Entries tagged 'cat:Computers'

Portable DIY CD Player Entry created on 2025-11-28 Authors: steeph (365) Categories: CD Players (1) CD-ROM (2) Computers (19) DIY (15) Electronics (15) Music (5) edit

I've had an idea!

What if there was a CD player that you can carry around and that's completely battery powered so you don't have to plug it into anything to use it? You could even use it outside!

Here's my prototype. A DIY portable CD player.

Yes, it has a CD-ROM drive from a desktop computer. I wanted to build a player like that since I was about 16. Back then CD drives still had play buttons and volume controls. But I accidentally killed it by swapping ground and 12 V. When this one fell into my hands this year, I knew what to do.

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Mice I Use For Everyday Things Entry created on 2025-11-21 Authors: steeph (365) Categories: Computers (19) Hardware (16) Mouse (4) Languages used: en (254) edit
This entry is referencing the entry 'The Best Computer Mouse I Found'.

I've written about my high standards of demands of a computer mouse before. But those posts have pretty much only talked about what I'm _not_ using and why. In absence of good mice, this is what I am using as pointing devices.

On laptops while travelling: Integrated touch pad or touch screen. This has nothing in common with my dream mouse. But it's there, doesn't need connecting, packing, extra batteries or space on a way too small hotel room table.

Anker A7852M. It's a vertical mouse. I use it mainly for work, for changing my hand position every now and then. It's annoying, falls over multiple times a day and doesn't really help with carpal tunnel syndrom. But it feels very nice.

Vaxee XE-S Wireless. This is a "pro gaming mouse". I'm testing it to see what you get for hundrets of Euros. I was so stupid to go for the S variant because the regular size wasn't available as wireless version. I thought being wireless would be more important than fitting my hand. It's probably not. But it's not smaller than other mice, so whatever. I'm not a gamer. So maybe I can't judge this mouse's qualities properly. But I can judge how well it fulfills the features I'm looking for in a mouse. And it's not all that good. It's reliable in scrolling and clicking. But so is every 20 € mouse when it's new. The plastic case doesn't feel better than a cheap mouse's. The paint rubs off in one spot after only a few months. The clicks sound different and are harder and softer for different mice of the same model, which makes me think the switches aren't really of such high quality. I had to clean them once to make the left one work reliably again. The scrolling wheel pretty good grip actually, but it is very soft, which I dislike. The cable is a good flexible rubber one. So using it with cable isn't a problem. But it's not as good as Razor ones. It's too small and light, I'm probably going to mod it at some point.

Logitech M-S69. My favourite mouse and the one I use most is a classical cheap Logitech ball mouse. The highpoint of standard OEM no-nonsense mice from the late 1990s. The beginning of "two buttons and a wheel but the wheel is actually the third button as well". It was labeled with all sorts of computer manufacturer names and included with ne PCs around and after the millenium change. Mine is branded Fujitsu Siemens. But that doesn't matter. What I like about is the high quality of switches compared to today's mice, the clear tactile (and audible) click when turning the scroll wheel and the slim body. If a mouse has to be too small for my hands, at least I want to be able to move it around with two fingers instead of by resting my hand on it. I think I would prefer the same mouse but with an optical sensor. But the ball isn't a problem, either. Back in the day I used to hate having to clean the mouse so often of deal with it not moving where I want to point. But with the right pad (gray cardboard) it works as well as an oprtical mouse from that time, which is as good as it ever has to.

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Old Cherry Keyboard Repair Entry created on 2025-09-14 (edited 2025-11-17) Authors: steeph (365) Categories: Computers (19) Electronics (15) Keyboards (10) Vintage Computing (2) edit

I found a Cherry G81-1000 in the scrap recently. It's one of those old 101 key models with a metal board and oldish mechanical switched. Model M fans would probably disagree. But it is comparible with an IBM Model M in many ways. Maybe it's becasue Model Ms are still produced that, from what I saw, Cherry G81-1000s are offered for more on eBay. So they do seem to be of interest to other vintage computer fans, not just me.

To test it I first had to replace the cable. I decided for a cheap, black audio cable with two 5-pin DIN plugs. I say audio cable because hat's what it was advertised as. It has no shielding at all. Anyway, just becausew they used proper shielding back then doesn't mean I need it. Because I'm not involved with the computer keyboard fan bubble I had no idea where to find the pinout on ther PCB. Web search engines were of no help. But since a stub of the original cable was still on it, I knew which colour of the original cable goes where. I then checkerd three other (a bit newer) Cherry keybards and found them to use the same colours. I tried the same pinout and it works. I'll attach a diagram just in case anybody needs to do the same thing.

The keybnoard is generally working. But typing does not feel nice and some keys stopped working after a while. From their arrangement it is pretty obvious that one trace on the board must be broken. Here starts the bigger problem. Because of the way the board is constructed, the most of the traces aren't accessible. They are covered by a metal shet from the back and the switches from the front, which are connected to the metal sheet. I know how to repair traces of a keyboard matrix on such a flexible PCB. But if I can't reach them without destroying either be PCB or the switches, that knowledge is not worth anything.

During my research on those old boards I also found out why the switches look so different from MX switches and why they feel so weird. They aren't really mechanical switches, but rather Cherry MY switches, which use indivisual membranes inside. This explains why typing on it feels so bad. I did not find a way to repait the trace, yet. But knowing now that nor cleaning nor using the switches for a while will make them feel better, it does not feel worth putting more time into this.

I initially thought it might be a good idea to design a PCB with a key matrix that replaces the original switch PCB. The new one could be populated with MX switches and thus the entire device updated to an excellent version of itself. But there are free open source PCB designs out there that replace the entire inside of the keyboard. That would be the easier route. And it would upgrade the keyboard to USB at the same time. Although the Atmega used in those could probably be programmed to use a simpler serial interface as well.

It would be nice to continuie here with "So I ordered one of those, done up the keyboard and it's now my favourite one." But I have enough unfinished and unstarted projects already. So no, not right now.

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The Best Computer Mouse I Found Entry created on 2025-09-13 Authors: steeph (365) Categories: Computers (19) Hardware (16) Mouse (4) Languages used: en (254) edit
This entry is referencing the entry 'My Dream Computer Mouse'.

I've written about my unreasonable feature wish list for a computer mouse before. This post is about the best mouse that I found to buy according to my standards

To name it right away, it's a Razor Viper. The buttons and the wheel do not have the quality I was used to during the 2000s from using cheap Logitech and generic OEM mice. But they did survive my house being a dusty building site for a long while, which isn't true of most other mice's switches. The left and right buttons work as reliably as I could hope for. The middle one needed some cleaning and still isn't as good as in the beginning. I have to press it harder than I'd like. The wheel turns very easily with a slight and almost silent step. That is much softer that I'd like it to be. Other than those of cheaper mice it does still work reliably. The coating of the wheel has long gone. So it's unusable with greacy fingers. But those of cheaper mice are all the same and mice with better rubber tyres from Razor aren't available anymore, it appears. The Viper (Ultimate, 8kHz or newer version, not the Mini) is slightly on the bigger side. It's simple and usual design makes grabbing it and moving it quickly reliably easy. But it is not quite as big as I would wish for. Its cable has a synthetic textile sheath and is very flexible. The best mouse cable I've ever had. There is a wireless version, too. My variant doesn't have the side buttons. While it looks like they are there, they can't be pressed and there are no switches. So I can't accidentally navigate back and forth like with other mice. After two years of not opening it, a surprising amount of dirt entered the case. Beside the mentioned problem with pressing the middle button (wheel) this doesn't seem to be a problem though. There seems to be two wholes below the big buttons where the more gunky dirt collects and drips down beside the switches.

Modifications

Since it comes with LEDs inside (for a glowing Razor logo on the back) I had to take care of those. There is a GUI configuration tool for Windows and a very basic open source CLI tool for Linux systems. The latter can't be installed easily on all distros though. Since I wanted them to be off all the time anyway, I just unplugged them. They are conveniently placed on their own, separate PCBs, connected to the rest of the electronics with cables. So they can easily be removed or unplugged. While I had it open, I've added steel weights by glueing in isolated screws. You could add a bit more weight by creating the right shape of metal parts. But this was sufficiant for me. On the bottom plate replaced the small and very thin rubber feet with way thicker felt ones. The new ones also collect dirt like crazy. But they can take a lot more of it and don't make the mouse wiggle from it.

This is far from my ideas mouse. But it is one that can be bought right now. At ~60 € it's not even that pricey compared to what's out there. In my next post about I will write about the mouse that I'm actually using that can't be bought anymore.

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My Dream Computer Mouse Entry created on 2024-12-28 (edited 2025-07-17) Authors: steeph (365) Categories: Computers (19) Hardware (16) Mouse (4) Languages used: en (254) edit

I use the mouse a lot when I'm on a PC. And I have very specific expectations from a good mouse that I haven't seen met in any product. I know that my expectations must be high, considering that others don't seem to have them. But I also think that the differences between a 20 Euro mouse and a 150 Euro mouse are very small. I believe that others would like a mouse with the features that I desire in a good computer mouse. They may not realise it because it doesn't exist. But I would be surprised if I would be alone with these preferences. I'd like to describe those features here for that reason, but also with a little bit of hope that somebody might have a tip for me for a product to try out.

Form Factor

Most ergonomic mice are restricting because they prevent switching the position of the hand from time to time. Therefore I'd prefer a simple shape with no unnecessary folds and pertrusions. There are some not so default mouse designs though that I don't mind, like those that hold the hand in a 90 degree rotated position, as if you're going to shake somebody's hand. That form factor likely prevents issues with your wrist. I'm not considering non-mouse pointing devices, like joysticks or trackballs. Althought I like the idea of a pointing device that only sends out positional information relative to a screen's center and physically snap back to their center position when untouched. I'd try one of those if it would be supported by an OS that I'm using.

Buttons

I don't really need more than three button. with less than three, I definitely miss the missing ones. But I never got used to additional buttons enough that I'd use them regularly. The same goes for additional wheels. Three keys and one wheel are enough to do many things on its own. For more there are enough additional keys on the keyboard to press and hold down. So I'd prefer there to not be any additional buttons that could be pressed accidently and cause unexpected/unintended behaviour. The three usual buttons should be hard to press compared to most mice. I would like to have to use some force so that it is impossible for me to ever accidently press one by sliding across the surface with a finger, by slipping off the scroll wheel or from random finger spasms. I don't need to be able to click repeadedly very quickly. I don't want the buttons to bounce back to support additional clicks. I want an anti-gamer mouse in this regard. Touch fields that aren't disabled by default also are unacceptable to me. I don't think I'd mind a bit of travel as long as there is a clear clicking point.

Caseing, Size and Weight

I wouldn't mind a rugged case that doesn't mind being handled roughly. Or a sealed one that doesn't mind being under water and can be cleaned easily. A metal case isn't so nice because it can feel uncomfortably cold. But metal parts would be good because they add weight. I haven't had a mouse yet that's as heavy as I would deem ideal, even after adding steel weights. But most mice can be brought to a comfortable weight by filling most of their free space inside with steel parts. The other things where I'd like my ideal mouse to go above what's considered reasonable is its size. I don't want my hand to hover over the mouse like a spider with long legs. I want my hand to completely lay on the mouse. The wrist on its back, leaving the forearm lifted from the table; the fingers resting on their respective buttons without bending much. My hands are surely larger than average. (Although I've seen people with much larger hands.) So a mouse for me should also be that large. Some ergonomic office mice come close to such a comfortanle hand position. But they seem to be made for average-sized hands. I haven't seen a really large mouse like that yet. Maybe what I feel that I want would look rediculous. Maybe it would be so. But so did 5 inch phones when they first came out. And I argue they also fill hands more comfortably.

Scroll Wheel

I have very specific ideas of how the scroll wheel of the perfect computer mouse should be. There should be exactly one. It should be between the left and the right button (because that's what I'm used to and it works very well that way, not because I believe there have been enough expreriments for the perfect position), pertrude above the left and the right button about 3 or 5 millimeters and be about 15 millimeters in diameter It should serve as the middle/third mouse button. (That one isn't necessary, but very useful sometimes.) So far so usual. It should not be tiltable to use it for additional buttons/functions unless this feature is deactivated by default. The wheel should have clearhapticall steps or clicks that reliably correspond to scroll steps. It should never come to rest between two steps. Some force should be necessary to turn the wheel so what brushing it on one side accidentally (as an example) won't turn it a step in either direction. The surface of the wheel should have a rough and deep rubber profile. Only very few gamer mice ever had scroll wheels with a profile as rough as I want one. And of those most have been changed for mass production. And of the one remaining mouse with a scroll wheel nearly as rough as I would deem minimal, only the first batch had it. Even in mice with changable wheels or surfaces I've never seen one with a grip nearly good enough to call it acceptable. Basically, what I want it a scroll wheel that never turns unintentionally, always turns 100% reliably when turned intentionally, even with greacy as fuck fingers because I'm eating chicken wings in between very important scrolling action and I don't have time to wipe my fingers. There should be little rubber spikes or canyons that aren't reduced to a millimeter after a few years of scrolling (or the wheel needs to be replacable).

Battery, Wireless, Cable

Of course a wireless mouse is nicer than a wired one. Battery powered devices should have standardised replacable batteries. But I see the problems with that in mice. Nowadays I would actually be OK with a non-replacable battery in a mouse. (I am already.) But I'd also like one that takes Canon LP-E6 batteries or similar small camera batteries. If it is a wireless mouse it should use little currents to make it work. With a battery with 1.5 Ah or more charging shouldn't be necessary more than once a year. I wouldn't mind a largr battery that lasts several years. (I know that it's possible.) But a wired mouse is OK, too, if it has a good silicone cable.

What Exists

The tipps that I've received have been hopeless to worthless. Either "the closest you'll get is this one because it kind of almost has one of the features you're looking for" or "try this one, you'll like it, even though it's the opposite of what you described". What I found online was not worth trying. There are industrial mice wit stainless steel cases that look like they might tick some boxes, but not all. But those cost $600 and more. There are a lot of rugged, water resistant or otherwise special mice for indutrial use. But they aren't made to be used effortlessly. I've tried professional gamer mice (yes, including the price range 150 - 200 €) and some Razer ones. Neither their buttons nor their scroll wheels are particularly good compared with my list of expectations. Most disappoint after a while by unreliable buttons or lush scroll wheels. The best one is still a Razer one. Maybe I'll make a separate post about that one. But even with that one I now have to press the middle key very hard and deliberate to make it work.

Is it even possible?

I may be like Homer Simpsen when he designed his dream car here. But I expect that I will only be convinced of that by giving me my supposed dream mouse to use. I might quickly recognise that it's not as usable as I imagined. But I'd like to try. It would probably be hard to produce a mouse with my feature wishlist and sell it for 100 € or less while making a profit. But what about 300 €? I've payed more for mice in the last couple of years. I personally would consider it worth it if the product is what I'm looking for and lasts for 20 years or more.

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A Really Very Good Laptop Entry created on 2024-09-04 (edited 2025-01-07) Authors: steeph (365) Categories: #100DaysToOffload (41) Computers (19) Laptops (2) ThinkPads (2) Languages used: en (254) edit

This is a continuation of my recent entry about what I think makes a good laptop.

Display And Keyboard Size

I used to think a larger screen would be better, because you could see things better. But when sitting directly in front of the thing, it doesn't really make a difference whether the screen is 12 or 15 inches across. Larger screens tend to be available with higher resolutions. I think my preference for 15 inch laptops come from a time where there was a notable difference in price between laptops with screens with hardly acceptable and good resolution. But I've come to accept smaller-than-HD resolutions even though there are tasks where it really makes a difference. But with 15 year-old laptops, an HD screen doesn't have to make the thing much more expensive. So there are options, even with 12 inch devices.

The other thing is the keyboard (again). A larger device has more room for a more comfortable keyboard. HP makes use of the extra room. Dell didn't, at the time the laptops I'm interested in were made. In mobile workstations with a 15.6 inch screen can have a numblock, a 14 inch one can be less crowded (no half-size keys, spaced out special keys, extra rows). EliteBooks used to do a good job at that up until the 3rd generation. 12.1 inch Thinkpads (or the newer 12.5 inch ones) are a good example for crowded laptop keyboards. Not a bad keyboard. But there just isn't enough space to include and position all the keys one might want to have where one might want to ghave them. The thing is: 14 and 15 inch ThinkPads and Latitudes use the same keyboard layouts as their 12 inch counterparts. That's another plus for EliteBooks if you want a larger than 12 inch device.

So, since I'm on the ThinkPad bandwagon right now, and somebody gave me a ThinkPad X201 from their scrap box, I think that might be what I'm going to use next. I wouldn't have considered a 12 inch device. But, internals aside, it's just as nice to use as a T400, but ligher and taking up less space. I think if I had been introduced to ThinkPads through an X201, X200 or similar, I would have understood the hype much quicker. I will not go much into other manufacturer's counterparts to the ThinkPad X2xx series. But it is worth mentioning that both HP and Dell had similar devices to the X200/X201 both in clamshell and convertable/talet versions and their keyboards aren't worse. The Dell XP2 has a little fan in me. But those might be a topics for another entry.

Old Case With New Organs, Frankenpads

I don't have anything agains newer hardware. I'm just not ready to give up on laptop keyboards that feel nice to use. The trend of thinner laptops with larger batteries in recent years has been made possible by smaller mainboards with highly integrated CPUs or SoCs. I imagine that the size of modern laptop keyboards is very helpful if one would decide to build a newer PC into an old laptop case. The X201 doesn't seem to be popular for this anymore. Most people seem to preferr newer models for some reason. I would have thought that is one of the most popular devices for Frankenpads, even if it's a bit more work. The keyboard is of the old style, small case still with a lid latch, but there already was an option for a track pad. I have not gathered too much information about doing this myself. But there seems to be enough resources and support in forums to make it a doable project. But you don't even have to. There is a commercial offer for X201s with 10th generation Core i CPU.

I did think about getting a 486 laptop with a really nice keyboard and mod a newer board into that. It would be a nice project. But not as practical as an X201 or similar. After all, the case would be much thicker. Most 486 laptops were about twice as thick. That would make it easier to fit a different board into it and position connectors in the right spots. Most designs wouldn't have room for a trackpad. The availability of replacement parts for ThinkPads is also a good reason to use a ThinkPad for this. But it would be a nice project. Maybe even with an ultraportable electronic typewriter. But for a laptop to buy, the X2100 is the best compromise for many reasons; and you can get it readily built by someone with experience in doing exactly that.

Edit: Shortly after linking to www.xyte.ch all its pages except for index were replaced by their last archived versions of the wayback machine. So, here is the new link: https://web.archive.org/web/20241112182030/https://www.xyte.ch/shop/x2100-pricing/

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Alternative Operating System: Sortix Entry created on 2024-11-03 Authors: steeph (365) Categories: #100DaysToOffload (41) Computers (19) Operating Systems (23) Software (52) incomplete (21) Languages used: en (254) Topics: Software → Alternative Operating Systems (18) edit
This entry is referencing the entry 'Alternative Operating Systems'.

sortix

Sortiix is one of the more mature hobby OSs. It feels well-rounded in the features that it already has. Stable and relatively bug-free. Sortix is a Unix-like, POSIX compliant OS with it's own kernel, system tools and libraries. It contains packages that have been ported from Debian. But all the most interesting core components are implemented anew.

Sortix has made steady progress over like 15 years. That's probably the biggest difference between it and similar hobby OSs. Version 1.0 was released in 2016. Even in that form it is really usable. It boots without any issues on real hardware. It's stable, comes with all the core unix tools you'd expect, but it didn't have a GUI and network support, yet. It switched to nighly releases after that. Since then, features have been added to the point that not many things separate it from being as useful for daily usage as HaikuOS.

(tba:screenshots)

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Alternative Operating System: MikeOS Entry created on 2022-03-29 (edited 2024-11-02) Authors: steeph (365) Categories: #100DaysToOffload (41) Computers (19) MikeOS (2) Operating Systems (23) Software (52) incomplete (21) Languages used: en (254) Topics: Software → Alternative Operating Systems (18) edit
This entry is referencing the entry 'Alternative Operating Systems'.

MikeOS

A very limited and simple operating system written in assembler for 286 computers (and newer compatible architechtures, obviously). Pretty much what I would imagine as a successful outcome if I would write one to see that I can do it. It works, there's a text editor, a game, you can list, edit and execute files. Not much more though at first glance. I didn't look into writing additional software for it myself, yet. There are many forks of MikeOS. Most of them named after the forker and not under active development. It's a project I'd look into if I'd want to learn x86 assembler. Simple, not looking like any other OS I've seen.

MikeOS is neither UNIX-like in any way nor is it similar to CP/M or DOS. It is closer to being a BASIC interpreter with a program menu. But there is a bit more to it. Everything is in the same text mode in VGA resolution. After booting, you get a box with list of menu items in pointing to submenus or executable programs. Among those programs are a BASIC interpreter, some simple games, a text editor and a file browser. That's about the gist of what you get. It's all very simple and fast. Enough to write your own applications or scripts. And it all fits on a single 3.5" HD floppy. There are third-party applications to be found on the internet. But almost all that I stumbled upon were part of MikeOS forks.

Next to the menu there is also a command line with a very small list of commands. To be honest, from a user point of view, I don't know what to do with it.

There are quite a few forks. It seems to be a great hobby project. And because it's all relatively simple it's a project you can actually finish after a while, not like writing your own UNIX clone with system tools, glibc port and modern GUI. MikeOS forks usually come with some additional apps and scripts and some changes in UI. Some add to the few system calls, add their own menu. Some even started to add network support. One MikeOS fork I have to mention is MichalOS because it overhauled the UI to make it more pleasing and added quite a few simple apps and games that all seem to be very stable. It has an image viewer and a music program. TomOS is a fork that adds support for directories. ShoockOS seems to be about simplifying things even more.

On the MikeOS web site there are handbooks, resources for development and links to software projects for MiikeOS. MikeOS is a great help if you want to learn x86 assembly in a practical way without starting from zero. But it is also useful as an OS for embedded applications or simple hobby projects (interacting with Arduino, other serial communication tasks, …). And it could also be considered useful for everyday tasks if you found a home computer from the mid 80s useful.

(tba:screenshots)

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