When I was a kid my family owned a device whose sole purpose was to rewind vhs tapes.

    • @AstralPath@lemmy.ca
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      12 days ago

      Me too! A whole milk crate full! Everyone thinks its a waste of space until I bust out the exact obscure/ancient cable they need.

    • @cm0002@lemmy.world
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      226 days ago

      If you have a Samsung PCB115UBE USB cable for an old SCH-A870 I will seriously give you money for it right now

        • @cm0002@lemmy.world
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          96 days ago

          I hope so, my only alternative to get my old data off this phone is desoldering the NAND chip lol

            • @cm0002@lemmy.world
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              66 days ago

              Proprietary Samshit BS, the charging wall wart appears to have a different pin out from the USB data transfer cable

              • @notfromhere@lemmy.ml
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                6 days ago

                Not sure why I’m being downvoted. If your only other option is desolder the NAND chips, you can build a cable for probably $10 in parts. Ask me how I know. That shit is easy. Get you a breakout board and find the connector or a close enough one that you can solder or crimp and get to it.

                Way easier and less work than messing with the board level components, FFS people.

                There are also people who will build you one as a service if it is beyond you.

                Downvotes for adding to the discussion giving a real alternative to a stated problem is asinine.

                Edit: also, if you’re willing to desolder the fucking NAND chips, just solder directly on the connector header on the PCB. Fucking duh!

                • @cm0002@lemmy.world
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                  36 days ago

                  Dunno on the downvotes lol, but it’s something like a 24 pin connector that I have been able to dig up 0 documentation for. This would be a full blown RE’ing project, so desoldering the NAND would be easier than that because I already have a (one step above low end admittedly) hot air station and lots and lots of dead RAM sticks to remp up practice on

                  Desoldering is the hardest part, then I can just slap it into one of those NAND/BGA adapters and dump it, no REing required

                  But

                  There are also people who will build you one as a service

                  If that exists, could edge out my desoldering solution, do you have any recommendations of said people?

  • bizarroland
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    236 days ago

    I have an old 6 volt lantern that uses a battery that is 6 inches wide, 4 inches tall, and 3 inches deep.

    If I turn it on it gives you almost enough light to actually see where you are going and the battery lasts for about 2 hours.

    With two 18650s I could replace that battery for a package 2/3 the size of a pack of cigarettes and run that light for a day or so.

    If I replace the bulb in it with an LED equivalent I could probably stretch that out to nearly a week.

    • @Valmond@lemmy.world
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      126 days ago

      Ouch I remember thouse fat 4.5 volt battery who had like 2 long tongues, going into those old flashlights, glowing in the dark at best with a super small incandescent lamp.

    • @Smokeydope@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Its important to consider amperage discharge too. Can the two 18660s put out the same current as the big rectangle one?

      Replacing the old halogen with led would be a big difference. Ot would need basically no amperage. At that point you can attach usb male to alligator clips, clip the ends of the lanterns battery pack connectors to supply 5v 2.4a of power directly with a power bank.

      I use a 5 volt led bulb that plugs into regular usba slot. It works with small power banks and ast forever on larger 20ah batteries.

      • @Dima@feddit.uk
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        15 days ago

        High discharge 18650s can provide 20-30 amps, doubt the lamp needs that much current if it’s powered off older battery tech

  • @sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    116 days ago

    Film canisters. People saved the plastic canisters photo film came in because they were so well made, waterproof, airtight, and ubiquitous. They were used in all kinds of DIY designs. I’ve heard some companies still make them, without the film, for people who need them for crafts. I still have some in the junk drawer.

    • WIZARD POPE💫
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      35 days ago

      If you have a local photo shop that still develops film they will gladly give them to you for free. I have about 20 sitting around and rhey do come in handy. The shops just throw them away anyway.

  • @GraniteM@lemmy.world
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    95 days ago

    I’ve got a film negative scanner. I’ve also got a big pile of old negatives. I keep telling myself that someday I’m going to scan all those old negatives. We’ll see.

  • Drusas
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    206 days ago

    My record player has the ability to record cassette audio onto USB.

  • @LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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    116 days ago

    I have an old dial telephone from the 1940s. A couple years ago I saw an Arduino project to make them dial digitally, but it’s not the top item on my bucket list.

    • Clay_pidgin
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      106 days ago

      Ti-83 plus silver edition, baybee! I learned to code (badly) on that bad boy.

      • @iii@mander.xyz
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        106 days ago
        1. CLS
        2. PRINT “Same,”
        3. PRINT “BASIC was my first programming language.”
        4. GOTO 1
        • Rhynoplaz
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          126 days ago

          Look at this guy who doesn’t number his commands by tens! Such confidence!

        • Clay_pidgin
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          76 days ago

          Exactly! And a TON of labels with single character names. GOTO E

  • @iii@mander.xyz
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    176 days ago

    Sliding ruler for doing multiplications (1). Still have it for nostalgia or post-apocalyptic scenarios.

  • kubica
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    176 days ago

    Rewritable CDs? Technically I can still use them, but I don’t really expect to use them and I wonder if they are still worth keeping.

    • @some_guy
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      46 days ago

      I got rid of mine with my most recent move. Why bother bringing them with me.

  • @Zeon@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    I own plenty of Libreboot computers without Intel Management Engine (2006-2009 era). For the average user in today’s world, I don’t see many people using them unless definitive proof came out that the government uses the IME to spy on them. These 2006-2009 era desktops/laptops can have the entire IME firmware removed, along with a 100% free BIOS. I collect as many as I can.

    • Toes♀
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      76 days ago

      If you are interested in fixing those I might be able to help.

      The most common reason is the internal CMOS battery exploding or needing replacement.

    • KaRunChiy
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      26 days ago

      literally the same combo here, but my reel to reel is a rebranded “viking” telefunken unit

  • @LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I have a sheet of foam with 40 or 50 old 7400-series chips - mostly simple logic gates. I could probably make some fun retro led blinky things.

    • @flubba86@lemmy.world
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      96 days ago

      It’s crazy what the talented engineers in the 1970s were doing with those 7400 series logic. It’s a lost art these days, just throw a 10c microcontroller on your board and control everything with code.

      • @LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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        35 days ago

        Code is my preference, having spent a whole career as a software dev - I do a lot of messing around with Arduino and ESP. But I remember back in the 70s when a college prof let me play with a bunch of chips he had acquired but didn’t have a curriculum put together yet. He let me do a little demo for one of his classes, which was pretty cool. I explained how binary numbers worked, how to step through a counter by pressing a button a bunch of times, read out the count on leds, use the number as an address to a memory chip and other things. He mentioned that the next new thing was going to be a “microprocessor” - a whole computer on a single chip - imagine that! If my school had had an electronics program I would switched my major on the spot, based solely on how fun it was.

  • Higgs boson
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    6 days ago

    Jaz drive (and the isa scsi card) and several tapes.

      • Higgs boson
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        76 days ago

        My school had them everywhere back then. At one point, I owned 2 jaz drives, several Zip drives, and countless disks for each. I later worked the phones during Iomega’s click of death scandal. Yeah, I’m old.

        • @LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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          45 days ago

          I had Zip and Jaz drives as well. A couple years ago a guy at work was doing some weird project where he neede a bunch of zip disks, so I gave him my box of them and he transferred my data to a couple DVDs. Found a lot of photos, old forgotten code of mine, and D&D scenarios I had written and never played. Homebrew spells, magic items, etc… which I’m now using in my campaign. Great treasure trove!

        • @ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
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          35 days ago

          Zip drives were all over campus for me in the early 2000’s too. I’ve got a Zip & a Zip 250 somewhere…