The Francis! Francis! X1 espresso machine in its assembled state. (Credit: Samuel Leeuwenburg)
Recently, [Samuel Leeuwenburg] got his paws on a Francis! Francis! X1 (yes, that’s the name) espresso machine. This is the espresso machine that is mostly famous for having been in a lot of big TV shows in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, the X1 even became a pretty good espresso machine after the manufacturer did some more tinkering with it, including changing the boiler material, upgrading the pump, etc.
In the case of the second-hand, but rarely used, machine that [Samuel] got, the machine still looked pretty good, but its performance was pretty abysmal. After popping the machine open the boiler turned out to be pretty much full of scale. Rather than just cleaning it, the boiler was upgraded to a brass version for better heat retention and other perks.
It’s a problem that few of us will ever face, but if you ever have to calibrate your scanning electron microscope, you’ll need a resolution target with a high contrast under an electron beam. This requires an extremely small pattern of alternating high and low-density materials, which [ProjectsInFlight] created in his latest video by depositing gold nanoparticles on a silicon slide.
[ProjectsInFlight]’s scanning electron microscope came from a lab that discarded it as nonfunctional, and as we’ve seen before, he’s since been getting it back into working condition. When it was new, it could magnify 200,000 times and resolve features of 5.5 nm, and a resolution target with a range of feature sizes would indicate how high a magnification the microscope could still reach. [ProjectsInFlight] could also use the target to make before-and-after comparisons for his repairs, and to properly adjust the electron beam.
Since it’s easy to get very flat silicon wafers, [ProjectsInFlight] settled on these as the low-density portion of the target, and deposited a range of sizes of gold nanoparticles onto them as the high-density portion. To make the nanoparticles, he started by dissolving a small sample of gold in aqua regia to make chloroauric acid, then reduced this back to gold nanoparticles using sodium citrate. This gave particles in the 50-100 nanometer range, but [ProjectsInFlight] also needed some larger particles. This proved troublesome for a while, until he learned that he needed to cool the reaction temperature solution to near freezing before making the nanoparticles.
Using these particles, [ProjectsInFlight] was able to tune the astigmatism settings on the microscope’s electron beam so that it could clearly resolve the larger particles, and just barely see the smaller particles – quite an achievement considering that they’re under 100 nanometers across!
You might wonder why you’d repair a calculator when you can pick up a new one for a buck. [Tech Tangents] though has some old Sony calculators that used Nixie tubes, including one from the 1960s. Two of his recent finds of Sony SOBAX calculators need repair, and we think you’ll agree that restoring these historical calculators is well worth the effort. Does your calculator have a carrying handle? We didn’t think so. Check out the video below to see what that looks like.
The devices don’t even use modern ICs. Inside, there are modules of discrete parts encapsulated in epoxy. There isn’t even RAM inside, but there is a delay line memory, although it is marked “unrepairable.”
There is some interesting history about this line of calculators, and the video covers that. Apparently, the whole line of early calculators grew out of an engineer’s personal project to use transistors that were scrapped because they didn’t meet the specifications for whatever application that used them.
The handle isn’t just cosmetic. You could get an external battery pack if you really wanted a very heavy — about 14 pounds (6.3 kilograms) — and large portable calculator. We are sure the $1,000 retail price tag didn’t include a battery.
These machines are beautiful, and it is fun to see the construction of these old devices. You might think our favorite calculator is based on Star Trek. As much as we do like that, we still think the HP-41C might be the best calculator ever made, even in emulation.
In what could be a big step forward for consumer rights, the Texas Senate recently unanimously voted to pass HB 2963, which references the “Diagnosis, maintenance, and repair of certain digital electronic equipment”. If signed by the governor, this would make Texas the ninth US state to enact such a law, and the seventh pertaining to consumer electronics. Interestingly, this bill saw anti-parts pairing language added, which is something that got stripped from the Oregon bill.
Much like other Right to Repair bills, HB 2963 would require manufacturers to make spare parts, documentation and repair tools available to both consumers and independent repair shops. If signed, the act would take effect in September of 2026. Included in the bill are provisions to prevent overcharging for the provided parts and documentation.
As for how useful this is going to be for consumers, [Louis Rossmann] had a read of the bill and gave his typically eloquent thoughts. The tl;dw is that while there is a lot of stuff to like, this bill leaves open potentially massive loopholes (e.g. assemblies vs parts), while also carving out massive exemptions, which leaves owners of game consoles, boats, cars, tractors, home appliances, etc. stranded with no new options.
White LED bulbs are commonplace in households by now, mostly due to their low power usage and high reliability. Crank up the light output enough and you do however get high temperatures and corresponding interesting failure modes. An example is the one demonstrated by the [electronupdate] channel on YouTube with a Philips MR16 LED spot that had developed a distinct purple light output.
The crumbling phosphor coating on top of the now exposed LEDs. (Credit: electronupdate, YouTube)
After popping off the front to expose the PCB with the LED packages, the fault seemed to be due to the phosphor on one of the four LEDs flaking off, exposing the individual 405 nm LEDs underneath. Generally, white LEDs are just UV or 405 nm (‘blue’) LEDs that have a phosphor coating on top that converts the emitted wavelength into broad band visible (white) or another specific wavelength, so this failure mode makes perfect sense.
After putting the PCB under a microscope and having a look at the failed and the other LED packages the crumbled phosphor on not just the one package became obvious, as the remaining three showed clear cracks in the phosphor coating. Whether due to the heat in these high-intensity spot lamps or just age, clearly over time these white LED packages become just bare LEDs without the phosphor coating. Ideally you could dab on some fresh phosphor, but likely the fix is to replace these LED packages every few years until the power supply in the bulb gives up the ghost.
Recently [Florin] was in the market for a basic uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to provide some peace of mind for the smart home equipment he had stashed around. Unfortunately, the cheap Serioux LD600LI unit he picked up left a bit to be desired, and required a bit of retrofitting.
To be fair, the issues that [Florin] ended up dealing with were less about the UPS’ capability to deal with these power issues, and more with the USB interface on the UPS. Initially the UPS seemed to communicate happily with HomeAssistant (HA) via Network UPS Tools over a generic USB protocol, after figuring out what device profile matched this re-branded generic UPS. That’s when HA began to constantly lose the connection with the UPS, risking its integration in the smart home setup.
The old and new USB-serial boards side by side. (Credit: VoltLog, YouTube)
After tearing down the UPS to see what was going on, [Florin] found that it used a fairly generic USB-serial adapter featuring the common Cypress CY7C63310 family of low-speed USB controller. Apparently the firmware on this controller was simply not up to the task or poorly implemented, so a replacement was needed.
The process and implementation is covered in detail in the video. It’s quite straightforward, taking the 9600 baud serial link from the UPS’ main board and using a Silabs CP2102N USB-to-UART controller to create a virtual serial port on the USB side. These conversion boards have to be fully isolated, of course, which is where the HopeRF CMT8120 dual-channel digital isolator comes into play.
After assembly it almost fully worked, except that a Sonoff Zigbee controller in the smart home setup used the same Silabs controller, with thus the same USB PID/VID combo. Fortunately in Silabs AN721 it’s described how you can use an alternate PID (0xEA63) which fixed this issue until the next device with a CP2102N is installed
As it turns out, the cost of a $40 UPS is actually 10 hours of work and $61 in parts, although one cannot put a value on all the lessons learned here.
Starting January 1st, 2026, Washington state’s new Right to Repair law will come into effect. It requires manufacturers to make tools, parts and documentation available for diagnostics and repair of ‘digital electronics’, including cellphones, computers and similar appliances. The relevant House Bill 1483 was signed into law last week after years of fighting to make it a reality.
A similar bill in Oregon faced strong resistance from companies like Apple, despite backing another Right to Repair bill in California. In the case of the Washington bill, there were positive noises from the side of Google and Microsoft, proclaiming themselves and their products to be in full compliance with such consumer laws.
Of course, the devil is always in the details, with Apple in particular being a good example how to technically comply with the letter of the law, while throwing up many (financial) roadblocks for anyone interested in obtaining said tools and components. Apple’s penchant part pairing is also a significant problem when it comes to repairing devices, even if these days it’s somewhat less annoying than it used to be — assuming you’re running iOS 18 or better.
That said, we always applaud these shifts in the right direction, where devices can actually be maintained and repaired without too much fuss, rather than e.g. cellphones being just disposable items that get tossed out after two years or less.
