KVMA docks

I guess time will tell whether this project was actually worth the trouble.
The basic idea was to take keyboard, mouse, audio and VGA, and put it on a single connector that connects to "docks" to which the actual peripherals are connected, so that, when moving my pc between 2 fixed locations I don't have to manually reconnect everything, just that one connector(+ lan and mains).

As usual, pcb making method was PnP Blue.


And the end result:

I'm not releasing Eagles because it was a 5 minute autorouter job ;)

A Smarter Label Printer

Some time ago I won a Seiko Smart Label Printer Plus, on an auction, for a good price. This is an ancient thermal-paper label printer from the still running Smart Label Printer line. It comes with DOS, WIN9x label editor software, which does not run on XP, and Seiko dropped support ages ago (According to the description of a later Seiko software download they dropped support because. "The old serial protocol cannot be supported under windows NT" or something along those lines, which is nonsense), so basically there was no software to conveniently use the printer with. At the beginning I used the Win9x software through VmWare but that's too tedious and annoying. After a bit of research I came across this site, that had full protocol descriptions for both newer and older SLP models. So I ended up coding up a tool that, through a virtual serial port receives data from the new SLP software, in the new protocol(or it can just load BMPs), translates to the old protocol, and sends the translated job to the SLP Plus)


During testing I discovered something. The SLP Plus can print to much wider paper than the SLP Labels. And after I realized that I can't buy SLP Labels locally, and that they would be too expensive anyway for printing shipping labels on, I decided to make use of that. I got lucky because standard width thermal paper used in cash-registers fits perfectly into the SLP :) and they cost $0.50 a roll! as opposed to $7+s/h for two rolls of SLP labels, plus I also get to print more labels this way as I don't always need the full length of an SLP label, and with the paper I can just cut it at any length.


karosium logo in glorious 1 bit per pixel.

I also made a simple support for the new roll of paper that goes in the place of the original label holder from a medicine bottle cap and a plastic rod.

Only disadvantages being that I have to use a glue stick as the paper isn't self adhesive, but I don't really mind that, and that I had to cut the front panel as the opening was only long enough for SLP labels to go through(and the cut didn't really turn out so well), as you see in the picture the serrated plastic bit used to cut the paper doesn't go all the way, only to the width of the SLP Label (that's one on top of the paper) I will have to replace it sometime, with one from a broken printer-calculator or something, but for now I just use an xacto knife to cut the paper.

Now, the newer SLPs of course have a higher dot density (almost twice of the slp plus), so printing from the new software will be oversized, as it can't print dots as close together and as small as the newer ones, but as luck would have it that mismatch is perfect when using the cash-register paper, as it gives about the right size for the print. Also, by using another paper setting the correct size for the SLP labels can be achieved. I basically just have to use smaller label settings than what I actually want to use.

While I don't know why Seiko dropped support for this thing, I think it's similar to the Creative driver shenanigans a couple of months or so back (to boost sales of newer models, and from what I've seen they kept on dropping support for older models in their software ever since the SLP Plus). This product would still be useful, despite being 10 years old, as it's only shortcoming is it's lower dot density when compared to newer models, and IMHO that isn't really a problem, as labels are still clearly readable, and any barcodes made are scannable... Does anything else really matter for a monochrome thermo-label?

So basically, I got a hobby project to work on and a label printer for around $25 shipped, not bad especially considering the prices of the newer SLP printers, or label printers in general.

Boards 08

Photos I have of the random things I put together this year, since we're nearing the end of it.

First up:

This is some level shifter and 3.3v regulator combo, It's intended purpose I don't really remember. Uses Maxim components. I ended up using just the 3.3v reg part of it. PCB was made with PnP Blue, and perma-marker

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This is a board for 4 TIL311 displays ics(shown left), it's still sitting in my drawer, with TILs soldered in. Same PCB making method, this is going to be the same for everything else as well.

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This is a single cell LiIon charger. Uses a Linear tech. charger ic (on the left) It was left over from the samples I ordered for repairing the Zipit1s

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This is a lead acid smart charger board, that I never finished from here.

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This is a lead acid battery desulfator from here.

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Now this is a SPI (bios) flash programmer. It's based on this one made by Sergey Kiselev It uses a 74HC04 instead of the CD4049. I've only multimeter-tested it sofar. Built it for a mis-flashed motherboard I bought on the cheap. Still waiting for C2D prices to fall, so I've shelved this along with the mobo. (I'm a cheap bastard)

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Okay this is.. modern art! Functionalitywise it's a low power step-up transformer. (really)

PDA repair

I've wanted to post this for quite some time now, but laziness has so far stopped me from doing so, and since this was finished quite a while ago, some of the details are already a bit hazy, so to keep the info from deteriorating further, I've decided to do it now.

A while back I got a broken PDA for a relatively good price. Broken screen and mobo failure. It was some HP model I don't really remember. After opening it up I found that there was one fried component on the mobo, all the SMD fuses were intact, and since the fried part was a Maxim I decided to free-sample it and try a replacement. The part was a MAX1586, a "Power Management IC" for PDAs in TQFN40 (6mm x 6mm). It seemed to handle pretty much everything power related for the PDA. The original part was a bit melted-through and would get real hot, real quick, when power was applied, so it obviously needed a replacement.

Desoldering TQFN40 without any of the usual tools meant for doing so is not easy :)
What I went with was a hot-air blower, that wasn't at all meant for SMD soldering. (I think it was meant for burning away old layers of paint)
The mobo was wrapped in aluminum foil, in an attempt to shield other components from the hot air. This was mostly ineffective.


Below is the mobo after the the extra blown-off components were hastily reattached, before cleaning up the mess.

I free-sampled MAX1587, which is a bit higher power than the 1586 was, no special reason behind this, if I remember correctly it was the only part available for free-sampling.

As for soldering in the replacement that was mostly done with luck, an ordinary soldering iron, and lots of soldering resin ( I didn't have no-clean flux at the time ).
Thankfully TQFN pads have a "shoulder" that allows them to be soldered in with a regular soldering iron. This was not easy, nor would I recommend it to anyone, but it did turn out "good" in the end :)(

Below, the mobo with replacement PMIC in, after cleaning up.


After about an hour of playing around with setting the chip right, the device did power on. I don't remember if by that point I already had a replacement display, or if I ordered it afterward, but after that was installed the device came to life, functioning perfectly, complete with the original owner's data, which I proceeded to wipe. I kept the device around for about a week, then sold it, with very little financial profit, but lots of experience gained.


Notice the broken watch effect :)