Recently, while clearing out some of my old junk tech, I came across a very lost looking VHS cassette tape.
For all you younger viewers, a VHS tape was used in the 80s and 90s and early 2000s to record TV and movies.
Totally obsolete tech now, unless you are using it for archival purposes, and even then the data loss from magnetic degredation can be severe.
Not having a VHS player or recorder for the last, oh I don’t know, 15 years or so, I didn’t want to just throw it in the bin. So, here is my attempt are recycling the once loved format into something that is still useful in 2021.
I present to you the VHS clock-cassette. It looks ok on the office wall! I may even find an old VHS spine image on the web and print it off so it looks like a rental cassette (Block Buster close anyone?)
Total cost of this project: £2.99 for the clock mechanism from everyone’s favourite auction site.
Watch out for the up-coming construction video on my Youtube channel!
NOTE: The numbers are temporary until I can either find a nice clock face to print, or, find my steam punk style letters and numbers (They are lost at the moment, but I know I have some crackers!)
Here, you will find the images of my DIY build for an Atari STe styled external SCSI enclosure with 2 hard drives, a CD Rom drive and a yet to get working ZIP drive.
This build is based on a Shuttle XPC Glamor small form factor PC, which was stipped of it’s internal parts for the carcass to be used, a DMA to SCSI adapter board from an Atari Protar Progate 2 external hard drive, paint and some components to bring everything together
The Shuttle was bought as untested from eBay for a cheap price, and as it turns out, was actually working. I didn’t know this at the time, and it was only after I had removed the mainboard from the case that I got to test it out. It was an AMD X2 64 running at 2.5Ghz with 2 GB ram installed. I have kept the mainboard, CPU and ram for a future retro project. (Update: This has now been sold via eBay as I could not find a use for it other than as a retro emulator machine, which I have loads of already!)
The disassembly:
it was in a right old state! – Used by a taxi company by the looks of it!Just VGA on this board. Not the best, but still a good solid mainboard and CPU.Only the outside edges need to look perfect. The black bits seen here are covered by the front plateThis was an old 520 StFM badge I had lying around. Cut to size with the sharp edges filed smooth.SCSI CD and Zip drive fit well.Plenty of space for the drives and SCSI adapter.Need to get something to block up that big hole!Once fully assembled, it looks like something Atari could have made back in the 90s. really happy with how it turned out!
Check out my YouTube channel where I have a video show this new device working. It will be published on 9th May.
Here is another series of books from Virgin that I was not aware of until this popped up on eBay. I now HAVE to get the whole set, which appear to be even more rare than the ‘Games for your’ series. Again, there is a ‘More’ version of this!
I know of this for the ZX Spectrum, and can only assume that its available for BBC MIcro too. The hunt is on for the rest of these books.
Eventually, the whole collection WILL be mine!!! Mwahahaha.
Just like Monty Python, the SPAM is becoming too much. Because of this, I am temporarily disabling the comments section of the site, until I can find a bullet proof comments system that is not susceptible to ROBO FORM FILLERS.
I have purchased an “Untested” Atari ST ‘Console’ from eBay.
Really love it when things are listed as ‘Console’ when they are actually computers. This is either a ploy to stop them from selling, or a genuine mis-understanding of what is on offer!
Anyway, this has been powered on, and the ‘Green light glows’ so its anyone’s guess as to its actual condition.
It looks to be all there, apart from the mouse. The mouse in the pictures is an Amiga mouse, that probably works on the ST .. We will see.
Once I receive it, tear down and refurbishment will commence, all the while recording for youtube.
The video should be up and online either just before or just after Christmas 2019, as I have umpteen parties and social gatherings to attend between now and the new year (2020)
Appears to be complete, except for the keyboard! An extra drive also looks to be included, making me wonder if the original one died?What is this? The Atari didn’t have a PSU like this … Interesting.It is always good to have a spare 720K floppy drive hanging around!Looks to be in good condition! Lets see whats it is like after shipment.Wires! … So many wires!Oh … There you are. Hiding under the case top 🙂 and a non-standard floppy drive to boot!
Hopefully, there is nothing significantly wrong with it. If I can’t repair it, I will have to break it down for parts and get my money back that way.
If it is repairable, I will be putting it back on eBay and use the money to buy another refurb project!
Keep an eye out in the future!
Update: 10/12/19 – The Atari ST was delivered yesterday, while I was on leave from work. Checking it this morning it is completely smashed. The outside box is not damaged in any way, but the contents … All I can say is this …
If you ship old and delicate computers, please wrap them in copious amounts of bubblewrap.
My cheap Atari ST is now a 1000+ jigsaw puzzle! 🙁
I think I will need to put this into a PC tower case at some stage.
First off, I will clean the main board and make sure its all working
UPDATE: – When this was removed from the shipping box for a proper examination, it turned out to be an STE with 4 SIMM chips in it. Its either a 1 MB machine or a 4MB machine. Until I fire it up, I can’t tell, and I won’t be firing it up until I am certain there will be no magic smoke!!
The newest refurbishment videos are up online now via my YouTube channel.
ZX Spectrum 128 +2a tear down, clean and fix to a state that makes it usable for the job at hand. It still needs work, but in the time I had to complete the refurbishment, I think its been left in a pretty good state!
Part 1 – Tear down, clean and test
Part 2 – Tape drive belt replacement and final testing
Relatively Basic – an early guide to getting the most out of the Einstein’s XTal Basic – By Solo Software
File Handling in Basic
A guide to using basic to access data in files (Obviously!)
Both of these books are in transit to me and will make a fine addition to the ever growing Einstein magazine and book collection.
Scrub that! The Data File Handling book has been eaten bu the UK post office. It never turned up and I got refund from the eBay seller. Shame really as they are hard to get hold of!!! Harrumph!!!
