RIP electronics budget
Posted in Rants on Jan 30th, 2006 No Comments »
Juuuust great. The 40gig Fujitsu drive I bought for my laptop has died… £45 that I may as well have burned FWIW
Archive for January, 2006
DAMN COMMENT SPAM!
Posted in Computers on Jan 26th, 2006 1 Comment »
I’ve just had to “moderate” 33 comments posted on this blog. All 33 were spams for drugs or casino gambling sites. All 33 were terminated with extreme prejudice, and their remains were sent to the bit-bucket. I hate comment spam.
Phil’s Essential Windows Software List
Posted in Computers on Jan 21st, 2006 No Comments »
I’ve just reinstalled my laptop for the Nth time, and as a result I ended up with a list of applications I can’t live without… For the benefit of everyone, here’s the Windows section of that list Acronis TrueImage 9 TrueImage is the best hard drive imaging tool I’ve ever used. Not only is it [...]
“Chinese 4×4 gets zero in safety test” – WTF?!
Posted in General rambling on Jan 5th, 2006 No Comments »
Okay, this is VERY unsettling… The first car ever to score zero on a safety test. The EuroNCAP ratings for that thing are going to make interesting reading… Folks, if you see one of these things parked up somewhere, leave a printout of the article on their windscreen. Kthx
More info on the calculator LCDs
Posted in Electronics, Science and Technology, Security on Jan 4th, 2006 No Comments »
Hmm, seems RCL make some other calculator chips too – [more info] Anyone care to take a guess at just how many calculators there are floating around with RCL controller chips inside them? Looks like the C7171C2 is the closest match to the chip used in the calculators I gutted. The LCD pinout in the [...]
Calculator LCDs
Posted in Electronics on Jan 4th, 2006 1 Comment »
Today I spent a good hour decoding the pinout for a calculator LCD. Now I spent another hour searching Google and found this: http://www.wingshing.com/product/rcl/C9326_Spec(970319).pdf A datasheet for a calculator IC. A datasheet that also includes pinouts for the LCD required. And those pinouts exactly match the displays I’ve got.. Well, aside from the fact my [...]
A few neat PICmicro appnotes
Posted in Electronics on Jan 4th, 2006 No Comments »
I spotted these while I was scanning through the Microchip PICmicro Application Notes archive – some of them look quite interesting: Generating High Voltage Using the PIC16C781/782 .. or how to drive a Nixie tube with a PIC, including generating the HV power supply. USB Mass Storage Device Using a PIC MCU – PIC-based USB [...]