Kat Kayelem 🏳️‍⚧️
LightNews LightNews
banner
kayelem23.bsky.social
Kat Kayelem 🏳️‍⚧️
@kayelem23.bsky.social
260 followers 340 following 1.1K posts
voider of warranties • fixer of things • collector of stuff • audio, video, radio, TV, photography, music gear, T&M, retro/modern computer h/w; anything interesting

neurodivergent • 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈 • she/her
Posts Replies Media Videos
kayelem23.bsky.social
It's arrived..! It's in pretty good, near new condition, in the original box, with a bunch of accessories. Not bad.

There's no signs of life whatsoever so I'll try charging it fully before doing anything. And it is charging, or pretending to. Energy is going somewhere..!
A TRIMUI Brick retro handheld gaming device, in white. The power button on the side is illuminated red; this indicates it's charging. Below it is a cheap USB power meter through which it is charging; this is indicating a current draw of 780 milliamperes. The meter also shows that, so far, it's eaten 621 milliamp-hours. The cell inside is allegedly 3000 milliamp-hours so there's some way to go to full charge, if it gets there.
November 27, 2025 at 12:51 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
Got something with one of those integrated battery-backed CMOS RAM and real-time clock devices in it, but it has amnesia and doesn't know what the time is?

Here's one solution I used several times on a bunch of Sun and SGI computers ages ago...
One of several flavours of battery-backed CMOS RAM and real-time clock device. This one looks like a regular 28-pin dual-in-line IC but taller. There's a lithium coin cell and a 32.768 kHz watch crystal encapsulated in the hat the CMOS RAM/RTC device is wearing.
November 22, 2025 at 6:05 AM
kayelem23.bsky.social
I had this problem with several old Sun computers a few years ago. My solution involved carefully removing the top part of the NVRAM (containing the 32.768 kHz crystal and failed lithium cell) then replacing the cell and crystal.

This may be a way to fix your 'scope...
Photo of a green-screen serial terminal displaying the boot sequence of a Sun SPARCstation 2. It's complaining about a failed NVRAM battery. NVRAM and clock IC with the epoxy-potted upper section containing the 32.768 kHz clock crystal and 3.3V cell delicately hacksawed off. NVRAM and clock IC, with a new 32.768 kHz crystal and a lithium coin cell holder soldered and glued on top of it. Main PCB of a Sun SPARCstation computer; re-installed NVRAM and clock IC with new 32.768 kHz crystal and a new coin cell inserted in the holder. It ain't pretty but it works..!
November 22, 2025 at 3:51 AM
kayelem23.bsky.social
I probably shouldn't do that with this one in particular...
Cluttered bench upon which is a roughly cube-shaped bit of rather old-looking electronic hardware with the top cover off; specifically a Farnell E350/S27 bench power supply, capable of 0 to 350 volts at up to 200 milliamperes or so (plus a bunch of assorted low AC voltages for valve heaters.) The front panel has two large meters for voltage and current, below which are a couple of black bakelite knobs. Under those, a row of screw terminals. Partially visible inside is a large mains transformer and a couple of thermionic valves. It is spicy and not to be trifled with.
November 22, 2025 at 1:57 AM
kayelem23.bsky.social
I came disturbingly close to buying this probable rarity on eBay in 2017, as one might...

Clarke & Smith set from around the mid sixties; I'm fairly sure it's the model my primary school had in the seventies when I was there. Pretty big screen for the time, might've been 27".
Large Clarke & Smith dual-standard (405/625-line) monochrome television receiver, with doors and hood over the screen to reduce reflections, as found in many British schools in the sixties and into the seventies.
November 21, 2025 at 10:52 AM
kayelem23.bsky.social
What happened to Monday? Where did all this dark come from? How did I end up ravenous and eating lunch just before midnight? Why is it Tuesday.!?

Ah. After swapping a GTX 780 for a GTX 1660 Ti OC in my main Linux box, I wondered if I could get something to work now.

Yeah. It works.
A well-travelled path leads away from the viewer. Sparse low-lying plants and towering rocks either side suggest a small valley in a desert region. In the distance, odd-looking trees and maybe part of the roof of a house. Far in the distance, strange shapes pierce an unearthly purple sky. Just off to the right is a crude wooden sign with a blue illuminated push switch attached to it. The sign reads, "Welcome to Hunrath". Beyond the sign, a group of floating angular objects with red glowing veins. Floating in mid-air on a cloud of red sparks is a smartly-dressed man, or the partial image of a man, visible from just above the knees. The image is indistinct and has visible line-structure, resembling a worn analogue recording; a crude holographic projection perhaps?
November 4, 2025 at 3:47 AM
kayelem23.bsky.social
I have right-angled SATA cables, but they're angled the wrong way for this.

Can I get SATA cables angled left/right, so I can use all four ports without the cables getting in the way of the drive cage?

These turned up on AliExpress after a few minutes, then on my doormat after several days.
A view from above of six SATA cables; blue cable, black connectors, neatly coiled and sealed in clear polyethylene bags. On each cable there is one normal latching straight connector. On the opposite end of each cable is a connector with the cable exiting to one side or the other. A close-up view of the innards of a desktop PC. In the foreground, out of focus, are some cables to the left and hard drives in the mounting cage to the right. In the centre of the image is the motherboard four-port SATA connector, with four SATA cables connected to it. Two of the cables exit upwards, two downwards, very much not in the way of anything.
October 31, 2025 at 8:51 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
Where was I?

Replacing the graphics card ought to mean I could use the HDD cage again. But...

The SATA ports face into cage; cables have to be connected after sliding cage into place. If there are HDDs in the cage, the SATA ports are inaccessible... Oh bum...
Close-up photo of the innards of a desktop PC. On the left is the motherboard, close to the edge of which is a combined four-port SATA connector. Instead of sticking straight up out of the board, this connector is a right-angled type with the SATA ports facing right, towards the edge of the board. On the right, level with the motherboard and a short distance away, is the rear face of the roughly cuboidal aluminium drive cage. Four red SATA cables connected to the motherboard pass in front of the rear face of the drive cage. Thus, to remove the cage, first one would disconnect the SATA cables. To install the cage with drives in it, one would have to connect the SATA cables last. This would prove a little difficult if the cage contained hard drives...
October 31, 2025 at 7:46 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
It reminded me of this...
Jim Benson cartoon. A wizard stares angrily at a "How to summon..." spell written in cursive on a scroll he is holding. Behind him, marked out on the ground, is a pentagram with three candles placed outside it. In the centre of the pentagram, standing on little legs, is a slightly large, smiling lemon. In a thought bubble, the wizard thinks, "Man I hate cursive." He was probably expecting a demon...
October 26, 2025 at 6:12 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
#CrispSandwichDay isn't over and I couldn't resist. Had another. Warburtons Toastie and Seabrook Cheese & Onion as before, this time augmented with grated mozzarella for enhanced cheesiness (and poor structural integrity.)

Merry Crispmas..!
Wide-angle close-up of a white plate with a burgundy edge. In the process of spontaneously disintegrating is a sandwich made with thick white bread; crisps and grated mozzarella spill out. Out of focus and mostly out of shot in the background is a PC with the side cover removed.
October 25, 2025 at 8:51 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
After lunch, my intention was to finish off rearranging the gubbins inside a PC and reassemble it.

Losing focus somewhat, I took a magic brain pill.

Intense focus ensued... my brain found a side-quest..!

Sorting and organising pots and tins of computer screws. It needed doing, I guess.

#ADHD
Cluttered bench; upon a black mouse mat, someone has spent far too much time arranging screws into small groups which either match or are similar. Around the mat; on the left, a photographic mouse mat with shears and small bags of four screw each on it; mostly out-of-shot is a trackball; at the top is a computer keyboard with a tobacco tin lid on it; on the right, more bags of screws and a tobacco tin containing... more screws, some in small bags.
October 25, 2025 at 6:38 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
I was in the middle of rebuilding a computer when it slowly dawned on me that I ought to stop and insert food.

Not my best work, thrown together rather hastily; there will be more though.

#CrispSandwichDay
A cluttered desk; in front of a computer keyboard there is a plate with a crisp sandwich on it, roughly sliced in half. Just white bread, spread and crisps. Simple, pure, minimal; the distilled essence of crisp sandwichness...
October 25, 2025 at 2:15 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
Enough of how I stuffed a GTX 780 in a case it wouldn't technically fit in; what of the new card..?

Miss Clever Trousers here, amazingly, looked up the dimensions of possible replacement cards..!

A Gigabyte GTX 1660 Ti OC is shorter! It might fit! It was also secondhand so came with free fluff.
Viewed from directly above, two graphics cards with their rear brackets aligned. The rear (top) one is the GTX 780. The front (bottom) one is the 'new' GTX 1660, which is significantly shorter. Viewed from directly above, the GTX 1660 with fans and shroud detached and placed behind (above) the card, underside uppermost. The underside of the fan blades have a fine dusting of... er... dust. The heat-sink has a moderate amount of fluff between several fins.
October 24, 2025 at 4:24 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
With the cover/shroud removed, there was barely enough space for the card's PCB, the end of the heat sink ending up inside the drive cage, supported by a bit of aluminium sheet and three stand-offs.
A close-up view inside the PC case. The graphics card ends where the drive cage begins. One of the card's power sockets is touching the top edge of the drive cage. On top of the drive cage are three thumb-screws occupying slots intended for drive mounting; hinting at something other than drives inside the cage. A view inside the PC case, looking up from below at the rather dusty graphics card, lacking the usual fan and heat-sink shroud. There's a silver metal plate inside the drive cage supporting the end of the card's heat-sink. Cluttered bench, to the right of a keyboard with random detritus behind it, and a flat-panel monitor is the PC case with several cables hanging out of it. The drive cage is now in front of the case. The graphics card and home-brew support are now on a bit of cardboard in front of the keyboard. Close-up of the graphics card. To the right is the improvised card support, a flat aluminium plate with three stand-offs sticking up from it
October 24, 2025 at 3:48 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
Installing the GTX 780 in this PC case was mildly challenging; there wasn't really room for it.

The internal HDD cage is at bottom-right; devoid of drives as it's partially occupied with the end of the graphics card.

The HDDs ended up in a '3-into-2' cage taking up two of the 5.25" bays.
An aluminium PC case with the side-cover removed. It looks slightly full and there are signs the perpetrator attempted something resembling cable management. The front of the case faces towards the right. From the top, there are four 5.25-inch bays, the top two containing optical drives, below those is a three-into-two drive cage with two 3.25-inch drives installed. Below that are three 3.25-inch external bays containing a 2.5-inch SSD on a 3.5-inch to 2.5-inch adapter; then a card reader, then a USB hub. Finally, at bottom-right is an empty internal 3.25-inch drive cage.
October 24, 2025 at 2:53 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
Getting ready for the big day...

#CrispSandwichDay
One loaf of Warburtons 'Toastie' bread and two six-packs of crisps artistically piled on a fluffy purple blanket thing.
October 20, 2025 at 8:23 AM
kayelem23.bsky.social
Maybe I should close a few...
Partial screenshot of Firefox about:debugging page. It shows that I, a massive nerd with ADHD, have 985 tabs open. How this situation transpired is a mystery which may never be solved...
October 18, 2025 at 3:12 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
As there's some interest, more images...

Investigators were interested in data from the Nuvo-5000LP fanless industrial PCs, located in the aft dome and thought to exist within the 'large mass'.

Here's a photo of the installation, pre-squish. Also a photo of one of the computers:
From the report: "an exemplar photograph of the mission computers believed to exist within the compressed mass." Visible are three Neousys Nuvo-5000LP industrial computers, above them is what looks like a radio transceiver. This is all surrounded by wiring and a bunch of other electronic gubbins. A Neousys Nuvo-5000LP fanless industrial computer. The entire top is an extruded aluminium alloy finned heatsink. To the front is a panel with various connectors including VGA, DVI, several USB, several ethernet. There's also a slot for a hot-swappable 2.5" hard disk or solid-state disk. The lower/side cover appears to be sheet aluminium, anodised red. This image was borrowed from the manufacturer's website where more information may be found. (If anyone has one they'd like to donate to an impoverished nerd, I'm always interested in industrial PCs...) https://www.neousys-tech.com/en/product/product-lines/industrial-computers/fanless-industrial-pc/nuvo-5000lp
October 16, 2025 at 10:59 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
The remains of two 2.5-inch SSD devices were recovered (amazingly):

"Three BGA NVM chips were missing from each PCB, and the remaining chips showed visible signs of cracking and distortion. [...] No data was recovered from the compressed mass, and the small companion compressed mass."
From the Titan implosion NTSB report; two badly damaged printed circuit boards from 2.5-inch SSD devices associated with Nuvo-5000 LP industrial PCs. The boards themselves are badly deformed with several chips missing.
October 16, 2025 at 11:02 AM
kayelem23.bsky.social
One of the more interesting images from the NTSB report on the Titan submersible implosion.

Imagine you work in data recovery. You've got data off devices dropped from heights, driven over, immersed in water, lightly incinerated... then someone from NTSB rocks up and leaves this with you...
Image of "a large electronic and metallic mass" taken from the NTSB report on the hull failure and implosion of the submersible Titan. The description reads: "The NTSB laboratory received a large electronic and metallic mass from the United States Coast Guard on November 13, 2023. The NTSB was working on behalf of the USCG. The mass was transported in plastic storage container. The mass weighed approximately 100 lbs. The mass was a compilation of compressed metal, compressed plastic, compressed electronic components and compressed other materials. The mass exhibited signs of thermal damage without typical signatures of having been exposed to open flame. A section of the mass contained polar fleece material."
October 16, 2025 at 9:42 AM
kayelem23.bsky.social
PC upgrade time..!

The Linux nVidia driver for GTX 780 is not being updated so it's time to swap that out for something newer, shinier, sexier...

And shorter so it'll fit in the case without taking bits off, inserting its arse-end in the drive cage and shoving drives elsewhere...
Cluttered bench, centred in the photograph is a box for an nVidia PC graphics card; specifically a Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Ti OC. Also partially visible; IBM Model M keyboard in need of cleaning, three mouse mats and a 50kV high-voltage probe. Just typical Kat's bench stuff.
October 14, 2025 at 2:23 AM
kayelem23.bsky.social
In case anyone's wondering, this is a radio in my collection, resurrected and photographed about 15 years ago. It's the only set in my custody with an interesting mistake on the tuning scale. More pics:
A mid-sixties valve table radio; wooden case; a horizontal glass panel includes the tuning scale with knobs for volume and tuning and a 'magic eye' tuning indicator; above this, a cloth-covered panel behind which is the loudspeaker; below the glass panel is a row of cream push-buttons. The back panel of the radio in the previous image. A hardboard panel with an irregular pattern of ventilation holes includes red printed text identifying the set as a 'Carmen 3', model number S632A3, made by 'Electronica' in Romania. Smaller text advises against connecting the chassis to ground or removing the back while it's plugged in. The same radio as before, now with the back cover removed. A small elliptical speaker is visible along with the audio output transformer, both screwed to the speaker panel. Below these, a metal chassis on which is the variable capacitor for tuning, three valves, two cylindrical IF transformers, a cylindrical electrolytic capacitor (for smoothing the HT supply). Hanging off the right of the chassis is the mains transformer providing the HT and heater supplies, but not providing mains isolation.
October 1, 2025 at 1:01 AM
kayelem23.bsky.social
Wonder what happened to the Ligth Programme..?
Close-up photo of the tuning scale of a 'Carmen 3' valve radio, made by Electronica in Romania, dating from roughly the mid-sixties. The tuning scale has typical station markings; 'Hilversum', 'Welsh', 'Luxembourg' etc. And 'Ligth'.
September 30, 2025 at 6:56 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
Settings ▻ Moderation ▻ Muted words & tags
Bluesky moderation 'Add muted words and tags' dialog box; the muted word is the name of an obnoxious person in the news for becoming permanently incapable of being obnoxious.
September 11, 2025 at 11:41 PM
kayelem23.bsky.social
Over-confident, eager to please, usually wrong.

Douglas Adams was eerily prescient...
September 8, 2025 at 7:40 AM