best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Curious.George]

Originally Posted by stj

dongles - nothing new about them on laptops.
i had them for pcmcia cards that had ethernet, modems, scsi etc.
and i have short ati video cards that use a splitter too - some type of dual dvi/vga to 48pin or something like that.

And you LIKE that? Put all of the stress from the weight of those 5 BNC cables on a single mechanical connection? I despise the DMC59's for exactly that reason. It was just as bad with 13W3's and hoping the weight of the "substantial" (Sun) cables didn't stress the connector, mechanically.

DP and HDMI acknowledge the fact that consumers want cheap and small. And, got rid of the damn jack screws that make it next to impossible to secure/release two adjacent cables!

I often wonder if they aren't using 30AWG conductors in some of those small dia. cables! I certainly would never attempt to repair one!

worst joke, it was just a low cost replacement for dvi connectors - they have the same signals on them.

They add audio so the "consumer" doesn't have to bother with routing a second (set of) cables.

[Curious.George]

Originally Posted by stj

almost,
DVI has 3 variations of pins fitted, DVI-D being the digital only variant. DVI-A being analog only - never seen one though.
DVI-I has all pins for analog and dual channel digital fitted.

But you're assuming there are only three connector types made/in use! DVI-D also comes in single and dual-link variants. And, because of "looseness" in the standards, the type of connector tells you nothing about the actual conductors in the cable! So, you can have what appears to be a dual-link cable that really only has "half" of the actual conductors in place!

Like the umpteen different variants of "VGA" (DE15) connectors with selectively omitted pins and/or conductors.

as for audio - it's better to keep it seperate.

Not for the consumer! He'd love it if the cables were gone, completely -- not adding a second for audio (cuz there's often more than one source feeding a "display")

[Dan81]

An update on the Bluestorm II 500, hope someone can give an opinion:

Have tested with a 60W lightbulb in place of fuse, and PSU connected to a Gigabyte 8I945PL-G/Prescott 630/512MB DDR2 as mobo load. PSU turns on, board turns on, but bulb stays bright (probably APFC switching too fast?) and board only runs for a few seconds (about 3-4 seconds) before stopping.


Mobo is tested good using a custom Spire SP-ATX-420W-C1 PSU I built from parts (using a beefy ERL-39 based K-Mex unit) so it can't be the culprit.

Is it safe to install the 8A fuse it has back? I should mention I replaced both C41 and C49 (100uF 25v and 2.2uF 50v) as well as all secondary caps. Haven't replaced the 420uF Capxon because it doesn't show any sign of being bad. I think one of the reason it stops providing power to the board is because it pulls too much? I once read somewhere here that a 60W bulb would equal to about 15-20W power before the PSU shuts off.

[Per Hansson]

You can't start a computer when you have a series light bulb for protection.
What you can do is start the PSU without a load by grounding the PS-ON signal (wire 14).
You can easily verify this with a multimeter: check the drop acros the bulb, I'm surprised it started at all like that...
(It's perhaps best not to try it again though, the APFC is probably really stressed with such low input voltage).
So the short answer is yes: reinstall the fuse and enjoy a beer

[Dan81]

It did power on with the board but it just killed power after 3-4 seconds with the mobo.

Same goes without mobo. Haven't tried a HDD or a fan though.

I have to admit I didn't use the best caps - while the 100uF one is a Nichicon HD, the 2.2uF is a Yang Chun extracted from a Deer (from near the 2005 PWM chip, so less stressed than the others I found), the 5vSB cap is a Panny FL 1000uF, same goes for some of the 12v caps (though I managed to squeeze a 1500uF one on a larger spot), and the 3.3v and 5v rails got a mix of TK, 2006 datecode Nichicon HM and a few Panny FL caps left.

I'm still worried stuff might blow up, especially after reading most of Behemot's thread on the 400-60GLN. (mine's a 500-60GLN) Mine didn't have anything awry than blown secondary 8mm Capxon KFs though, and a faint darkening under one of the 5vSB diodes, but other than that nothing sticks out of the ordinary.

[stj]

i'm surprised it even started with such low esr caps!
many people even recon that FR is to low for a psu.

[Curious.George]

[Apologies for the shitty photos... need a real camera to see what I'm shooting, not a phone!]

The ultimate beige box? Wouldn't work for a PC, though (count the number of card slots it supports!)

[Curious.George]

Monitor graveyard (can't tell from the photos but these are Gaylords -- 4' cubes)

[Topcat]

^
Kinda sad actually....

[Curious.George]

Originally Posted by Topcat

^
Kinda sad actually....

Yup. But, there's only so much space to store things (as there's more coming in, every day).

And, even at $5/ea, there's not a big enough market to absorb all of the discards we're faced with! <shrug>

[brethin]

You will never see my Sony PVM-4300 in a trash box, im going to have it buried with me.

[Dan81]

Originally Posted by stj

i'm surprised it even started with such low esr caps!
many people even recon that FR is to low for a psu.

I've successfully used FLs on other PSUs as well. Even my Raidmax RX-500XT that I use in my main PC uses FLs for 5vSB while the rest of the caps are UCC KZE and KZH, along with ChengX LP for the primaries.

By the way, the BlueStorm II 500 now works fine. I'll take a shot at sourcing some good caps tho, since at least two of them are 6.3uF 1800uF TK caps in 8mm diameter. I might take a look at whatever scrap motherboards I have and replace both TKs and the Nichicon HM 3300uF I crammed in there with at least Rubycon and Sanyo caps.

Oh, and for the record, I had to gut a dead Delta (I don't have parts,money and time to fix it) 400W in favor of this one. Thank god I took the fuse, because for some reason the glue on this BSII 500 is so strong that trying to desolder its own fuse resulted in one end of it breaking. Fortunately it was a 8A fuse, just like the one from the gutted Delta so I installed that one. The FSP one also had two layers of insulation instead of one layer that the Delta had. I'll maybe look into the LTEC caps that came from the Delta unit, and see whatever can I cram into the FSP.

[Curious.George]

(8) 500G WD enterprise SATA and a Dell R200 (1U 2.6G quad core). Best thing is that it isn't as deep (front to back) as most 1U servers so it will fit under my work surface. Only supports 8G of RAM but that's enough to let me turn one of my 45-drive DASs into a 45-drive NAS. I'll just have to keep an eye open for a second to service the other DAS!

Now I'll need to find/build a PDU for it.

[Hondaman]

You all get much better free stuff than I do. Here's my latest score:

I found an LCD monitor sitting on the sidewalk a few houses down the street. It is the Insignia NS15-LCD, made in 2006 (Insignia is Best Buy's "house brand"). It's more of a television than a computer monitor. It has an NTSC tuner, so you cannot watch post-2006 USA television stations without a "converter box" (ATSC tuner). And all the ATSC "converter boxes" I've seen give a garbage picture, plus I gave my converter box away years ago. This isn't worth using as a television.

It has a 1024x768 resolution, and an old-style VGA port. So I could use it as a 1024x768 monitor with speakers, if it even works. I would need to get a laptop adapter with the correct size barrel tip to even power it up.

I think I'm going to walk down the street in a few minutes and put it back on the sidewalk where I found it.

Thanks, neighbor, but no thanks.

[stj]

arcade collectors would buy that

[Curious.George]

Originally Posted by Hondaman

I found an LCD monitor sitting on the sidewalk a few houses down the street. It is the Insignia NS15-LCD, made in 2006 (Insignia is Best Buy's "house brand"). It's more of a television than a computer monitor. It has an NTSC tuner, so you cannot watch post-2006 USA television stations without a "converter box" (ATSC tuner). And all the ATSC "converter boxes" I've seen give a garbage picture, plus I gave my converter box away years ago. This isn't worth using as a television.

If it was REALLY small, it could be a nice "portable" monitor. I keep a 7" (yes, SEVEN) monitor on hand when I need to see why any of my headless machines are unresponsive. Easier to carry it to the machine than to carry a machine to a monitor!

It has a 1024x768 resolution, and an old-style VGA port. So I could use it as a 1024x768 monitor with speakers, if it even works. I would need to get a laptop adapter with the correct size barrel tip to even power it up.

Or, just bypass the connector completely. Perhaps if you wanted to turn it into a "garage TV".

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by Hondaman

You all get much better free stuff than I do. Here's my latest score:

I found an LCD monitor sitting on the sidewalk a few houses down the street. It is the Insignia NS15-LCD, made in 2006 (Insignia is Best Buy's "house brand"). It's more of a television than a computer monitor. It has an NTSC tuner, so you cannot watch post-2006 USA television stations without a "converter box" (ATSC tuner). And all the ATSC "converter boxes" I've seen give a garbage picture, plus I gave my converter box away years ago. This isn't worth using as a television.

It has a 1024x768 resolution, and an old-style VGA port. So I could use it as a 1024x768 monitor with speakers, if it even works. I would need to get a laptop adapter with the correct size barrel tip to even power it up.

I think I'm going to walk down the street in a few minutes and put it back on the sidewalk where I found it.

Thanks, neighbor, but no thanks.

Also good for a security camera monitor.

[Dan81]

Or a tiny do-it-yourself AIO PC.

[Hondaman]

Or a tiny do-it-yourself AIO PC.

It was on a stand, but it had 10mm by 10mm screw holes for mounting on a wall. I could have used those holes to fabricate a frame to hold a mini-ITX board (AMD 5350 chip) and a passive heat sink. I could have bought a pico-PSU to power it. Add a solid state drive and a postage-stamp laptop-style wifi module and antennae, and it would have been neat. Too bad I didn't think of that. But that's okay, I don't have the time or the creativity to do a project like that.

Also good for a security camera monitor.

It had RCA jacks for video/sound and S-Video connector also. Versatile but primitive at the same time.....

But I could also do these things with a better monitor.....

[Topcat]

I was given about a dozen Tripplite internet550u UPS's. Batteries are toast of course....but replacement batts are a whopping 9 bucks....I actually had a couple of the batts on hand, they're used in all kinds of things. Not bad!!