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1. Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 02:45:02 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

   So apparently in 1993, Avon (the MLM (not that MLM (or that kind either))) commissioned a Soft Foam Telephone.

   I got one for @gewt but sadly, it arrived broken.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 02:50:58 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     I opened it up (it's glued together! AHH!) and it turns out it's a Recyco Inc SoftPhone

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 02:52:25 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Inside the plastic, we've got a single-sided PCB with a single IC and a bunch of discrete (and discreet!) components.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 02:53:36 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     The IC is an HM9102D. That's a Hualon Microelectronics TONE/PULSE SWITCHABLE DIALER WITH REDIAL

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 02:59:17 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     So the way this thing is broken is odd: You plug it in, and you can turn it on (yeah this landline has an on/off switch, which is itself weird) and the LED comes on, but that's it. You CAN hear it clicking when you pulse-dial, but nothing otherwise

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:02:17 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     This thing was definitely hand-soldered. With one possible exception they look fine, though.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:04:56 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Nope, there's no bridge here. I checked.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:07:08 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Annoyingly there's two version of the datasheets: a 1-pager that just gives the specs, and a 5-page one that talks about circuits and such.

     the 5-page one is only available in chinese and when I attempted to translate it, google just gave me punctuation.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:07:43 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     no really. it only included the punctuation.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:12:50 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Testing in circuit, I'm seeing 2.1v across VSS/VDD on that chip.
     The nominal voltage seems to be 2.5v? so that might be a problem

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:15:28 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     hmm. no, if this translated electrical characteristics table is at all correct, it should be fine down to 2v. So we're close, but not dangerously low.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:19:04 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • joel b

     @skotchygut yeah, that's the one I specifically tested! but no, it's fine.

   • joel b (skotchygut@social.tummyacid.net)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:19:22 JST joel b

     in reply to

     @foone that one trace on the far left side about half way up looks pretty close to a bridge of three pins instead of just two

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:19:45 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     this thing has a bunch of little caps and diodes and transistors. I've visually inspected it but I don't see any issues with any of them.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:26:26 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     I'm getting the expected -51V on the input, so there's no problem with the cord or the PBX powering this

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:26:57 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     and the fuse is fine, I did test that.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:33:03 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Here's the translated(ish) schematic from the HM9102D datasheet.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:33:44 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     I'm gonna assume this device is basically this design with with minimal changes.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:38:39 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     I'm suspicious of this goop. It looks like they hotglued the caps down, so... why would there be brown goop? Maybe these caps leaked out the bottom and it pooled under them.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:43:04 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     C2 & c9 are 47µF 16v caps
     C6 & C8 are 100µF 16v caps
     C7 is 1µF 50v cap

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:44:03 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • xyhhx 🔻 (plz hire me)

     @xyhhx FOONE B TURING: GOOP INSPECTOR

   • xyhhx 🔻 (plz hire me) (xyhhx@nso.group)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:44:05 JST xyhhx 🔻 (plz hire me)

     in reply to

     @foone "im suspicious of this goop" is definitely a sentence

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 03:58:28 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Desoldered them all. Let's test.

     My cap meter is saying C7 is 1116nF, or 1.1µF. Close enough for jazz.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:00:24 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     my MTester thing says it's got an ESR of 7 ohms, which is high, but I don't think this is gonna mind.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:02:13 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     The two 100µF caps:

     c6: 144 µF, ESR 0.5 ohm.
     c8: 148 µF, ESR 0.6 ohm.

     that's a lot higher than they're supposed to be but again, it may not matter with a device this analog.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:03:26 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     the 47 µF caps:
     c2: 60 µF, 1.3 ohm ESR
     c9: 62 µF, 1.2 ohm ESR

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:06:57 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     so none of these caps are good, but none are super smoking-gun either. Still, I desoldered them all, so I'm not putting any back. I'll swap them for some new ones once I can order some

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:15:13 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     replacements will be here tomorrow!

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:15:49 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     I don't currently have a good way to test the oscillator, but I suspect it's working: I get (well, got, I would get nothing now, since I stole all the caps) clicks in pulse dialing mode, which sound vaguely enough like pulse dialing that I'm gonna assume it is. Without an oscillator we shouldn't be getting any clicks

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:18:35 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     There are some ceramic caps on here too, but I didn't desolder or test any of those. I don't think I really need to? unless you fry them by overvoltage/overcurrent I'm not sure they're gonna die anytime soon.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:21:23 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     I also don't know if this thing ever worked: this one came from ebay apparently unopened over the last 32 years

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:23:46 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     It's entirely possible it never worked, and they soldered it together wrong

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:24:36 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Solarbird :flag_cascadia:

     @moira fortunately there's no traces there (since it's single sided) so that shouldn't cause problems

   • Solarbird :flag_cascadia: (moira@mastodon.murkworks.net)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:24:37 JST Solarbird :flag_cascadia:

     in reply to

     @foone ceramics almost always hold up, I wouldn’t bother.

     That brown goop looks like a particular glue which is known to become corrosive and conducive over time. But if it’s that, why also hot glue? I has a confusion.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:28:54 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     So the current plan is:
     1. Stick new caps on
     2. Test
     3. If not work, start yanking components and documenting what they are until I run out of components or find some that are broken

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:36:46 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Leonard Ritter

     @lritter not me! I'm diabetic. some 1992 punk probably was, though

   • Leonard Ritter (lritter@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:36:47 JST Leonard Ritter

     in reply to

     @foone who been eatin chocolate

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:40:49 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Andrew Golding

     @huronbikes they sold this in a lot of varieties (the phone part is the same, they just need to make new foam cases for each license), so it wouldn't surprise me if they did!

   • Andrew Golding (huronbikes@cyberplace.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 04:40:50 JST Andrew Golding

     in reply to

     @foone I feel like there was a missed opportunity to make it completely yellow and call it Banana Phoam

   • Timon 🛠 (timonsku@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 05:07:19 JST Timon 🛠

     in reply to

     @foone yea MLCCs don't really die. You can regenerate them by heating them up, might be worth a try if its that old but unless its precision caps for some analog function I wouldn't suspect them to make the pass or fail difference.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 05:07:19 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Timon 🛠

     @timonsku yeah. I'm not gonna worry about them unless I can rule out everything else.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 05:13:29 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Matthew Sainsbury

     @mattsains I can't and it's on my desk! I'm anosmic :)

   • Matthew Sainsbury (mattsains@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 05:13:30 JST Matthew Sainsbury

     in reply to

     @foone I can smell this pcb from here

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 05:57:29 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Lukas

     @karotte this one might be old enough that they routed it by hand with stencils.

   • Lukas (karotte@chaos.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 05:57:30 JST Lukas

     in reply to

     @foone This particular style of PCB routing seems to be common among really cheap single-layer PCBs. I've been wondering, is there any practical reason for it or is the result of a particular layout software?

   • plaes (plaes@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 12:07:02 JST plaes

     in reply to

     @foone These kinds of boards were usually done using wave soldering.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 12:07:02 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • plaes

     @plaes I figured this one wasn't because of all the flux residue and inconsistent soldering, but maybe they wave soldered most of it and then touched up some bits by hand?

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 15:15:20 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • plaes

     @plaes maybe! But it was in a closed box, I don't think it's been opened since 1993

   • plaes (plaes@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Dec-2024 15:15:21 JST plaes

     in reply to

     @foone ...or someone has tried to fiddle with it...

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Dec-2024 09:24:35 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     got the new caps in. time to solder.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Dec-2024 09:33:39 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Damn. No difference.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Dec-2024 09:34:09 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     it is definitely trying to pulse-dial, even if I can't hear it I can see the LED flash.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Dec-2024 09:37:33 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     lemme try blind-dialing my own phone number. maybe this thing just has a bad speaker, and is in fact working?

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Dec-2024 09:54:15 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     YO! it works.
     it took a lot of tries to get the fucker to dial, but I was able to call myself, and hear myself (in one direction only, because the speaker isn't currently connected)

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Dec-2024 09:57:58 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     reconnected the speaker, but got nothing. So it's still one-way

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Dec-2024 09:58:26 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     lemme locate a spare speaker

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Dec-2024 10:05:00 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     it turns out I have no spare speakers.
     how strange that a noted misophonic would have no spare speakers!

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Dec-2024 10:10:26 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     okay I plugged it into the speaker of a broken flip-clock I just so happened to have within reach.

     It works fine! I can even tone-dial, although the weird part is that I can't hear the tones. There's just a slight click noise.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Dec-2024 10:11:04 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     so I think this thing might have just had a bad speaker from the beginning. whoops. that should have been easier to diagnose!