The ghetto mod thread

[Drack]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Huh, just found this thread, I think I have quite a bit of stuff that qualify for it... Probably will post a couple tomorrow

[eccerr0r]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Well here's my fuse.

From top to bottom:

- the colorful wires that pass data to/from the main board and the display board
- the jury rigged black fuse holder frame
- the gold plated contacts of the black fuse holder fuse
- (foreground) the 10 amp shunt loop
- the 3AG 3 ampere regular blow fuse
- the original 10mm fuse holder nickel plated contacts
- the green wire
- the red wire that feeds from the front panel
- the green main PCB
- 10A measurement black wire
- and finally the original 10mm x 38mm BBS4 fast blow 4A fuse lying there ready for the trash can.

I guess it's not as ghetto as if I wrapped the endcaps of the 3AG fuse with aluminum foil to make it thick enough to meet the 10mm needed for the contacts, but oh well, it's a workaround to get this to work.

[eccerr0r]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Yeah I was worried about that, but fortunately lucked out probably because of the size of the screen. Also the LED was a "flood" versus a "spot beam" LED (you can tell by the distance between the die and the top surface) so that probably helped a little.

[stj]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

not bad, it's not easy doing led swaps - you often get uneven lighting because of the more focussed output.

[eccerr0r]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

This actually is not a "ghetto" mod but I didn't want to make another thread. Maybe it's a ricer mod, but that backlight is sorely needed on this old HT 2m ham radio. In any case the 30mA incandescent backlight burned out. Of course I didn't have any 12.8V 30mA incandescent lamps that would fit that spot, so ... how about an LED!

Turns out a T1 LED fits. However I didn't have any orange or even white T1 LEDs, have a lot of red ones which would look funny. I did have a blue T1 LED. Tuned it to about 5mA and got:

[stj]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

FCC warnings in the past sounded more like they were protecting the governments ability to bug people actually.

[eccerr0r]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Suck it, RFI.
And bite me, FCC.

Honestly FCC doesn't care.

However your neighbors do. If you're reducing the enjoyment of other peoples' enjoyment of RF services, this is a problem. The FCC was made to allow others who can no longer enjoy RF to take actions against people who make lots of RF trash hash.

If you have no neighbors, knock yourself out until you reach the next person nearest you who cares.

The normal rule of "out of sight out of mind" doesn't work for RF, where other infractions against others can easily be seen, you can't make the same argument for RF so a new set of rules need to be made - FCC rules.

[Dan81]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Some news on the G86 core 8400GS - it's still working! No artefacts so far, so I guess it was a successful "reflow"?

Anyways, my latest "invention"
ATX to AT adapter. Ripped a 24pin plug off a dead MSI board, used two AUX plugs off two PSUs, added a switch.

Works fine, just tested it on a 486DX-50 board I am going to work on as soon as I can source a ISA GPU.

[momaka]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

^ Man, all of that long unshielded wire... just pray a lightning doesn't strike near your house, as that can easily fry your stereo (or at the very least, the receiver portion inside). Otherwise, everything else is proper

[TechGeek]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

I have so many computers and junk in my room that EMI/RFI runs rampant. Not to mention the fact that there's an A/C condenser unit with 2 VFDs next to my bathroom. I also like listening to the radio. Obviously, there's a problem: 99% of the stations on the dial are swamped.

Here's my fix. I have some shielded wire from an industrial thermocouple attached to the stereo receiver's 75 ohm input. The shield is connected to ground. This goes to a set of jumper clips which goes to some bell wire. The white wire is connected back to the stereo receiver's ground, but is also connected to a ground stake driven into the ground. The red wire (signal) is connected to a homemade all-direction antenna, which was held from falling by a pair of old wire strippers. All the wire is held in place with staples.

This takes me from getting a couple staticy stations to 19 or 20 stations in crystal-clear stereo.

Suck it, RFI.
And bite me, FCC.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1537326135
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1537326135
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1537326135
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1537326135
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1537326135

[momaka]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

^ Ha, me too!

Actually, doing that is not too bad. Now try doing the same with old pealed and yellowed hot glue. It will re-melt, but don't expect it to hold too long. I do that on my cheap multimeter leads when their hot glue starts to degrade and brake off. Each time this happens, the glue holds less and less (typically around 1/2-1 year, though, so that's not bad).

[eccerr0r]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

yeah, mine drip. I'm so cheap I reuse the drops by remelting on the tip and reuse as much as possible, true ghetto style

[Agent24]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

In fact are there any hot glue guns that actually block off the nozzle? I end up putting them on their side if I *really* didn't want them to drip, else... I just let them drip.

I haven't seen any that fancy.

Mine would possibly drip if I used it sufficiently, but I don't do much with it.

I did have an awfully cheap ($1) one before, which fell apart. I pulled the trigger, and the glue stick pushed the heater and nozzle out the end of the gun. The plastic around the screws had softened... Then again, it was only rated for 220v and I get 237v at home.

[brethin]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

I use solder the wife uses hot glue.

[momaka]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

^ I hate drippy glue guns - it's a waste of glue.

The one I have is from Michael's (arts and crafts store in the US). Probably the best and cheapest glue guns I've bought ($2 or $3 I think). It doesn't drip when new. But if you leave it overheat for too long, it will start getting drippy over time. Mine's fairly old (about 13 years) so it's gotten a bit drippy. Only way to stop it is to lay it on the side... and also not plug it in until ready to use. Once it starts "self-feeding", that's when I use it. When done, I unplug it.

The other same one I have, it's still very tight and does not drip at all.

[eccerr0r]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

All my hot glue guns "leak" because they're cheap and all the trigger does is feed the glue, and depend on the viscosity of the glue from letting it drip.

In fact are there any hot glue guns that actually block off the nozzle? I end up putting them on their side if I *really* didn't want them to drip, else... I just let them drip.

[momaka]

Re: The ghetto mod thread - summer house P3 PC

I did a few upgrades to the summer house Pentium 3 PC, posted here:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...&postcount=603

Basically, one of the upgrades was that I changed the video card to a Sapphire Radeon 9600. Being a passively-cooled video card, I decided to put a fan to blow some air across its heatsink, as it would get pretty hot when running games. This is the ghetto-mod:


The fan is held by a piece of steel sheet bent into an “L” shape (so that the fan wouldn't flap around, as the steel sheet I used is rather thin). The steel sheet piece is held with a screw to the case and the fan is held with another screw. I cut it to a length that puts the fan right over the heatsink. As for the fan, it came out of a gutless broken L&C PSU I got from a repair shop (this one, actually). It's a Foxconn 80 mm fan rated for 0.14A or thereabout. I connected it directly to a floppy drive connector to run @ 7V (‘+' lead connected to 12V rail and ‘-‘ lead connected to 5V rail), so that way it is both quiet and still pushes enough air to keep the card cool.

Other ghetto mods in that PC…
You've probably noticed one of the cut IDE cables with red electrical tape.
Also not visible in that picture but there: CPU fan is also connected to run @ 7V, because otherwise it is very loud. For this, I took out the black wire from the fan connector and shoved it in the back of a spare molex connector, hooked to the 5V rail. And because of doing this, the motherboard no longer shows the fan tacho/RPM… but that's not an issue. The fan is still audible even @ 7V, so I will hear it if it stops. The 933 MHz Pentium 3 CPU still cools absolutely fine that way.

[momaka]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

^ Soldering iron stand for the v-shaped piece was what I had in mind first as well (or perhaps a hot air wand "stand". But the other piece, I really couldn't think of anything. My first guess was some kind of special mobile phone and/or tablet test jig / holder. But a hot glue holder?? - no way. I just put my hot glue gun on the bench and hope that it doesn't leak (seems as some of my hot glue guns get older, the start to leak glue a lot more). That's one reason I don't keep them nozzle facing down anymore.

[diif]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

white bits remind me of a sword or gun stand.
like you use to put one on a shelf.

Not so stabby shooty but close enough.

It's had a trim since the last photo.

[stj]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Here's a fan mod and a couple of things I've made.
Bonus points if you can guess what the two white things are for.

white bits remind me of a sword or gun stand.
like you use to put one on a shelf.