OT: card storage

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Tue, 18 May 2010 13:54:33 -0700 (PDT), Rich Grise on Google groups
<richardgrise@yahoo.com> wrote:

On May 18, 9:43 am, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
scanner, printer, etc conglomeration.  Here's a video clip of it
scanning both sides of service manual:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/crud/CanonImageRunner5000.wmv

Man, that's a looooooong download for 15 seconds of video.

Sorry. I didn't bother to reduce it down to YouTube minimalist
standards of blurriness, smear, pixelation, and tiny size. I did note
that it was 4MBytes big. Unless you're on dialup, it should have been
all that slow (about 45 seconds on my 1.5Mbit/sec DSL line).

However, I lied a little. It is scanning both sides on the fly, but
it's not reading (make searchable in PDF) either side. That was done
later with the e-Copy program from Canon. It took about 90 seconds to
do the entire 180 pages.
<http://www.ecopy.com/Products-eCopy-ShareScan-Essentials.asp>


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Andrew Smallshaw]

On 2010-05-17, Michael A. Terrell <mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote:

D Yuniskis wrote:

I want a portable LCD monitor and a portable keyboard.
I want to be able to connect that monitor to any old PC
just like any *other* LCD monitor.
I want to be able to connect that keyboard to that same PC
just like any other keyboard.

*That* is what I am asking for.

This should be possible (as a "hackable") with a small board
installed in place of the laptop's guts. I.e., take the guts
out of an LCD monitor and wire them to the connector for the
LCD *panel* inside the gutted laptop (the keyboard is a
simple thing to hack)

It hasn't come up lately, but for a while someone asked that question
about once a month. Then they would find that it cost more for the
custom elcetronics, than to buy a new monitor.

I remember hearing about an NTI adapter that does exactly this.
It only a few weeks since they sent me some marketing blurb about
it so I assume it's fairly new. Looks like it could be quite useful
but the price they are asking means it needs a lot of justification.

http://www.networktechinc.com/usb-lap-console.html

--
Andrew Smallshaw
andrews@sdf.lonestar.org

 

[D Yuniskis]

Hi Andrew,

Andrew Smallshaw wrote:

On 2010-05-17, Michael A. Terrell <mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote:
D Yuniskis wrote:
I want a portable LCD monitor and a portable keyboard.
I want to be able to connect that monitor to any old PC
just like any *other* LCD monitor.
I want to be able to connect that keyboard to that same PC
just like any other keyboard.

*That* is what I am asking for.

This should be possible (as a "hackable") with a small board
installed in place of the laptop's guts. I.e., take the guts
out of an LCD monitor and wire them to the connector for the
LCD *panel* inside the gutted laptop (the keyboard is a
simple thing to hack)
It hasn't come up lately, but for a while someone asked that question
about once a month. Then they would find that it cost more for the
custom elcetronics, than to buy a new monitor.

I remember hearing about an NTI adapter that does exactly this.
It only a few weeks since they sent me some marketing blurb about
it so I assume it's fairly new. Looks like it could be quite useful
but the price they are asking means it needs a lot of justification.

http://www.networktechinc.com/usb-lap-console.html

Yes, this is probably the only (reasonable) commercial way
to make sucha device -- as a peripheral to an existing system.

If, however, you could identify a reasonably *popular* laptop
that is now "too old to be practical", you could put together
a kit to convert that laptop into the same sort of device
(i.e., gut the laptop, install a little PCB, connect LCD
panel and keyboard switch array)

 

[D Yuniskis]

D Yuniskis wrote:

Hi,

Like most folks, I've accumulated a fair number of
"I/O cards" over the years. Many I need to hold onto
to give me certain capabilities (e.g., EIA485, certain
digital I/O's, etc.) to maintain old designs. Others
are worthwhile from time to time as I reorganize my
machine herd and opt to support different peripheral sets.

[I'm currently only speaking of COTS cards -- ISA, PCI,
various memory packages, etc. -- not custom stuff]

Storing these has proven to be not trivial. I've tried
different approaches over the years -- antistatic bags,
small boxes (e.g., "Wide SCSI HBA's", "TR NIC's", etc.),
big boxes (e.g., "Network cards", "Memory", etc.). None
really seem to work well. :

The REAL solution is probably just to sh*tcan the lot
and <shrug> when I come across a future need! :

Has anyone come up with a slick way of storing cards
that doesn't beat up on the cards, makes it relatively easy
to locate the card you want *and* doesn't dramatically
increase the volume required to store them (i.e., putting
each in "retail packaging")? Right now, I think the
most viable option (for me) is back to antistatic bags
(to help the cards slide over each other without "catching"
on protruding components) in *large* boxes :-(

I opted to use the poly (?) bags (instead of the "silver-ized")
antistatic bags. Last night, had to sort through the boxes for
for the first time since doing this.

The results were "satisfactory". Would have been nicer if the
boards would stand up neatly so you could just flip through
them. But, the bags are slick enough (and, being heavier
than the silver-ized bags, they deform less so they *rarely*
catch on other "things") that you can stir-the-pot until you've
examined every board.

Probably wouldn't work well for *larger* boxes but these seem
adequate.