Reviving A Scrapped Sound Blaster 2.0 ISA Soundcard

September 22, 2025 by Maya Posch 6 Comments

What do you do when you find a ISA Sound Blaster 2.0 card in a pile of scrap? Try to repair the damage on it to give it a second shot at life, of course. This is what [Adrian Black] did with one hapless victim, with the card in question being mostly in good condition minus an IC that had been rather rudely removed. The core Creative CT1336A and Yamaha YM3812 ICs were still in place, so the task was to figure out what IC was missing, find a replacement and install it.

The CT1350 is the final revision of the original 8-bit ISA Sound Blaster card, with a number of upgrades that makes this actually quite a desirable soundcard. The CT1350B revision featured here on a card from 1994 was the last to retain compatibility with the C/MS chips featured on the original SB card. After consulting with [Alex] from the Bits und Bolts YT channel, it was found that not only is the missing IC merely an Intel 8051-based Atmel MCU, but replacements are readily available. After [Alex] sent him a few replacements with two versions of the firmware preflashed, all [Adrian] had to do was install one.

Before installation, [Adrian] tested the card to see whether the expected remaining functionality like the basic OPL2 soundchip worked, which was the case. Installing the new MCU got somewhat hairy as multiple damaged pads and traces were discovered, probably because the old chip was violently removed. Along the way of figuring out how important these damaged pads are, a reverse-engineered schematic of the card was discovered, which was super helpful.

Some awkward soldering later, the card’s Sound Blaster functionality sprung back to life, after nudging the volume dial on the card up from zero. Clearly the missing MCU was the only major issue with the card, along with the missing IO bracket, for which a replacement was printed after the video was recorded.

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Restoring A Vintage Computer And Its Plotter

September 22, 2025 by Bryan Cockfield 19 Comments

Repairing vintage computers is bread-and-butter for many of us around here. The machines themselves tend to be fairly fixable, assuming spare parts are available and there hasn’t been too much physical damage. Peripherals can be another matter, though. Since they interface with the real world they can have more esoteric problems that aren’t always solvable. [joekutz] was handed just such a device in the form of a CE-150 docking station for a Sharp PC1500 Pocket Computer, which has a plotter built in. Here’s his “tip” for getting plotters like these working again.

The first step here is to disassemble the original, dried out pens to scavenge a few of the parts. The outer case needs to be kept so that it can be put back into the plotter, and a small O-ring is saved as well. To replace the dried-out tips [joekutz] discards the original tips and replaces them with tips from a common ink pen, using shrink wrap tubing to help fit the pen’s tip into the original plotter cylinder. He also takes the ink from the pen to fill the plotter’s cartridge, completing the surgery on the multi-colored plotter and bringing it back to life.

Of course this build goes well beyond the plotter, including bringing the PC1500 back to life as well. There are a few other videos about this project covering that original restoration as well as demonstrating some of the quirks of how this computer is meant to be programmed. But we mostly focused on the plotter here since that is a little bit out of the ordinary, and we’re also sure that refilling ink cartridges of any sort gets under the skin of everyone at HP.

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Flashlight Repair Brings Entire Workshop To Bear

September 15, 2025 by Tom Nardi 16 Comments

The modern hacker and maker has an incredible array of tools at their disposal — even a modestly appointed workbench these days would have seemed like science-fiction a couple decades ago. Desktop 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC mills, lathes, the list goes on and on. But what good is all that fancy gear if you don’t put it to work once and awhile?

If we had to guess, we’d say dust never gets a chance to accumulate on any of the tools in [Ed Nisley]’s workshop. According to his blog, the prolific hacker is either building or repairing something on a nearly daily basis. All of his posts are worth reading, but the multifaceted rebuilding of a Anker LC-40 flashlight from a couple months back recently caught our eye.

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The Oscilloscope From 1943

August 23, 2025 by Al Williams 5 Comments

[Thomas] comes up with some unusual gear. In his latest teardown and repair video, he has a vintage 1943 Danish oscilloscope, a Radiometer OSG32 on the bench. It isn’t lightweight, and it certainly looks its age with a vintage cracked finish on the case. You can check out the tubes and high-voltage circuitry in the video below.

If you’ve only seen the inside of a modern scope, you’ll want to check this out with giant condensers (capacitors) and a slew of tubes. We love seeing the workmanship on these old chassis.

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Front and back of the replacement OLED module by Sir68k

Reviving A Piece Of Yesterday’s Tomorrow

August 20, 2025 by Tyler August 12 Comments

To anyone who remembers Y2K, Sony’s MiniDisc format will probably always feel futuristic. That goes double for Sony’s MZ-RH1, the last MiniDisk recorder ever released, back in 2006. It’s barely larger than the diminutive disks, and its styling is impeccable. There’s a reason they’ve become highly collectible and sell for insane sums on e-Bay.

Unfortunately, they come with a ticking time-bomb of an Achilles heel: the first-generation OLED screens. Failure is not a question of if, but when, and many units have already succumbed. Fortunately enterprising hacker [Sir68k] has come up with replacement screen to keep these two-decade old bits of the future alive.

Replacement screens glowing brightly, and the custom firmware showing track info, something you’d never see on a stock RH1.

Previous revisions required some light surgery to get the twin OLED replacement screens to fit, but as of the latest incarnation (revision F+), it’s now a 100% drop-in replacement for the original Sony part. While it is a drop-in, don’t expect it to be easy. The internals are very densely packed, and fairly delicate — both in the name of miniaturization. You’ll need to break out the micro-screwdrivers for this one, and maybe some magnifiers if your eyes are as old as ours. At least Sony wasn’t gluing cases together back in 2006, and [Sir68k] does provide a very comprehensive repair guide.

He’s even working on new firmware, to make what many considered best MD recorder better than ever. It’s not ready yet, but when it is [Sir68k] promises to open-source the upgrade. The replacement screens are sadly not open source hardware, but they’re a fine hack nonetheless.

We may see more MiniDisc hacks as the format’s apparent revival continues. Things like adding Bluetooth to the famously-cramped internals, or allowing full data transfer — something Sony was unwilling to allow until the RH1, which is one of the reasons these units are so desirable.

Silent Speak And Spell Gets Its Voice Back

August 18, 2025 by Al Williams 4 Comments

While talking computers are old hat today, in 1978, a talking toy like the Speak and Spell was the height of novel tech. [Kevin] found a vintage one, but it didn’t work. It looked like someone had plugged in the wrong power adapter, leading to, undoubtedly, one or more unhappy children. There was some damage that suggests someone had already tried to repair it, but without success.

In addition to effecting the repair, [Kevin] took lots of pictures, so if you ever wanted to peek inside one of these, this is your chance. The case had no screws, just clips, although apparently some of the newer models did have some screws.

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Creating A New Keyboard Flex For An Old Calculator

August 12, 2025 by Lewin Day 19 Comments

[Menadue] had a vintage Compucorp 326 calculator with an aging problem. Specifically, the flex cable that connects the button pad had turned corroded over time. However, thanks to the modern PCB industrial complex, replacing the obscure part was relatively straightforward!

The basic idea was simple enough: measure the original flex cable, and recreate it with the flat-flex PCB options available at many modern PCB houses that cater to small orders and hobbyists. [Menadue] had some headaches, having slightly misjudged the pitch of the individual edge-connector contacts. However, he figured that if lined up just right, it was close enough to still work. With the new flex installed, the calculator sprung into life…only several keys weren’t working. Making a new version with the correct pitch made all the difference, however, and the calculator was restored to full functionality.

It goes to show that as long as your design skills are up to scratch, you can replace damaged flex-cables in old hardware with brand new replacements. There’s a ton of other cool stuff you can do with flex PCBs, too.

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