The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Vacuum Tube LEDs: Knockoff Arduino Nano USB Connector

    The LEDs adorning the 0D3 rectifier tube became unreliable:

    0D3 Octal - 25 mm socket - raised LED
    0D3 Octal – 25 mm socket – raised LED

    After failing to plug in a different USB power supply, a close look at the USB connector showed the problem:

    Knockoff Arduino Nano - broken Mini-B connector
    Knockoff Arduino Nano – broken Mini-B connector

    A bit of needle-nose tweezering extracted the culprit from the power supply’s connector:

    Knockoff Arduino Nano - broken Mini-B connector - fragment
    Knockoff Arduino Nano – broken Mini-B connector – fragment

    I tried applying the world’s smallest dot of epoxy to the fracture, probably slobbered epoxy along the pins while reinserting it, and the Nano still doesn’t light up.

    Given that knockoff Nano boards cost a touch over two bucks delivered, it’s not clear transplanting a connector from one of the never-sufficiently-to-be-damned counterfeit FTDI USB adapters makes any sense.