Ben Ryves

Electric Eel Shock sure were a lot of fun last night!

Back in New Cross for another gig - tonight's headliner are Electric Eel Shock who sound like they're going to be a lot of fun! youtu.be/8d-5WU-iTm8

Starting to think the one that popped up recently for £30 with a buggered screen wasn't such a bad deal after all...

youtu.beSoupy George live - 7 Seconds Of Love at the New Cross Inn 11 Oct 2024YouTube video by Rathergood

Off up to New Cross to see what should be a Rather Good band playing. Now, where did I put that soup? youtu.be/xzcULGFY40Y

Soup acquired. Yeah!

Off up to New Cross to see what should be a Rather Good band playing. Now, where did I put that soup? youtu.be/xzcULGFY40Y

youtu.beSoupy George live - 7 Seconds Of Love at the New Cross Inn 11 Oct 2024YouTube video by Rathergood

Found someone to pester on the way to the gig. Not very interested in my attention, though.

youtube.comHawkwind featuring Brian Blessed - Sonic Attack (Official Video)YouTube video by Cherry Red Records

Brian Blessed, loudest of the Britons, is 90 years old today. Do not waste time blocking your ears! Love this version of the Michael Moorcock/Hawkwind "Sonic Attack" he appeared on a few years back. Happy birthday, Brian! www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8pG...

First time I've seen a dB meter at a live music venue...

Okonomiyaki for lunch then a nice dark beer by the canal - good to take a Friday off!

Made friends with the local cats too.

@davidrvetter.bsky.social

This fess reminded me that I'd been worried how my fridge was struggling to reach 10°C so I tried sticking the thermometer on the outside. Suffice it to say it's not 30°C in my kitchen and it explains why my can of beans froze solid at "8°C". Guess I need a new thermometer!

fesshole 🧻@fesshole.bsky.social

Had some long running sickness and diarrhea, spent alot of time having NHS tests, finally sussed it out when we also had unusual amounts of food going off in the fridge and getting refunds. It struggled to get down to 10deg. New fridge, much better! Sorry NHS and Sainsbury's.

Ben Ryves reposted

Dave Vetter

Happy Kicked In The Head By A Horse Day, to all who celebrate. It's the 7th anniversary of this absolute banger.

reddit.comFrom the psx community on Reddit: Found an old treasureExplore this post and more from the psx community

22 Sept

I do grumble about wrapping cables tightly around devices (especially controllers) due to the risk of "cable burn", and this post on Reddit provides an excellent example image of a particularly severe example! www.reddit.com/r/psx/commen...

benryves.comCalculating the approximate phase of the moon on a range of devices • Journal • benryves.com

Bit of a side-quest with my Sharp calculator link software plans this weekend. I was planning to support the EL-9400, 9450, 9600, 9900 and 9950, but what of the older EL-9300? This works in a fundamentally different way, with different file formats and no 2.5mm I/O port.

Finally, I could take a phase of moon calendar program (benryves.com/journal/3763...) and adapt it to the EL-9300 (benryves.com/bin/sharp-el...) then convert into a .tap file that could be loaded via the virtual CE-50P. A bit of a roundabout way to do things, but sure beats typing it in by hand.

I'd still like to figure out the calc-to-calc protocol and I haven't seen what happens if the tape image is over 8KB (how much RAM is in the printer - I'll likely need to split into multiple blocks) but it's been a fun diversion. I do rather like the EL-9300, even if its programming is inelegant!

This all allows me to build a simple virtual CE-50P that emulates the printer and cassette interface in a C# program. I can then use this to write some programs on the calculator, then save to a virtual tape so I can pick through the data structures. Easier than decoding tape audio files, at least!

Once I'd figured out how all the programs were stored, I needed to work out the individual tokens. Another tool created a bunch of programs that contained every possible token so I could transcribe them into a table. Fortunately there are only single-byte tokens here, unlike Sharp's later models!

It does have a 4-pin "PA bus" option port on the bottom, though, same as Sharp's electronic organisers from this period. I don't have another EL-9300, so can't sniff the bus to reverse engineer the calc-to-calc transfers. I do have a CE-50P printer and cassette interface, though!

Hooking the printer up to a logic analyser and performing some test prints and cassette saves allowed me to reverse engineer the communications. A CE-136T "level converter" then lets me plug the calculator into my PC, though the protocol still has to be bit-banged in software.

16 Sept

"Dropped once and now it doesn't switch on." A bit grubby but the LCD looked to be in OK shape (no scratches or bruises). Popped in some batteries and it did switch on, but that PCB to LCD flex cable has clearly had enough.

Using the guide from benryves.com/journal/3763... I chased down all of the missing rows and columns then pressed the affected part of the flex cable back on the board with a soldering iron set to 220°C.

16 Sept

I still need to clean up the battery terminals and replace the wires between the two halves of the calculator, but no hurry as I want to keep an eye on the LCD repairs before sealing everything back up. When done I'll print a label out as a reminder of when I did the repair, and... oh, bugger!

The battery compartment is connected to the main PCB with extremely thin wires that usually snap at the solder joint, which I assumed was the cause of the fault before buying the calculator. Signs of corrosion and the wires fell off the board when I took the back off, but that's an easy fix.

14 Sept

Sharp's graphing calculator PC software and link cables are hard to find these days so I thought I'd have a go at writing my own. I've had to do a lot of reverse engineering and there's still a long way to go but it feels like I'm on the right track.

14 Sept

The intention is to support the EL-9400, 9450, 9600, 9900 and 9950. The first three use a proprietary link protocol and special cable, but I've managed to make it mostly work with TI's "black link" serial cable. The last two are different but a straight-through serial cable seems to work.

14 Sept

The black link code was mostly robust but would fail during long transfers (e.g. backups) after 20KB or so due to missing level transitions. Stuck SetPriorityClass(GetCurrentProcess(), REALTIME_PRIORITY_CLASS) in the code and it now works almost every time. Will still need to design a proper cable!

12 Sept

Nearly missed my bus earlier after meeting a friendly new cat in the area. Have to make sure I pass the inspection!

12 Sept

Did make it to the Caterham beer festival mostly on time, fortunately. Cheers! 🍻

12 Sept

It cost six tokens but it's so worth it. Like drinking chocolate syrup.

11 Sept

I recently dug out a microscope to try to work out how a badge I picked up from the Science Museum in the 90s worked after seeing someone asking about them - youtu.be/BIZtK5UVRVE Grand Illusions posted this video today with a much larger version - youtu.be/nqam7ek4pII The magic of Moiré!

memory-alpha.fandom.comCytherianThe Cytherians were an advanced species who lived near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. They were explorers and made contact with various other races. The manner in which they initiated first conta...

11 Sept

The chap looking for information also pointed out their use as part of the make up in "Star Trek: TNG" - memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Cytherian

27 Aug

Trying a more scientific approach to re-stick EL-9900 LCD flex cables via printable templates. Two rulers help measure the missing column/row numbers, and a guide then shows where the corresponding areas of the flex cable are for heating. Will it hold? Only time will tell.

benryves.comTargeted repairs for missing rows and columns on the Sharp EL-9900's LCD • Journal • benryves.com

2 Sept

I think I got the "lower rows" numbers backwards, but can't check for certain as none of my calculators have missing rows on the bottom half of the LCD. Either way, now written up at benryves.com/journal/3763... for anyone else with a faulty EL-9900!

31 Aug

After missing their acoustic set last weekend it's grand to see Magic Brother opening the Carshalton Eco-Fair with a (solar-powered) electric set.

23 Aug

Good quantity of black pudding on this breakfast. Out for a bike ride so this will help refuelling...

22 Aug

Enjoying some live music at The Oval for its "Busker's Barbecue" and good to catch up with Ollie the pub cat.

20 Aug

Finally some good weather and I can enjoy a pub garden pint at long last. Cheers!

12 Aug

High-fiving the eclipse.

12 Aug

Casio IC cards for their organisers seem much harder to find than Sharp IC cards. Both had a version of Lucid 3-D spreadsheet, though, and that can turn the organisers into useful calculating machines. I'd still love to find an equivalent to Sharp's BASIC cards for the Casio.

12 Aug

I'm ready for the eclipse

L Break Into Program@breakintoprogram.co.uk

I'm ready for the eclipse

8 Aug

Good to catch up with Stanley and Winston at the Dark Horse in Selhurst. A great pub with great pub cats!

ebay.co.ukSharp EL-9600 Scientific Calculator with Cover | eBay UKSharp EL-9600 Tested and working

4 Aug

This seller has a load of cheap Sharp EL-9600 calculators for sale. I already have one but the keyboard isn't very responsive so I figured it's worth a punt! This calculator's main gimmick is its touch screen. Will report back if pen is missing... www.ebay.co.uk/itm/16814542...

8 Aug

One sylus (missing its soft tip) between the two calculators I bought. Both have very responsive keyboards, the one with the broken stylus has a scratched screen and the other has a fair bit of battery leak crust inside to clean up but for the price can't complain.

7 Aug

I don't endorse jamming components into PCBs operating at mains voltage, especially in a wet room... I only installed this fan a year ago and it lasted around six months before developing this fault. Guess that's my Friday night repair scheduled!

ebay.co.ukSharp EL-9600 Scientific Calculator with Cover | eBay UKSharp EL-9600 Tested and working

4 Aug

4 Aug

The back of the calculator is clipped on and *very* tightly. The LCD is also clipped in, so to lift the PCB out to clean the contacts you'd need to remove that without accidentally tearing the flex cable. After shredding my fingers getting the back off I didn't fancy my chances with the LCD.