Computing – Foxes Den

Gameboy Advance

Another one of Nintendos mass produced hand held gaming systems has arrived, with audio issues. It’s a Gameboy Advance, with no sound,so let’s try to fix it.

Here’s what the listing stated:

Gameboy advance console, complete with battery cover, all buttons works and powers on but no sound, has marks on screen and a few marks on shell and scuffs/indentations.

Photos of exact item you will recieve, FAULTY Uk buyers only. Has cover missing that the power light shines through on

EBay

I’ve purchased this as another addition to my collection of handheld retro gaming consoles. As usual it dosen’t work, and that sometimes keeps the cost down a little. This one has cost me £24:00GBP and I’m happy that that is a fair price for one of these units. Here’s a little about the GBA:

The Game Boy Advance(GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advance. Compared to the Game Boy Color it succeeded, the console offered a significantly more powerful ARM7 processor and improved graphics, while retaining backward compatibility with games initially developed for its predecessor.

The GBA is part of the sixth generation of video game consoles, competing against Nokia’s N-Gageand Bandai’s Japan-only WonderSwan. The original model was followed in 2003 by the Game Boy Advance SP, a redesigned model with a frontlitscreen and clamshell form factor. A newer revisionof the SP with a backlit screen was released in 2005. A miniaturized redesign, the Game Boy Micro, was released in September 2005.

By June 2010, the Game Boy Advance series including revisions, had sold 81.51 million units worldwide, massively outselling its competitors. Its successor, the Nintendo DS, launched in November 2004, was backward compatible with GBA games. GBA sales ended by 2010 after over nine years.

In 2008, the GBA was still Nintendo’s predominant handheld console in terms of market presence and global installed base. It was only in late October 2008 that Nintendo announced that the Nintendo DS had officially surpassed the GBA worldwide in sales. This milestone consolidated the definitive global leadership transition between generations,^[13]although in specific markets, such as the United States, the GBA was only surpassed by the Nintendo DS in sales in late 2009.

Wikipedia

Now just to reiterate. These units are now 25 years old, there were in excess of 81 Million of these units produced and they still command a good price today. Just consider how many of those units have been sent back into landfill, the figure is probably immense. But then again we produce many items en masse, and we have been just chucking stuff away for years. The figures must be mad.

Except for this one. It will be repaired, cherished and reused. And displayed for all to see.

This one has been advertised as having no sound. Just from viewing the sellers photos you can see there is an awful lot of staining around the speaker grill area, maybe some liquid has been spilled here and the speaker is damaged, or maybe the audio capacitor inside has blown. These are usually the two main culprits, but you never know it could be for some other totally different reason. Let’s not make assumptions, let’s see what turns up.

Assessment:

The unit has arrived all in one piece. The battery cover is in place, a little loose at the clip but I might be able to strengthen by heating and gently manipulating it.

Battery contacts show no sign of corrosion but are a little grubby. There are signs of good use but nothing really bad to be honest, all connectors and buttons appear to be doing what they should. The unit is in good need of a thorough clean, as it does look a little worn in that aspect. Screen has very minor scratches, nothing that will cause any issues. The little acrylic lens by the power light is missing and there is as stated, no sound even though we do have a picture and are able to play the games. In all aspects the unit is functioning, just with no audio.

This is a fair unit, it will clean up and if we can get the audio working we have a potentially very good unit.

It is dirty though, and a good clean will make an immense difference.

Repair:

The printer is on and warmed up so before we get repairing, let’s print a suitable display stand for this unit.

Display stand printing

Now let’s open up the unit and see what we have inside.

First there are seven tri wing screws securing the shell. Remove these and the rear of the unit just lifts off.

Next there should be three screws to remove the mainboard but there is only one. Someone has previously been in this unit and has left two screws out. Next we remove the ribbon cable that secures the screen to the mainboard.

We now have free access to both sides of the board and can put everything else to one side to start our fault finding process.

First things first, let’s check the speaker. With the multimeter it’s showing 8 Ohms so I’m happy that the speaker is ok. A quick check for shorts and not one capacitor shows a short, I plug in a set of headphones and I can hear sound, but as soon as they are unplugged there is no sound again. My attention is now at the earphone socket.

On close examination other is a considerable amount of battery acid contamination in the earphone module. This is strange as there is none evident in the battery contact area. A close look around shows some spots of contamination, however these are easily cleaned with some IPA. I have a feeling this may have been a previous issue and the person in here prior to me, has cleaned up, but given up on the repair.

I remove the earphone module, and clean the surrounding area.

A simple check here is to see if there is any continuity between the two tabs that occupied positions 4 & 5 as marked on the mainboard. This check is carried out on the actual module. If you have continuity between these two pins, then in theory the circuit is good, and the speaker should be working. My results here were negative as there was no continuity on this module between those points.

The way the earphone works is thus. Plug the earphone jack in, it opens up the contacts and by passes the external speaker. Remove the earphone jack and the contacts close, opening up the main speaker. If there are contaminants on the contacts, this can prevent continuity and hence there is no sound on the main speaker.

You can double check that this is the issue by soldering a small wire between points 4 & 5 on the mainboard in theory by passing the earphone circuit leaving the speaker circuit open and accessible.

And my suspicions were correct, this small video below was the result of bypassing this part of the circuit.

We have sound in the speaker

Looking inside the earphone socket it was easy to see this piece had a solid lump of contamination exactly where I was expecting to see it. I have no spares of these and to obtain one off of the auction sites is an absolute ripoff. I can order one from our friends in China but I’m looking at a four week turnaround here, and I’m inpatient and not willing to wait that long. I’m going to try and repair it.

I’ve gathered everything up that needs cleaning, buttons, connectors, screws, pads and the suspect connector, and dropped the lot into a small dish of white vinegar. White vinegar is great for removing contaminants and you can actually watch it fizzing away and working. I left these items bathing for about 30 minutes before giving them all a good scrub clean. On the earphone jack I “borrowed” a small bottle cleaner from the wife, it fits right through one side and out the other allowing you to get a really good scrub inside.

I also cleaned the outside thoroughly removing all signs of contamination, the tabs were gleaming when I finished. I then put everything I’d just cleaned in between two sheets of kitchen roll and put them in a cooling oven to dry off.

When dry I took the bottle cleaner again, inserted it back into the earphone jack, sprayed quite a bit of electrical contact cleaner back onto it and vigorously scrubbed again for the next few minutes. When dry, I took the multimeter and again checked for continuity across points 4 & 5 and a tone was heard. Continuity had been restored and the earphone contacts were now working. Plugging in a jack and then removing it confirmed that all was working as it should. It’s now time to put this jack back on the board.

Final touch is to put a tiny pice of clear silicon in place of the missing power light lens on the front of the case. Job done.

Time to reassemble this unit.

Result:

And here we are. The original unit has been thoroughly cleaned, it’s come up ok but is probably a good candidate for a case upgrade and a Capacitor change at some point. That’s just cosmetic though, what really matters is that this unit is now working perfectly, and it sounds just fine.

Fixed, cleaned, on its new stand with its fellow Gameboy counterparts

This unit actually came from a guy who restores these units, I guess he was just having an off day as to be honest, it wasn’t the most difficult issue to diagnose and repair. It honestly took longer to clean this unit than it did to repair it. I’m pleased that I’ve used all the original parts and just been able to do a proper restoration as such.

81 million of these units were produced, so this is just one in that 81 million, that has been saved again from landfill to be enjoyed for many more years to come.

Thanks for passing by. Always most appreciated.

Nintendo Gameboy color console

I’ve purchased a faulty Gameboy Color for my collection. It has no power, so let’s have a look and try to get it working again.

What the listing stated:

Very clean, but doesn’t turn on

EBay

Yep. It’s a Gameboy Colour to me, but as it was sold using the American spelling of “Color” then that’s what it will be addressed as, going forward.

I’ve been after a “Color” to add to my collection for a while now, but it had to fit my very strict quality requirements, in truth it just has to be faulty, and this particular example has met my conditions. I’ve paid £30.00GBP for this example and I’m happy with that, it’s a very fair price.

The good news seems to be that it is in a really good condition, it looks as if the battery door is missing, however they are freely available and this is not an issue should I require one.

These units are known to sustain power failures and the repairs are well documented. By now the unit is close to 30 years old and as time advances components start to fail, these include, but are not limited to:

Power switch failure: either a complete failure that requires replacement or quite simply a simple clean to remove years of tarnish and environmental gunk.
Fuse failure: there are two fuses F1&F2 that are known to fail, normally due to a short somewhere else on the circuit, but sometimes due to a power surge or incorrect addition of an incorrect power supply.
Via failure, small through the board connectors that are known to suffer with corrosion, requiring intervention with the addition of small wires to bypass the issue.
Capacitors – known to fail on a regular basis, it’s sometimes good housekeeping just to get these replaced as they are a contributing factor as to why other components such as the fuses also fail.
Worst case scenario: major corrosion or main board component failure.

We’ll cross these bridges when and if we need to.

Here’s a little info about the Gameboy Color console:

The Game Boy Color(abbreviated as CGB or GBC) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and in international markets the following month. Compared with the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT screen instead of monochrome, a CPU running at up to twice the speed, and four times as much memory. It is backward compatible with games developed for its predecessor. The Game Boy Color was released during the fifth generation of video game consoles and competed with Bandai’s Japan-only WonderSwan, SNK’s Neo Geo Pocket Color, and Sega’s North America-only Genesis Nomad.

The handheld is slightly thicker, taller and has a smaller screen than its immediate predecessor, the Game Boy Pocket, but is significantly smaller than the original Game Boy. As with its predecessors, the Game Boy Color has a custom 8-bit processor made by Sharp. The American English spelling of the system’s name, Game Boy Color, remains consistent throughout the world.

Wikipedia

So, for now, let’s not speculate on its quality and issues until it arrives, when we can then carry out a proper assessment of the unit that has been received.

Assessment:

The package has arrived. The battery lid is missing as kind of expected, I will get a replacement sometime, but for the moment I’ll probably print one out on the 3D printer, it’ll be a totally different colour as I don’t have a “Teal” coloured filament to use. The product label on the rear is also damaged but I can easily get one of these as a replacement, however it’s not essential and will only be of cosmetic appeal.

Missing battery cover and old product label

The front fascia is in a good condition with only a minor scratch on the screen, however there are a couple of dents and dinks on the body where it looks as if it’s been dropped or bashed at some point.

All ports, switches, buttons and sockets look ok and seem to be operating as such with no resistance or signs of stickiness.

All ports appear ok, there are a few dents and bashes visible

Again, the casing is in general fit to use, and in no way causes any issues with its operation when working. It is purely a cosmetic issue that i can address when the unit is finally working.

I have installed two AA size batteries, switched the unit on and it is most definitely dead. Repeatedly flicking the switch does nothing at all, so it is a situation where the unit will have to be opened up and further investigated. The assessment has not thrown up any other issues not already highlighted in the sales documentation, so in general I am quite happy with the outcome at this stage. let’s get inside and see what we can find.

Oops. Wasn’t expecting that. I’ve removed the six “tri” screws and as soon as I’ve separated the two halves, an amount of what looks like battery corrosion “crap” has fallen out as well.

With the two halves separated, I then remove the screen ribbon cable, remove three more screws and the main board lifts out.

There’s some good news here. The contamination looks as if it has been completely isolated to within the battery area, there is no sign of any damage to the Vias, or any other components on the main board.

Main board on both sides, cleaned with IPA

I have obtained the schematic diagram for this circuit board for checking continuity, and i’ve been able to confirm there are no issues with any contamination damaging any traces to the board. We’ve been very lucky here, dodged a bullet, to coin a phrase.

I have removed a set of battery contacts from the battery area, and replaced these with a new set that I have in my spares box. I could clean these, but it’s good to remove all items that were originally contaminated and very possibly contributory to the fault we have today.

I have also cleaned the front and rear of the main board with IPA just to ensure that if there was any issues with contaminants on the board, they’ve now been removed.

The switch has been tested electrically with a multimeter and this is working fine. The three capacitors have been looked over and seem to show no signs of wear or deterioration, they haven’t been properly tested though, so let’s now check fuses F1 & F2.

For reference: Fuse F2 protects the DC jack, whilst F1 protects the battery compartment. Using the continuity mode on the multimeter, a continuity through the fuse should present an audible buzz that let us know the fuse is complete and has not failed in any way.

I start on F2 and get a healthy buzz that tells me F2 is working fine. However fuse F1 is a different story, there is no continuity and there is no sound, I check again and can confirm that this fuse has blown, maybe this is a result of the contamination that was in the battery area?

I’ve now attached the bench power supply supplying a 3v input to clarify the fault.

Fuse F2 has a 3v supply on each side, however our suspect fuse F1 only has a 3v supply on one side confirming that this fuse has blown. Once this fuse has been replaced I can check the voltage supplies on the remainder of the board, especially on the DC-DC regulator board, that supplies varying voltages from 3v – 13.6v required around the main board. On the main board the voltage regulator can be recognised as U5.

A quick check for short circuits doesn’t show anything of concern, maybe when the fuse is replaced it may well open up some other issues, the fuses I will be using are “resettable” fuses. These fuses seem to be the standard now for these units. Most resettable fuses—known as Polymeric Positive Temperature Coefficient (PPTC) or polyswitches—reset automatically and do not have a physical reset button. Once the underlying overcurrent or fault condition is removed, you simply disconnect the power source to allow the fuse to cool down, then you switch on again, if the same issue occurs, there is an obvious issue present that needs investigation, as stated above, once the faulty fuse is replaced I will be able to check other areas on the mainboard for correct voltages.

Just for information the fuse that needs replacing is approximately 4mm in width. You can see the scale in this picture taken alongside a ruler.

Let’s get on with the repair.

Repair:

First off I’ve printed a replacement battery door cover. As stated earlier I don’t have any “Teal” filament so I’ve printed it out on a purple filament. For the purposes of practicality (holding the batteries in place) it will serve a purpose whilst carrying out the repairs.

I have a replacement fuse, this work will now have to take place under the microscope as it’s just so tiny, think grain of rice size and you will understand just how small this component is, and it’s amazing that a component so tiny can completely shut down a unit such as this.

The supplied fuse is even smaller than the one on the board. If the original was 4mm then this one is probably around 1-2mm it really is minute. Here’s a comparison of them side by side on the microscope base.

That said I’ve removed the old fuse, wicked away the old solder and applied some flux and a couple of new dabs of solder. Compared to these new fuses the solder looks massive, I can assure you it isn’t and is greatly magnified.

With the bench power supply providing 3v I’m able to use the multimeter to confirm that the fuses are both working, however there is another issue and I suspect it is something I discussed earlier, but omitted to heed my own advice, about good housekeeping. I’ll come to that in a second.

Power is getting around on the 3v rail and is not an issue. However at the Dc converter I’m not getting the 5v or 13.6v rail, so there is another issue. The new fuse has dropped out again, and this is good as it proves it works. I let it cool for 30 seconds and it is back up and working and I’m able to continue tracing the fault. The big capacitor C32 that sits beside the DC-DC converter appears to be carrying a short, it is probably this that has caused the fuse to previously fail.

And my good advice was to change these capacitors for good housekeeping purposes…..and I didn’t.

Guess what I will be doing next?

There are three Capacitors on the main board and below you can see what their primary functions are:

C32 (Main Power / DC-DC Filter): 100µF, 6.3V (Filters the incoming voltage; if faulty, the system won’t boot or will repeatedly reset).
C35 (LCD Display Filter): 22µF, 16V (Stabilises the voltage to the liquid crystal screen; if faulty, it results in a dim or washed-out image).
C38 (Audio Amplifier / Sound): 100µF, 4V (Powers the speaker and headphone output; a failure here is the leading cause of whisper-quiet audio).

Ok. Fortunately I have plenty of capacitors in my spares box so I was able to replace the three capacitors with no issue.

This done I then decided, prior to any reassembly to see if the power was now being distributed as it should, and I’m pleased to say it is. We have the full range of voltages now coming out of the DC-DC converter.

Now let’s get the unit reassembled, cleaned and then get some tasty pics taken👍

Result:

To finish it off and whilst the 3D printer was still warm, I’ve printed a simple brightly coloured yellow display stand to show it off on.

After a good clean the unit is now in a perfectly good working order. The fault appears to have been the faulty capacitors and battery contamination all probably combining to make the power fuse fail, a perfect storm if you like. The fuse and three capacitors have now been replaced to breathe new life into this game console. Cosmetically it’s still tatty and would probably benefit from a new outer shell and some labelling, however it works and to be honest that is all that really matters.

A small video showing the unit working

Looks different but it works, it’s just a patchwork quilt of a project

I wonder how many of these items just get thrown away because they don’t work? This probably took me about three hours in total with diagnostics and repair. Another piece of retro history restored, now joining my original Gameboy classic as part of my collection.

It’s been a pleasing little project, enjoyable and educational and it’s always good to hear the familiar beeps when it springs back into action.

Another one saved from landfill.

Thanks for passing by, as always it’s very much appreciated.

Dell Axim X50V Handheld

A pocket computer from 2004 that needs a little attention. Let’s get it working.

What the listing stated:

Dell Axim X50V Handheld PDA with Windows Mobile 2003 SE. The PDA is in a used working condition and advertised as for spares or repair due to a faulty battery cover switch, It is also missing its rubber feet and SD slot cover.

The Battery has recently been replaced.

Comes complete with the following.

Desktop Cradle

Power Supply (Damaged lead, please see photo)

Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition Companion CD

3D Game Pack for Dell AXIM X50V

Please see photos for overall condition.

EBay

Here’s some info regarding these units:

The Dell Axim X50v was a high-end Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) released in late 2004. It was a flagship device in the Axim line, notable for its advanced multimedia capabilities, specifically its VGA screen and dedicated graphics accelerator.

Key Technical Specifications

Processor: 624 MHz Intel XScale PXA270.

Display: 3.7-inch transflective VGA TFT color display with \(480 \times 640\) resolution.

Graphics: Intel 2700G multimedia accelerator with 16MB of dedicated video memory.

Memory: 128MB Intel StrataFlash ROM and 64MB SDRAM.

Operating System: Originally shipped with Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition.

Expansion Slots: Dual slots featuring one CompactFlash (CF) Type II and one Secure Digital (SD/MMC) slot with SDIO support.

Connectivity: Integrated 802.11b Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 1.2, and Infrared (IrDA).

Features and Performance

Multimedia & Gaming: The Intel 2700G chip allowed for smooth 3D gaming and high-quality video playback, which were advanced for its time.

Design: Compared to previous Axim models, the X50 series featured a sleeker design with rounded edges and a curved base.

Battery: It uses a user-replaceable 1100 mAh Lithium-Ion battery.

Software Upgrades: While an official upgrade to Windows Mobile 5.0 was released, some users found it ran slower than the original OS due to the slow NOR flash memory used in the X50 series.

Multiple on line sources

Let’s await its arrival to see what we have.

Assessment:

The package has arrived, very well packaged. I have enough bubble wrap now to to last for quite some while.

The item turns on, and appears to be doing what it should and then without even touching the back of the unit, an error appears on the screen.

On the cable directly from the charger unit there appears to be some damaged cable sheath. I have tested the power output and flexing this area does not cause any interruptions to the power supply, it appears to be that only the external earthing of the cable is exposed, so I am happy that it will be fine to just apply some heat shrink tubing to this portion so that the cabling inside is no longer exposed. It looks as if at sometime someone has probably used a knife instead of the correct tooling to access the unit.

There are a couple of rubber feet missing, that just so happen to cover screws that allow access to the unit, further strengthening my suspicions that this unit has been previously accessed internally.

The battery is new, and is holding a good charge of 4.16v at an indicted 100% indication, and it is rated at 3.7v so this appears to be a healthy battery.

Cosmetically this is a nice unit for its age, it has a stylus pen included, along with a charging cradle and original software that came with the unit. There is a small SD card slot cover that is missing, however this is not an issue as I will probably install a small SD card to fill that void. It can also take CF cards and there is also a blanking plate installed to fill that portion of the top of the unit.

Let’s get repairing…

Repair:

I’ve gone straight in at the charger cable and have chopped the offending portion out. I’ve had to do this to be able to get some suitably sized shrink tubing in place. With the wires exposed I strip them back, tin them with some solder and, then finally connect them back together ensuring they are suitably insulated from each other, and safe and secure. It doesn’t look pretty, but it’s safer than it was.

I’ve tested the output with a multimeter and the output is around 6 volts as stated on the power pack, so no issues there.

With the charging cable all sorted it’s time to look at the error message problem associated with the battery latch.

The Dell Axim X50v battery latch often degrades, triggering a false “battery door open” warning or sudden sleep mode shutdown. If your device is frequently going to sleep on its own or reporting a false “battery door open” error, it is typically caused by a loose, dirty, or misaligned latch switch inside the device.

There are a number of options we can go through to attempt to alleviate this issue:

Clean the Contacts: Power down the device, remove the battery, and gently clean the small plastic sensor switch and surrounding contacts inside the battery cavity with a cotton swab dipped in isopropyl alcohol.
Mechanical Shim: Over time, the plastic door can warp, failing to press the microswitch down. By placing a tiny, folded piece of paper inside the microswitch channel to force it into the “closed” position. Then snap the battery door into place.
Permanent Bypass: For an advanced fix, you can bypass the switch entirely by soldering the connections or using conductive paint to bridge the gap on the motherboard, ensuring the system always thinks the door is closed.
Replace the Door or Latch: If the physical latch or door is broken or entirely missing, replacement battery doors can still be sourced from specialty PDA parts sites.

Taking the above suggested remedial actions into consideration I’m going to approach this repair combining two of the above suggestions. Firstly I will clean the contacts as in the first option, this is standard work practice for me. I will probably use a contact cleaner rather than IPA in this instance. I will ignore suggestion number two, as that’s a temporary “Bodge job” fix that should only really be used to test for an issue. The third suggestion of the permanent bypass is what I will use should action number one not be successful, the error is one of those pain in the butt errors that are really unnecessary, and serve no real purpose at all, so let’s permanently disable its ability to reappear. The door itself is in a good order and does not require replacement therefore cancelling out suggestion number four.

So. To recap I will go with suggestions one and three.

Let’s get going then….

Four small star screws are all that need to be removed to get the shell open. Inside everything looks lovely and clean and there sitting at the bottom of the main board is the tiny switch that is causing the issues.

Immediately opposite this switch on the battery panel switch is a small piece of felt that I presume was originally set in place to hold the switch down.

Well, it had moved and was sitting in the wrong place. I’ve cut a small piece of felt that I use for repairing light seals on cameras, cut this to size and placed it in the correct position. The small switch is like a rocker switch, I have cleaned this with IPA and it is now clean. A quick clean around the main board and now it is time to reassemble.

Now all back together, battery now in place and the unit switches on fine. A little shake of the battery panel cover, and no error message appears. In fact no error message appears until I physically open the battery panel, but once it is put back in place and locked it again, the fault clears. The repair as such has been successful. You can see in the picture below, the battery error at the top of the screen, that results in a restricted use, until it is cleared. A standard fault with these units, now repaired.

Everything is working fine on this unit, it voice records, the stylus is present and I have all the original software. It’s year 2K compliant and is working as good now as it ever has, the only items I have not replaced are the two small rubber pads used as feet. Not really necessary and if I ever find anything suitable, I’ll utilise it.

I’ve given this unit probably the best soak test it could ever be given, a rather long session playing original solitaire with my wife. She’s played for a little over an hour solid now and no error codes or faults have appeared.

I’m happy we have a good working item, resurrected from impending doom in a landfill. Let’s get it cleaned and finished off.

Result:

The unit has cleaned up nicely, and for an item that is 22 years old, pre smartphone technology, it has aged really well.

I just love these items from probably the best tech area there ever was, 90s through to year 2k and just beyond. Technology was developing, it was new and exciting with lots of choice unlike today.

It gives me a chance to now go back and buy the items I’d never be able to afford as a youngster/teenager, even though they may be broken. And that’s the fun of it all, learning, repairing and enjoying a momentary rerun of good times gone by.

I love it. And another item is repaired, saved from landfill and another piece of tech history goes on for others to enjoy for a few more years to come.

Thanks for passing by. It’s always very much appreciated.

HP Jornada 540 Series PDA Pocket PC

I have two faulty pocket PC units that I can hopefully combine into a “Frankenstein” unit. Can we get at least one of them working again?

What the listing stated….mostly AI produced I guess?

Untested, no charger, docking station only by Hewlett Packard

32MB Jornada PDA 540 Series Pocket PC Windows & Docking is a highly functional device that comes with some amazing features. This device is perfect for individuals who desire a highly efficient PDA Series. The device is sold as untested and is compatible with the Windows operating system. The brand of this device is HP, which is a well-known brand in the tech industry. The PDA Series is HP Jornada and it comes with an installed memory (RAM) of 16 MB. The display size (pixels) and screen type are unknown, but it has a model number of 540. This device comes with a docking station that allows ease of use for individuals.

EBay

And this is my original old 540 (548) Jornada.

I just know this is going to be a challenge, and to be honest i will have two of these when this one arrives. This is the 16 mb version, released in Mid 2000, currently aged at around 26 years old. I’ve had a dead one sitting in one of my junk drawers for a couple of years now and I though it would be a good challenge to get at least one of them working again, another one of my Frankenstein projects if you must. I have no charger for these, the chargers are priced at a premium with the online pirate community, (Robbing swines!) so I will just have to make do. At least with the docking station that this unit has I have somewhere to start from. I suspect both batteries will be dead so I may have to use some jiggery pokery to get some power into their circuits to see if we can get any signs of life.

It’s safe to say at 0.5mA my old units 3.7v battery is very dead

But whilst we await the arrival of this unit, here is a little bit about this PDA:

The Jornada was a line of personal digital assistants or PDAs manufactured by Hewlett-Packard. The Jornada was a broad product line that included Palm-Size PCs, Handheld PCs, and Pocket PCs. The first model was the 820, released in 1998, and the last was the 928 model in 2002 when Compaq and HP merged. The Jornada line was then succeeded by the more popular iPAQ model PDAs. All Jornada models ran Microsoft Operating Systems that were based on Windows CE.

Jornada 540 series

The HP Jornada 540 series, including models 545, 547, and 548, was released in July 2000. As one of the original Pocket PC platforms, it featured a 12-bit color display, 32MB RAM, and USB connectivity running Windows CE 3.0.

The Jornada 540 series was one of the original models of Pocket PC, when the platform was first announced. Sharing the Operating System, CPU and memory card slot of the 520 series, it featured a 12-bit display (originally advertised as 16-bit display) and USB connectivity. Two models were made available that were identical except for the amount of RAM. The 545 had 16 MB RAM and the 548 had 32 MB RAM.

Wikipedia

Assessment:

The old one I originally had is in fairly good condition, only displaying age related wear and tear. It has its original touch pencil, and is pretty much all there. Its battery (a 3.7v Li-ion) is very dead though (see pictures above) I have no means at present to see if I can charge the battery.

I have however found a charging alternative that will not break the bank. I have found a chap in Germany called Edgar, that runs a business selling cables and peripherals for older units, as well as more up to date systems, his shop is in Hannover and his company is: systemhauszakaria.com. I have managed to get a USB charging unit called a System-S USB Charging cable, that has the connectors required for this unit, and being a USB cable I can use a suitable plug for the mains supply , if required.

The cable includes a data transfer cable that also fits the unit, however my main task is to try and get some power into these units.

Let’s give it a go.

I’ve used the new lead, left the unit on and monitored it for about 90mins, and it does appear to be taking a charge. An Orange light indicates that charging is taking place.

The unit displays as 100% charged with the charging lead in. when disconnected it drops to about 50% but within a couple of seconds it shows as 100% again, this could be a time delay of some sort whilst switching to the battery circuit.

At this point I thought it would be worth getting the back off again, to check the battery charge. If you remember earlier in this post, this old unit that had sat unused in my desk for the last couple of years and when last tested the battery was dead at about 0.5mA. However this is a transformation, as when the battery was now tested its voltage was 4.09v. Now, a 3.7v Li-ion battery such as this should have a max charge voltage of 4.2v, so in theory this battery is in quite good condition considering its age. There may be a little deterioration, however considering this battery is possibly 26 years old it’s held up very well.

The unit will be left for a while to see how the charge holds. 10hrs later, untouched and off charge, I can confirm the power is still indicating 100%, this pleases me as it shows the battery is still good and has a good life inside of it. Very pleasing for what is potentially a 26 year old battery.

The new unit has now arrived and I’m surprised it got here after being posted in a couple of old carrier bags, no padding just a couple of old bags. I suspect the seller wanted it off his hands, they probably had little faith in it ever working again.

However, despite this, the actual unit appears to be in quite a good condition. It’s free from dinks and scratches and both the unit and the charging cable appear to be in a good order.

Now, the good thing is that both these units have their original touch pencils. This cradle has a cable connected to it and a USB socket, however that USB socket is for data transfer and not charging. To charge, the new System-S USB cable has to be connected in line. The cradle will then charge. And it looks as if it is doing just that.

This time i have connected the new unit and cradle to a Power bank charger to see if this works, and it appears to be doing just that. It drained the power bank quite quickly, it only half charged, I’ll have to put it back on the household power tomorrow to fully charge it and check its battery capacity.

Tomorrow has arrived and the unit has been on charge for a couple of hours and it is indicating as fully charged. Back on the bench with the back off I can confirm the battery charge is reading at 4.08v so it is pretty much the same reading as the other unit.

New unit and cradle with power bank charger

These two units are both of the 540 series however the newer one that came with the cradle has only 16MB of memory (The 545) whereas my older one (The 548) has 32MB of memory. It appears that HP created three variants in the 540 range and I now have two of them. The 545 had 16 MB RAM and the 548 had 32 MB RAM, the one that escapes me, the 547 was also a 32MB variant. (I’m going to have to get one now just to complete the set)

Repair:

Less of a repair and more of a resurrection to be fair. I said it would be a Frankenstein project, and that’s exactly what it has been. Both units have charged well despite my concerns, they have been charged in a monitored environment and neither are showing signs of overheating, irregularities or any battery swelling or other issues. The battery management system on both batteries seems to be doing its job, and doing it very well.

I’m going to use this section to test some of the functions, to look at the installed program package and at the same time monitor battery usage along the way.

And as with all my projects, a thorough clean of the units is going to be carried out, it’s just got to be done.

But first I’m going to leave these units for a few days to see if the batteries drain.

Three days later it’s good to see that when turned on, both units are holding a similar, slightly discharged reading that is to be expected. I’m pleased at this, and it appears that both batteries are holding out well and working very well after a long period of inactivity.

Left again for a couple of more days and both units are now prompting me to accept that the UK has now turned to daylight saving time, (as it has) and this is another good sign that shows that all is working as it should be.

What am going to do with these units? Please don’t ask me that as I just don’t know. I’m probably just going to use them for note taking, maybe for a to do list for my work room, but in reality they will probably just get stored in a sealed bag with some silica bags to keep them dry, until I either move them on or find another use for them.

The package originally installed on these units consisted of the following:

Microsoft Pocket PC Suite: Pocket Outlook (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Inbox), Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Windows Media Player (for audio/video), and Pocket Internet Explorer.
HP Productivity Tools: HP Home Menu, HP Task Switcher, HP Image Viewer, HP Backup, and HP Emergency Backup.
Third-Party & Utilities: LandWare OmniSolve Calculator, Developer One CodeWallet Pro (for passwords), AvantGo (for offline web browsing), and PeaceMaker (for infrared contact exchange).

One item I wanted to test is the infrared transfer ability between units. I’ve made a small file within the word program, set one unit to transmit on infrared and the other to receive. On sending the file, this task worked fine.

The transfer worked however both units have to be within a very close line of sight to do so, it just shows how much file transferring has moved on within the last 25 years or so. We have been spoilt.

These units are both working fine.

Result:

There are many uses listed for these units online including MP3 players and television controls. However, I think using as a to do list for my workspace is probably the most appropriate usage for me. I need organisation in my life, so what if I’m using technology from quarter of a century ago.

Why not?

Two perfectly good items saved from landfill.

Small victory, and that’s good enough for me.

Many thanks for passing by. It’s always very much appreciated.

PS5 DualSense controllers

When the youngsters of the clan, drop surprise repairs on you at family gatherings.

It’s great when one of the youngsters of the clan come up to you at a family gathering and greet you thus, “Oi, uncle Dave, have a look at this for us will you?” and then they just disappear into the crowd as I’m now holding a couple of items I’ve never been exposed to before, in this instance a pair of Playstation 5 Dual sense controllers. (I had to google to find out what they were!)

Apparently they don’t work, or are having difficulties, and it’s now down to me to find out what’s wrong.

Now I’m not a gamer in the true sense of the word. I like, and have repaired and own a good few hand held devices that have been featured within these blog pages, but I do not own a console, I never have. However I’m lucky in that I know a few people who do have these consoles, who I can go to and test how they are behaving, but the good thing is that these controllers can also be tested without a games console and just require a computer with a USB port, and I do have one of them, a clever move by the manufacturer me thinks.

First thing I did here was to plug them in to a USB supply to charge the onboard battery. Each one has a 3.7v rechargeable battery that should give between 6-12 hrs of activity depending on how vigorously the unit is being used. When charging it glows on and off orange until it is charged and then the glowing just stops. Both these units took about 2.5 hrs to fully charge, and they seem to both be holding a good charge seeing one of them, the black version has not been used for some time.

Let’s get them connected up to a PC.

A simple good quality USB cable is the communication method between the controller and the PC. Next, you go to the address: https://dualshock-tools.github.io and here is where you will be doing those checks on the controller that sits in your hand. Seeing I don’t really know what’s wrong with the controllers I have been trusted with, I think this is the best place for me to start my investigation as the site does do some good, and thorough testing.

I have two controllers to check so I start by plugging in the Black controller, clicking connect on the screen gets access into the memory of your controller and all the firmware detail and build date is displayed in front of you. Cool!

Just under where this information is displayed we enter the first series of tests, a bank of 8 basic function tests that check all bells and whistles (as such) are operating as they should. This Black controller passed all these tests with flying colours.

The checks are thus:

USB controller: here the connection is tested a simple pass or fail
Buttons: all buttons have to be continually pressed until they turn green on the screen, a simple pass or fail
Adaptive trigger: the system puts a resistance on the two triggers representing various triggers on guns and switches experienced in various games, if there is suitable resistance here the result is a pass.
Haptic Vibration: this tests the vibration motors in the controller, if it’s working then it’s a pass
Lights: all lights on the controller are cycled through displaying the whole range. Simple pass or fail
Speaker: a tone is played through the built in speaker, a simple pass or fail.
Headphone jack: a simple test of the plugin headphone jack – pass or fail
Microphone: a simple test by blowing in the on board microphone checks if it’s working, a simple pass or fail.

And as stated the first controller, the black one has passed all of these tests. Impressive. The next tests are all centred around the two thumb pads, their return to centre position and their all around circular motion and their calibration.

The left pad was showing slightly off centre and I was able to make some minor adjustments via the program interface to correct this issue. The good news was that it is not a constant stick drift, and the mechanism does not require replacement, it is easily adjusted. With settings saved, disconnect the controller, reinstall it and re check the calibration and it should all be good. And it was. With minor adjustments made to this controller I am pleased to say it is working as it should, it is now repaired and will be heading back to its owner.

Now onto the second item, the white controller. I put this controller through the exact same testing protocol as the first one, all was going well until we got to the buttons section where this one failed. The down button on the left hand side of the controller is unresponsive, you can see this in the photos below

Failed button highlighted on Controller and screen

All other tests on this controller were fine. Again there was a little drift on the sticks that I was able to adjust and they are now both as central as they can be, operating well through their whole range. I will go through the repair and retesting of this pad in the section below the YouTube video that I have highlighted below.

A while ago, if your game pad was playing up, there wasn’t really a great deal you could do apart from replace the thumb controllers if you were experiencing issues such as a little stick drift (when a controller is moving on its own accord). A bad case of stick drift would require you to change the controller mechanism. However, some very intelligent people within the gaming community have put together a number of packages to test your game controllers, but the one mentioned in the video below has been a game changer as such, as it also allows adjustments to be made and saved and thus extending the life span of the components within, thus reducing the need to replace and dispose of those components prematurely. Have a look, it explains the testing protocols and checks them against other programs.

The whole testing procedure checked and compared with other testing programs

Repair and retest

It’s a simple enough activity to get inside of the controller, some clips, and four screws get you inside the package, getting beyond this though to the controller buttons where we need to be is a little bit more in depth. So here we go…

I’ve dismantled the controller as I said I would, initially the process requires four screws removing, after you first gently prise off the black decorative plastic surround as in the pictures below.

When you remove these screws the next task is to gently prise the two shells apart that then reveal the base of the controller

At this point the battery needs to be removed and that is a simple plug disconnection, the battery plate has a single screw in it that needs removing. Before you remove the battery plate there are four ribbon cables that need removing, if you don’t do these then you will probably tear them and need to replace them. Believe me, I have done this in the past and ruined the tiny microphone ribbon at the very front. It’s not expensive to repair, just an unnecessary expense. Don’t rush it. Another 3 screws removed and we can now take off the top cover and get to where we need to be.

Top removed exposing fault pad area to the left

As soon as the top was removed I could see the potential issue with the controller direction pads. The pads are a rubber base with a carbon pad that makes contact with the circuit board below. Sometimes a simple clean of these pads can be sufficient to regain a connection between the two, but in this case it was plain to see that the pads on both sides were both well worn and to be honest they both required replacement.

The two contact points ringed in red that were sufficiently worn

Normally a good clean with IPA will work

As stated I did give a clean to all contact points with a solution of IPA, reassembled and tested again with no change in performance, the fault remained. I will now need to purchase a new pad assembly and replace the film circuit board below them. Fortunately these are freely available and will cost no more than £6:60GBP to replace. And considering a new controller would cost at least £60:00GBP it’s worth the small investment to restore it.

I now just have to wait to receive these items and get them installed.

The items arrived just as in the photos above, and following the previous instructions to dismantle the unit, I have removed the old conductive film sheet and replaced this with the new one. I have also removed the silicone pads with the carbon inserts and these have also been replaced.

Now all I have to do once I have connected the ribbon cables is to get the outer shell back on the controller. Once this is done, I can log in and start the testing process once again, connect the controller to it and then commence a full test of its functionality.

And as you can see in the above photographs, this has been a successful outcome. Where the left hand side lower button had failed, the new conductive film has addressed the issue and this handset now has full functionality and is working as it should be.

Next I’m just going to do a re-calibration, to check that the sticks haven’t drifted in anyway. If we are in a good position, we can then class this repair as successful and then it can then be passed back to my nephew to carry on shooting aliens, and he can then continue his mission to save the world.

Result:

Two controllers have now been serviced and are both working well and within tolerance. They are about to be returned their owner so he can get them back into use, killing aliens and saving the world from a zombie apocalypse (or whatever he does with them)

Not having a lot of experience prior to receiving these two controllers, I was a little doubtful about where to start and what to check. However after reading up on them, and their operation, I was able to pick up a lot of advice and information regarding their manufacture and serviceability. I like to think that I’m well clued up on these items now as I can disassemble one in minutes, replace parts and reassemble without having any screws or parts left over ( Always a good sign 👍)

And to round things off I have now been given one of his friends controllers to repair as well, so I must be doing something right!

Thanks for passing by, as always it’s always very much appreciated.

Packard Bell DB128 personal organiser

Another personal organiser / PDA from 1992. The Packard Bell DB128. Does it work? Is it just needing new batteries? Who knows? Let’s have a look.

What the listing stated:

The Vintage Packard Bell DB128 Deluxe PDA Personal Organiser from 1992 is a charming piece of retro computing history. Manufactured by Packard Bell in China, this personal organiser is a single unit that serves as a reminder of the technology of the early 90s. With its vintage appeal, this item is ideal for collectors of vintage computing devices or those who appreciate the nostalgia of older electronics. The Packard Bell DB128 Deluxe PDA is a unique and rare find for those curious about the evolution of personal digital assistants. Needs new batteries at the very least. For repair or spares only

EBay

I love these postings on the selling sites, no actual real description of the state and condition of the unit you are purchasing, only a potted history of the item with the standard EBay get out excuse of “For repairs or spares only” I know, I can hear you saying, “ Well don’t buy it then – fool” and I agree with you wholeheartedly, I am a fool and I’ve brought it. But, it only cost me £3:30GBP so I’m happy with that, a good price for a bit of retro tech from 1992.

There is a good chance that this unit does only need some power, wouldn’t that be good? However it wouldn’t make very good copy on a site that looks at fixing other peoples castoffs, but I can happily go with the odd quick fix once in a while.

I love these old PDA devices from the 90s, and lots of people do, I guess some of us are still stuck in a period where technology was so wonderfully new and interestingly different. Whereas today everything is pretty much the same and controlled by a few massive organisations, when back in the 90s there were lots of different companies for you to choose your wears from.

I’ve certainly worked on a few on this site, just check the links on the home page to see what I have worked with.

If you are interested in the 90s PDA technology, may I suggest you look at this guys YouTube site. His name is Hugh and his channel is called Handheld Computing and he is a very interesting chap, and the technology is superb. Give him a visit.

Ok. Let’s read a little bit more about this unit:

The Packard Bell DB128 (also known as the DB-128 or DB 1280 IR) is a vintage handheld personal organiser released in 1992. Also known as the Oregon Scientific DB-388P. It was designed as a compact digital databank to store contacts, manage schedules, and perform basic calculations.

Technical Specifications

The device features the following hardware details:

Memory: 128 KB total memory, with a user-available area of 131,070 bytes.

Display: An 8-line by 32-character dot-matrix screen.

Power: Operates on two or three CR-2025 or CR2032 button cell batteries, often with an additional battery for memory backup.

Physical Dimensions: Approximately 15.8 x 8.2 x 2.3 cm, weighing about 252g.

Connectivity: Data can be synchronised with a PC via a serial cable or infrared (IR) LEDs.

Core Functions

The DB128 includes several built-in applications for daily organisation:

Phone Book: Stores multiple contact categories including names, fax, mobile, and email addresses.

Scheduler: Features a calendar and appointment system with start/end times and audible or silent alarms.

Utility Tools: Includes a 12-digit calculator, home and world clocks, currency/metric converters, and a memo/expense tracker.

Security: Offers a password protection feature for sensitive data.

Google

I just have to wait for its arrival now and I’m looking forward to that, I won’t speculate anymore about what might be, I best just wait for its arrival to carry out a suitable assessment.

Assessment:

It’s arrived and good god, it looks as if it’s been stored in a vacuum cleaner bag 🤦‍♂️ it’s utterly filthy, funny how none of the original photos showed this isn’t it? I don’t believe this is the same unit as was in the original posting.

If I’d have taken this into the house with the wife present, i think she’d have murdered me, or at least severely injured me one way or another… So that is why you will see that these pictures were taken at the kitchen sink, the first thing this unit received was a clean with a cloth and warm water. After that it’s had a good polish and it is now nice and clean. Now it can come further into the house, into my domain!

Now the unit is tidy, everything is as it should be, and the screen is in a good condition barring a few minor age related scuffs. It’s dead, and that’s to be expected, I’m just hoping there are no major surprises awaiting me when I get the back off to have a check inside.

Three screws later and the back is off. All three batteries are still in place, all very dead but fortunately there is no corrosion or battery leakage. All that is visible is some age related tarnishing of the battery enclosure, this however has no effect on the board or electronics and will tidy up with a little brush over with some relevant cleaning solution.

With these little database units you were always supposed to change the two main batteries and get them in place before even considering removal of the single back up battery. This was purely to ensure that saved data was not erased from the memory bank, however as all these batteries are dead, it’s no real issue here. The backup battery is protected with a single screw that needs to be removed to allow access. This unit was able to transmit and receive data using infrared technology. If you look at the picture above with the case off, on the left and the right of the chassis you will see a white diode component, these are the infrared transmitter and receiver parts of the data transfer circuit.

The batteries needed within this unit are CR2025 mini cell batteries, I currently only have CR2032 batteries, they look the same but just what is the difference? Thanks for asking, i will now explain.

The letter “C” refers to the batteries chemical compound, “Lithium” or to be absolutely precise “Lithium Manganese Dioxide”.
The letter “R” refers to the battery shape, in this case its “Round”.
The numbers “20” refer to its diameter in millimetres in this case “20mm”.
The numbers “25 or 32” refer to the “Height or Thickness” of the battery in millimetres “2.5 or 3.2”

And there endeth the lesson for today. So, in all aspects the batteries are exactly the same, 3 volts, but there is just a slight variation of 7/10 of a mm in thickness. In some cases this is not an issue where there might be that slight bit of space for you to use an alternative cell, however in the case where tolerances are tight such as in watch mechanisms, that tiny difference in size may not allow you to reassemble the backplate to the watch. I hope that clears up the difference between the two coin cell letter and number allocations.

I can use CR2032 batteries in this unit as there is the space. I have some CR2025 batteries on order, so I will comply with the original standard when they arrive. But for the purpose of testing further, the CR2032 batteries will suffice.

Repair:

What repair, to be honest it’s been more of a clean, I’ve cleaned the inside circuit board with some IPA and a brush and cleaned all the crevices with a pick and finished off the outer case with a good coat of antiseptic cleaner and polish. I have inserted the three required batteries and switched the unit on.

Not a great deal more I can say. It’s clean, in fact it’s very clean, and fully functional.

Result:

It’s 34 years old, it’s been discarded, put aside for disposal, given one last chance in its chequered life and I purchased it for £3:30GBP. It’s now revitalised, cleaned inside and out and been given a new lease of life. One of those very simple clean and repairs that anyone can do. And another item is saved from landfill.

This will now be added to my ever growing collection of old PDA equipment from the 90s, a collection that is starting to grow at quite a considerable rate. I have a few more little projects similar to this in the pipeline, quite similar to this one but requiring quite a bit more attention. Please keep passing by to keep up to date with these “mini” projects.

Once again, thank you for passing by, it is always very much appreciated.

At last, the new work space takes shape.

The workspace is starting to take shape. Normal service to resume soon. Maybe I can catch up with this backlog now.

I’d pretty much closed down my workspace, when we sold our old house back in August last year. Everything I used the most was pretty much moved into storage as we prepared to make the move to our new home. All I was left with was a few screwdrivers, so needless to say, content on this site dwindled, whilst purchasing continued, hence I currently have 29 posts, in draft, awaiting completion as I don’t have a suitable workspace or the equipment available at the moment to complete any of them. I even purchased a 3D printer in November of last year for my birthday, it has been in storage all this time, I have now brought it home and have now made my first 3D print, that post can be found here: My First 3D print attempt

Things are about to change.

We pretty much have every room in the house now up and running. We are settled now and the final boxes have been attended to within the house, and we are finally getting to the point where regular recycling visits to the tip to get rid of the old cardboard boxes are finally coming to an end.

The next stage in my wife’s own words are, “ we can now get Dave’s room sorted.” The words I’d been waiting for.

My workspace – a wall in a guest bedroom

I’m calling it my room but in theory it’s not a whole room. It’s part of the third bedroom where I am probably just occupying one wall at the end of a guest bedroom, it’s all I need, I have a Garage to do all the blokey stuff in, this space is purely to work upon all my cameras and other more delicate items of work.

Whilst visiting a certain Scandinavian furniture store i have purchased a basic setup for me to begin working on. The good thing about these furniture systems is that you can start with a basic layout and just expand upon it, and that’s the plan.

I have a desk and drawer system arriving today, and quite a bit of construction to do, once this is in place then I can start getting my gear from storage and get it back into place. It will be nice to have all my equipment in a permanent placement, without having to take it all apart and storing everything back in boxes after I have used it. I’m looking forward to this as to be honest, I’ve really missed it. However I have been pre occupied around the house and there has been an awful lot to keep me busy, there’s been no rest really, I must be very wicked 😂

So as of 10th March, I’m quite pleased to say that my workspace is now ready to use. It’s still a way from being complete as I still have stock to bring from storage along with the last few tools and boxes of components. There are still shelves and storage to put in place, but at long last I can now sit down and finally start to play catch up with my ever expanding backlog.

The workspace….liable to be moved about yet again

I must admit I’ve moved things about, and I’m probably liable to move things about again over the coming days and weeks, even months as I can’t quite decide how the setup should look. It’s probably going to be a few sessions of me not being able to find tools, parts and cameras that will help me decide just what, should be where. In the meantime, it’s good that a kind of normality has been restored, and I can now start to resume where I left off all those months ago.

My First 3D print attempt

I’ve had a 3D printer for 4 months now. I am now able to use it and today I have produced my first 3D printed item. A Poop bin. Yes you did read that correctly….

Those of you who watch this site with eager anticipation (I’m joking 🙃) may remember a post that I published in November of 2025, when as a result of all the money I received as gifts for my birthday, I went out and purchased myself a Bambu PS1 Combo 3d printer: I’ve taken a dive….

I’ve not printed a single thing 3D in my life and to be quite honest I haven’t got a clue on what to do, but as usual I’m willing to learn. I’ve had a number of occasions over the past couple of years where I’ve needed an obsolete part for a project, I’ve had to go as far as Italy to get parts printed whereas with this equipment I could have done so my self, cogs and gearing are a regular item that I come across that I could also use this equipment to produce. See, it will serve a use to me once I have my workspace configured.

That time has arrived….

Now we are safely moved in to our new home, and all the important stuff has been attended to, attention has switched to getting my work area up and running, and I will shortly be uploading a post regarding the inside my work area.

However, this piece of equipment has been in storage since November, almost 4 months now and needed to be put into action as soon as possible. Seeing that the workbench was now in place it only seemed right that the printer was now unpacked.

It’s a big box, and has a lot of packaging

Even to do the unboxing there is a QR code to link you through to the process to follow, it is very informative as these printers are packaged so well, there are screws and supports to remove, put in place to stop sensitive parts being damaged or dislodged during transport.

The AMS system installed on the top of the printer

When you follow this system of unpacking, you are also linked to an app called, “Bambu Handy” that really is the control system for your printer. Here you register, set up blue tooth and WiFi options and the app then becomes your monitoring and control for your printer. At the moment I’m sticking with just this app, once you are more experienced there are a number of more complex programs you can then use for design and editing purposes. For now I have found my level. I now install what is called the AMS system on top of the printer, it is an automated feed for using more than one coloured filament, the printer can move from one colour to the next automated, without interrupting the print process.

But that creates a little waste product….

And there is my first print project.

When the printer initially primes, or when it changes colour it will create a little waste as it clears the nozzle of one filament to use another. This waste then exits the rear of the printer onto the floor, or work bench depending on the positioning of your printer. For this reason people then install what is known as a “Poop bin” to collect such waste. Here is a draft picture of the one I will print for this printer.

Now, this app fortunately comes with absolutely thousands of pre programmed prints covering all aspects of printing technology from home, toys, educational and everything in between. Fortunately, because “me” as the totally clueless, doesn’t have to learn basic CAD and slicing techniques, because some clever individual has already done that for me. And for that I am very grateful.

There are a number of tools and equipment you can print for these printer units, it’s as if they are self maintaining and developing. All very clever stuff.

But a “Poop bin” is a necessity if you don’t want to suffer the wrath of your other half by spewing out randomly produced plastic waste on to her nice new carpets. That is not conducive to a happy and peaceful existence 😂

So a “Poop bin” is my first ever 3D project….so here goes.

A simple selection on the app, of the item you require, a few settings get amended, the printer does some calibration checks and then the process starts, this particular print takes about 4.5 hrs to complete. Fortunately the system has an inbuilt camera so you can check progress or even get a timelapse at the end. You can basically shut the door, turn off the light and walk away, you can always check in, but sitting there just watching for 4.5 hours can get a tad boring, and is just like watching paint dry, so why not just walk away and do something more useful. I did just that, and went to assist the wife with some chores.

Here is the said timelapse of the print. 4.5 hrs in about 30 seconds. The dark periods are brief and were just me messing with the onboard light settings.

My 3D poop bin printing

Here’s the actual finished article, and situated at the printer.

So that’s it really. Still learning but quite happy with what’s been learned so far, the desk and everything needs some fine tuning and there is a lot of gear still to be added but we are now off to a flying start.

Current position with anti vibration feet now installed

One thing I did notice was that there was some vibration and noise, however I did get gifted some anti vibration feet with the package when I purchased the printer, I have now installed these so hopefully the next print will be a little bit more peaceful, not that it was particularly bad anyway.

And that concludes this post. Thanks for reading, it’s always appreciated and I hope this day finds you well and at peace.

Sharp OZ-7000 Wizard

The Sharp OZ-7000, Amongst one of the first electronic organisers and precursor the PDA. Needs repair. Or does it?

What the listing stated:

Not working. I have replaced the two batteries and cannot get it to work. I have not touched the memory battery. See picture for actual item. Case is a bit sticky unfortunately with age.

EBay

First of all, what is it?

The Sharp OZ-7000 Electronic organiser / Calculator

The Sharp Wizard series, introduced by the Sharp Corporation in 1989, was among the first electronic organizers and a precursor to personal digital assistants (PDAs). The debut model, the OZ-7000 (known as the IQ-7000 in Europe), combined organizer functions with an IC Card expansion system, allowing users to install software and memory cards. Over time, Sharp refined the series with larger displays, increased memory, and enhanced features, such as infrared communications port for wireless data transfer, touch-sensitive displays, and clamshell designs.

The out-of-the-box functionality of the OZ-7000/IQ-7000 included a memo pad, a telephone pad, calendar and scheduling with alarms and repeating events, multi-time zone clocks, and a calculator, thus covering all the basic functions found in PDAs since. The keyboard was not QWERTY, although later models, starting with OZ/IQ-8000, changed the orientation of the screen and keyboard layout.

The OZ-7000 was about 6.3 inches (163 mm) tall, 3.7 inches (94 mm) wide closed, 7.25 inches (184 mm) open, and 0.85 inches (21.5 mm) thick closed, making it much larger than later PDAs. It featured a serial port (proprietary connector) to attach to a Windows PC or Macintosh or another OZ-7xxx/OZ-8xxx device, an optional thermal printer port and a cassette tape backup. The OZ-7000/IQ-7000 model featured 32 kilobytes of internal memory and a 96 x 64 dot (8 lines x 16 characters or 4 lines x 12 characters) black and white LCD with controllable contrast but without a back light. A major advertised feature of the model was the IC Cards expansion slot for accessory cards developed by Sharp.

Wikipedia

A bit of a break from the mountain of photographic equipment I have been dealing with lately, I thought I’d take a bit of a detour and have a look at some prehistoric PDA gear, as I have also done in the past, as you will no doubt be aware of, if you have ever read any of my posts on Psion organisers.

From what I can gather, this one is a little beaten up and battle scarred, and quite simply does not work. I’ve paid the princely sum of £8:54GBP after i managed to knock the seller down by a few pounds. I just now have to await its arrival before we can carry out a thorough assessment.

Assessment:

Its here, everything is as it should be apart from the base being a bit loose in one corner where the clip inside has broken, however that’s not an issue and can probably be repaired.

The exterior is a little sticky but again, this is just one of those 1989 rubber enhanced products where the vulcanised rubber coating has started to degrade. A post I previously published shows how I deal with these 80’s degrading rubber issues: Sticky, Rubber camera grips

The unit has three batteries, under the rear shell. These are two CR2032 and one C1616 coin cell, with the C1616 being the units memory battery. These batteries will need to be tested as this unit does not start up, the whole unit is dead. The previous owner has stated that they have changed the two main batteries but not the memory battery, testing them will tell.

Beyond that, all catches, buttons and switches seem to be performing as expected, no cracks or major damage to the external shell, or screen area. Naturally there are signs of usage as you would expect on an item that is now 36 years old, light signs of age related wear and tear, nothing of concern that is detrimental to its operation.

Repair:

I’m leaving the broken clip on the rear shell as it is, it’s not visibly exposing anything of the interior and to be honest needs quite a bit of force to show the gap, it’s not a problem and not necessarily requiring a repair. In normal handling it is not even noticeable, so it will remain as it is.

The main fault, and I apologise in advance, as it was not really a fault, was a misunderstanding of the unit’s operation by the previous owner. When you take the back off and change the batteries, you have to operate a switch so as to not interrupt the backup of the system.

Battery backup switch there is a “B” and a “A” setting

There are two modes and these are explained below. This switch is located inside the battery compartment and is used when replacing the main batteries to prevent data loss.

B stands for Backup, a setting used during the battery replacement process. The device relies on a small, separate backup battery (often a C1616 coin cell) to maintain memory while the main batteries are removed, provided the switch is in this position.
A stands for Active (or simply the normal operational position), which is the standard setting for everyday use once new batteries have been installed.

To replace the main batteries safely and avoid losing your data, you must follow a specific procedure that involves setting this switch to “B”, changing the main batteries, and then switching it back to “A” after the new batteries are inserted.

The issue here was that the batteries had been changed and the switch was put into the correct “Backup” mode. However the previous owner had not placed the switch back into the ”Active” mode when the batteries were changed and the back of the shell was put back in place. Hence the unit would not work as in theory the batteries were locked out of use. On opening the shell up, this was the first thing I looked at, and when the switch was put into the correct position the unit sprung into life once the “On” button was pushed.

When the switch was set, power applied and the unit reset to 1989

When the unit was turned on it then reset to 1989, I was able to change the times and date, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the date range on this unit covered the years 1901-2099. Considering this unit was released 11 years prior to the Y2K bug of 2000, it showed some advanced thinking in the implementation of these units.

Happily updated to the current date and year

One of the issues with this particular unit is that there is no backlight on the display, the display is black and white and the only change that can be made is to the contrast. Back lights eventually arrived with later models. So use of these units was pretty much limited to daylight hours, or whilst under a light source of some kind, that said the display is very good and has a good contrast range.

The unit with an example function card installed

The last thing I have done is clean with some IPA to remove the years of gunk and I think this was quite successful

After this I have finished off with a nice polish with some car cockpit cleaner. It’s finished this repair off just nicely.

Result:

Here we have a nicely presented, clean and fully working example of a nice little bit of personal computing history.

So. With these older items, it’s sometimes good to just have an awareness of how these old timers operate. Get an instruction manual, study how it works, it can make the difference between selling it as damaged, when in fact there really was nothing really wrong with it. The seller could have sold this for 3 or 4 times the value that I purchased it for, but I’m not worried about that, as far as I’m concerned I got myself a bargain and to be honest, that doesn’t happen that often.

It’s a win win situation as far as I’m concerned, I win as I now have a lovely example of pre PDA technology, and it’s a small win for the environment as another piece of “Waste” has been saved from landfill.

Thanks for passing. Thanks for being there. Always appreciated 🙏

Sinclair Cambridge Memory Calculator

What the listing stated:

This auction is for a used cased Sinclair Cambridge Memory pocket calculator and original case. The item is in very good cosmetic condition as is the case which still has its instruction sheet. The item is powered with 4 x AAA batteries (not supplied) and does work although 1 of the digits is faulty and does not display (see pictures) plus the number 5 digit is not working. Please refer to the pictures and description provided before bidding.

EBay

So it does work, but it doesn’t? This calculator is a model one memory calculator, that dates from around July 1973, ( Actually May 1975 see photos below) and is one of the earliest available mass produced electronic calculators available in the UK at the time. And it was produced in collaboration with a guy called (Sir) Clive Sinclair, who in the following decade would become synonymous with tech development in the UK. It retailed at £29:95GBP, and given the rate of inflation, its cost today in 2025 would be a staggering £463GBP. Wow!

I love collecting old calculators, I couldn’t afford one back in the day when they arrived on the scene as I was only a child and probably only on about 20 pence a week pocket money, and savings and investments were not even known to me at this period of my life. The thought of saving that precious 20p a week for the next 150 weeks wouldn’t have even remotely crossed my mind. What no sweeties?

But I can buy them now, so no big issue!

So this one has become available, and I’ve been tracking it for a week or so, there were nine other people watching but I secured it for a total including postage of £14:49GBP, and I’m happy with that, it’s a piece of retro history for a very good price. Even if it remains faulty, or should I say working but not working?

This unit obviously has its problems, the button number 5 doesn’t work and one of the led digits is also not functioning. Hopefully I can get these issues sorted and soon have the calculator back up and working as it should. That would be nice. I’m looking forward to this little project.

Assessment:

It’s arrived and it’s a lot smaller than I anticipated. It has a separate hard protective case, which is a nice touch and a small info sheet on its operation. Cosmetically it’s in a good condition with just minor signs that are age related. There are no gouges or scars so it has been treated well, though it’s not pristine.

Batteries go in ok but, I believe old style AAA batteries were a little wider than those used today and would sit a bit more snuggly in the battery compartment. As you can see there is a little wriggle room here, and springs at both ends need adjusting to help prevent this. I may have to use some spacers so the batteries sit tighter in place.

The switch is a bit temperamental and can be seen quite plainly from the battery compartment. It looks strangely out of place with no batteries in place.

It is such a basic design solely relying on tension of a small metal plate to short across the connection points. Should be a simple enough issue to sort.

There is a little battery contamination on one of the battery contacts, again this shouldn’t be too much of an issue and should clean up ok with some IPA.

It was originally reported that there was one unresponsive button this being the number “5”, there is also another unresponsive button, the multiplication “X” button. There is also one LED indicator, the 4th one in from the left hand side that is not operating. Add to this the issue with the On/Off switch and the contamination, and the original faults reported in the original sales pitch have now doubled. I just wish people would spend more time going over the issues and then give actual accurate feedback as to what the real faults are, it would make for a far more pleasant buying experience. Rant over.

There doesn’t seem to be a single screw holding the body together, I just hope it isn’t all heat welded.

Let’s try to get inside.

Repair:

Well it cracked open quite nicely with no issues with just a plastic flat prise tool. The main board just sat comfortably in the unit, secure, and not a screw in sight. Strange as time moves on some of the games units I come across have best part of fifty of the little blighters to remove before you get anywhere. sometimes the old way is good.

The dismantling of the keyboard is a little complex and you have to take time and make sure you know how it’s going to go back together, it’s just a bit fiddly. The board is quite straightforward and as soon as I see some of the IC’s it dates the unit perfectly. The chips are dated May 1975, and that is about 18 months younger than what I originally thought, it’s quite informative to get inside and learn occasionally and this is just as good as having a birth certificate presented to you. All good stuff.

I’ve proved that there isn’t a problem with the missing digit on the display as using my multimeter in diode mode I am able to prove that this LED is working fine.

The picture shows just one part of the display range on this particular digit, I can assure you all other sections of the display are also working.

Regarding the case with the buttons not working. I have checked this out for continuity and both digits go through the same portion of the main IC and there doesn’t appear to be any broken traces. It’s a strange one but I have also found some really poor solder joints that are either cold joints or just poorly soldered from the start, there are a couple of resistors that need re soldering. It may be nothing at all, but it needs attention, a full reflow wouldn’t go amiss or take too much time.

I’ve reflowed the entire board due to there being a few cold solder joints.

On top of this I have taken off two old capacitors and tested them out of circuit, and both were out of their operable range of +/- 10%. As a result of this I have replaced the offending components with comparable new ones.

Even with all these extra tasks being undertaken there is absolutely no change in the way it operates. Nothing has gotten worse, the faults that were originally there still remain. I have done some research on line and carried out some further tests and checked expected voltages, most are within range except one that appears to be less than its expected value. After testing everything on this board, every component I can only surmise that one of the three chips has failed, I suspect very much that this, the main chip, a CZL550 integrated circuit. Otherwise known as “Calculator on a chip” is the one that is at fault.

To be quite honest these chips are fairly rare and command a price far in excess of what I paid for the original unit, and I don’t really want to do that. I think I’ll wait around to see if I can secure another faulty unit to complete this repair, so in the meantime, and until I can secure such a unit I will put this repair on hold.

Result:

Well, it’s not what I wanted but sometimes you just can’t win with some of these old projects. In no way am I walking away from it, it’s just that the parts are so difficult to get hold of that you really do have to just wait until a sufficiently faulty one comes up for sale. And that could be days, it could be weeks or months. So for now i admit defeat, but it will not be going to trash. It will remain in my ever expanding “To do” box, for me to pick up on at a later date. And when I am in a position to move this project on, I’ll pick it up in a continuation of this post.

Many thanks for passing by. It’s always appreciated.

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Jornada 540 series

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Repair and retest

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