0027 I easily find some hidden traces, play with titanium tweezers and bend some coax

On today's SMMC, we have a neat assortment of things including some hand made COAX, and some titanium tweezers which I've been using a bunch since making this video. If you'd like to donate to the channel drop me an email using the link at the YouTube channel about page.

-- Video Links

Adrian's Digital Basement Merch store:

Support the channel on Patreon:

Adrian's Digital Basement (Main Channel)

-- Tools

Deoxit D5:

O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)

Elenco Electronics LP-560 Logic Probe:

Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:

Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:

Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens Flip-In Head Magnifier:

TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)

TS100 Soldering Iron:

EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:

DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:

Magnetic Screw Holder:

Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)

RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)

Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)

Heat Sinks:

Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)

--- Links

My GitHub repository:

Commodore Computer Club / Vancouver, WA – Portland, OR – PDX Commodore Users Group

--- Instructional videos

My video on damage-free chip removal:

--- Music

Intro music and other tracks by:
Nathan Divino
@itsnathandivino

[jeffymooch]

This cable came off of a 1000' reel of CommScope RG6 Tri-Shield cable using with a 77% braid coverage. The connectors are compression type and should provide quality connections without interference from outside sources. This is what the local cable company will use when pulling cable indoors. Not very flexible, but great stuff. CommScope is my favorite one to work with since the foam pulls off cleanly when you strip it. Tri-Shield cable is a great middle ground for shielding without having to deal with the frustration of using Quad-Shield which can be fussy to get a connector on fully seated.

[frankowalker]

The probe is such a simple yet useful concept. I wonder why they are'nt everywhere ? I've never seen one before.

[emmettturner]

LOL! I made my own conductive brush probe a few years ago in the jankiest way possible:

I snipped my used solder wick off the roll with a generous amount of fresh braid still attached to the used portion. I then frayed and spread out the unused end and connected an alligator clip probe to the solder on the used side. All the flux flakes right off but you can still use isopropyl to promote conductivity. Worked like a charm!

[kirbyyasha]

That def looks like RG-6 Coax, and CommScope Coax is amazing stuff.

[XLessThanZ]

That brush at 8:00 is a great idea. Needs a secondary pinpoint on the same handle to narrow the beep down to a single point of contact.

[adventureridergirl]

I like the format on both channels, I'm always down for some retro goodness!

[BilisNegra]

I -OBVIOUSLY- love the ][ channel, I hope it will forever stay with us.

[pedro_]

3:37 I like the ceramic tip ones, solder will also not stick to them, and they have the added benefit of not being electrically conductive.

[WilliamHostman]

The brush probe is way cool!
I loved my Imagewriter II's... both the one from Mom's setup (1st board) and the 2nd board version I got for college.

[tony]

The brush is cool, I have been thinking of something like that. Probably more useful on the back of the board - and maybe on more densely populated ones. But really cool!

[danriches]

I have some titanium brain surgeons tweezers that are still awesome after 20+ years made by Braun I think. You just can't beat a decent pair of titanium tweezers!

[spacebones]

First time seeing one of your videos. If all goes well I'll be living vicariously through you and hopefully I'll learn some things along the way.

[adamsmees]

i feel you adrian, all of my best t shirts have 'shrunk' over years!

[CapnKetchup]

RG6 is typical Cable TV. RG-59 is old school TV.

[UpLateGeek]

I have noticed running a probe across the circuit sometimes doesn't find the connection if you run over them too fast, so a conductive brush would probably work better since it provides more opportunities for contact.

That coax definitely looks like the thicker RG-6 rather than RG-59. Probably not necessary to have such a thick cable just for a low-bandwidth RF signal, but the cable and connectors are pretty cheap to make a decent quality cable like that.

[GeekmanCA]

My first printer was the Apple StyleWriter II. I was so proud to have jumped right into the inkjet era. If I'm being brutally honest, that StyleWriter was probably one of the more reliable inkjet printers I've ever owned – though given most contemporary inkjets, that's not saying much.

[Bakamoichigei]

We had a wide-carriage ImageWriter for our Mac 512k and MacXL when I was a kid. It got used for everything you can imagine, we even did multi-color printing! (by winding the paper back in, changing the ribbon, and printing again.) It was also a scanner, thanks to ThunderScan!

I remember using it to print graph paper so we could map the dungeon in Wizardry. 😂

[micahcowan]

Raging on my childhood printers! 😄 I had both ImageWriter I & II, don't remember either one jamming up on me (not that my memories 30+ years are reliable, ha)

[scotrick]

'
I'm with you, I so don't miss the scream of dot matrix printers going fast.
It was either: a long dull hammer, or a fast scream.
Those were your two options for the sounds of a dot matrix.
I do not miss them.

[tim]

I used an ImageWriter II from 1989 through 1996. Never had any trouble with it. I eventually got rid of it around 2000. It still worked, although the pin feed drive on one side was starting to slip. A few years ago I rescued another one from e-waste but I haven't had a chance to try it out. I assume it works, and if not it should be easy enough to fix. Black ribbons are still available, but unfortunately I don't think anyone is making the 4-color ribbons anymore.