I received something very interesting. it's a box printed in Cyrillic, and there's something special about it. 🧵
(CW: alcohol)
it's labeled POCKOCMOC (Roscosmos) which is the Russian state corporation that handles space flight, among other things.
I can't read the fancy script-style Cyrillic. maybe someone can translate for me 😂
and here we have it! it's a fancy bottle of vodka. but what's that tiny little thing wedged into the cardboard near the upper left? a hidden microphone?
naw, it's just a light sensor (CdS cell)
it's got a circuit board inside, probably for playing music. but it doesn't work!
welp this battery outputs a negative voltage
hooked it up to my bench supply and...
...I don't know what I expected. 😂
haha the playback speed depends on the supply voltage
i printed a new panel insert that has two BNC sockets on it (the original probes would have had captive cables)
the tricky part is that this oscilloscope has a 333K ohm input impedance instead of 1M like umm every other scope on the planet. fortunately someone designed a little conversion circuit...
in honor of Sim Wong Hoo, here's a quick historical review of the Sound Blaster! 🧵
but first we have to go back to their first sound card, the Creative Music System from 1987. (image credit: Bratgoul on Wikipedia)
this card has some special "CMS-301" chips. if you peel back the sticker, they have had their top marks removed. they're actually SAA1099 synthesizer chips made by Philips. Creative wrote music composition software for musicians on the PC.