I think I can speak for the vast majority of your viewers in saying that we enjoy ALL your content. Watching your videos is like hanging out with a friend and your enthusiasm is contagious. The topics you cover are interesting and your knowledge is impressive but most of all, we just like you. :)
That describes it extremely accurate. Often I don't understand more than 50% of what he does and explains. But it's interesting and calming to watch Adrian. And his joy at what he does is infectuous.
Absolutely! Sometimes I have to pause for a while and do something else, but I prefer to watch when I can give Adrian's videos the attention they deserve.
Hi Adrian, I was the President of a large disability provider including a school. The technology for using computer aided communication started in the 1980s. It replaced picture boards where a person would point to a preprinted page that had pictures. That actually has never gone completely away as its not dependent on having access to power and also can be easily customized. At the same time as this was developed there were self contained devices as well as computer based. Many used a plug in cartridge. SOme of the more sophisiticated systems also allowed you to load images from a mater set into a cartridge that met the needs of the person.
@@kaitlyn__L yes they are very useful. The same sort of technology drove Stephen Hawkins ability to communicate. At one point we invested in creating a closed social network for our people served so they could communicate as more and more of the world was via the net. It was picture based so a person could send a message that would come up as text at the other end and family members could choose from some basic sentences that would be turned back to pictures at the other end. We dropped this as platforms like Facetime and Zoom developed and provide face to face communications - but our non-verbal people still kept the ability to send pictograms. With modern AI I think the system we developed could have gone much further.
The grid scan and select system was born with POSM in 1960. This ESAM system sits on those shoulders and all the work that sprouted from that time around the world. Quite a lot of work was done in the 1970s with computers and disability access (such as MAVIS, Carba Linguaduc, Prentke Romich and others), but it exploded with affordable computers in the 1980s. This system demoed was $2000 USD plus all in AFAIK. Definitely looks like it was a labour of love.
Adrien, long time viewer. The last items you tested would now be considered AAC (Augmentative Alternative Communication). I know it well since i use modern descendants of such devices (some of my videos showcase that). I've used AAC the early 90s. From what I know, the examples you have aren't exactly cutting edge, but are contemporary for that time. That being said, those simple device and that software changed someone's life. At the time, I was still handwriting notes to communicate. Fast forward to now and I'm keenly aware how crucial and powerful it is to my own voice. The key is remembering it's "augmentative" not primary. Garbled as it is, there's absolutely no better way to communicate my independent thoughts, desires, ideas. Although when *I* decide necessary, I still use devices which have their roots firmly planted in those beautiful comm tools you have.
Thank you for the deeper exploration of assistive technology at the end of the video. I don't feel like it was lacking or unexciting. It's really cool to see the history of the real benefits of hardware and software that made life easier for folks who needed greater accessibility.
Agreed! All the content was interesting, but the best was the last! So cool & cool it was developed for the 64. Wondering if this may have been the basses for Intel's device developed for Dr. Hawking's around the late 80s?
Win32s was a 32-bit application runtime environment for Windows 3.1. So those games on that disc do probably work with Windows 3.1. I remember back in the day playing a few early Windows 95 games on Windows 3.1 that were Win32s compatible. Ultra Pinball was one of those games. Performance was shaky, but it did work.
Win32s was needed not only to run 32bit games on 16bit Windows. Microsoft TCP/IP protocol (installed separately, it was not a part of Windows 3) was 32bit and required Win32s too!
ESAM'S KEE: It was one of the first public blitz boards for helping non-verbal handicapped persons. The system cost in Sweden was approx $400. And the system was config with Swedish words instead. How do i know this you ask. My sister had this system. And you are right the external cords on the button box is for external buttons. For ppl that only had head movements. So the leaned the head left or right. later on it worked with an eyelid button. So save that system it worth alot. And im happy to see this system again.
The enhanced learning on the C64 was fascinating... bringing the technology into peripherals that allowed so much more accessibility; my hats off to the creators.
The curve tracer is meant to be connected to the oscilloscope in XY mode, and you can use it to compare characteristics of 2 (or in this case even 3) transistors. They were used for finding matching pairs of transistors for building A-class amplifiers.
The modern term for something like the ESAM kit is AAC (not the audio codec, but augmentative and alternative communication). Very cool that it was done on a computer as affordable as the C64.
Thanks for sharing the Adaptative Goodies for the 64. That was truly amazing, I had no idea they had that level of technology setup. My wife is a special education teacher and was amazed. I've helped her setup several LAMP boards (the symbol based screens) and they really have not changed a ton. In "modern" tech those extra inputs on the panel would be to connect an item like a wheelchair mounted head button for a student who could move their head over to tap it. It's not often I get her to watch any of these tech videos but this was really great to share with her. Thanks again!
ESAM -> edge of my seat content. My mother was an educator with a lower budget district in the state north of yours. Unless the students parents could afford the device or it was provided by a charity it would have been the OT (occupational therapist) domain only and Apple.
I do love your long form videos. I love having them running in the background even while I'm at work. I prefer them to the mindless scrolling of the TH-cam shorts. I'm sure I don't speak for everyone but the occasional super long video is always welcome to see in my opinion. Especially when digging through seemingly lost tech. Keep of the great work. Always look forward to your videos! Stay healthy stay safe, and we'll see you next time 😅!
Yeah I click on them from time to time, and then am immediately annoyed by them. Even if it's mildly interesting, I want to know MORE! There's just not enough useful info in them for me.....
@@adriansdigitalbasement ... Adrian At 27:22.. apply some Acetone with a syringe all around in the gap between the CPU and the Heatsink.. and let it get in... my work ??... for get the Heatsink loose??🤔
@@Starchfacepurely a business decision based on view time losses to TikTok. But just as with politics, trying to become a clone of a competitor doesn’t work - people usually prefer the original over the imitator.
I have something similar to that speech syntheziser in my collection, got it off of an older teacher who's boy had been using it back in the day. Came with a big touch-pad where you would put sheets with different animals etc.
Full ACK! The bad reputation of the C64 as a pure toy/gaming computer is totally unjustified, given the endless possibilities through its various ports. I am very happy that another hitherto forgotten application has been salvaged here!
Honestly I think most of us binge your videos, so the long-format stuff just caters to that more. I love these long vids where you're just exploring old tech and trying to make it work, and I look forward to the next video like this one!
In the 1970s, I used a similar transistor curve tracer to find complementary transistors for audio amplifier. It was a handy tool and used it often. That way I always had a very well designed amplifier.
The ESAM kit is interesting, as i have a 6 yo who is currently learning how to use the modern equivalent. He is nonverbal. As soon as I seen the cartridge boot, i knew what it was. I wonder if Robin @ 8 bit show and tell can modify the rom dump to work without the voice synth, maybe using the SAM (software automated mouth) as this would be a neat way to introduce my kid to The C64.
Props to you for supporting your kid. I was diagnosed autistic at a young age but wasn’t “allowed” to be nonverbal. (It was intermittent, so of course “but you were happily talking half an hour ago/yesterday!” and no real understanding.) Sometimes writing on paper sufficed, but I had no idea how much stress that all caused until I’d finally left school and could go days (or weeks) between speaking as I needed, consequence-free.
This video really has some LGR vibes and I'm loving it! Your amazing troubleshooting and repair videos are really what makes this channel unique for me, but I would love to see some more thrift/grab-box/retro-demo type videos as well.
Hi there Adrian, my first time to comment on a video of yours. That last bit of ESAM was amazing, seeing an affordable computer combined with good engineering help other people living a better life or at least better help.
I actually enjoy the long form videos. The content is interesting, & I enjoy the little discoveries along the way. I also enjoy listening to both of your channels while driving. It beats the normal content on the radio. Keep up the good work.
The first computers i built for myself, i had cards for my IDE hard drives and floppy drives. But had memory on the motherboard. Keep these videos coming. I love seeing cards sent in, especially the multiple box type!
I had some of those Intel ISA memory boards back in high school, and at one point I was using one in a 486 for reasons I no longer remember. Normal DOS stuff ran fine, but anything that used XMS (including games like Doom or Descent) slideshowed like crazy. I actually wrote most of that Wikipedia article on ESDI many years ago, and the thing about the bridge boards was based on how Maxtor and Control Data designed their early SCSI drives...there was a servo processor that handled the ESDI-ish stuff, and a command processor that translated the SCSI commands to something the rest of the drive could understand, similar to the actual bridge boards companies like Adaptec were making around the same time.
the high voltage probe is for picture tubes to measure the voltage at the anode (under the clip). with the flybacktransformer you can setup the voltage and max. current for the tube. if it is to high the life of the picture tube will be drastically shorter.... greetings the second time from germany. you made a wonderful job !!
Honestly i love this "oddware" content. The ESAM project is pretty interesting to see. It almost looks "homemade" and i personally enjoy seeing stuff like that in action. Keep up the great content Adrian!!
The curve tracer is right up your alley. It’s usually built in on many oscilloscopes, and shows patterns on screen to see if an electronic part works or not. Most have 2 probes that injects a tiny AC signal, and shows results on screen. If it’s a short, will show up down, if it’s open, shows left-right, if it’s a diode will show a ‘L’ pattern, a resistor will show diagonal. Capacitor will show circle/oval. Cool stuff.
As soon as I read the SC-01 chip, I realized it was one of those speech chips which was also featured in one of your older videos. When I used to work in a small electronics firm called Semitronics in the Philippines owned by Earl Henry Hornbostel, he had people using curve tracers to spec out unmarked transistors which he purchased in bulk and will then be sold as replacements for known but difficult to find semiconductors.
Adrian seems like the type of guy who says technical thing without knowing what it actually means but because hes done it so much now he actually does know what hes saying
My Dad had that probe. It was designed to be plugged into a VTVM with a standard 10 meg input resistance so for current meters you need to shunt it with a 10 meg resistor.
I'm on Adrian's side here - the 80s can't be blamed for every occurance of bad taste. ;-) (I actually like some of the edged 80's designs, like on cars.)
Compuadd was a high-end clone mfg. Had a few of their units. The 6ch output board makes a great soundcard. Easy to do drivers for. I've done a few. Don't junk it!
I find this really interesting, it's really like a SMMC but just things you have sitting around! I found that speech tool really touching, I can imagine for someone who had difficulty communicating this might've just made all the difference to feel heard, very cool. Roll on box 2!
That digital to analog card is fantastic! You can control things that need analog voltages! For instance a test bed for circuit boards, or a sun tracker for solar panels, a light show, nearly limitless!
Absolutely fun to watch, please keep up the format! It really isn't too long, as people can just skip over stuff that isn't interesting to them. As a side note, I am kinda envious of you just being gifted boxes full of such treasures. 😄
@@adriansdigitalbasement Glad to hear that you are surrounding yourself with the right kind of friends! ♥ I'm sure they are saying the same thing about you. 😉
Good find on the curve tracer,, Mr. Carlson has videos on how they work and also how to convert an old tube type oscilloscope to operate as a curve tracer,, :-)
*RCA WG-206 High Voltage Probe:* According to the instructions you showed on screen, that model probe has an internal 1090-megohm resistor, and is designed to be used with an RCA multimeter with an 11-megohm input resistance. It basically acts as a voltage divider, with the high voltage across the entire resistance of 1101-megohms (1090+11 in series) with the meter measuring across just the 11-meg internal to itself. It sees only 1/100th of the high voltage, so you need to multiply the reading by 100 to determine the actual high voltage. Displaying 350 volts times 100 would mean you're measuring 35,000 volts (35 KV). You can picture the voltage divider resistances like a potentiometer, the wiper contact tapping off a percentage of the voltage across the full resistance. If the wiper is tapping off 1/4 of the pot, you need to multiply the measured voltage by 4 to get the full value. Modern meters have high input impedances, so you'd need to know that specification for your own meter to figure out the conversion factor for the HV probe.
For instance, there was a Win32S version of WinZip. It was faster than the regular version. That was basically the whole reason I used to have Win32S installed. 😄
@@terminusaquo1980 I was going to say that, I remember as a kid just going to system folder and clicking on all executables. That's how I became a programmer, I wanted to know what those DLLs did.
Hi, Adrian. I do enjoy these longer video content where you are talking about random items. I can watch these types of videos while doing my own projects around the ham shack. Love all your videos, keep them coming.
I love this content. Very interesting and nostalgic. I had a childhood friend who's sister had some sort of disease and was shut in. She communicated with us using this exact system. I remember because he wanted to take the system to game on. Of course that wasn't gonna happen.... Brothers😂
I had a room full of this stuff 10 years ago. Dozens of cpu's, soundblasters, motherboards, hp vectra's, compaq deskpro's you name it. Basically something from every period between the 8086 until the q6600(that chip was awesome in its day!!) Anyways, I gave it all away except for that q6600 offcourse. So watching this channel brings me back and gives me the same joy and I can normally walk through my appartment at the same time! Thanx, and keep up the good work!
34:21 That was the same style of mouse we had for most of the school computers in the 90s. Most of the machines in school at the time were from RM Nimbus. Many of them in the upstairs rooms were 186 machines, with Green phosphor monitors. lol Those machines were quite old, even by the time I started at the school, but they were still there in 1997 when I left. They had some 186 PCs with colour monitors, too, but not as many. They were unbelievably SLOW to log in to the user account, and ran on a 10-Base T (10Mbit/s) network. If somebody unplugged one of the network cables, the entire network would crash, and would take the IT guys about an hour to reboot the server and all the machines. As you can imagine, that happened quite a lot, so we could get out of doing much work. lol I think the same style of mouse was often included with the Archimedes machines. (which were obviously also very popular in UK schools in the 90s, due to the deal Acorn had with the BBC.) It was mostly the BBC Micro in schools in the 80s, with the CUB monitor and disk drives. Then in the late 80s and early 90s, it was more PCs, with a few Archimedes maybe in the art department etc.
Oh, and almost all of the Staff passwords started with "ST", followed by a number. So it didn't take long for certain students to find the teacher's initials, then go through the numbers to log in. lol
I think Star Industries might be the same "Star" who made our colour ribbon printer in the 80s. We had a Star LC-10, then later the LC-24 (IIRC) hooked up to our Olivetti PC-1. And also the Amstrad CPC 6128, which had a modem connected. My very first holiday abroad (to Mallorca, around 1988) was booked using the Amstrad and modem, a good five years before we had access to the actual Internet. (my Dad managed to spy the ABTA number from the local travel agents, which he could then use to log into their system, book the holiday, and cut out the commision fees. lol. Obviously he still had to pay for the hotel and flights, but it worked out fine.)
The tape eraser brought back some fun memories. I used to work for radioshack from 2002-2006. Us employees had a blast playing with some of the old equipment that the stores hung on to for YEARS. It's a real shame that radioshack went the way of the Dodo. I worked there towards the end of the era of being able to buy electrical components. There was just something enjoyable about going through the component bins when looking for a part.
I worked for TE Electronics that serviced the Radio Shack service plans for Tandy as a separate division from 1994-1997. Housed in Computer City, at Hayden Island, Portland Oregon. It was hella fun having access to all the microfiche and service manuals for anything Tandy related that I could order. I refurbished many devices for my own personal use from my collection of "It's dead and not worth fixing" pile on my own time and the tape eraser was common to find several in each shop. At the time there were 3-4 surplus shops that you could pick components from and sometimes whole machines that were being scrapped from the Silicon Forest industry. I had no shortage of electromechanical goodies to chose from in that era. One way to deeply immerse one self into the trailing but leading edge of technology was to pick up the dumpster tossed stuff and look into how it worked. Yes, I was the kid who took everything apart at an early age, and that is why I watch Adrian's channel.
PCMCIA was orginally invented as a memory extension. Back in the days I owned a PCMCIA memory card which simply appeared as an additional HDD. So escentially it’s an ancient form of SSD. It worked with Win95 so I guess it would also work with DOS. In fact, you didn’t even had to have an HDD at all, at least my laptop could boot from the PCMCIA memory. The German Deutsche Bahn federal railroad used those cards for their EBuLa system. There was a custom PC sitting in the dashboard of a locomotive displaying information about the route. Elektronischer Buchfahrplan und Verzeichnis der Langsamfahrstellen = Electronic timetable book and directory of slow speed sections So instead of written notes handed to the train driver, the train driver receives a PCMCIA card which is plugged into the EbuLa. Then the Route is displayed on the screen and the progress is also shown on the screen. The main information is speed limits, especially reduced speed limits at construction sites.
I remember hacking around with the Votrax SC-02 chip connected to a PIC, and everything done in PIC Assembly. This was in the late '80s or early '90s. Good times.
PC Power & Cooling is a manufacturer of power supply units out of Bonsall, CA. For a long time, they were the premier manufacturer of personal computer and other power supplies. They were my go-to back in the day for nearly silent and nearly bulletproof PSUs. In 2014, apparently, they were acquired by OCZ. In their day, there were very few manufacturers who could hold a candle to them. Lambda and Delta were two other American concerns during that time who could hang with them, but all things for a price. I see where Lambda was acquired by TDK, so I would expect them to still have standards of high quality, and Delta primarily concerns itself with industrial and medical power systems now. When they were making PC PSUs they were absolutely formidable. (There is a Delta unit in a computer for a test rig where I used to work that has been in service for over fifty years and is still going strong.)
EXACTLY. I remember seeing them winning reviews in boot (then Maximum PC) magazine. Power Supplies in the 90's were JUNK. So many people just used whatever came with their case. I've personally seen the green flash of death at least a couple times. I still have a Turbo 400 from one of my first builds. Thankfully Super Flower and Seasonic started selling to the aftermarket around the same time that PC P&C went away. Seasonic is still my go-to to this day.
I remember selling servers in a PC Power & Cooling case that went for $1200. Held two motherboards, redundant hot swappable power supplies, and I think 17 drive bays. I also remember them as one of the first to sell reliable replacement fans.
@@michaelcatchpole7230 WOW. That's a beast. I don't remember them selling fans but I do remember the the first 'good' quiet fans were Panasonic Panaflo L1A fans. I used them in everything. Still have a bunch.
A transistor tester can be used for many purposes: 1) Matching transistors. This is the reason why there are two sockets. You can switch back and forth and watch the curves jump. The less they jump, the closer the transistors match. 2) Checking the linearity of a transistor. Transistors are not perfect, they vary in linearity quite a lot. Using a tester, you can select transistors which are more linear than average. Also transistors vary a lot. That’s why there is such a huge range in the datasheet (min/average/max). Nowadays they are mostly very close to the average but back then you were very lucky to be close to the average. 3) Checking for bad transistors. Sometimes they do weird stuff at certain currents. On the tester you can see bumps and dips in the curve if the transistor is bad. A static test won’t reveal those faults if the transistor is working in general. 4) Checking the frequency behaviour of a transistor. By plotting the curve faster and slower, you can measure the speed the transistor reacts to the base current which is very important for high frequency applications. I once had an old CCTV monitor on one of my C64. Suddenly there was a bright vertical bar on the screen. Moving the mouse arrow through the bar from left to right made it move to the left again and then back to the right. The horizontal video line “looped” and painted the area three times! On a transistor tester, there was a prominet dip in the curve so increasing the base current after a certain value made the transistor conduct less. This was the transistor generating the sawtooth signal for the horizontal deflection.
I was going to post something similar but you pretty much nailed it. Matching and testing transistors mainly. Particularly in broadcast gear back in the day.👍
Adrian - I ♥ your content 🥰 I'm a Technical Architect/Software Engineer/Hardware Engineer from the UK (in my 50's) and hack around with a lot of hardware myself (especially ARM and RISC-V based single board computers like the Raspberry Pi, Pico and Milk-V Duos, PICs, Arduinos and all that. I specialise in Linux systems so naturally my door bell is ridiculously over-engineered - made from a Banana Pi (running Armbian) + USB audio + butchered PC speakers. Why shouldn't you SSH into your door bell + run Python (and SAMBA) on it! My childhood computer was/is a fully working Sharp MZ-80K (have some tapes) but it would be FAR too expensive to ship from the UK. I'll think about it...
31:08 Win32s (API layer allowing some 32 bit software to run on Win 3.x) sounds like an interesting topic. Trying out what will run and what won't and that kind of stuff.
Love your show, very professionally done. I have so much Commodore related stuff in my attic from my good old days. 100s if not 1000s of C64s, floppy diskettes, floppy drives, monitors, footlockers full of software disks, cartridges, peripherals, magazines, books, all the Load Star catalog and on and on. Don't know if I will live long enough to play with all this stuff like I really want to. I am going to try though because it takes me back to the good old Commodore user groups and BBS board days where I downloaded tons of software. Probably will end up at Goodwill since my kids don't get the beauty of this stuff.
That C64 system came with a local 503 number. You should try calling and see if maybe its still active. You might be able to get some answers from the creator himself!
Hi, Adrian. Thank you for a nice video. I liked it. And the voice form the bread bin 64 was great. Keep up the great work. Stay safe to you and your loved ones.
The curve tracer is like a super-powered version of the simple component tester you often show. It can tell you a lot more about the characteristics of a transistor or diode (gain, breakdown voltage, threshold voltage, etc), and can be used for matching parts to specific purposes (less relevant in the digital realm) or for identifying parts that test good at the very low probing voltages used by either multimeters or modern component testers (a transistor that tests fine at 3V might fail to operate correctly at 20V). That one does require an oscilloscope with an X/Y mode, as you discovered reading the documentation. It's designed for use with old-school analog oscilloscopes, although a digital or software scope with an X/Y mode could likely be made to work with it as well.
in my opinion the curve tracer is used to "pair" transistors for same data. in this case for audio amplifiers for left / right channel amplification. this will be used for high-end audio amplifiers... greetings from germany
The last time I remember using an ESDI hard disk was on a microvax system I picked up about 25 years ago. I had to find a NOS EDSI drive for it and in installed NetBSD on it.
Honestly that c64 software is really amazing! Considering the age of the things… that looks honestly really very useable and even practical even today! It seems really ahead of its time, I am sure there were even earlier special needs tools on computers but this is really cool to see!
I think I can speak for the vast majority of your viewers in saying that we enjoy ALL your content. Watching your videos is like hanging out with a friend and your enthusiasm is contagious. The topics you cover are interesting and your knowledge is impressive but most of all, we just like you. :)
That describes it extremely accurate. Often I don't understand more than 50% of what he does and explains. But it's interesting and calming to watch Adrian. And his joy at what he does is infectuous.
To me, Adrian is like the Bob Ross of retro computing.
Yes, please, let us see them all.
Absolutely! Sometimes I have to pause for a while and do something else, but I prefer to watch when I can give Adrian's videos the attention they deserve.
for the most part. I skip the CRT videos.
Hi Adrian, I was the President of a large disability provider including a school. The technology for using computer aided communication started in the 1980s. It replaced picture boards where a person would point to a preprinted page that had pictures. That actually has never gone completely away as its not dependent on having access to power and also can be easily customized. At the same time as this was developed there were self contained devices as well as computer based. Many used a plug in cartridge. SOme of the more sophisiticated systems also allowed you to load images from a mater set into a cartridge that met the needs of the person.
I like the electronic picture boards, the ones that have many customisable pages and will speak out words or phrases. (“AAC”)
@@kaitlyn__L yes they are very useful. The same sort of technology drove Stephen Hawkins ability to communicate. At one point we invested in creating a closed social network for our people served so they could communicate as more and more of the world was via the net. It was picture based so a person could send a message that would come up as text at the other end and family members could choose from some basic sentences that would be turned back to pictures at the other end. We dropped this as platforms like Facetime and Zoom developed and provide face to face communications - but our non-verbal people still kept the ability to send pictograms.
With modern AI I think the system we developed could have gone much further.
You also have a lot of freedom with laminated bits of paper and velcro. Found one of my brothers the other day!
The grid scan and select system was born with POSM in 1960. This ESAM system sits on those shoulders and all the work that sprouted from that time around the world. Quite a lot of work was done in the 1970s with computers and disability access (such as MAVIS, Carba Linguaduc, Prentke Romich and others), but it exploded with affordable computers in the 1980s. This system demoed was $2000 USD plus all in AFAIK. Definitely looks like it was a labour of love.
On the contrary the c64 stuff was very interesting it never ceases to amaze me what that amazing little computer could be used for .
Yeah that was cool, and it used a basic computer instead of an expensive Intel based machine for the time.
Adrien, long time viewer. The last items you tested would now be considered AAC (Augmentative Alternative Communication). I know it well since i use modern descendants of such devices (some of my videos showcase that). I've used AAC the early 90s. From what I know, the examples you have aren't exactly cutting edge, but are contemporary for that time. That being said, those simple device and that software changed someone's life. At the time, I was still handwriting notes to communicate. Fast forward to now and I'm keenly aware how crucial and powerful it is to my own voice. The key is remembering it's "augmentative" not primary. Garbled as it is, there's absolutely no better way to communicate my independent thoughts, desires, ideas. Although when *I* decide necessary, I still use devices which have their roots firmly planted in those beautiful comm tools you have.
That was my dead link on the aboveboard! I uploaded all those docs to the IA.
And that is why I never forget to send a small donation to the Internet Archive !
not all heroes wear capes
Thank you for the deeper exploration of assistive technology at the end of the video. I don't feel like it was lacking or unexciting. It's really cool to see the history of the real benefits of hardware and software that made life easier for folks who needed greater accessibility.
Agreed! All the content was interesting, but the best was the last! So cool & cool it was developed for the 64. Wondering if this may have been the basses for Intel's device developed for Dr. Hawking's around the late 80s?
And I felt that Adrian was respectful of folks who need to use those assistive technologies.
Win32s was a 32-bit application runtime environment for Windows 3.1. So those games on that disc do probably work with Windows 3.1.
I remember back in the day playing a few early Windows 95 games on Windows 3.1 that were Win32s compatible. Ultra Pinball was one of those games. Performance was shaky, but it did work.
I recall Lemmings was Win32s compatible. I remember running it on Win3.11 on a 486 PC card in my Acorn.
Win32s was needed not only to run 32bit games on 16bit Windows. Microsoft TCP/IP protocol (installed separately, it was not a part of Windows 3) was 32bit and required Win32s too!
I came here to paste the same info about Win32s.
ESAM'S KEE: It was one of the first public blitz boards for helping non-verbal handicapped persons. The system cost in Sweden was approx $400. And the system was config with Swedish words instead. How do i know this you ask. My sister had this system. And you are right the external cords on the button box is for external buttons. For ppl that only had head movements. So the leaned the head left or right. later on it worked with an eyelid button. So save that system it worth alot. And im happy to see this system again.
The enhanced learning on the C64 was fascinating... bringing the technology into peripherals that allowed so much more accessibility; my hats off to the creators.
The curve tracer is meant to be connected to the oscilloscope in XY mode, and you can use it to compare characteristics of 2 (or in this case even 3) transistors. They were used for finding matching pairs of transistors for building A-class amplifiers.
Also used to find bad parts. Some transistors will work a low voltages but not where they need to.
This guy nails it.
Could this be simular to a huntron tracker?
That speech cartridge is AMAZING! This is what makes treasure hunting _so_ much fun!
The modern term for something like the ESAM kit is AAC (not the audio codec, but augmentative and alternative communication). Very cool that it was done on a computer as affordable as the C64.
I saw something similar done on the Amstrad CPC range, using the DK Tronics Speech Synth. I'm also getting a vague memory of something custom too..
Thanks for sharing the Adaptative Goodies for the 64. That was truly amazing, I had no idea they had that level of technology setup. My wife is a special education teacher and was amazed. I've helped her setup several LAMP boards (the symbol based screens) and they really have not changed a ton. In "modern" tech those extra inputs on the panel would be to connect an item like a wheelchair mounted head button for a student who could move their head over to tap it. It's not often I get her to watch any of these tech videos but this was really great to share with her. Thanks again!
ESAM -> edge of my seat content. My mother was an educator with a lower budget district in the state north of yours. Unless the students parents could afford the device or it was provided by a charity it would have been the OT (occupational therapist) domain only and Apple.
I do love your long form videos. I love having them running in the background even while I'm at work. I prefer them to the mindless scrolling of the TH-cam shorts. I'm sure I don't speak for everyone but the occasional super long video is always welcome to see in my opinion. Especially when digging through seemingly lost tech. Keep of the great work. Always look forward to your videos! Stay healthy stay safe, and we'll see you next time 😅!
I am mystified why TH-cam pushes the "shorts" so relentlessly. I have absolutely zero interest. Half an hour or longer is typical of videos I watch.
Yeah I click on them from time to time, and then am immediately annoyed by them. Even if it's mildly interesting, I want to know MORE! There's just not enough useful info in them for me.....
@@adriansdigitalbasement ... Adrian At 27:22.. apply some Acetone with a syringe all around in the gap between the CPU and the Heatsink.. and let it get in... my work ??... for get the Heatsink loose??🤔
@@Starchfacepurely a business decision based on view time losses to TikTok. But just as with politics, trying to become a clone of a competitor doesn’t work - people usually prefer the original over the imitator.
I have something similar to that speech syntheziser in my collection, got it off of an older teacher who's boy had been using it back in the day. Came with a big touch-pad where you would put sheets with different animals etc.
Chipped chip.
Awesome episode.
I love it when the CBM 64 does stuff ( other than play games ) - great video Adrian
Full ACK! The bad reputation of the C64 as a pure toy/gaming computer is totally unjustified, given the endless possibilities through its various ports.
I am very happy that another hitherto forgotten application has been salvaged here!
more boxes! haha kinda cool old stuff you don't see today
Honestly I think most of us binge your videos, so the long-format stuff just caters to that more. I love these long vids where you're just exploring old tech and trying to make it work, and I look forward to the next video like this one!
You need to make a dedicated video on the last assistive technology device, that was off the chain!
I love these box dives. Really interesting to see what people were up to back in the day. So don't worry about the length, I enjoy every minute of it.
In the 1970s, I used a similar transistor curve tracer to find complementary transistors for audio amplifier. It was a handy tool and used it often. That way I always had a very well designed amplifier.
The ESAM kit is interesting, as i have a 6 yo who is currently learning how to use the modern equivalent. He is nonverbal. As soon as I seen the cartridge boot, i knew what it was. I wonder if Robin @ 8 bit show and tell can modify the rom dump to work without the voice synth, maybe using the SAM (software automated mouth) as this would be a neat way to introduce my kid to The C64.
Props to you for supporting your kid.
I was diagnosed autistic at a young age but wasn’t “allowed” to be nonverbal. (It was intermittent, so of course “but you were happily talking half an hour ago/yesterday!” and no real understanding.) Sometimes writing on paper sufficed, but I had no idea how much stress that all caused until I’d finally left school and could go days (or weeks) between speaking as I needed, consequence-free.
This video really has some LGR vibes and I'm loving it! Your amazing troubleshooting and repair videos are really what makes this channel unique for me, but I would love to see some more thrift/grab-box/retro-demo type videos as well.
Hi there Adrian, my first time to comment on a video of yours. That last bit of ESAM was amazing, seeing an affordable computer combined with good engineering help other people living a better life or at least better help.
I won't speak for everyone but I love these mystery-box videos. Do as many as you want!
40 Best Games... Minutes of fun for the whole family. 😊
I actually enjoy the long form videos. The content is interesting, & I enjoy the little discoveries along the way. I also enjoy listening to both of your channels while driving. It beats the normal content on the radio. Keep up the good work.
The first computers i built for myself, i had cards for my IDE hard drives and floppy drives. But had memory on the motherboard. Keep these videos coming. I love seeing cards sent in, especially the multiple box type!
I had an AT&T 7300/3B1, so I recognized the mouse immediately. Amazing computer, especially with the PC compatibility board!
I had some of those Intel ISA memory boards back in high school, and at one point I was using one in a 486 for reasons I no longer remember. Normal DOS stuff ran fine, but anything that used XMS (including games like Doom or Descent) slideshowed like crazy.
I actually wrote most of that Wikipedia article on ESDI many years ago, and the thing about the bridge boards was based on how Maxtor and Control Data designed their early SCSI drives...there was a servo processor that handled the ESDI-ish stuff, and a command processor that translated the SCSI commands to something the rest of the drive could understand, similar to the actual bridge boards companies like Adaptec were making around the same time.
In the future, you can use fishing line or a guitar string to saw that heatsink off.
the high voltage probe is for picture tubes to measure the voltage at the anode (under the clip). with the flybacktransformer you can setup the voltage and max. current for the tube. if it is to high the life of the picture tube will be drastically shorter....
greetings the second time from germany. you made a wonderful job !!
Adrian this was great! Please keep doing this, and I loved learning about the speech synthesis/accessibility board system.
Honestly i love this "oddware" content. The ESAM project is pretty interesting to see. It almost looks "homemade" and i personally enjoy seeing stuff like that in action. Keep up the great content Adrian!!
Another interesting video, thank you! Yes, I would be happy to see more of this type.
That was delightful, and so incredible the ESAM stuff works. You are awesome and I love your videos 😊
Love this format of episode. The longer the better for me :) Thanks for the great content!
The curve tracer is right up your alley. It’s usually built in on many oscilloscopes, and shows patterns on screen to see if an electronic part works or not. Most have 2 probes that injects a tiny AC signal, and shows results on screen. If it’s a short, will show up down, if it’s open, shows left-right, if it’s a diode will show a ‘L’ pattern, a resistor will show diagonal. Capacitor will show circle/oval. Cool stuff.
As soon as I read the SC-01 chip, I realized it was one of those speech chips which was also featured in one of your older videos.
When I used to work in a small electronics firm called Semitronics in the Philippines owned by Earl Henry Hornbostel, he had people using curve tracers to spec out unmarked transistors which he purchased in bulk and will then be sold as replacements for known but difficult to find semiconductors.
Adrian seems like the type of guy who says technical thing without knowing what it actually means but because hes done it so much now he actually does know what hes saying
This was great, looking forward to the next video like this!
My Dad had that probe. It was designed to be plugged into a VTVM with a standard 10 meg input resistance so for current meters you need to shunt it with a 10 meg resistor.
Most modern multimeters have 10MegOhm input resistance... but this probe expects a 100MOhm one.
yes---please do! You are so solid in what you do. Thanks for your time and energy. I'm grateful.
I absolutely love that Star Industries mouse. 🤣 I think you're being too hard an that awesome '80s era mascot.
agreed! I'd love to have a mouse like that.
I'm on Adrian's side here - the 80s can't be blamed for every occurance of bad taste. ;-) (I actually like some of the edged 80's designs, like on cars.)
Compuadd was a high-end clone mfg. Had a few of their units.
The 6ch output board makes a great soundcard. Easy to do drivers for. I've done a few. Don't junk it!
I find this really interesting, it's really like a SMMC but just things you have sitting around! I found that speech tool really touching, I can imagine for someone who had difficulty communicating this might've just made all the difference to feel heard, very cool. Roll on box 2!
Longer Episodes the Better! We never know what we will find with this random boxes of equipment! 😀
I concur.
This is my favorite format you do. Looking forward to the other boxes.
Your knowledge and expertise is breathtaking...... very cool video
That digital to analog card is fantastic! You can control things that need analog voltages! For instance a test bed for circuit boards, or a sun tracker for solar panels, a light show, nearly limitless!
Absolutely fun to watch, please keep up the format! It really isn't too long, as people can just skip over stuff that isn't interesting to them. As a side note, I am kinda envious of you just being gifted boxes full of such treasures. 😄
I know I'm extremely lucky when it comes to this stuff! I happen to be friends with a whole lot of very generous and kind humans.
@@adriansdigitalbasement Glad to hear that you are surrounding yourself with the right kind of friends! ♥ I'm sure they are saying the same thing about you. 😉
I love this content, you go through the treasures and actually test them!! Plus obscure stuff gets documented, it’s just great
This was awesome, I didn't realize that I could use the 16 bit Intel above board in my XT. I put a shunt into the empty socket and now I have 2mb EMS.
That's really cool -- I had no idea this was possible either.
"Use my house for its intended purpose." I felt that.
A room supposed to be cozy doesn't work without a computer for me. ;-)
Yes please! Looks like Treasure hunt as well as Mail Call at the same time. And I like it a lot.
Good find on the curve tracer,, Mr. Carlson has videos on how they work and also how to convert an old tube type oscilloscope to operate as a curve tracer,, :-)
Great video! I really appreciate the deep dive style videos like this
*RCA WG-206 High Voltage Probe:*
According to the instructions you showed on screen, that model probe has an internal 1090-megohm resistor, and is designed to be used with an RCA multimeter with an 11-megohm input resistance. It basically acts as a voltage divider, with the high voltage across the entire resistance of 1101-megohms (1090+11 in series) with the meter measuring across just the 11-meg internal to itself. It sees only 1/100th of the high voltage, so you need to multiply the reading by 100 to determine the actual high voltage. Displaying 350 volts times 100 would mean you're measuring 35,000 volts (35 KV).
You can picture the voltage divider resistances like a potentiometer, the wiper contact tapping off a percentage of the voltage across the full resistance. If the wiper is tapping off 1/4 of the pot, you need to multiply the measured voltage by 4 to get the full value.
Modern meters have high input impedances, so you'd need to know that specification for your own meter to figure out the conversion factor for the HV probe.
I was going to say check the probe for the resistor.
Oh, the old towel returns!!
and it is rough but glorious!
It was only a matter of time until its glorious return
That sounds like the same speech chip used in the game gorf. Another interesting video, thanks Adrian
Win32s was a 32-bit subsystem for Windows 3.1 and 3.11. It basically allows some 32-bit applications to be run on 16-bit versions of Windows.
And you can install original 95 to use program manager instead of explorer
For instance, there was a Win32S version of WinZip. It was faster than the regular version. That was basically the whole reason I used to have Win32S installed. 😄
win32s was also supported by os/2
@@aliencray7269 That's because Windows 95 and 98 included Program Manager but it was not the default interface.
@@terminusaquo1980 I was going to say that, I remember as a kid just going to system folder and clicking on all executables. That's how I became a programmer, I wanted to know what those DLLs did.
Hi, Adrian. I do enjoy these longer video content where you are talking about random items. I can watch these types of videos while doing my own projects around the ham shack. Love all your videos, keep them coming.
I love this content. Very interesting and nostalgic. I had a childhood friend who's sister had some sort of disease and was shut in. She communicated with us using this exact system. I remember because he wanted to take the system to game on. Of course that wasn't gonna happen.... Brothers😂
We need more people like Adrian. Be like Adrian and dont throw out old tech. We all need to be more like this chad.
Nothing wrong with long videos like this in my opinion, enjoyed the whole time :)
Love the length of this video
I had a room full of this stuff 10 years ago. Dozens of cpu's, soundblasters, motherboards, hp vectra's, compaq deskpro's you name it. Basically something from every period between the 8086 until the q6600(that chip was awesome in its day!!) Anyways, I gave it all away except for that q6600 offcourse. So watching this channel brings me back and gives me the same joy and I can normally walk through my appartment at the same time! Thanx, and keep up the good work!
34:21 That was the same style of mouse we had for most of the school computers in the 90s.
Most of the machines in school at the time were from RM Nimbus.
Many of them in the upstairs rooms were 186 machines, with Green phosphor monitors. lol
Those machines were quite old, even by the time I started at the school, but they were still there in 1997 when I left.
They had some 186 PCs with colour monitors, too, but not as many.
They were unbelievably SLOW to log in to the user account, and ran on a 10-Base T (10Mbit/s) network.
If somebody unplugged one of the network cables, the entire network would crash, and would take the IT guys about an hour to reboot the server and all the machines.
As you can imagine, that happened quite a lot, so we could get out of doing much work. lol
I think the same style of mouse was often included with the Archimedes machines.
(which were obviously also very popular in UK schools in the 90s, due to the deal Acorn had with the BBC.)
It was mostly the BBC Micro in schools in the 80s, with the CUB monitor and disk drives.
Then in the late 80s and early 90s, it was more PCs, with a few Archimedes maybe in the art department etc.
Oh, and almost all of the Staff passwords started with "ST", followed by a number.
So it didn't take long for certain students to find the teacher's initials, then go through the numbers to log in. lol
I think Star Industries might be the same "Star" who made our colour ribbon printer in the 80s.
We had a Star LC-10, then later the LC-24 (IIRC) hooked up to our Olivetti PC-1.
And also the Amstrad CPC 6128, which had a modem connected.
My very first holiday abroad (to Mallorca, around 1988) was booked using the Amstrad and modem, a good five years before we had access to the actual Internet.
(my Dad managed to spy the ABTA number from the local travel agents, which he could then use to log into their system, book the holiday, and cut out the commision fees. lol. Obviously he still had to pay for the hotel and flights, but it worked out fine.)
Def enjoyed this type of content, it's like finding and going through cool stuff yourself!
The tape eraser brought back some fun memories. I used to work for radioshack from 2002-2006. Us employees had a blast playing with some of the old equipment that the stores hung on to for YEARS. It's a real shame that radioshack went the way of the Dodo. I worked there towards the end of the era of being able to buy electrical components. There was just something enjoyable about going through the component bins when looking for a part.
I worked for TE Electronics that serviced the Radio Shack service plans for Tandy as a separate division from 1994-1997. Housed in Computer City, at Hayden Island, Portland Oregon. It was hella fun having access to all the microfiche and service manuals for anything Tandy related that I could order. I refurbished many devices for my own personal use from my collection of "It's dead and not worth fixing" pile on my own time and the tape eraser was common to find several in each shop. At the time there were 3-4 surplus shops that you could pick components from and sometimes whole machines that were being scrapped from the Silicon Forest industry. I had no shortage of electromechanical goodies to chose from in that era. One way to deeply immerse one self into the trailing but
leading edge of technology was to pick up the dumpster tossed stuff and look into how it worked.
Yes, I was the kid who took everything apart at an early age, and that is why I watch Adrian's channel.
PCMCIA was orginally invented as a memory extension.
Back in the days I owned a PCMCIA memory card which simply appeared as an additional HDD. So escentially it’s an ancient form of SSD. It worked with Win95 so I guess it would also work with DOS. In fact, you didn’t even had to have an HDD at all, at least my laptop could boot from the PCMCIA memory.
The German Deutsche Bahn federal railroad used those cards for their EBuLa system. There was a custom PC sitting in the dashboard of a locomotive displaying information about the route.
Elektronischer Buchfahrplan und Verzeichnis der Langsamfahrstellen
= Electronic timetable book and directory of slow speed sections
So instead of written notes handed to the train driver, the train driver receives a PCMCIA card which is plugged into the EbuLa.
Then the Route is displayed on the screen and the progress is also shown on the screen. The main information is speed limits, especially reduced speed limits at construction sites.
What a great video for the commadore, thank you
Love the long ones, and playing about. 😊 Lookokg forward to the othrs too
I remember hacking around with the Votrax SC-02 chip connected to a PIC, and everything done in PIC Assembly. This was in the late '80s or early '90s. Good times.
PC Power & Cooling is a manufacturer of power supply units out of Bonsall, CA. For a long time, they were the premier manufacturer of personal computer and other power supplies. They were my go-to back in the day for nearly silent and nearly bulletproof PSUs. In 2014, apparently, they were acquired by OCZ.
In their day, there were very few manufacturers who could hold a candle to them. Lambda and Delta were two other American concerns during that time who could hang with them, but all things for a price. I see where Lambda was acquired by TDK, so I would expect them to still have standards of high quality, and Delta primarily concerns itself with industrial and medical power systems now. When they were making PC PSUs they were absolutely formidable. (There is a Delta unit in a computer for a test rig where I used to work that has been in service for over fifty years and is still going strong.)
EXACTLY. I remember seeing them winning reviews in boot (then Maximum PC) magazine. Power Supplies in the 90's were JUNK. So many people just used whatever came with their case. I've personally seen the green flash of death at least a couple times.
I still have a Turbo 400 from one of my first builds.
Thankfully Super Flower and Seasonic started selling to the aftermarket around the same time that PC P&C went away.
Seasonic is still my go-to to this day.
fifty years? Since 1974? Doubtful since the first IBM PC was 1981... Maybe you mean 40 years? Which would still be impressive...
I remember selling servers in a PC Power & Cooling case that went for $1200. Held two motherboards, redundant hot swappable power supplies, and I think 17 drive bays. I also remember them as one of the first to sell reliable replacement fans.
@@michaelcatchpole7230 WOW. That's a beast.
I don't remember them selling fans but I do remember the the first 'good' quiet fans were Panasonic Panaflo L1A fans. I used them in everything. Still have a bunch.
A transistor tester can be used for many purposes:
1) Matching transistors. This is the reason why there are two sockets. You can switch back and forth and watch the curves jump. The less they jump, the closer the transistors match.
2) Checking the linearity of a transistor. Transistors are not perfect, they vary in linearity quite a lot. Using a tester, you can select transistors which are more linear than average. Also transistors vary a lot. That’s why there is such a huge range in the datasheet (min/average/max). Nowadays they are mostly very close to the average but back then you were very lucky to be close to the average.
3) Checking for bad transistors. Sometimes they do weird stuff at certain currents. On the tester you can see bumps and dips in the curve if the transistor is bad. A static test won’t reveal those faults if the transistor is working in general.
4) Checking the frequency behaviour of a transistor. By plotting the curve faster and slower, you can measure the speed the transistor reacts to the base current which is very important for high frequency applications.
I once had an old CCTV monitor on one of my C64. Suddenly there was a bright vertical bar on the screen. Moving the mouse arrow through the bar from left to right made it move to the left again and then back to the right. The horizontal video line “looped” and painted the area three times! On a transistor tester, there was a prominet dip in the curve so increasing the base current after a certain value made the transistor conduct less. This was the transistor generating the sawtooth signal for the horizontal deflection.
I was going to post something similar but you pretty much nailed it. Matching and testing transistors mainly. Particularly in broadcast gear back in the day.👍
I'm really looking forward to seeing your UNIX machines, Adrian! Your content is first class, I could watch you all day!
I'm pretty sure this type of content is really 1/2 of the meat and potatoes of your content! Thanks for sharing all this awesome archeology with us!!
Adrian - I ♥ your content 🥰 I'm a Technical Architect/Software Engineer/Hardware Engineer from the UK (in my 50's) and hack around with a lot of hardware myself (especially ARM and RISC-V based single board computers like the Raspberry Pi, Pico and Milk-V Duos, PICs, Arduinos and all that. I specialise in Linux systems so naturally my door bell is ridiculously over-engineered - made from a Banana Pi (running Armbian) + USB audio + butchered PC speakers. Why shouldn't you SSH into your door bell + run Python (and SAMBA) on it! My childhood computer was/is a fully working Sharp MZ-80K (have some tapes) but it would be FAR too expensive to ship from the UK. I'll think about it...
31:08 Win32s (API layer allowing some 32 bit software to run on Win 3.x) sounds like an interesting topic. Trying out what will run and what won't and that kind of stuff.
Bravo !!!
Awesome video again yet again. Love Adrian's work.
Love your show, very professionally done. I have so much Commodore related stuff in my attic from my good old days. 100s if not 1000s of C64s, floppy diskettes, floppy drives, monitors, footlockers full of software disks, cartridges, peripherals, magazines, books, all the Load Star catalog and on and on. Don't know if I will live long enough to play with all this stuff like I really want to. I am going to try though because it takes me back to the good old Commodore user groups and BBS board days where I downloaded tons of software. Probably will end up at Goodwill since my kids don't get the beauty of this stuff.
That C64 system came with a local 503 number. You should try calling and see if maybe its still active. You might be able to get some answers from the creator himself!
I really enjoyed this video, about an hour is long enough though :). Very interesting the speech box for the C64 :)
esam's kee was trademarked, and the trademark was for "COMPUTER INTERFACE UNIT FOR USE BY DISABLED PERSONS IN ACCESSING A COMPUTER"
WOW!!! That Jud Williams Transistor Curve Tracer is fascinating!!! Love to see a vid on that!
Hi, Adrian. Thank you for a nice video. I liked it. And the voice form the bread bin 64 was great. Keep up the great work. Stay safe to you and your loved ones.
You rule, Mr. Black! And I LOVE long uploads!!
The curve tracer is like a super-powered version of the simple component tester you often show. It can tell you a lot more about the characteristics of a transistor or diode (gain, breakdown voltage, threshold voltage, etc), and can be used for matching parts to specific purposes (less relevant in the digital realm) or for identifying parts that test good at the very low probing voltages used by either multimeters or modern component testers (a transistor that tests fine at 3V might fail to operate correctly at 20V).
That one does require an oscilloscope with an X/Y mode, as you discovered reading the documentation. It's designed for use with old-school analog oscilloscopes, although a digital or software scope with an X/Y mode could likely be made to work with it as well.
'Win32s' was a kernel extension for Windows 3.11 that added minor 32-bit support and compatibility with a small number of Windows 95 apps.
in my opinion the curve tracer is used to "pair" transistors for same data. in this case for audio amplifiers for left / right channel amplification. this will be used for high-end audio amplifiers...
greetings from germany
59:30 - This is the first time I've seen *addresses* shown as decimal # of MB! Wouldn't HEX be more appropriate?
The last time I remember using an ESDI hard disk was on a microvax system I picked up about 25 years ago. I had to find a NOS EDSI drive for it and in installed NetBSD on it.
Love these PC Parts Hunts and also the longer videos
I don't know why some complain about long videos. You can stop and return to it later!
Adrian's Digital Towel features in this video. This makes me strangely happy. You can NEVER replace that towel!
You could hitchhike the length and breadth of the galaxy with that towel!
I hope he always knows where his towel is.
Adrian is one hoopy frood.
"I don't want it to spill it over into the rest of my house"
The road to a house full of computer parts is paved with good intentions.
Honestly that c64 software is really amazing! Considering the age of the things… that looks honestly really very useable and even practical even today! It seems really ahead of its time, I am sure there were even earlier special needs tools on computers but this is really cool to see!