12 Apr
2001
12 Apr
'01
9:29 a.m.
Ethan Dicks wrote:
[...]
I used to sell SOL-20s years ago. At that time you had the option to have it
bulit
or build it youreslf. Some of those "handy" types had no buisness building
their
own systems., escpecially a plumber.
In any event, the worst story was a guy that used acid-core solder to build his
SOL.
When he dragged it into the shop it looked like hell. I thougt our main tech was
either
going to cry or actually kill the guy; as he was oscillating between deep sorrow
and
volcanic anger at a rapid pace. The owner had to step and and tell the tech it
was time for him to take
lunch at 10:30am. The guy became indignant when he was shown the fine print,
"USE ONLY ROSIN-CORE SOLDER."
I don't think the guy ever got that Sol fixed or got a replacement from Processor
Tech.
Eric
The fans and
switches were a common mod and handy too.
Common, yes, but he didn't have to do such a hack job. This guy even soldered
wires to the pins in the DLV11-J connector rather than buy a DEC connector.
He soldered a coax cable to the bottom of the (expensive) third-party graphics
board because he didn't want to get a 1/4" coax connector.
I still have the Heath serial board with the wires and switches dangling from
it. Maybe I'll start a web page for ugly user hacks. It reminds me of the
"joke" that says in part "the... scariest things in the universe are... a
programmer with a soldering iron." I used to work for him. Great guy,
brilliant, but he will never win any awards for finesse.
-ethan
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