HP M200 WIFI issues

Recently had to toy around with a couple of brand new HP V-M200 (model J9468A) access points that had serious issues with WIFI connectivity and maintaining solid U/D speeds. So I figured I’d share this since I seem not to be the only one :)

The V-M200 / M200 AP, the not-so-solid performer

C64 S-video mod

Here’s one simple mod I’ve had on the to-do list for ages: swap the C64 audio/video connector to something that can take a regular s-video cable and use the RF modulator RCA jack for audio out. Standardish connectors just save from that much hassle.. Plus it’s also very hard to think of a use for the RF output these days :)

Macintosh Plus

A little personal history: Macintosh Plus, commonly referred to as “linnunpönttö” (birdhouse) in finnish, is a computer I got to test hands-on way later than it was released. By the time I did, Amiga 500 had been ruling the home computer hobbyist scene for years. Familiar with A500’s awesome capabilities the Plus (with it’s small gray-scale monitor) simply was, in comparison, a uninteresting relic.

Macintosh Plus. Photo by Wikimedia.

Fast forward ten (or so) years and I found myself looking at one in a second hand store. With a near yours-for-free-if-you-take-it-out-the-shop price tag, the Plus powered on nicely but came only with a keyboard (minus one key cap). The lack of OS disks and mouse made it pretty much a unusable piece-of-shit. Nonetheless, I took it with me and stored it away to wait for closer inspection. Then life had its funny ways, and the Plus sat in the basement waiting.. and waiting, right up until this august when I dug it up thinking “maybe it’s about time..” And here, we start to close in on this post.

There is a lot of info about Mac+ out and about the net. But as it often is with these retro systems, not everything is necessarily applicable or usable, or you’ll simply come across a bunch of dead links. One of my ideas with this post was to compact my findings and provide one usable solution for “how to get that damn can of worms up and running“. If you, like me, acquired a second-hand Plus with just a keyboard, this one is a definite read for you. Maybe you’ll have a little less grandiose mission getting your Plus back in action ;)

Kwltop, the 2nd Generation

The quick project for today, an addition to the Kewlers product range.

Toshiba L300

Some months ago, I got a couple of broken laptops from a colleaque and eventually managed to piece together a working dual core system from the parts. The only new item I had to buy was a bigger harddrive.. Sweet, more computing power for next to nothing! Naturally, a new laptop calls for some branding action ;)

The modding workflow pretty much followed my first laptop branding project with a few minor exceptions, so I’m not going to repeat that stuff here. This time around though, no HP logo to worry about and even the display cable is off-center. In other words, I finally got to make The Finger Logo ™ glow and place it dead center \o/

Newschool and oldschool side by side..

..but the newschool has glow!

After cutting the logo there was still a little bit of original Toshiba brand logo visible on the cover, so I gave it a layer of black matte spray. If this gets scratched later down the road, the matte color is more forgiving to spot-overpainting scratches.

I also lightly sanded the reverse side of the clear acrylic insert, giving a slightly milk glass-ish look. The sanding texture (600 grit) is visible up close, but nothing too bad. Putting the parts didn’t require hammering at all, as with the first laptop. Must be learning something..

That’s it. Catch “the glow” at Stream Nine this weekend!

MAME cabinet, system upgrade part 2

On to some testing results with the MAME cabinet computer upgrade. The new hardware was almost a “no fit” inside the cabinet (silly considering the size of it!), but I got the hardware installed eventually. The coin return slot had to go, but it’s not like there was any actual use for it in the cabinet.

New computer installed!