janbeta

janbeta, 4 months ago to random

So basically the 8-Bit Guy is worried about being able to live an "upper middle class" life, opening an arcade with around 90 cabinets he bought, putting his name on a new retro style system that was mostly community driven in the end, releasing his own games to a massively broad audience unheard of elsewhere in the retro community and sometimes only getting 200000 views on a YouTube video in the first couple of days. I’m usually not the person to rant about things like that but: Sorry, LOL. 💸

janbeta, 5 months ago to VintageAudio

In the lab, doing stuff with a 1970s turntable. Delicate mechanics still scare me a bit. #VintageAudio #VintageHifi #Recordplayer #Turntable #InTheLabDoingStuff

janbeta, 5 months ago to random

Dear German online shops,

please stop randomly sending these little Haribo bags out with orders. I know you mean well, but: The little gummy bears are mostly made from pig gelatin, which neither serious vegetarians/vegans nor peeps whose religious beliefs forbid eating pork want. That‘s a considerate part of the population!
I’m probably going to pack them all up and send them to Adrian Black (or maybe give them to somebody nearby who enjoys them).

Thanks,
Jan (serious vegetarian, mostly vegan)

janbeta, 5 months ago to repair

Belts replaced, flywheel freed of gunk, mechanics lubricated. We’re getting somewhere. Needs lots more cleaning and lubrication to work more reliably still but so far things are very promising! Even the lights still work, except the one behind the cassette compartment. #Sansui #SC1100 #TapeDeck #Repair #Restoration #VintageAudio #VintageHifi

A little videoclip of the Sansui after replacing the belts, tons of cleaning and lubrication. Playback, stop, rewind and fast forward work. The VU meters and the tape counter also seem to be fine!

janbeta, 10 months ago to random

Commenters complaining about me wearing a pride flag Commodore logo shirt in my recent video. Funny how a little rainbow offends certain people these days. I guess I’m going to show even more colors in future videos. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

janbeta, 6 months ago to retrocomputing

Some progress on my first keyboard build. Can you guess what this is going to connect to already? #InTheLabDoingStuff #RetroComputing #VintageComputing

janbeta, 7 months ago to Youtube

I‘m going to mirror my #YouTube uploads to #PeerTube in the future. Videos should automatically appear shortly after they appear on my YT channel (but obviously without any random YouTube ads). Found a cozy place at https://makertube.net/video-channels/janbeta @MakerTube for now and it seems to work seamlessly. Embrace the Fediverse, people! 😘

janbeta, 1 month ago to random

I'm going to be interviewed live on German radio station Radio Eins in a bit (around 11:20 my time today, I was told). You can tune in if you are in the Berlin area, or via the internet. My nerves! https://www.radioeins.de

janbeta, 4 months ago to random

Updated the firmware, installed the Anycubic slicing software (which looks kind of shady but appears to work fine) and leveled the printer bed. And now I’m actually attempting my first ever 3d print. If everything goes according to plan, I’m going to have a new C64 keyboard mount (had to try some Commodore part for my first print, obviously!) in about 2 hours. 🤞 #Jans3DPrintingAdventures

janbeta, 1 month ago to random

Here’s what I did last weekend (playing the guitar in my Nirvana tribute band). We "sold out" the club (it actually was a free show to remember Kurt Cobain who passed 30 years ago) and had more than 100 peeps of all age groups rocking to some noisy Nirvana classics. We had a blast although our singer had a pretty bad cold all week and could barely sing straight (he did a good job considering the circumstances in my opinion)! #RetroGuitaring #VintageMusicians https://youtu.be/ssn2iE8DIdo

janbeta, 6 months ago to guitar

Got new saddles for my main guitar (which is a modified Squier Bullet Mustang). I kept breaking strings, mostly due to the bridge being a cost reduced Strat style model with the strings not going through the body but only "top loaded" through the bridge itself. Trying some GraphTech string saver saddles to make things a little bit more reliable. They are Teflon so friction should be reduced to a minimum. Let’s see if they make a difference! I’ve heard good things. 🤞🎸 #Guitar #MastoGuitar #Mod

janbeta, 5 months ago to VintageAudio

In the lab, doing stuff. Bought this deck from a coworker years ago. At first glance, it needs new belts (the old ones turned into goo), new capacitors and some new lights. #Sansui #TapeDeck #VintageAudio #InTheLabDoingStuff

A look inside the tape deck. The circuit boards look very old school, there’s no belts visible in the mechanism.

janbeta, 4 months ago to retrocomputing

Successfully converted the #Atari65XE to an #Atari130XE. The (getting more unobtainable by the minute) original Atari EMMU is implemented with a 16V8 GAL, a 74LS95B got added and capacitors and 4164 RAM were populated in the unpopulated footprints. Easy. #RetroComputing #VintageComputing #Atari

janbeta, 7 months ago to retrocomputing

Welcome to the Fediverse, @NoelsRetroLab! #RetroComputing #VintageComputing

janbeta, 4 months ago to guitar

Meanwhile, I got sidetracked again because this cute thing just arrived. The smaller version of the legendary Big Muff guitar effect pedal. It sounds just like its bigger sibling, noisy and sweet. It was a grunge era favorite and Hendrix allegedly used one as well. Love it. Found it for cheap and the plan is to make some modifications for more versatility (maybe there’s even going to be a video about that in the future). #Guitar #GuitarEffects #Pedalboard #BigMuff

janbeta, 9 months ago to commodore64

May I present to you what I believe to be the first #Commodore64 I ever encountered that doesn’t have any RAM problems ALTHOUGH it has all MT memory chips in it?!

Closeup of the C64 board with the diagnostics cartridge and the test harness. It is a 1984 assembly number 250407 board. All RAM chips look to be the original MT branded chips the computer shipped with.

janbeta, 4 months ago to random

Happy 2024! My year started with a massive donation of 3D-printing (yay!), vintage hifi and some elderly PC equipment. Even set up a shady meetup in a parking lot to "exchange goods". It’s going to take a couple of days to wrap my head around all this stuff. I’ll keep you updated. 😊

janbeta, 9 months ago to random

I have a bit of a cold currently (actually the first noticeable infection I caught since I had COVID a year or so ago), so I did a bit of slow paced tinkering without filming. Built a little amplifier for my PC setup with one of those cheapo 5V class D amplifier boards I had floating around in my parts bin. Works nicely!

Zoomed out view of my workbench with the little amplifier project. Solder, a Swiss Army knife, helping hands and several pairs of pliers are scattered on the work surface.

janbeta, 1 month ago to apple

Something "new" to explore on the workbench today: a 1995 #Apple #Macintosh #Performa 630 in the "DOS Compatible" variant. It’s a bit of an oddball machine from Apple‘s otherwise quite bland (in my opinion) beige era. It has both a regular 68040 Mac and a full 486/DX2-66 PC inside. Should even be capable of running Windows 95 alongside MacOS 8! Thanks to a very generous donation from @markuspooch I’m going to get to play with it. Thank you! #InTheLabDoingStuff #RetroComputing #VintageComputing

Closeup of the same Mac with the "DOS Compatible" logo showing. The floppy disk drive slot is also visible.

janbeta, 7 months ago to random

Found the first proper multimeter I bought in the glove compartment of my car. It’s a Benning MM-1 that I found for little money on eBay years ago. Pretty decent meter with a quick continuity check and everything I really need most of the time. Funnily enough, as I just found out, it’s sold as a specialized meter for heating installation (hence its very rugged construction and small form factor, I guess).

janbeta, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to amiga

New video! Modifying IBM PC standard disk drives for using them on an Amiga (and other vintage systems that need Shugart standard drives)! YouTube: https://youtu.be/hWrnUY8hU3Q PeerTube: https://makertube.net/w/uCPrFXqt5d3Ggw8d81kKFH #Amiga #RetroComputing #VintageComputing #DiskDrive #Floppy #Commodore #Mod

janbeta, 4 months ago to retrocomputing

All new mechanical keyboard is in! Now I just have to rework the rest of the machine to look equally as stunning. 😅 #AtariXE #DecentXE #Atari8bit #RetroComputing #VintageComputing

janbeta, 4 months ago to retrocomputing

Seriously, 80s #Atari? Is this the way they mounted the little red power LED window on all XE machines or is it just my particular one? They just stabbed the plastic with a soldering iron, it seems. #RetroComputing #VintageComputing #Atari65XE

janbeta, 2 months ago to retrocomputing

In the kitchen, retrobrighting. #RetroComputing #VintageComputing

janbeta, 1 month ago to vinyl

It’s a Graceland kind of day. #PaulSimon #Eighties #Vinyl