On Apr 12, 2014, at 4:09 PM, eoconnor25@gmail.com wrote:
Hmmmm.....guess everyone's definition of fun is different?.....LoL!
I think it's tremendous fun to rehabilitate old electronics.
A few months ago, I picked up a Sony Tektronix 390AD digitizer. There was nothing wrong with it, except the switches were worn out. So I found 40 switches at great expense, took off the front cover, pulled off the circuit board, and painstakingly replaced each switch - using solder wick, flux, and rubbing alcohol. I am not sure that there are actually any more of these switches available. Anywhere. Now that I'm finished with it... I'm not entirely sure what to do with it, but it was a fun project and good to see something that wasn't working fully functional again.
I have all of the equipment needed to do almost any electronics repair needed... but for some reason, it's more fun to collect and rehabilitate the equipment than to actually use it. I'm an odd duck.
A long time ago, I picked up an old 68000 based server, and gave it to a friend for his birthday. He had tremendous fun setting up the server and getting Linux installed on it. There was nothing productive to do with it, but that's not the point. :) I also like to go to a surplus place here and pick up old embedded electronics to play with. it doesn't really have enough power to do anything useful, but again, that's not the point, it's just fun to get something working that hadn't worked in a long time.
Alas, though, I only have limited time and too many other more useful projects...
Such is being a nerd. :)
--Russell