- 2024
- Aug
- 11
These giant selenium rectifier plates
I recently picked up an ancient PACO B-10 “Power Supply / Battery Charger” from the Columbus Hamfest. I wasn’t sure what was in the thing, but turns out there’s not much.
These giant selenium plates, however, are a thing of ancient beauty. The whole thing looks like it’s era, a mash of wire, transformers, and rust. Stay tuned for a more complete teardown and other photos of this device.
- 2024
- Aug
- 11
I’ve added a mastodon feed to the blog.
I’ve had commenting here off for some time, mostly due to the spam problem. Flatpress is a great system, but all comment platforms, unless heavily moderated, are spam magnets.
However, I wanted a way to communicate with people that may be reading this blog. I’ve had my LinkedIn profile connected for some time, but that’s not an accessible platform for most. Mastodon, however, is.
Mastodon is one of the twitter-likes that came out of the old Gnu Social era. It’s exactly what you think it is, a feed full of short posts by multiple people, and you can follow and interact with anyone that’s a part of the “fediverse,” a loose-linked conglomeration of various servers and people.
That’s not to say Mastodon doesn’t have it’s own issues, the originator of the system has some hangups that prevented conversations linked to other servers because he didn’t like the content, and it certainly has a very political leaning if you dive into the main feed. That’s not what I’m here for - I simply want to post my weird electronics and give people a way to go “Where did you get that thing?”
If you’d like, check it out: https://mastodon.social/@wereboar - not everything here has been mirrored there, but going forward - it will be.
Thanks for hanging out with this little pig, and I’ll see you at the hamfest!
- 2024
- Aug
- 7
Pretty good for just pulling it out of a junk bin.
Here’s the decade box I pulled out of a box of parts and junk at the recent Columbus Hamfest.
Granted, my old Keithley Meter hasn’t been calibrated in many years, but … 2 Ohms? I’ll take it!
- 2024
- Aug
- 7
The 2024 Coolspring Power Museum Show
The Coolspring Power Museum is a large display ground consisting of member-maintained static displays consisting of everything from small oilfield engines to a giant across-the-state natural gas compressor engine, with everything in-between. Much of it’s up and running for the show, with other stuff in various states of rebuild or runs during a demonstration time. It’s a fascinating place, and they have engines and displays that you’re literally not going to see anywhere else - at least not in this condition!
All of the images here are of those static displays. There are other items that pull in for display during the show, but that’s primarily through the week. Saturday is the last day of the show, so most of that was gone by the time we arrived. Still…there’s so much to look at, and we’ll probably head back for the fall show this year as well. This one is well worth the time to visit if you have interest in old engines.
As with the MVSTA show, I don’t have much to say about these pictures - so here they are, in all of their greasy glory.
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You can view the museum’s web page here.
- 2024
- Aug
- 7
The 2024 Miami Valley Steam Threshers Association Show
While this, and other engine shows I attend aren’t necessarily electrical in nature, they are certainly prime examples of old technology. I’ve always found the mechanics of such devices to be fascinating, and worth my attention.
The MVSTA show is one that happens on the Western edge of Columbus every year, and I try to make it out there at least every few years. This year’s show was bright and sunny with no threat of rain anywhere. Prime viewing time for all of the mechanical eye candy that showed up.
I don’t have much to say about these pictures, so no annotations.
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Visit this link for more information on their shows.
- 2024
- Aug
- 7
Have you ever wondered what’s inside of that device?
Worry no more. With the help of Google Translate, you can finally see what’s actually inside that cheap Chinese solder pot you bought from AliExpress.
That magic “Heating Stuff” - it’s like the smoke in resistors.
- 2024
- Aug
- 7
The Columbus 2024 Hamfest
This year’s show was maybe 2/3 the size of normal - I suspect the dangerous looking skies kept some people away, but fortunately the rain held off for the show. It was, however, sticky enough that you could probably have put a straw in the air and drank some.
There were still some interesting things to be found at this year’s show, and some good deals to be had. This is what I saw this year:
- 2024
- Aug
- 7
My haul from the 2024 Columbus Hamfest
I brought home some things that I didn’t need, but isn’t that the point of this kind of show?
A Vishay decade box and a frequency counter / generator. They both seem to work well enough for the age. There’s also some high-voltage mica capacitors sitting on top of the decade box. Those were a buck, and I said why not?
I can’t go to a show without bringing home at least one meter. Unfortunately, this one seems to have some issues, it will zero but not read. I need to open it up and make sure that any batteries left in it aren’t corrodeedoodled all over the place.
This PACO generator is the same as one I have in better condition. This one is a $5 parts unit.
This is a PACO power supply that came from the same vendor as the generator, also $5. It’s an interesting piece, being an early bench supply for audio work, but in reality it’s a glorified battery charger. Stay tuned for a teardown on this guy.
No idea what this is, my fellow show-goer suggested it was some sort of early electronic switch for process industry. He’s probably right, but I got it simply for the cheapness of a 250VAC transformer that could be reused.
That’s it for this year. I’ll be posting show pictures, and some other, recent engine shows as soon as I can get the images cleaned up.
- 2024
- Aug
- 4
It’s time to clean out some stuff - maybe to Dayton 2025?
One of my fellow show-goers was talking about taking some of the audio gear he collected to Dayton in 2025, and we’ll set up a table on the flea market. This sounds like a cool idea to me, I’ve attended shows but never had a sales table.
In the spirit of things, I took a look at what I’ve collected over the years that’s never going to go anywhere, and there’s a bunch. It’s time to start cleaning out, and I have a bunch of things that could go. Where does it all come from?
See you there, and maybe you can take something home! It’s cheap cheap cheap!
(If you see something you like, drop me a line on LinkedIn and we’ll see about a deal!)
- 2024
- Aug
- 4
Pictures from recent shows are on the way!
Pictures from the Columbus Hamfest, Cool Spring Power Museum, and Miami Valley Steam Thresher Association shows are all in the works. There’s simply a lot of them and I have been a lazy little pig. Check back in the next few weeks and I promise that you’ll have some cool stuff to browse!
They’ve all been posted! Sorry it took so long on some of those…