did those handheld spell-checkers and such. They used Xerox PARC technology for text compression and spell checking ... it was pretty miraculous how well it worked on ~1MHz 8-bit processors.
I miss having phones with slide out keyboard. Pixel pro 7, note 9, note 5, lumia 1520.......and yet nothing of them have anything on the HTC Arrive and the HTC touch pro 2 for typing because of the keyboards.
The 5x is great Adrian! Be sure to check out all the scan line features.
So true that the spray application is way to imprecise... Often very little cleaner / lubricant is needed that a needle drop is enough... Be careful with needles, though (fingers and eyes)
When you commented on the ports being on the inconvenient side of the Retrotink versus the front on your existing one, I was thinking it you might be able to get your hands on an RCA pass-thru wall plate, pair it up with a common switch/outlet wall box, and just run short cables from the back of the plate to the back of the Retrotink. You could wall or desk mount the box with the plate, which would give you a HANDY PLACE TO connect up computers versus having to pull the Retrotink out. I have to imagine it'd also save wear and tear on the connectors on the Retrotink too.
When you open up the deoxit nozzle/straw...if you push it toward the button ...it will seal in the cap and fluid won't go everywhere
I remember having the MS-DOS version of that Monopoly game, and I believe it was in fact the first official version of Monopoly for computers - there were several other unofficial versions, and many of them were often better than the official version. One interesting "feature" of the Leisure Genius version, was that some of the game's graphics were stored as PCX files, and I could mess around with them using Paintbrush (the Microsoft-badged version of ZSoft Paintbrush)
I have several WP2s and a WP3.. all work fine bar one with keybaoard issues.. I have never taken a keyboard apart to look at the key tech behind it.. I may well dig that one out to split it and have a look..
Hi Adrian! Thanks for the exciting content. I like these small TVs and have fixed some in the past. Maybe the better looking Panasonic has some voltage problems wich might also be the reason for the dead audio.
So before changing parts between these two TVs around I would suggest probing the voltages provided from the power supply.
Greetings from Germany.
This little TV was my personal TV as a kid
that Tandy WP-2 looks very similar to Amstrad's NC100 we got here in the UK - wonder if they are both based on the same design
UA-cam "Usagi Electric" might have info on the DEC chip and may even be able to use it in his PDP-11's! Thanks Adrian for the Mail Call!
Usagi Electric could use that PDP co-processor
The folded card stock pages in that book probably unfolded into a stand to keep it upright.
Usagi Electric could use that pdp11 coprocessor.
Nice a new video
I'm thinking Adrian got sick of doing Mini Mail Calls and wanted to go back to good ol' Maxi editions!
I remember seeing a TV very similar to the ranger in UK
Moody Tools makes a killer set of mini picks. They're cheap, and made in the USA.
i have few old tv that small they all not same bringness unless taked it aparts and clean up connected and else replace capacitor it will brighter up it far i remember working on it
1981 is definitely not too early for videotape, VHS was on the market in 1976 and by 1979, films were available to rent on VHS
More mini CRTs. I approve.
Usagi electric has parts to make a pdp-11 - maybe he can use the chip?
On the space quest manual, it's really also a hint / clue booklet, you would know if you played any sierra games from that era... lol
Super maxi mail call 😅
Adrian, ya got a typo in the title, otherwise love your stuff
The RetroTink 5x Pro's SCART port supports RGB and composite.
1:02:52 We have 3G in USA. It handles HD voice calls. Pre paid networks give 3G speeds on a 3G network when you're out of 4G data & not unlimited. 3G also handles MMMC on some carriers, you cannot receive a pic message while on a call. 2G is used for txting & smart infrastructure like sub-stations, water pumps. 1G was only recently discontinued as it was for beepers & was used for smart infrastructure before 2G.
RMC - The Cave did a vid on repairing boxes. He couldn't do much about colours, but straightening boxes worked. Basically, use a small travel iron.
WD40 is not good for rust. We wash(hot tank) engine blocks for rebuilding, and with WD40 they would be rusty the next day. Switched to CRC5.56, and no more rust problems.
The Cosmo Communicator is the spiritual successor to the Psion 5 series of "palmtop computers" from 1997... and has been designed by the same guy, Martin Riddiford!!
Newest car that i know that has a cig lighter, was an bus, 2020 modelyear Setra 😁
Send the DEC PDP-11 co-processor over to the guy on Usagi Electric (YT Channel); He’s got a PDP-11 he can use that with. 🤩
36:00 yeah i'm still "old school", i still say "plug it into the cigarette lighter" instead of "into the power jack" even though there is no cigaratte ligter anymore
About Sierra booklets... it's not just a " how to" but also hint /tips. tricks and codes needed in the game somewhere, no booklet and most sierra games are " e-waste" .... lol