eBay bargains - what's your latest conquest?

[Amethyst1]

Continuing in a new post, since I ran into some length limit trying to fit it all in one... Now, something a little more interesting: the first bus-powered Thunderbolt storage device to see the light of day in 2012.

All-metal enclosure, no silly logo on the top. Much better.

Opening this thing up (I purchased it empty) requires removing four hex screws and reveals two easter eggs... this:

...and this: Eagle Ridge in all its glory.

And a week 17, 2012 manufacture date.

It originally shipped with a 3 Gbps SSD (SanDisk Ultra) so the ≈390 MB/s limit of the ASMedia ASM1061 didn't even matter.

 

[weckart]

Continuing in a new post, since I ran into some length limit trying to fit it all in one... Now, something a little more interesting: the first bus-powered Thunderbolt storage device to see the light of day in 2012.

All-metal enclosure, no silly logo on the top. Much better.
View attachment 2455115

Opening this thing up (I purchased it empty) requires removing four hex screws and reveals two easter eggs... this:
View attachment 2455117

...and this: Eagle Ridge in all its glory.
View attachment 2455118
And a week 17, 2012 manufacture date.

It originally shipped with a 3 Gbps SSD (SanDisk Ultra) so the ≈390 MB/s limit of the ASMedia ASM1061 didn't even matter.

I have one of those, too. I think it was the first external TB drive I bought as opposed to an adapter. Donated it to my sister for her 2015 iMac as the internal drive was stupidly slow. I think mine came with a 20cm TB cable as well. Most of my other TB ones are LaCie Rugged drives as those are cheap and plentiful here in the UK.

 

[Amethyst1]

Latest acquisition — let’s take a RAID, rip out the drives and sell the remains as a totally different device.

So, did you finally open it?

Yep. Three of the four long screws that hold the enclosure together were totally stripped on mine so Dremel to the rescue.

The Thunderbolt-and-eSATA-breakout-board sandwich without the enclosure. This works well enough thanks to the four stand-offs. I accidentally destroyed the right eSATA port in the process (no idea how that happened) so no RAID tests with this one, but tests with a single SSD can still be carried out.

1. The Thunderbolt/SATA controller board is labelled "Carte LBD SSD" with a week 41, 2011 ("4111") date code and it is indeed identical to the board found in the HDD/SSD version (teardown), down to including the unused fan connector.

2. The riser that connects both boards is labelled "Carte FDP LDB DOCK" with a week 13, 2010 or week 10, 2013 ("1310") date code. (I wonder if "LDB" is a typo and meant to say "LBD"?) It's quite different to the riser used in the HDD/SSD version as it lacks a power button (it just has a blue LED) and has only two 15+7-pin SATA power/data connectors whereas the HDD/SSD version's riser has three: one for the main board and two for the drives' power/data.

3. The eSATA breakout board is labelled "Carte LBD-dock-eSATA" and has the same week 13, 2010 or week 10, 2013 ("1310") date code. So removing that and getting the other riser (labelled "Carte FDP LDB SSD") it might™ be possible to retrofit two HDDs/SSDs.

(And there's certainly some ambiguity with the date codes.)

 

[ojfd]

Thanks @Amethyst1 ! So, if you remove the top eSATA board, can you connect the SSD to the riser board directly?

 

[Amethyst1]

Thanks @Amethyst1 ! So, if you remove the top eSATA board, can you connect the SSD to the riser board directly?

Just tried it. No sign of the SSD (but no puff of smoke either).

 

[AdamBuker]

Not an ebay purchase, but a find at the local DAV thrift store. I have used it already to recalibrate my Powerbook display, and now I’m calibrating my G5 monitors.

 

[ojfd]

Just tried it. No sign of the SSD (but no puff of smoke either).

Maybe it requires some specific RAID software to recognize the drive(s)?

 

[ojfd]

I have used it already to recalibrate my Powerbook display, and now I’m calibrating my G5 monitors.

To what color temperature are you calibrating them?

 

[AdamBuker]

To what color temperature are you calibrating them?

6500k. I have two ViewSonic VP2365 monitors and 6500k is their default setting and what I use. Before I used the Spyder the left monitor was slightly warmer than the right despite both having similar settings. Now both monitors look exactly the same.

 

[Amethyst1]

Maybe it requires some specific RAID software to recognize the drive(s)?

The blue LED on the riser wasn’t on either and there was a high-pitched whine — both fixed when using the eSATA board. The LBD shipped using OS X software RAID so the drives were seen as-is. No mention of any software being necessary. I‘ll test the device as intended once I get an eSATA cable.

 

[ojfd]

Now both monitors look exactly the same.

The question is, do they reproduce colors correctly? Is white - white and black - black? No parasitic cast in the highlights or shadows? Can you discern between 100 and 99 in Lab* and 0 and 1 in Lab*?

https://preview.redd.it/qu2fim0819v21.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=790644988552c43dfd4a1f3c99b527dae2e1ffd5

www.reddit.com

Do you mind posting your ICC profiles? I will never use Spyder, but am just curious what kind of results the aged one can produce.

 

[AdamBuker]

6500k

The question is, do they reproduce colors correctly? Is white - white and black - black? No parasitic cast in the highlights or shadows? Can you discern between 100 and 99 in Lab* and 0 and 1 in Lab*?

https://preview.redd.it/qu2fim0819v21.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=790644988552c43dfd4a1f3c99b527dae2e1ffd5

www.reddit.com

Do you mind posting your ICC profiles? I will never use Spyder, but am just curious what kind of results the aged one can produce.

I'll post it, but I'm not concerned as much about color accuracy since this rig will be for my own personal video/music projects and I don't do anything professionally that would require true color accuracy. I just wanted some consistency between my monitors, and pretty much achieved that. They even look consistent with my PowerBook G4 that I also calibrated using the Spyder.

 

[AdamBuker]

The question is, do they reproduce colors correctly? Is white - white and black - black? No parasitic cast in the highlights or shadows? Can you discern between 100 and 99 in Lab* and 0 and 1 in Lab*?

https://preview.redd.it/qu2fim0819v21.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=790644988552c43dfd4a1f3c99b527dae2e1ffd5

www.reddit.com

Do you mind posting your ICC profiles? I will never use Spyder, but am just curious what kind of results the aged one can produce.

Here's the ICC profiles for each monitor if anyone is curious. The sited did not like the individual files so I put them into a .zip file that has both. Like I said earlier, I'm more interested in consistency rather than accuracy and the Spyder2Pro worked well enough for me.

 

[ojfd]

As I said, I was just curious.
Both of your displays are good and cover the sRGB color space easily. When looking at vcgt curves, it seems that the software didn't do much, except it adjusted white point of both displays (differently) in graphic card's LUT. Can't you simply adjust WP with the buttons on the front panel with the interactive help from the software and then calibrate it? The results will be better.

Spoiler

 

[AdamBuker]

As I said, I was just curious.
Both of your displays are good and cover the sRGB color space easily. When looking at vcgt curves, it seems that the software didn't do much, except it adjusted white point of both displays (differently) in graphic card's LUT. Can't you simply adjust WP with the buttons on the front panel with the interactive help from the software and then calibrate it? The results will be better.

Spoiler

View attachment 2456092

I did make sure the WP was set to 6500k on both monitors before calibration. I have it set there anyway. The built-in panel on the monitors only allows selection of a few presets so you can't really dial in a specific temp. I expected the white point adjustment would be different because before I did the calibration, with both monitors set to 6500k the left monitor was clearly warmer in tone. For my money's worth I'm very pleased with the results of the calibration.

 

[skinniezinho]

Not an ebay purchase, but a find at the local DAV thrift store. I have used it already to recalibrate my Powerbook display, and now I’m calibrating my G5 monitors.
View attachment 2455487View attachment 2455488

Curious, are you using the supplied software or displaycal? If the latest do you know which is the version compatible with 10.5 ppc?

 

[weckart]

Curious, are you using the supplied software or displaycal? If the latest do you know which is the version compatible with 10.5 ppc?

I had no idea displaycal was a thing. I have a couple of old calibrators (Huey Pro and Colormunki). Now I won't have to somehow cobble together an old version of OSX just to calibrate a monitor or display, something you can't easily do on a newer notebook.

 

[AdamBuker]

Curious, are you using the supplied software or displaycal? If the latest do you know which is the version compatible with 10.5 ppc?

I used the software that came in the box and it worked perfectly fine in Leopard. According to the packaging the included software should work with Panther and Tiger as well.

Since I also use these monitors with an M1 Mac Mini, I'll try using the Spyder2Pro with DisplayCAL to calibrate them on that machine as well.

 

[ojfd]

Curious, are you using the supplied software or displaycal? If the latest do you know which is the version compatible with 10.5 ppc?

The last UB DisplayCAL that I have in my archives is 3.3.5.0

 

[skinniezinho]

I had no idea displaycal was a thing. I have a couple of old calibrators (Huey Pro and Colormunki). Now I won't have to somehow cobble together an old version of OSX just to calibrate a monitor or display, something you can't easily do on a newer notebook.

I am on the market for a colormunki (I have one locally) for 10eur, if you have the chance to test with displaycal let me know

The last UB DisplayCAL that I have in my archives is 3.3.5.0

Thanks. Just tried it on my PB G4 (which I am writing from) and at least it opens on 10.5

 

[ojfd]

I am on the market for a colormunki (I have one locally) for 10eur..

Guys, do yourself a favor and dont buy used colorimeters. Munkis, spyders, variations of i1display, including latest "Pro" and similar. They do not age well and will produce errors. If you don't trust me, here's the same info from the horse's mouth:

How long do colorimeters last? | DisplayCAL

Hi, Typically how long will a colorimeter last for if kept at room temperature and used 3 or 4 times a year. What is the procedure w/ DisplayCAL to determine if it's time to replace the device? Thanks.

hub.displaycal.net

If you just want to play around and learn new stuff, sure, a colorimeter for 10 Euros will allow you to fire up a calibration apps and see how they work. But otherwise, it's just like buying a used condom in the hope that it can still be used.
Better save some money and buy used industry standard i1Pro spectrophotometer. It operates on different principles and will last forever. Except the lamp for reflective measurements, of course, but for display calibration, it's not needed. These can be had for as low as 50-100 sometimes, depending on location, condition and what's included in the set. New they were 1k-3.5k.
For display calibration a plain unit will do. If display mount is not included, you can make an improvised black foam surround yourself to block the scattered light and can always hold it by hand.

P.S. Don't buy OEM versions of i1Pro by EFI. They have custom firmware and are not recognised by regular apps.

 

[Needleroozer]

The blue LED on the riser wasn’t on either and there was a high-pitched whine — both fixed when using the eSATA board. The LBD shipped using OS X software RAID so the drives were seen as-is. No mention of any software being necessary. I‘ll test the device as intended once I get an eSATA cable.

You got kind of lucky there - a high-pitched whine usually means that you’re overloading some poor switching regulator and it’s desperately trying to compensate by clocking up…

The picture of the top board that you posted shows that the 7-pin portion of the 7+15 connector is carrying SATA signals in what looks like the normal pinout; those are the two lower differential pairs, running to the lower eSATA port. The upper eSATA port’s differential pairs are connected to those first few pins of the 15-pin portion of the connector, which are a mix of 3.3V and ground signals according to the official pinout.

Plugging a normal SATA drive into this would definitely cause trouble since the ground pins of the drive and the ground pins of that PCB are not at all the same.

I think that you might be able to test it out by skipping the riser entirely and plugging a 7-pin SATA cable into the main dock circuit board and then into your target drive, providing power to that target drive externally.

View attachment 2455376

Note that, on the 15-pin portion, pins 1, 4, 7, 10, and 13 are connected to the main ground pour, while a normal 15-pin connector would use pins 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, and possibly 11 as ground.

Why use the 15-pin connector to carry data rather than power? It’s a very cheap connector whose 7-pin sibling is rated for full SATA speeds, so it’s safe from a signal integrity perspective to use it off-spec like this. It also lets them build this mechanically elegant riser assembly without needing to buy custom connectors.

 

[AdamBuker]

If you just want to play around and learn new stuff, sure, a colorimeter for 10 Euros will allow you to fire up a calibration apps and see how they work.

This is pretty much my exact use case. 😅 I would have been perfectly happy if this ended up being a total dud. I had no expectations for any result but came out better than expected.

 

[Doq]

Jury is still out on these as I need to get power adapters, but judging by how clean they were inside despite the 'sploded batteries (only the 190 had board corrosion and it was just a small amount in the battery corner) I'd jinx myself and say these two work perfectly fine. Both of them came with max RAM upgrades and I'm pretty sure the 3400c is a Japanese import judging by the keyboard and markings on the bottom indicating Mac OS in Japanese.

$160 shipped to the lab. If one of these works it's a win. If both of them work (very confident), it's highway robbery.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Nicely done! @Doq