[CP/M] Low cost RC2040

 Extreme Electronic's RC2040 is a nice - and open source - project, they offer it as kit or assembled  - if you are nervous about using a soldering iron, and their board is more `advanced` that just wiring one SDcard to a Pico board..-, for others, who already have a Pico RP2040 / or compatible and an SDcard break board its only a few min of soldering, just 6 wires!

Nothing 'complex' there, the instructions are clear, you just need to wire the SDcard break board (it wont boot without one!), in my case (Dolatek Pico) like this

                 Pico RP2040                      3.3V SD Module
              +---------------+           +---------------+
              |               |           |               |
   Pin 36 --->| 3v3 OUT       |===========| VCC (3.3V)    |
   Pin 38 --->| GND           |===========| GND           |
              |               |           |               |
   Pin 7  --->| GPIO 5(CS)    |---------->| CS            |
   Pin 4  --->| GPIO 2(SCK)   |---------->| SCK / CLK     |
   Pin 5  --->| GPIO 3(MOSI)  |---------->| MOSI / DI     |
   Pin 6  --->| GPIO 4(MISO)  |<----------| MISO / DO     |
              |               |           |               |
              +---------------+           +---------------+

Note: No pull-up resistors - 10kΩ - needed if your SDcard break board comes with them! So double check!

[cheats] Vaporum (gog v 420) cheat enabled patched file

Piece of cake to patch that Assembly-CSharp.dll file.. so cheats are enabled now.. :)

left-shift + left-CRTL + / to enable then F11 to see the menu with the keys

get it here just unzip and replace Assembly-CSharp.dll that is located under Vaporum\VaporumGame_Data\Managed

again this is for GOG version 420 

[ToughPad] Enable Pen support for FZ-M1 mk3

Today's fun project was trying to install a pen driver (FZ-VNPM12AU) for the Panasonic ToughPad FZ-M1 mk3.

Thanks to chaotic info on Panasonic's site, it took me almost an hour to figure out what was going on. I realised I needed a driver or a touch screen mode utility, but Panasonic's site only listed tools designed for Windows 7 or 8. I bit the bullet and tried to install one of them, risking my windoze 11 setup. Fortunately, nothing bad happened - as the drivers refused to install. (Why the hell do they still keep them on the main site? They really should move them to an "archive" section!)

Eventually, the next app I found on their chaotic site was the "Panasonic PC Settings Utility." There were various versions, but I downloaded the one from M$'s site just to be safe.

The saga didn't stop there. When I ran the app, there was no touch configuration available. After searching on the web to find an answer, I finally found this info hidden away:

So... the solution was the System Interface Manager. Needless to say, after installing this app, the stylus and other options were finally there!!! 

/!\ YMMV, above info/procedures for FZ-M1 mk3 /!\

[PlayStation 2] Coin batt FFS

PS2 - Brought back after a long time in storage, the coin battery was dead, of course. It was a fun time indeed disassembling the whole darn console just to change a coin battery! But honestly, it was a good time to check the PSU caps... :), btw was nice to see that a notorious small cap on PSU module was not the Lelon one (leaky leaky!) but a Chemicon KY-series.

(mod: SCPH: 39003)

[Panasonic DMC-FZ5] half pressing shutter button issue

Camera is 20yo and counting, and it still works like a champ. However, the shutter button started to malfunction. The half-press feature, which is used for focus, stopped working, and the camera would immediately take pictures. I suspected a contact issue (a replacement is unavailable, incidentally). The camera is dead easy to open, thanks to this guide.

Unfortunately, the shutter module is kind of 'fixed,' which is no wonder—it's more stable than using screws.

A combination of contact cleaner + compressed air on the button, solved the issue (for now... lol)

[swaywm] Rubbish WM better...

Not so nice to see SwayWM crashing like effin mofo when I use Chrome browser....

Seven crashes in 2 hours,..well LOL, it won the "Crap WM" award of the day, back to I3

[fedora] darn abrtd reports Rhythmbox as 'crashed' on close/exit

I bet this is an ancient bug, as there have been posts on the internet about it for ages!

Solution (at least works for me now on F42/Gnome)

edit /etc/abrt/abrt-action-save-package-data.conf and append two lines:

Blacklist = rhythmbox 

BlackListedPaths = /usr/bin/rhythmbox*

This will blacklist rhythmbox from abrtd reporting.