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Extend case panel connectors easily and cheaply

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Retro Computing December 23, 2019December 2, 2019

Sometimes when you’re fitting a motherboard into a case, especially an aftermarket board into a name-brand case, the connectors for the panel LEDs and switches don’t match up with the board. You can usually rewire it fairly easily, but extending them means splicing the wires. But there’s an easier solution, and it’s cheap. Here’s how to rewire or extend case front panel connectors with plug-in connectors.

I ran into this on my IBM PC/AT. Its HDD connector wasn’t long enough to reach an ISA IDE card because it was designed for a full-length card. And the LED for the power light didn’t reach either. The problem is less rare with recent hardware, but not non-existent.

How tall is an O scale train?

Dave Farquhar model railroading December 20, 2019December 1, 2019

How tall is an O scale train? It varies. It can vary quite a bit. But I can give you some general guidelines. I can do the same for a related question, how long an O scale train is.

Can you put laminate over tile?

Dave Farquhar DIY December 19, 2019December 7, 2019

Can you put laminate over a tile floor? That’s a fairly common question. But unfortunately, like so many things, the answer is, it depends. In many cases you can install laminate over tile, but in some cases, you can make a problem worse by doing so. Here’s how you can know.

You can install laminate over tile if the tile floor is in reasonably good physical condition. But installing laminate over cracked, uneven tile will result in wavy, uneven, undesirable laminate.

How to open a Commodore 64 or VIC-20

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing December 18, 2019May 10, 2024

The original breadbin-style Commodore 64 and VIC-20 are designed to be easy to open while keeping production cost reasonably low. But they made the design so easy it’s hard. Worse yet, due to the age of the plastics, if you open one today the way Commodore intended, you can damage it. So here’s how to open a Commodore 64 or VIC-20. Let’s also talk about how to fix one if you damage the case when opening it.

The breadbin-style 64 and VIC-20 have three large L-shaped tabs on the back that originally behaved like pivots or hinges. If you try to use them like a hinge today, you’ll probably hear plastic popping, so the trick is to open the case slightly, then pull the top forward.

Pros and cons of integrated motherboards

Dave Farquhar Hardware December 17, 2019May 18, 2022

What is an integrated motherboard? Every motherboard is integrated to a degree. But there are positives and negatives to integration. So not everyone sees an integrated motherboard as an advantage. Here’s what it means and why it matters to you.

Today, an integrated motherboard usually means all the functionality, including video, network, and all common I/O are built right onto the motherboard, with no need for any cards in expansion slots. This allows for a smaller and cheaper system.

How to hook up a Super Nintendo to newer TVs

Dave Farquhar Retro Gaming December 16, 2019January 22, 2025

Setting up a Super Nintendo can get tricky if you can’t find all of the cables. Cables from some other Nintendo consoles will work, but not always. Plus, TV sets have changed a lot since the 1990s, and that makes it much more difficult. HDTVs don’t necessarily have the same options as vintage TVs. So here’s how to hook up a Super Nintendo to a modern TV.

The Super Nintendo was really designed to use composite video or S-Video, like a VCR. It shares the same rectangular connector with many other Nintendo consoles, but a cable to use the Wii with HDMI, for example, doesn’t work on an SNES. The SNES requires a different, more expensive converter for HDMI.

What is a Magne-Traction train?

Dave Farquhar Toy trains December 13, 2019October 22, 2022

Lionel enthusiasts, especially postwar enthusiasts, talk about Magne-Traction a lot. But what is a Magne-Traction train, and what makes it special?

Magne-Traction was a feature Lionel introduced in the 1950s. By putting magnets in the driver wheels, a Magne-Traction train can pull more, climb steeper grades, and run at higher speeds without derailing on sharp curves.

Configuring PC case digital speed displays

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing December 12, 2019December 22, 2019

Cheap PCs from the 90s and late 1980s often had a digital display that indicated the CPU speed. They were kitschy, and I can’t say I’ve ever seen a brand-name PC with one, but many cheap cases made overseas had them. That meant the computers that came from the little clone shop down the street probably had them.

Is Hart a good brand? Who makes Hart tools?

Dave Farquhar DIY December 11, 2019September 10, 2023

In late 2019, a new brand of tool showed up in Wal-Mart stores called Hart. Hart tools are cheaper than most of the big name brands, but more expensive than Wal-Mart’s Hyper Tough house brand. But is Hart a good brand? Who makes Hart tools? Let’s dig in.

The company who makes Hart tools is Techtronic Industries (TTI), an OEM for many other brands, including Craftsman and Ryobi. Post-2019 Hart tools target consumers, trying to compete with Black and Decker on price and quality.

Why Atari failed

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing December 10, 2019January 28, 2026

Atari was on top of the world in 1982, so much so that the movie Blade Runner featured it as a dominant company in 2049. But it fell hard and fast, and several times. Here’s why Atari failed and didn’t maintain world dominance for 80 years like we once expected.

Atari’s failure happened on two fronts, the computer market and the game console market. Atari was an early pioneer in both, but its upstart competitors ultimately understood both markets better. But in all fairness, not all of the companies that understood the market better survived either.