The IBM Personal Computer XT 5160 from 1983 is one of the most iconic computers in the collection and one of the only desktop computers. This was the second Personal Computer from IBM after the initial PC 5150 from 1981. Personally I think the 5160 is much more usable because of the 8 ISA ports instead of 5, a power supply with twice the power output but mostly because of the build in hard disk drive. After purchasing the computer I was lucky enough to acquire the 5151 monochrome 12″ green monitor to make the setup complete together with an original Model F ‘XT’ keyboard. A color monitor model 5153 was also available but personally I think the green phosphor glow looks much better.

This post is not supposed to be about the IBM Personal Computer itself or the technical details but more about the setup around it. While searching information about the IBM XT 5160 I came across advertising for the computer featuring the Charlie Chaplin character Little Tramp portrayed by the actor Billy Scudder. What really caught my attention was the elegance of the complete setup with the computer, monitor and keyboard placed on a round white table together with a chair in a similar design. A small detail was a red rose in a small white vase. I was so fascinated by this little and recognizable setup that I had to investigate further about it. Ultimately because I wanted to recreate this setup for my own computer if it was able to recognize the items and later find them for sale.

TABLE

I started to search online for a round white table, where a lot of different designs came up, just not anyone in the same elegant design with the nice thin tabletop and curved center leg. After a lot of research I found out the table was designed by Eero Saarinen, called the Tulip table and sold by a company called Knoll. I didn’t found any tables for sale at the regular second hand places but by pure luck some time later I found the lower part just without the tabletop, placed at the sidewalk meant for bulky waste collection. It wasn’t in the best condition it had some scratches and marks. But I wouldn’t argue about the price. Then I just had to find or make the tabletop. I ended up buying another round table where I could repurpose the tabletop which measured 90 cm, close enough to the 91 cm of the original small version of the table. I think this is the correct size compared to pictures found online. Sometimes the computer and monitor is shown standing next to each other and fits within the circumference. An important detail of the tabletop is that it has a reverse chamfer. I used a handheld router and build a jig to cut a wide edge off the underside and sanded it down until it felt smooth. The last thing was to paint the table and mount it with screws on top of the center leg.

CHAIR

Tracking down the model of the chair when I knew both the designer and model name of the table was a lot easier. The chair is called Tulip chair. It comes in different versions with or without integrated armrests and with or without back cushion. The chair itself is only available in white but the cushions comes in different colors. There wasn’t any chairs for sale when I searched online for both Eero, Knoll or Tulip. But after some random browsing I found a single chair for sale on Marketplace for 400 DKK listed as an unknown design. I bought it the same day since I was afraid it would be sold because of the low price. It came with a red cushion, which I really appreciate since this seems like the most popular color and has a great contrast to all the white. I also like the detail that the chair was considered Space Age when it was released because of its futuristic curvy design and the use of artificial materials.

ROSE IN A VASE

A small but very important detail is the rose in the tall white vase. The red color is a perfect match to the red cushion on the chair. The rose is just a plastic one that looks like the one you can win in a tivoli shooting competition. The vase however was so much harder to find. Online there was just way too many different kinds to choose from and without a known brand it was very slowly to search through. I made it a habit to scout for the right design everytime I came by a second hand store, and then finally I found one. I’m not sure it is a 100% match but it looks very much like it. It has the same round bottom and it curve outwards at the top, it’s just a little to low.

MISSING MANUALS

The last thing I’m missing is the stack of manuals. Below is a list of the manuals that I would like to add to the setup. The only place I have seen them for sale is on eBay and they are not cheap. Especially not if you have to buy them separately and include taxes and shipping each time.

• Guide to Operations Personal Computer XT
• Technical Reference
• Hardware Maintenance and Service Vol. 1-3
• BASIC
• DOS Technical Reference

I can really recommend https://minuszerodegrees.net/ where you can browse through a lot of documentation about the IBM 5160 XT and similar computers like IBM 5140 Convertible, 5150 PC, 5155 Portable PC and 5170 AT.

GALLERY

LINKS

• Charlie Chaplin, computer salesman
• IBM Personal Computer

Indlægget IBM Personal Computer Setup blev først udgivet på Daths Garage.

INTRODUCTION

Before my wife and I had kids we used to have a small tv in our bedroom. That ended because our first daughter slept in our bedroom so we got rid of the tv because it interrupted her sleep. Now when our kids are getting older we wanted to get a tv again.
For some reason I had a hard time finding a tv that fulfilled my requirements.

• Small display size below 27″.
• Cheap, I don’t want to spend around 2.000 DKK for a new tv.
• I was willing to pay around 500 DKK for a used tv.
• Must be full HD resolution.
• Need to support DVB-C for our cable tv signal.
• I don’t want an ugly plastic tv (I used to have a Bang & Olufsen BeoVision 6).

Especially the last requirement was the hardest to fulfill. Many of the cheaper tv’s just look very bad and cheap. And if I found a used Sony or Samsung tv, that had a reasonable design, it would cost more than 1.000 DKK used. I kind of forgot about the tv until I found a Samsung tv that was left for bulk waste just around the corner of my building.

THE BROKEN TV

I picked up the tv and found the remote control lying next to it. At first sight the tv looked fine; the display wasn’t damaged and the cabinet looked fine. When I brought it home to my workshop I tried to power it on. The red standby LED turned on for a moment and then turned off again. The remote control didn’t changed anything. I started to inspect the tv and found out that the lower left corner had some broken plastic. To investigate if this damaged was related to the power on problem I unmounted the back part. With the electronics revealed I started to search for loose connectors, capacitors or other components which could have taken damage from the force that broke the corner. After a while I discovered that a corner near a screw mounting hole on the PSU PCB had some cracks. I unmounted the PCB and saw that the crack had disconnected two copper traces. I inspected the PCB and found out which components the copper traces was supposed to connect and made a repair by mounting insulated wires between the connections. I reconnected the PCB and tried to power on the tv. First sign of life was that the LED stayed on. Then I pushed the standby button on the remote control and the tv came to life. I didn’t had an antenna signal to test with but the menus worked and the HDMI input also showed a picture. So I assumed that the problem was solved.

HOMEMADE WOODEN FRAME

Now I had a working tv with a broken plastic frame that I didn’t want to try to repair. First I thought about just throwing away the complete frame and just use the display panel, but I needed something to hold the other parts like PSU, control board and speakers. Then I thought about building a plate on the back of the panel to mount the modules on. This could have worked for a workshop tv but this one had to be used in our bedroom so I needed to improve a little on the design.
In my junk pile I found some old bed slats that had the right dimensions for building a frame around the display panel. Since I didn’t like the color of the light pine wood I found some teak stain to give it a darker color. Then end result looked nice, but it was a mistake to glue the frame before applying the stain. Because the stain couldn’t bind on the corners because of the glue. The inner dimensions of the frame fits perfectly with the viewable area of the display. The dimensions for the frame was found in the datasheet of the panel. Two bed slats holds the panel in place and are spaced so the two PCBs can be mounted on them. Speakers are mounted on the button part of the frame. I haven’t found a perfect place for the IR receiver, I might drill a small hole in the frame so it can be mounted there.
I need to warn you that it is NOT a good idea to mount the PSU PCB directly on top of the wood because of fire risk because of the mains power. You need to mount an insulator in-between the two.

GALLERY

CONCLUSION

I really like the finished design of the tv – it’s very unique and matches the rest of our teak furniture. Many of our friends and family don’t really recognize that it’s a tv the first time they see it. I agree that it looks a lot like a small blackboard when it is turned off. The best thing about this project was that I got a tv and ended up paying nothing for it and had a fun time repairing and building it.

Update July 2026

The tv has been hanging unused in our kitchen for a couple of years. The other day I wanted to turn it on. After a while there was a loud bang and the picture went out. A small tantalum capacitor on the PSU board finally gave up. I didn’t want to spend the time on reparring the PSU so the tv finally was send to electronics recycling.

Indlægget How to Upcycle a Broken LCD TV blev først udgivet på Daths Garage.

I have had the idea about building my own workbench for a long time. My inspiration was something like this workbench which I think would match most of my needs. My prejudice, however, was that it would be expensive to buy the wood and take a lot of time to build it – especially because I don’t own a slide compound miter saw like this one that’s on my wish list.

The workbench I had until now was a cheap wooden table top with four metal legs, you can see it here. It was doing the job, but without any fancy features or storage facilities.
The reason for building the table now was just outside of my window the other day. On the other side of the street, where I live, someone had thrown out some wooden plates from what looked like a shelving system. I first saw them in the morning but thought it was an old Ikea furniture like a Kallax system. But when I saw it again later the same day I had to have a closer look at it. To my surprise the wooden plates or shelves were constructed out of glued wood so it was massive instead of garbage wood. I had to take the four shelves and the nine spacer parts with me and use it for a cool project. 

WORKBENCH

My first idea was to use them for a later project in a house to build shelves in a storage room. But I didn’t want them to fill up my precious space for a longer time and thought they were a bit massive for shelves. When I saw two of the shelves lying on the floor next to each other I recognized that they would make up a perfect work surface for a workbench. Another shelf could be mounted beneath the tabletop between the legs of the table for storage of a toolbox or power tools. The last shelf would be mounted on some of the spacer parts that came with it, as a top shelf for storage of measuring equipment. The underside of the top shelf would be an obvious location for some LED lighting. 

For a long time I wanted to buy something like a Blika workshop table or an electronics table from HIN.
Unfortunately both of them cost way more than I can afford and none of them completely fulfill my needs for a workbench. So I’m very happy with this design since I think it solve most of my needs. 

DESIGN

As usual before most of my projects I start by drawing everything in a 3D model. I started by drawing the shelf plates and the spacer rectangles. That made it much easier to play around with different designs and find the right dimensions for the wood I needed to buy. 

The chassis of the workbench had to be built from new materials. So I took inspiration from this DIY workbench.

It is built from 2×4 lumber which translates into 47×100 mm or 45×95 when planned. In my first drawing I used the 47×100 mm by mistake, so I had to update it when I had bought the lumber and measured it to be around 45×95 mm. From my model I could also estimate the size and amount of screws that I needed. 

ASSEMBLY

Parts list

• 5x 47×100 mm lumber 2.4 m length
• Box of wood screws 80 mm long
• 24x M6 40mm countersunk for upper part and top shelf
• 4x plates measuring 38×185 cm 
• 8 pieces of rectangle spacer parts measuring 33.5×37 cm with threaded inserts in the top 

Because I got the last two items on the list for free I ended up paying just around 200 DKR for the wood and the screws.

The five pieces of wood was cut into the following sizes
Pieces 1-3 is cut to 142 cm and 88 cm 
Piece 4 is cut to 2×54 cm and 2×62.8 cm
Piece 5 is cut to 2×62.8 cm and 88 cm 

1. First the two end pieces are assembled by using 2×88 cm for legs and 2×62.8 cm for sides. Two screws are used to fix every joint together.
2. The two end modules are connected by the 2×142 cm cross sections. In the upper corner joints four screws are used.
3. To reinforce the support of the table top two pieces of 54 cm are mounted between the long pieces.
4. To reinforce the bottom shelf and stabilize the table, another piece of 142 cm is mounted between the end modules.
5. The bottom shelf is mounted on top and fixed by wood screws.
6. On top of the table chassis two shelf plates are mounted. I cut away some of the material to make the shelves fit into the chassis. To make the table top more stable the two shelves are fixed together by screws
7. On top of the inner shelf the spacer parts are mounted by using M6 screws and nuts. For each side four spacer parts are joined together by M6 screws vertical and wood screws horizontal. 
8. The top shelf is mounted with four M6 screws on each side.

The assembled workbench is 185 cm wide, 76 cm depth and 166 cm high. The table top measures 90 cm from the ground witch is about the right height for me when I stand up.

LIGHTING

With the new workbench finished I realized that the top shelf is just below the old fluorescent lamps in the workshop. So I needed to find another source of lighting for the workbench. I knew I wanted the lighting to be LED based and started to look at LED strips on eBay. However one of my requirements was that the light needed to be diffuse and even so I can use the workbench as a simple “light box” for taking pictures of computers and projects without too much glare or shadows. Instead of mounting multiple LED strips and a diffuser on top I started looking for a solution that already included some kind of diffusing material. I realized that LED lamp panels aren’t that expensive, but most of them measure 60×60 cm. After a little search around I also found panels in a 120×30 cm size. This would make a perfect fit beneath the top shelf where the available space measures 134×34 cm. I found an almost new LED panel with a matching driver at DBA. When I received it I was surprised to find out that the driver also included a dimming feature. A push switch has to be connected as an on/off switch as well as a dimming function when the switch is pressed a little longer. I wasn’t sure if I could drill through the outer aluminum frame of the LED panel so instead I found some extruded aluminum profile I had lying around. The profiles are mounted directly into the top shelf and works great as mounting for the LED panel. The push switch is also mounted directly into the aluminum mounting with the cables hidden inside of it. The LED driver is mounted beneath the shelf and powered directly from 230V mains supply.

The finished light solution works very well. It gives a bright and even light on the table top. The dimming feature is nice but I’m not sure how much it is gonna be used. I will still keep my old architect lamp that I had on the old workbench. It will be mounted on the side to give some extra lighting from the sides. Maybe I will add an extra for the other side. 

EXTRA FEATURES

After the workbench has been assembled there are still a few things that have been done and still need to be done. I will continuously add images of the different details when they have been installed. 

TABLE TOP PROTECTION

I had a small piece of thin aluminum sheet that has been applied to protect the table when soldering or using chemicals or similar. It has been bent to fit over the front edge so it slides smoothly from site to site and can easily be removed when not in use.

CABLE HOLDER

I want to take advantage of the free space around the rectangular spacers for the top shelf. By mounting a threaded rod through one of the spacers and fixing it by a nut in each end, it can be used as a cable reel rack for small 0.25mm2 mounting wires in different colors. 
On the end of the top shelf I want to mount a cable holder for mains power cables, USB, ethernet, HDMI etc. Hopefully it will help me from having a bag of tangled cable

FANS

Below the cable reel rack I want to mount some 120 mm fans both for cooling during the summer but mostly for removing solder fume from my face when working with precision soldering.

PCB BACKGROUND

Instead of the usual tool board on the wall behind the workbench I want to mount my PCB background plate that was actually made for building an extra circuit board coffee table. The PCB plate is a great background when taking pictures of projects or computers for the collection. 
Now I just have to figure out where I want to store all my hand tools. 

POWER STRIP

Another very important item that is still missing on my workbench is a power strip with plenty of outlets or maybe one on each side. One can never have too many mains outlets for e.g. light, soldering iron, oscilloscope, power supply, computer.

TOP SHELF

My idea with the top shelf is to use it for my oscilloscope and laboratory power supplies, together with decorative vintage electronics items, like an old PLC system like an Allen Bradley SLC 500 that I once got a lot of.

GALLERY

CONCLUSION

I’m very happy that I ended up grapping the parts that was about to end as bulk waste. Nothing was wrong with the wood, but someone just didn’t wanted it any longer. I ended up getting a great workbench for a very low price, the total build was finished within a couple of days and I managed to upcycle some old parts so they didn’t had to be thrown away.
The workbench is very sturdy and includes many of the features that I imagined including lot of storage room. The top part can be removed by unscrewing eight screws if I need a larger working surface for a project. The LED lighting is a nice solution, very discrete, but with plenty of light that can be supplemented by the architect lamp. I’m looking forward to use the table as a light box for taking pictures of my computers.

Indlægget Homemade Workbench from Salvaged Parts blev først udgivet på Daths Garage.

Background

I have always been fascinated about cool secret hiding places, hidden in normal everyday objects around the home. Not because I have something to hide from anyone, but more in a cool childish spy gadget way. This is a short DIY project about how to make your own secret organizer hidden in a normal drawer.
I was inspired from this Makezine page that sums up some of the coolest hidden rooms from the simplest hidden compartment from cutout pages inside a book to complete hidden rooms and even a garage. In my opinion some of the coolest is the fake mains power outlet that reveals a tiny storage room for valuables and the idea about drilling a hole in the top face of a door that is large enough for a cigar cylinder that can hide money or a USB memory stick.

This project was inspired by the False Bottom Secret Compartment because it was a perfect addition for another project I’m working on. Even though I think the idea about using a false bottom plate is great, I didn’t like the way it was constructed. All the hidden things will rattle around when the drawer is opened or closed. I wanted to design a more professional solution with an organizer where things have a specific place and where they fit without moving around and reveal their hiding place. Below you will find a description of how I designed it.

How it’s made

1. Measure the inner dimensions of the drawer. Be precise because it’s important to make a tight fit with the organizer plate and the new bottom plate.
2. Find out what you want to hide in the drawer. Take precise measure of all the items. I always prefer to make a digital sketch. My preferred programs are Trimble Sketchup for quick ideas and Fusion 360 when I want to 3D print or laser cut something. When all the items has been sketched it is easier to figure out how to do the complete layout. Make sure to leave enough empty space around the outer border for strength of the plate. Remember to think about the height of the object. I settled on a 5 mm thick acrylic plate for the organizer plate but you could use plywood or similar instead.
3. Laser cut the organizer plate and the extra bottom plate. Make sure the wooden veins are in the same direction as the real bottom and has the same color and texture. It’s also important to make sure that the plates fits into the drawer, and the cutouts for the items are perfect. The width of the laser cut path on the laser cutter I use is around 0.2 mm which is a perfect tolerance so the things don’t get stuck in the organizer plate.
4. Make a small circle in the front of the organizer plate. This is used to push up the false bottom plate.
5. Put the organizer plate in the drawer and drill through the hole and through the real drawer bottom.
6. Fill up the organizer with the items you designed it for and put the false bottom plate on top.
7. To get access to your items, use a pen and push it up from the underside of the drawer to lift up the false bottom plate again.

If you don’t have access to a laser cutter another solution could be to use cardboard for the organizer. Then maker small paper models in actual size of the things that needs to go into the organizer and use a sharp knife to make the cutout holes.

Organizer design

Below is the final design of my organizer. It’s always hard for me to settle on a final design, because things can always be optimized. Going from left to right the large room is for a folded A4 document (or A5). The middle top and bottom rooms are for banknotes, the dimensions fits a Danish 1,000 KR banknote and smaller. In-between there are two credit card sized rooms room for ID or credit cards. To the right there are room for two USB memory sticks. At the far right (the front of the drawer) there is easy access to the four SD card rooms and two Compact Flash card rooms. The hole for lifting up the false bottom plate is placed in the front middle.

Final assembly

The organizer looks way more cool with all the stuff in it. Everything fits perfectly except for the Microdrives (type of CF card) that needs a little adjustment to fit. Another small annoyance is that the plate I used for the false bottom was cut in the wrong directions compared to the veins of the original bottom plate. The pictures also shows that the false bottom has a tiny gab but that is important in order to make it possible to lift it up.
I’m very happy about this quick little hack. And I can always make another or one more organizer if I need room for other secret things. What do you want to store in your own secret organizer?

Indlægget How to Make a Secret Organizer in a Drawer blev først udgivet på Daths Garage.

What is it?

While searching around the web for nice electronics decorations and inspiration to The Circuit Board Coffee Table I found a nice digital clock built on a breadboard based around two different types of integrated circuits: the 4026 decade counter and the 4060 14-stage counter/divider. I’m fascinated by nice looking breadboard projects so I thought I could build it so it would look a little more sleek. This digital clock reminds me about the TTLCLOCK even though that contains a few more components. Another digital clock from KABtronics that contains many components is their Transistor Clock which is truly a nerdy wall decoration.

Before I learned about programming and microcontrollers I always kept away from electronics project involving anything that needed programming like microcontrollers, microprocessors or EEPROMs. I wasn’t sure where to start to get to learn about it, and I couldn’t imagine how they worked. Instead I would have loved to sit down and understand the schematic and build this digital clock when I was younger, since it is purely logic circuits and even some diode-resistor logic.

How does it work?

The nice thing about this breadboard digital clock is that it is rather easy to understand how it works, because it is divided into different modules.
The first part is the 4060 14-stage counter/divider connected to a 32768 oscillator, which gives a frequency of 32768 Hz/2^14 = 2 Hz. Two buttons Minutes and Hours are used to set the clock by increasing the frequency so the clock counts faster. The 2 Hz signal is input to the first 4026 that works as a divide by 2 and outputs a 1 Hz signal. The 4026 are designed to directly drive a 7-segment LED display rather than outputting a BCD signal that needs a BCD to 7-segment converter, this helps to reduce the component count. The two LEDs are also connected to the 1 Hz signal to indicate the seconds.
The counters for ones of seconds (red wires) and ones of minutes (grey wires) counts from 0-9. However the counters for tens of seconds (yellow wires) and tens of minutes (green wires) only counts from 0-5, and needs to reset afterwards. This is done by the resistor and the three diodes that works as a three input AND gate, when segments E,F,G are turned on (this combination is first met when count equals 6) the counter is reset. The ones of hours (brown wires) also counts from 0-9 but the tens of hours (blue wires) only counts from 0-2. These two counters must be reset when the combined counter equals 24. This is again done by the three diodes but now connected to a combination that first happens when the counter reaches 24 and now both counters are reset.
No resistors are needed between the 4026’s outputs and the 7-segment displays because the outputs only supplies around 1-3 mA. Since the LEDs in the 7-segment displays can not handle a 5 V supply voltage the two diodes 1N4007 are needed to give a voltage drop.

Why did I build it

Why would anyone bother to build something like a digital clock on a breadboard and waste a couple of hours on it? First of all I think it is fun to build stuff on breadboards even though they can be buggy, have bad wire connections and works bad at high frequency. Despite of all the wires and connections the clock actually worked the first time I powered it up. I know breadboard computers like the one from Ben Eaten is much more cool to look at and play with, but I like the simplicity of this design and its also a little more self contained – just connect power and it works. Playing around with breadboards is also a good way to learn about electronics because it can be more intuitive compared to multilayers PCBs with SMD components.
Another reason for building this digital clock is that I have a tradition every year with some old classmates to gather for Christmas lunch. Then we each have to brings some small presents for a Danish tradition called Christmas package game. Some should be repeats from last year and some should be homemade – this will be this year’s contribution.

Want your own?

If anyone is interested in building this digital clock on their own, the parts are listed in the link at the beginning. If you prefer to buy everything as a kit I might be considering to offer it with every component needed or in a fully assembled and tested version. Please contact my for inquiries.

Video

Link to the schematic

Indlægget Breadboard Integrated Circuit Digital Clock blev først udgivet på Daths Garage.

Disclaimer: This review is not sponsored or paid by the supplier or anyone else. The product is payed by myself and I wanted to share my personal experience with you.

The problem

I’m not really a fan of specialized tools that can only be used for one single purpose and solves one specific problem. Neither in the household nor in my workshop. Nevertheless I found myself in need of buying a tool for solving a very specific problem. For different future ideas and projects like my Giant Vacuum Tube Model and a LED chandelier. I have been looking at using 4 mm copper tubing. The only problem is that it’s almost only sold in rolls that need to be straightened before it can be used – Unless you want to buy overpriced pieces of 1 m sections. First I didn’t know the name of a tool for solving this task, but found out it is called a handheld tube straightening tool or tube straightener. By searching around for ways to straighten copper tubes I came across many not very useful tips and tools. One YouTube video suggested to fix the tube in a clamp and then use a hammer to stretch it straight by hammering. 
The first dedicated tool I found was a pair of pliers that just clamped around a 5-10 cm piece of the tube and then had to be repeated for the total length of the tube. Unfortunately the end result was not looking very convincing and my guess is that it would be a very time consuming job. Another way to straighten a tube, either large or small diameter is to force it through several ball bearings with a fitting for the specific tube diameter. This principle is often used when the tube is fed directly into a tube cutting or bending machine often with a dual tube straightening mechanism, one in the horizontal axis and one turned 90 degrees to the vertical axis. Another more compact version of this mechanism is to mount the horizontal and vertical parts together forming a cross like structure around the tube. 

The only tool for the Job

Only one product repeated to show up through my searching; the Tube Straightening Tool from Kwix UK. After not being able to find a Danish distributor and with the, in my opinion, relatively high price I thought it would be rather simple just to 3d print the four pieces that holds the ball bearings together with the screws. First I tried to build a simple mock up with 6 cheap ball bearings mounted on a plate, but it couldn’t take the force from the straightening process and after a short testing the ball bearings all broke apart. After my first very bad prototype I quickly abandoned the idea of doing it myself and threw my money after the real product instead of wasting my time and money on the design process and materials. My hypnosis was that if a company can exist by producing one single product its better be good. And hopefully the price would reflect the quality of the product.  Sometimes you need to focus on what you want to use your energy on, for me it wasn’t to design the deep plate over again. 

The strange thing was that I wasn’t able to find any similar products for straightening a copper tube in my regular goto hardware stores. Not even though some of them actually sold copper tubes rolled on a spool. 
Another challenge is to cut the copper tube in the right length or bend it at a specific angle, but this is not a problem since a tube cutter or tube bender are tools that can easily be found around in hardware stores. 

A short introduction video from Kwix UK

My experience

Now lets get to the actual review of this product. My experience with this product is that it does a good job on 4 mm copper tubes. I haven’t tried with other materials, and only used the 4 mm version. The end result varies depending on if the tube comes fresh from the spool or if it has been slightly bend by hand in different directions. Then it is harder to get a good end result with a complete straight tube without small curves. But in my opinion this product does a pretty descent job. And it definitely feels sturdy and strong enough to withstand the force of the straightening process. THe hardest part is to get started on the tube, it helps to hand straight the first 10 cm. Then it is easier to get in inside between the wheels.
My only regret about the product is that I don’t feel like working with tubes in other diameters than 4 mm since I don’t want to invest in multiple tools to be able to handle different tube diameters. But for the professional user I definitely think it is worth it’s price even if you have to buy multiple sizes. I look forward to be using my tube straightener more for future projects.

Indlægget Review: Kwix UK 4 mm Tube Straightening Tool blev først udgivet på Daths Garage.

Background

The first microcontroller I learned to program and got to understand the architecture of was the Atmel ATmega16/32 in a DIP40 package programmed with a STK500 board that can also be found on The Circuit Board Coffee Table. This chip fascinated me with all it’s build in peripherals inside a single chip. Other chips that I later played around with were the Microchip 16F877 and 18F4550 with USB interface. When I got interested in retro computing I came to know about 6809, 6502, Z80 and 8088/86, which all shared the common DIP40 package. I found myself collecting these devices without really knowing why and not knowing how to display them. I just knew I didn’t want to start a huge CPU collection, so I limited myself to the DIP40 form factor. Then at a natural museum’s shop I saw this little showcase with butterflies, wondering how cool it would look like with old DIP40 ICs in it instead of animals. I found the perfect frame for the showcase with an IKEA HOVSTA frame that had the right depth.

The ICs would be mounted in precision machined IC sockets soldered onto prototyping PCBs so it would be possible to swap them around if some was added or removed from the collection. 

Scope of the collection

The overall theme of the DIP40 Frame of Fame is famous DIP40 microcontrollers and microprocessors with a few exceptions by type and package. Since the DIP40 package is now almost obsolete with new microcontrollers, breadboard friendly microcontrollers, mounted on a DIP40 size breakout board, are also included in the collection. This is my little version of a CPU collection with items I think has an importance to computer history. The name DIP40 Frame of Fame is somehow self explaining but is inspired from the Chip Hall of Fame.

Below is a list of the 21 ICs that can be seen in the DIP40 Frame of Fame sorted by release date and with a short description of specifications and a justification for relevance.

Specifications

Disclaimer: The above information and years are based on Wikipedia articles and datasheets and are my best guesses. If you have any corrections you are welcome to contact me.

Indlægget DIP40 Frame of Fame blev først udgivet på Daths Garage.