wierd_w

If it can be found in an appropriate package, thermal pipe sounds ideal then. Say, one of these radiators, with one of these individual heatpipes. You could then route the heat away from the VDP and still stay in the allowance. One of those mickey-mouse clip on sinks would be sufficient to hold the pipe down on the vdp.

I would need proper dimensions for the VDP, but this is where I would be headed... https://www.jameco.com/z/205-00036-001-Heatsink-Dip-14-16-Pin-ICs-1-18-X0-64-x0-65-Black_2150934.html? CID=GOOG&gclid=CjwKCAiAxMLvBRBNEiwAKhr-nC5fJPDyRn0hRso8aXI8Ia6bmYHYdPCbgem4NfKxawia82xDcAx_XBoCt1AQAvD_BwE or https://www.mouser.com/Thermal-Management/Heat-Sinks/_/N-5gg0?P=1yztn6z Again, need to know the size, and I don't have that much time to doddle with it at the moment-- but quality sinks for DIPs are out there.

That would be this one, yes? Reminds me of when I cleaned off waaaay too much thermal compound off a co-worker's home build, when they were trying to figure out an overheating issue. I discretely informed them that a rice sized dollop was "more than adequate", and hooked them up with some arctic silver. Speaking of which, it looks like the default choice in the late 70s was the white junk. Blech. Put a nice chipset heatsink on there with some silver compound. Will probably get the overheating issue sorted. Another thing to check would be reseating the IC. It could be working harder than it should be, due to poor signal fidelity, and generating heat.

Believe it or not, if you have an old PCjr in your haul of retrotech, I would be interested in appropriating it. While the TI holds that slot for most people here, that awful foray into the consumer marketplace of the jr is where my first computer experiences came from, and for me, holds the most early nostalgia. I have often contemplated creating an EMS memory module for the cartridge slots. (The slot hardware is NOT writable; there is no WE line exposed there. However, there are TWO slots, and each one is 64kb in size. More than enough for a cartridge ROM based EMS routine that treats reads at a special memory address it owns as a signal to trip write enable on a sram module, and to move the window of the second slot around so it can function as a page frame) I have some pretty great memories of playing KQ1 with tandy 3 voice sound. I might just opt for a tandy 1000 instead though, if you have one of those.

Normally I would be happy to, but I have no means of reading it at this time.

I have been having a difficult time getting the PEB bezel parts to print and mate together to my satisfaction. This makes me displeased. I am considering a purchase. https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Machine-600x400mm-Control-Engraving/dp/B07QZYK1S3/ref=sr_1_90?keywords=3+axis+mill&qid=1575989719&sr=8-90 It's basically a miniature 3-axis gantry. The PEB bezel is a prismatic 3-axis part, straight up. With the right tools in the holder, I could cut single-piece fronts. I am thinking hand-sourced scrubwood. (My area has indiginous osage orange, which is a lustrous hardwood with a bright yellow hue. They get ripped out by the jillions every spring when the roadcrews prune the hedge rows on the roadsides.) Alternative materials include-- cut, poured resin billets. (carbon black/loose toner, mixed with raw fiberglass styrene resin) I will need to save for quite some time to make this purchase, but it should be suitable for the task. (large enough bed.)

Shit, I used to have a small collection of PC 1.44 drives. I tossed them out to save closet space... I think.... Let me dig. Nope, just have a single one that I intend to keep. I *DID* find a hilariously old original TRS80 DOS2.0/BASIC 5.25 diskette of unknown utility though in a disk file storage box.

better make sure those wont completely trash your wifi in your house. Or that Wifi wont trash your picture..

You dont need a powerful controller; Those epaper displays have image persistence. That means you dont have to keep refreshing/sending data to them. SPI is pretty simple. A little logic gate array driven by 2 gpios would let you individually address which device gets the spi connection, then you just write on them sequentially. It isn't like this is gonna do full motion video or something.

Nintendont is your friend. Luigi's mansion, and more-- at your fingertips. The UI is kinda not good though.

No, resistence can be overcome with sufficient voltage! That's not a resistor, it's a perfect insulator!

"what can we do with the rest of the GPIO?" Test for when the FN key gets pressed, and automatically update the strip images, for one. Logically control multiple SPI screens with chip select lines for another... (those epaper displays have persistence!) Perhaps integrate a 2 wire serial connection with the TI itself, so that you can use a loader stub that sends appropriate 1bpp tiles to the arduino for whatever title is being launched? To be honest, these little things have me considering an upgrade to the RepliPEB bezel; These 1"x2" SPI epaper tags are JUST PERFECT for putting just above the light pipe holes. All sorts of data could be reported about the card in the slot that way, aside from just an activity flash. (sorry, did not need to hijack, but the thought occurs to me.)

The primary rationale USED to be to protect broadcast signal bands (which used to be easily smashed by leakage) to assure that the Emergency Broadcast System could function (this was especially strongly enforced in the 80s, when the cold war was still going). These days, it's more to protect likewise sensitive bands used for government data communications and pals, with prevention of smashing cellular communication bands a strong second. It does not have near as much "national security!!" weight behind it as it did in the 80s, but yes- it is still strongly enforced. Most of the time, the sheilding demanded is good medicine for devices anyway. The sheilding works both ways, and with lots more energy being pumped out in the 2.4ghz band (Cumulatively, by all the consumer devices using it within a small area) it makes sense to protect devices from getting saturated. With that short a wavelength, you do not need a very long conductor at all to unintentially intercept those signals, and get spurrious inputs on logic circuits and the like, especially if your design includes amplifiers. The niave thing is expecting the world outside to be radio-quiet-- and thus, have no need for RF sheilds at all.

I spend too much time with the elderly. I get shoehorned into fixing tech gadgets for them almost weekly. (After deciding to leave Tech as an occupation for mental health and stress reasons, I took a huge pay cut and started working much closer to home (as in, within 4 blocks) at the local nursing home as a CNA. It's one of the reasons why I have difficulty scheduling extended leave from work; Old people don't take vacations from being old, and needing 24/7--365 care.) I have often wondered why our facility does not run a PLEX server though; The place has several large storage bins FULL of old VHS cassettes just burning to be digitized then put away in storage. Format shifting is a legal practice, and the PLEX server is not for outside streaming; The cassettes were donated for the residents to enjoy. It would just let them enjoy them any time they want, in their rooms. DVDs would be better, but for whatever reason, we keep getting VHS tapes.

OpenWRT enabled routers do not care if they have something plugged into the LAN port or not. (or at least, can be configured not to care.) For an ultraportable one, consider a hacked zsun sdcard reader. For my use case though, I need wired ethernet ports, which that little pocket-size toy does not provide, sadly. However, the "Travel Modems" do. The zsun is much more powerful though, with a lot more flash space, and a built in mass storage device (microSD slot). The hacked NAS runs a 3.6 flavor linux kernel, and a full chroot can be run on it with any linux daemon you can find that supports ARM, being possible. The possibilities there are practically endless. This is especially true if you are going to be in this offline locality with several other tech-head friends. One could run pvpgn for instance, and pretend to be battle.net for a hosted ladder play event on a variety of retro blizzard titles. This in addition to running a plex server for those couch-potato moments, and just hosting a bunch of usefully fun items, like all those disc image files or GoG installers that you dont want to keep on your laptop's SSD, but might install while on the trip but delete again later. Seriously, for just a tiny bit of space in the bag, you can pack a lot of entertainment in by bringing such a thing.

ISA would be easier to adapt than PCI. PCI is a cpu local bus, where ISA is designed to be an external bus. (and much slower too. More in line with the signalling speeds of the TI) An old Trident card would be amusing to get working. (there were 8bit isa trident cards. Trident TVGA-8900C for example. It's a 16bit card, but can be driven in an 8bit mode, and thus can live in an 8bit slot.) That's one thing that amuses me about the PEB-- the cards are a lot taller than ISA cards. Some jiggery pokery could be done to make an adapter riser, at least in theory.

Unless there's some particularly soluble parts on the board, a fast spray with 99% isopropyl after the rinse will accelerate the drying as well through dilution/displacement of the water.

Maybe 4 of these in a row? https://www.amazon.com/waveshare-2-13inch-Resolution-Controller-Interface/dp/B07RMCR921/ref=sr_1_131?keywords=epaper+display&qid=1575879882&s=electronics&sr=1-131 Dimensions in mm are 23.71mm × 48.55mm (0.93" x 1.91") Flexible, so you could adhere them to a stiff plastic stock backing then slip it into the strip holder. You would need to route the trailing cables out the back of the stiffening strip, but that seems doable... ??

I saw an epaper display that is close-- 4.2" x 1.8" . If you put two on back to back it would work... but 1.8" is too wide. https://www.pervasivedisplays.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1P208-00_01_E2437FS083_20190520.pdf

I can't find a suitable one either... I know they must exist, because Sony incorporates them into an overpriced watch as part of the wrist band. (Sony EPS smartwatch)

1UP has an official "Riser" base.. Just thought I would mention it, since the diminutive stature of the arcade boxes had put me off as well. (that and I can't justify a 300$ purchase in such a frivolous form factor) As for an inexpensive one; Since the goal is to dismantle the original title, and re-use the cabinet/controls, the street-fighter cabinet is a good choice. (only 200$ instead of 300+$) It has 2 8-position joysticks with 6 buttons each, with some select buttons. Not as nostalgia inducing as a Pac-Man or Mrs. Pac-Man arcade, but versatile and inexpensive.

If the compiler runs on linux, worth a shot.

Microsoft has kind of band-aided the issue with how they handle win10. Core win32 apis are kinda-sorta detatched from the OS as a distributable. However, older versions of windows want to link the win32 apis provided by the OS's core DLL set, not the modular ones expected by modern Visual Studio. (Modern versions of visual studio want to wrap the API calls in several layers of wrapper functions so that microsoft can pull the rug out and replace it, presumably without your noticing. I personally consider this an insane practice, but apparently they love to tinker over there at microsoft, and dont believe in mature codebases.) You can often tell a visual studio project, because it will come with a boatload of win32 api dlls. See this microsoft blog about it. https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/a28331ae-19a3-4a34-b3ba-1e8fd4430375/missing-apimswincore-dlls?forum=windowsgeneraldevelopmentissues

It can also happen with 64bit code being run on 32bit windows. (or on a 32bit processor.)

eInk display seems ideally suited. You dont need (nor really want) OLED for this application. 1) OLEDs degrade and get burn-in 2) They are expensive 3) tend toward being rigid displays 4) emit light eInk display however, could conceivably fit in the existing overlay slot natively, is low power, does not emit light, and all that.