I can finally back up the Wallstreet before I lose all my Newton packages. $20 shipped 👍
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eBay bargains - what's your latest conquest?
- Thread starter Hughmac
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Here are some shots from the fake 1.42Ghz MDD 
…
Interesting to see that this 1.25Ghz main board already provisioned the solder pads for a Firewire800 port as you might spot on the photo.Have to look if the other ones are the same.
…Interesting to see that this 1.25Ghz main board already provisioned the solder pads for a Firewire800 port as you might spot on the photo.Have to look if the other ones are the same.
What are the left 2 boards? AFAIK upper (on 2-nd picture) connector was used in SUN graphical cards?
It’s definitely a Matrox capture card. I think it’s part of the Matrox Digisuite (LE?) system from the late 90’. Old stuff and I didn’t get any cables with it .
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Well, yes but usually D-SUB ports are female on cards or on the back of computers so this threw me. The other connector looks proprietary.It looks like a D-SUB (VGA), if I understand something in hardware at all
This appears to be the user manual (attached as a PDF as well):
Page 24 labels all the connectors (see attached screenshot).
It looks like these connect to other Matrox boxes (DigiConnect Video, DigiConnect Audio, etc.) or to custom Matrox DRV cables. The daughterboard that has its own I/O bracket appears to be a digital video expansion, which I guess must use that Altera FPGA to do some pre-processing.
The 26-pin connectors on the main card are for audio and video respectively.
The connector pin outs are on page 107-108, if @philgxxd feels brave enough with a soldering iron to lash up some sort of test harness. (Alternatively, it doesn’t seem too hard to find Matrox DTV cables on eBay.)
I am curious what the software situation would be like, as the manual only mentions Windows NT...
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Thanks a lot @Needleroozer. I saw that manual. They even mention the connector type used on the cables. Great source.
I also saw that they didn't mention Mac drivers or software. As I understand it as soon as you have drivers installed the programs that can take advantage of the processors on the card are seeing it.
I also saw that they didn't mention Mac drivers or software. As I understand it as soon as you have drivers installed the programs that can take advantage of the processors on the card are seeing it.
Just won another Good Will auction for an untested 17" A1052 PowerBook G4. It looked dent free in all the pictures. Even if i can't get it working the case is in much nicer condition than my current 17" which i could swap the guts out of. Not bad for $20.49.
Here's one of the photos from the aution.
Here's one of the photos from the aution.
Well, i scored big. The PB arrived in great condition, and after a restore it boots! It's a 1.33ghz w/1gb ram and 100gb HD. The battery still has a *little* life in it (20 minutes tops). Only 1 issue. The left speaker doesn't work. Not a big deal. I ordered a new HDD for it since this is the original, it's a bit noisy, and i don't trust it. I'll check the speaker when i open it up.
Just got a 12" iBook G4 for 11$, last model. I've been looking for any cheap PowerPC Mac to develop on since I want my PowerBook to last longer. Seller didn't provide a charger or a battery, and it crashes when booting, but I ran the install DVD and it worked fine. Somehow it won't install from PowerBook DVD, so I'm downloading a retail 10.4.6 copy.
Anyway, the machine is in a really nice shape, especially on the inside. I might swap a display (and a fan if it's compatible) to my PowerBook. For now, I'm also looking for a FireWire cable since Disk Utility doesn't want to resize an existing partition and the previous owner wanted to see if I could recover any data.
I'm also interested to see how the graphics perform compared to a PowerBook. In other news, my DLSD 17" has been in storage for a half a year now and I'm still hunting for a working motherboard...
Anyway, the machine is in a really nice shape, especially on the inside. I might swap a display (and a fan if it's compatible) to my PowerBook. For now, I'm also looking for a FireWire cable since Disk Utility doesn't want to resize an existing partition and the previous owner wanted to see if I could recover any data.
I'm also interested to see how the graphics perform compared to a PowerBook. In other news, my DLSD 17" has been in storage for a half a year now and I'm still hunting for a working motherboard...
Well not quite an eBay bargain, but friend dropped these off today!
Not just boxes, systems inside as well! Posting here as the G5 was mainly what I was after, the Mac Pro will see use but since I have a 5,1 already in use, I think this 3,1 will become a local server / backup workstation.
Not just boxes, systems inside as well! Posting here as the G5 was mainly what I was after, the Mac Pro will see use but since I have a 5,1 already in use, I think this 3,1 will become a local server / backup workstation.
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That’s a great find @wicknix! Is that Spotify in your dock? 😲
It's not proper spotify, but a variant that searches and plays from youtube. It's attached to this post.
So what better to use with my manky old cast-off iMac, than a manky old cast-off keyboard?
The condo where I currently live with my family has an e-waste bin where people chuck their old batteries and other electronics. Once in a while I find something decent, like a full HP G36 laptop missing a battery and hard drive that may or may not work...
The other day, I found a Razer BlackWidow Chroma (that I think was released in 2010?)...and it (almost) works perfectly!? (Well, there was a missing adjustable height foot, but that's par for the course for used keyboards anyway.)
The hitch is that the numpad 3 key is a little wonky (as I discovered while I was playing Marathon Phoenix), and none of the special Macro or Function Keys work, as Razor Synapse 2 doesn't work in OS X Catalina and the only other modern Razer Mac apps I've found are open-source utilities to control the RGB lighting (which I've come to enjoy a lot more than I thought I would). I've tried configuring the Macro keys using Karabiner-Elements, but that didn't seem to work.
I did have to put in quite a bit of elbow grease to clean and disinfect the keyboard, as it was covered in grime, dust, and what looked like a hardened goo (food? bodily fluids?) over the WASD keys.
The condo where I currently live with my family has an e-waste bin where people chuck their old batteries and other electronics. Once in a while I find something decent, like a full HP G36 laptop missing a battery and hard drive that may or may not work...
The other day, I found a Razer BlackWidow Chroma (that I think was released in 2010?)...and it (almost) works perfectly!? (Well, there was a missing adjustable height foot, but that's par for the course for used keyboards anyway.)
The hitch is that the numpad 3 key is a little wonky (as I discovered while I was playing Marathon Phoenix), and none of the special Macro or Function Keys work, as Razor Synapse 2 doesn't work in OS X Catalina and the only other modern Razer Mac apps I've found are open-source utilities to control the RGB lighting (which I've come to enjoy a lot more than I thought I would). I've tried configuring the Macro keys using Karabiner-Elements, but that didn't seem to work.
I did have to put in quite a bit of elbow grease to clean and disinfect the keyboard, as it was covered in grime, dust, and what looked like a hardened goo (food? bodily fluids?) over the WASD keys.
Curiously, the friend who gave me the iMac A1418 I’m using to type this had one of these keyboards, and I resurrected it for them after they spilt milky coffee on it (this seems to be a recurring theme around people in my life, but I’ve only killed my own Macs with coconut water).
The Razer was their favourite gaming keyboard and were sad about possibly throwing it out. So I did a lot of 99 per cent isopropyl soaking of removed keys and disassembled board within (I did notice the extended soak began to de-laminate the black wrap over each key, but only down where it meets the bottom of the key, which receded once fully dried). They had written it off, but I wanted to see if I could give it a second life for them.
As for your find, nice one! But I’d give that hecker a deep second decontamination. I can only imagine the very worst to have happened potentially on that rig before being tossed out! 🤢
p.s.: Nice Braun clock! Dieter Rams’ work graces you daily!
It might just need disassembling and a good internal clean given that it wasn't in the best of condition when you rescued it.
On that note...
I feel your pain. It's a formality that whenever I acquire used gear, I always give them a thorough clean with surgical wipes - especially if it involves a keyboard because as @B S Magnet has mentioned, you have no idea as to the history of its previous usage and ownership.
Unfortunately, other human beings can be gross - which was reiterated to me earlier this year but I shall not share the anecdote as a point of basic decency.
Anyhow, enjoy the keyboard!
It might just need disassembling and a good internal clean given that it wasn't in the best of condition when you rescued it.
On that note...
I feel your pain. It's a formality that whenever I acquire used gear, I always give them a thorough clean with surgical wipes - especially if it involves a keyboard because as @B S Magnet has mentioned, you have no idea as to the history of its previous usage and ownership.
Unfortunately, other human beings can be gross - which was reiterated to me earlier this year but I shall not share the anecdote as a point of basic decency.
Anyhow, enjoy the keyboard!
/me, putting on orange glasses, spraying a solution onto @rampancy ’s new Razer keyboard, shutting off the lights, and clicking on a UV torch…
🧐
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AHAHAHAHAHA! Inspired by your reply and that of @TheShortTimer I decided to take a bottle of compressed air and a Qtip soaked in liquid hand sanitizer to the individual keys of the keyboard. It's a good thing I thoroughly vacuumed it out earlier -- some schmutz did come flying out but I think it's safe to say that was likely my schmutz.
I'm unsure if I want to go the route of disassembling the keyboard to clean the switches - it's a lot of work and I'm fairly confident that between the two rounds of cleaning with hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol, and hand santizer (plus a thorough vaccuming and now dusting with compressed air), it's clean enough for me to not think about you would have found with a UV light when I first got this. (I won't speak to what you would find if you took a UV light to it after a week of me using it though...)
Fair enough!
The reluctance is understandable. From experience with keyboard issues, a full strip down - as painful as it can be, due to the potential work involved, is often the only way to be certain that problems are located and dealt with. I've got a computer whose keyboard didn't work at all and after disassembling the keyboard entirely, I discovered that it had a random screw trapped inside the mechanism. How it would've found its way so deep inside is a mystery.
Come to think of it, the entire story deserves a post within this thread as I ended up with a nice eBay bargain...
I was imagining myself as Jorja Fox from the early years of CSI, walking into the room with her kit, then pulling out those orange safety glasses, the spray bottle, and UV torch, all…
Never caught Fox in CSI but I liked her in ER as Maggie Doyle and the character's antagonism with Carol Hathaway.