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    Re: The ghetto mod thread

    Originally posted by stj View Post
    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.
    Attached Files

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      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.

      Comment


        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.
        Attached Files

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          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.

          Comment


            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.

            Comment


              Re: The ghetto mod thread

              I use solder the wife uses hot glue.

              Comment


                Re: The ghetto mod thread

                Originally posted by eccerr0r View Post
                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.
                "Tantalum for the brave, Solid Aluminium for the wise, Wet Electrolytic for the adventurous"
                -David VanHorn

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                  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

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                    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).

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                      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
                      Attached Files
                      Don't buy those $10 PSU "specials". They fail, and they have taken whole computers with them.

                      My computer doubles as a space heater.

                      Permanently Retired Systems:
                      RIP Advantech UNO-3072LA (2008-2021) - Decommissioned and taken out of service permanently due to lack of software support for it. Not very likely to ever be recommissioned again.
                      Asus Q550LF (Old main laptop, 2014-2022) - Decommissioned and stripped due to a myriad of problems, the main battery bloating being the final nail in the coffin.


                      Kooky and Kool Systems
                      - 1996 Power Macintosh 7200/120 + PC Compatibility Card - Under Restoration
                      - 1993 Gateway 2000 80486DX/50 - Fully Operational/WIP
                      - 2004 Athlon 64 Retro Gaming System - Indefinitely Parked
                      - Main Workstation - Fully operational!

                      sigpic

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                        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

                        Comment


                          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.

                          Attached Files
                          Main rig:
                          Gigabyte B75M-D3H
                          Core i5-3470 3.60GHz
                          Gigabyte Geforce GTX650 1GB GDDR5
                          16GB DDR3-1600
                          Samsung SH-224AB DVD-RW
                          FSP Bluestorm II 500W (recapped)
                          120GB ADATA + 2x Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST31000340NS 1TB
                          Delux MG760 case

                          Comment


                            Re: The ghetto mod thread

                            Originally posted by TechGeek View Post
                            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.

                            Comment


                              Re: The ghetto mod thread

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

                              Comment


                                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:
                                Attached Files

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                                  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.

                                  Comment


                                    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.

                                    Comment


                                      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.
                                      Attached Files

                                      Comment


                                        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

                                        Comment


                                          Re: The ghetto mod thread

                                          well lets start...
                                          this is my main pc:
                                          Asrock g41-vs3 rev2.0
                                          Pentium E5700 @3.69Ghz (246 FSB IIRC)
                                          4gb of ddr3 ram (2x2) dual chanell @984Mhz CL-7
                                          PowerColor R9 270 Turboduo
                                          Agiler Agi-1000ps psu
                                          random case

                                          on this pic you can see there is a black thing on top of the bottom fan(i saw that there was a hole on the bottom of the case, i had a 80mm low rpm fan that could take some cold air from the side grill for the gfx so...) is a 10w 20ohm resistor for the nidec beta V 92mm fan on the back

                                          here you can see some tape on the 5v and ground wires, the cables connected to those are going to a guetto mounted 120x38mm fan that moves a ton of air even at 5v



                                          in reality you cant actually see the foam unless you get very close


                                          here you can see the guetto mounted fan using a molex conector cutted from a cd drive and blue leds

                                          more details later
                                          Attached Files

                                          Comment

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