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[05:09:08] <aczid> hypermagic: absolutely :D too bad they no longer make those
[21:35:32] <inflex> wtf... lololooolz.... TI labelling their linear voltage reg as "DC-DC converters"
[21:36:00] <inflex> Here I was thinking they had a nice 3-pin TO220 package doing switchmode
[21:36:12] <Casper> and it's a 7805?
[21:36:42] <inflex> Casper: close enough
[21:36:50] <Casper> 317?
[21:37:00] <inflex> TEXAS INSTRUMENTS LM1086IT-3.3/NOPB IC, DC DC CONVERTER
[21:37:34] <inflex> oh, actually, I may have to retract that... looks like it was stupid E14 making that claim
[21:37:48] <inflex> the TI datasheet doesn't say it... damn, there goes my fun for the day
[22:46:11] <Mr_Sheesh> inflex, Digikey sells switchers that're TO-220 leads, with the whole switcher inside the blob body of the device; Not exactly a usual TO220 head on there, close tho
[22:46:41] <Casper> and money money
[22:46:50] <Mr_Sheesh> I've put them into various devices for wearable computer users, in the past. $15ish last I checked
[22:47:32] <Mr_Sheesh> Wearables folks HAD to have $$ as of 10-15 years ago, displays and so on weren't cheap
[22:56:38] <Casper> I wish there was more current limited ones available
[22:57:12] <Casper> like a direct replacement for a 317... but with a like 10A output capability.... and a 13.65V output...
[22:58:53] <tpw_rules> Mr_Sheesh: what does a 2002 wearable computer system look like?
[22:58:57] <tpw_rules> i've always wondered
[23:00:10] <Mr_Sheesh> Worst case, design one up, go into business? :P tpw_rules - MIT folks were big on those, IDK if they have a historical museum of them. Usually the cpu board was a PC104 one, so roughly hand-sized, display would be a hacked display from some game, set up in goggles at eye level,
[23:00:53] <tpw_rules> what OS? how do you interact with it?
[23:00:56] <Mr_Sheesh> and you used a bunch of NP750 LiIon batteries for power. Think "Tim Taylor meets Computers"
[23:02:01] <tpw_rules> presumably you built them back then
[23:02:02] <Mr_Sheesh> chording keyboards, to a large degree; One nut took a Palm IIIx or something and suspended it from a piercing where he could see it easily, IDK how well that turned out for them... Displays were not usually full VGA tho
[23:02:21] <Mr_Sheesh> No, wanted to but had zero time, just helped a few people in my spare time
[23:02:42] <tpw_rules> huh
[23:03:11] <tpw_rules> what use would they be? 56k modem attached to a cell phone?
[23:03:23] <tpw_rules> not full vga is pretty small for a desktop OS
[23:03:53] <Mr_Sheesh> They took some time to build up. Nowadays I might look at a RaspPi or Beagleboard Black or Odroid for the core PC... One guy had a transparent HUD on his, but needed personality; Heh. He had some sort of wifi so he could web off it
[23:04:10] <tpw_rules> well nowadays it's easy
[23:04:40] <Mr_Sheesh> Depends on what you want to do ofc; Checking emails, doing web searches, imaging an area so you can model it in CAD, or ??
[23:07:28] <Mr_Sheesh> I didn't build one, also, because I had several IBM PC110 palmtops (it's 5/6 the size of a VHS video tape) - NP-550 batteries, little full VGA screen, great little machines, 486sx33 cpu was all tho. Booted off CF or a PCMCIA card (2 II slots stacked, or one type III, so hard drives fit.) Fun to see people react to working on a PC board on that :P
[23:08:09] <tpw_rules> aww that's cute
[23:08:13] <tpw_rules> i only know the old palms
[23:08:18] <tpw_rules> my dad was a big fan
[23:09:16] <tpw_rules> http://www.basterfield.com/pc110/gif/ce300.gif
[23:10:08] <Mr_Sheesh> I wish I had more of that Fujitsu that was a P1-133 or so; More speed's good, heh. But most of what I do is text files or PC board CAD. Yep, Daniel I remember from back then :)
[23:10:33] <tpw_rules> where? what was the advantage of having one so portable
[23:10:40] <Mr_Sheesh> I still have a couple Palm IIIc's and some IIIx etc.
[23:11:02] <tpw_rules> i kind of want to get a trs-80 model 100 some day. i know z80
[23:11:18] <tpw_rules> my dad had a gps system for his palm
[23:11:50] <Mr_Sheesh> Well - for me, I have worked contracting with various companies, at times needed to hike in to their company mine or whatever and fix their computer setup - so I needed to carry the computer to do it with; PC110 is a lot more luggable than my bigger computers :)
[23:12:14] <Mr_Sheesh> I have some Garmin iQue 3600s - Palm Vish with GPS in there
[23:12:14] <tpw_rules> oh i thought you were doing CAD on the pc110
[23:12:25] <tpw_rules> nah, this was palm 3. rand mcnally
[23:12:50] <Mr_Sheesh> Yes, CAD is another thing I did a lot of, but you need to edit source code sometimes, compile, install the binary into their PC
[23:14:19] <Mr_Sheesh> Of all things, the U of W's geophysics department used to use TRS-80 model 100s as in-field data loggers; THey'd replace the electrolytic caps with tantalums so they couldn't freeze, then install as much RAM as they could fit in there, plant them in the Arctic in an insulated box. Worked very well for them!
[23:16:15] <tpw_rules> huh
[23:16:37] <tpw_rules> i guess geophysics doesn't go very fast
[23:17:13] <Mr_Sheesh> No, things like glaciers and snowpacks compressing and recrystallizing during winter, are pretty slow
[23:18:29] <Mr_Sheesh> Used a data logger on the wind AC component and temperature project I did with them, it needed more data storage. Couple fun contacts there, pay was meh but fun projects :)
[23:20:48] <tpw_rules> where did they get power?
[23:21:05] <tpw_rules> did they invent a generator that ran on pure bitterness and despair
[23:21:22] <tpw_rules> can't imagine they were visited often
[23:28:37] <Mr_Sheesh> ZincAire batteries are neat for that; You just pull a tab and they generate power for a while, only so much but they'd buy truck size batteries, parallel 2-3 of those, you're set :) Not light... THey dropped it in late summer and picked the data up the next Spring. Had to use space quality parts as it gets down to -40F.
[23:29:14] <Mr_Sheesh> And you had to stay within your power budget or POOF no data.
