Category Archives: Electronics

Retro Rotary Dial Internet Connected Lock

I’ve had this old retro telephone rotary dial lying around for many years, and my son has asked me over those years if we could make an electronic push button combo lock. So after recently teaching him the basics of C programming, we decided it was time to whip up a crazy project at 1am that made use of this old rotary dial instead of a push button keypad. It’s just so satisfying to dial in a number, and hear the wheel whir counter-clockwise after each digit.

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Fixing a TRS-80 Model 100 LCD Issue

I recently pulled out some of my old computers to dust them off and check them out.  I have a sweet Tandy TRS-80 Model 100 that always worked fine, but I never really used it a whole lot.  So after typing some BASIC code into it and running it for a few minutes, I noticed the LCD was flickering off and on.  Eventually it stopped showing up altogether.

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