NES Clone systems have been around for some time now. But the Retro Entertainment System I’ve got on the bench today is of a newer vintage. 37 years after the NES first hit US shores how are these new clones systems being made? In the early 2000s VR Technology started releasing their VTxx line (datasheets)…
Category: Hardware
Hardware used to make machines, devices, or assemblies.
Phrozen Sonic Mini Review – Should I Buy It?
While I don’t often write reviews of products these days I just purchased a Phrozen Sonic Mini. So I’d like to share setup details and my impressions of the printer with you. Update: I’ve added a list of 3D Resin settings for the Phrozen Sonic Mini. I purchased this UV printer directly from Amazon for…
Creating a 9 Pin Joystick Cable End – 3D Printing DIY
9 Pin joystick cable pigtails have been amazingly hard to find. And I need to re-cable old joysticks for the Genesis since the cheap replacements are mostly garbage. So I’ve finally resorted to making my own. To be clear DB9 connectors are easy to source. I’ve got a stack of them here for an unrelated…
Data East Karate Champ “My Arcade” Teardown
Data East released Karate Champ, a twin stick fighter, nearly 40 years ago in 1984. Fast forward to 2017 and “My Arcade” releases one of their mini arcades based on it. And I’m tearing it apart. These mini arcade boxes are fairly similar to the Genesis clone I recently took apart. Although they lack a…
DIY UV Resin Curing Station – Make Your Own UV Resin Curer
UV Resin for small batch prototyping in the home shop has come down in price dramatically. Now that it’s an affordable option for making components I’m working on the Wanhao D7 printer again. Along with the printer there are some other necessities. You need rubbing alcohol to clean the prints, plastic containers, and something to…
Hydro Dip Paint Surface Coat PLA 3D Prints
Hydro dip (or water transfer printing) is a process to paint objects by dipping them in a scum of acrylic paint floated on water. Since that seems pretty straight forward I’m going to try it for painting PLA prints! There’s two caveats here. First, I’m using chrome paint which may react a bit oddly to…
Sega Genesis Clone: The 16 BIT Mega Drive 2
Sega Genesis entered onto the market at the very tail end of the 80’s. This was during the fourth generation of video game console alongside the Super Nintendo/Super Famicon and Neo-Geo. This particular unit, unfortunately for me, didn’t come out then and is a horrible pile of failure. Unfortunate because what I was actually trying…
Digital Caliper via USB (Vernier) for DRO – Just 3$
A digital caliper was at one point the domain of the wealthy. The rest of us had to slug along with our slide calipers and suck it up. And then came the silicon revolution. Everything became smaller, cheaper, and easier to mass produce. Now you can pick up a set of digital calipers for as…
Tablet Teardown of the U30GT Android Tab
Have you ever wondered what’s inside a tablet computer? It might be a bit more general purpose than you think. And with parts more useful than the pong console. The Cube U30GT has reached the end of it’s life and I’m scrapping it for parts in this tablet teardown.
Sears Tele-Games (APF TV Fun 400) Teardown
During the late 1970’s arcade games were just coming into vogue. Capitalizing on the trend General Instruments released their “Pong on a chip”, the AY-3-8500 and it was picked up for the Sears Tele-Games console.