best cheap/free scores 1.1

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

try all 3 sockets and check what kernel driver is in use.

[rhomanski]

Re: So what bargains have you picked up and fixed / easy fixes?

Pffffftt.

[mmartell]

Re: So what bargains have you picked up and fixed / easy fixes?

Lol

[Jack Crow]

Re: So what bargains have you picked up and fixed / easy fixes?

Hi all,
My specialty is I fix the 'weirds'.
If it is something different or strange, that is what I like the best.

Ages ago I used to fix moving message signs back in New York.

Fixed an annoying LED sign for a neighbors beauty shop near where I work.

It reads in LED's

SPA
Pedicure

Each letter comes on and as the word fills in starts to blink.

The problem was the A in Spa was out.
This was offensive to me on a few levels.
First off the lady who owns the spa would never be able to fix it.
I doubt the vendor would ever fix or replace it.
And I did not like to see it just read SP.
So I asked for the chance to work on it.

That almost was an error.

Cheap crap Chinese manufacturing. Saw a lot of that when I was in Kuwait.
They build stuff that is so bad it's hard to imagine people spend good money on it.

Fixed some clearly sub standard wire work in the sign and got it back to life.
Can't imagine how these units were ever UL tested.

That is my only recent 'fun' story.

Keep it sane.
Jack Crow

[xelectech]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

stj:
>btw, keep an eye on the motherboard caps around the cpu - they are famous for bursting.
>i did a full recap using NCC around the cpu and replaced *every* small cap with tantalum!!

14 of 15 of the bigger caps were bulging on the mb on mine so I replaced 'em all with the tallest caps (of the same capacity) that would fit - every one of 'em was a pain to get the holes cleared on, too, requiring soldering iron and stainless steel pick. I was very glad that it started right up after that ordeal. I'll try to attach a pic of the caps...

[SteveNielsen]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

stj:
>btw, keep an eye on the motherboard caps around the cpu - they are famous for bursting.
>i did a full recap using NCC around the cpu and replaced *every* small cap with tantalum!!

14 of 15 of the bigger caps were bulging on the mb on mine so I replaced 'em all with the tallest caps (of the same capacity) that would fit - every one of 'em was a pain to get the holes cleared on, too, requiring soldering iron and stainless steel pick. I was very glad that it started right up after that ordeal. I'll try to attach a pic of the caps...

Using high heat is normal for removing motherboard caps and a stainless steel needle tool/pic for clearing holes. There's a lot of metal in multilayer boards, especially where there is a wide common copper trace the caps are solder to.

[mikay786]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trapezia-U...vip=true&rt=nc

Paid a little more than I wanted to but really looking forward to working on this. It is incredibly wide, more so than it seems in pictures and curved too. Almost like the new curved TVs you see these days.

Just want to get it up and running first, give it a good clean and respay where needed. Then you know this thing is screaming out to be converted into a gaming rig of some sort

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

interesting item, like to see a driving or flying sim on that!

[mikay786]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

yea its pretty cool, I didn't even know what it was or what it was designed to do.

Spoke to seller and he said he used it for trading stocks, and they were sold back in the 90s to militaries, for CCTV etc

It seems to be using 3 GPUs to power the main 3 screens and the small OS screen is run by an onboard GPU either in the chipset or CPU (Although I don't think they made APUs back then)

Whislt ive not had a chance to look at it yet there only seems to be 1 power lead going in it, so somehow the PSU is also powering all the screens along with the PC side of things. Must be something custom as ive not seen that before.

[Compgeke]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Looks to me a lot like something designed for video editing, based on the small unattached screen, card reader, etc.

[mikay786]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

perhaps, good call

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored a Beefy looking 60A RV battery charger for $5. It had a smashed front (broken ATC fuses) and no top cover, other than a bodge on the AC input side (extra resistors piggy backed) it's in good shape otherwise. All name brand components (UCC 'lytics, etc.), and almost looks to have been conformally coated. No model number though (must have been on the missing lid?).

I'll post pics in a bit... I wonder if it could be used as a car battery charger?

[Topcat]

Re: So what bargains have you picked up and fixed / easy fixes?

I bought 192GB of PC3 10600 ECC (12x 16gb sticks) in "as-is, untested" condition for 200 bucks. All of them were good, samsung DIMM's.

I just sold this RAM for 1400 shipped.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored a Beefy looking 60A RV battery charger for $5. It had a smashed front (broken ATC fuses) and no top cover, other than a bodge on the AC input side (extra resistors piggy backed) it's in good shape otherwise. All name brand components (UCC 'lytics, etc.), and almost looks to have been conformally coated. No model number though (must have been on the missing lid?).

I'll post pics in a bit... I wonder if it could be used as a car battery charger?

Here we go:



The end w/o fan was missing the screws too.

The 12V end is pretty beefy:



I've removed the two 30A fuses, as one was smashed. those are pretty beefy lugs, looks like 6 gauge wire might even fit



The other end reveals a bodge (factory?) and a cut wire (2nd red wire on the 12V feedback pair, that's what the twisted red/black wires are) Why there was a 2nd positive feedback wire is beyond me, maybe for a gauge? It also looks like there may have been soldered wires at a now empty footprint too.

Last, it has a good quality sunon fan:



I wonder if this can be (safely) used as a car battery charger? If not, it's a hella beefy 12V (well, 13.5V) source... ?

[xelectech]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

SteveNielsen:

>Using high heat is normal for removing motherboard caps and a stainless steel needle >tool/pic for clearing holes. There's a lot of metal in multilayer boards, especially where >there is a wide common copper trace the caps are solder to.

It's just the first time I encountered having to treat *every* thru hole like that - but I've not attempted/repaired but a few, guess I really should get a heavier iron than the 30 watt Weller I've been using since 1981 &-)

[omendata]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

5 Epson Photo printers all just blocked heads and easily fixed, couple of other lasers needing new fusers but perhaps the weirdest in the back alley behind the financial district back in the days when dumpster diving was the in thing 100 copies of powerdvd xp , 100 copies of windows nt4 - im still selling them on ebay - only 20 copies of powerdvd left after 20 years lol
Best dumpster pickup was an IBM M1 Cube Server with all memory bays full weight 250lb - its in my flat as a coffee table and its easily the most impressive server in my collection!

[kc8adu]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

sure.rv= deep cycle lead acid.
car battery same.
i have a hobart pallet jack charger in the shed i use for super fast charging.3 stage all automatic.yours likely is too.

Scored a Beefy looking 60A RV battery charger for $5. It had a smashed front (broken ATC fuses) and no top cover, other than a bodge on the AC input side (extra resistors piggy backed) it's in good shape otherwise. All name brand components (UCC 'lytics, etc.), and almost looks to have been conformally coated. No model number though (must have been on the missing lid?).

I'll post pics in a bit... I wonder if it could be used as a car battery charger?

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

just as long as it's outdoors, fastcharging will make the battery gas-out and fill the area with hydrogen and oxygen.

[synaesthesia]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Epsons? Throw them back out They haven't made a decent printer since the late 90s! (although their newer enterprise/workstation level inkjets look interesting)

[Compgeke]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Epson does make some good printers, however they're the near TOTL and TOTL photo printers (think: $700+). Epson and Canon make the best photo printers for pro use.