OT: Legacy PC cables

My local tip, sorry, recycling centre has a bin for cables. And I'm typing this on an HP keyboard plugged in on PS/2. My remote temperature sensor is plugged into my server on serial, albeit through a USB adaptor, both ends being XBees. My backup 19" monitor connects by VGA. I still have at least one device that charges through mini USB.

So it depends on what you do.

I'm not using any of these connection options for this PC. Would it be helpful for me to drop them all off at yours as this would give you a source of spares and added resilience :-)

People still do retro computing. Worth ebaying stuff

I have a source of spares. The only cables I've thrown away so far have been a couple of VGAs and a Centronix. Oh, and SCARTs, they are the work of the Devil and I was glad to stop using them. I still have a bit of a Centronix cable, they are an excellent source of thin wires with many different colour codes.

My son in law is having trouble getting hold of GPIB cards for modern PCs. He has a large collection of old but perfectly functional test equipment, some of it fairly exotic. I've just given him a Tek 465B scope.

Never was a truer word spoken. Aren't they French?

Google GPIB-USB-HS, especially on chinese sites, unless you want to give over £1000 to Farnell....

Surely someone somewhere has designed something that uses GPIO from a microcontroller or SBC?

Hmmmmm ...

I have a couple of National Instruments USB GPIB adapters. One of them works with Windows 10. I also have an ethernet GPIB adapter. For reading old disc drives I have a PCI-e SCSI adapter which I may well sell in the near future (when I have copied all my old drives onto more modern media). I will probably bundle it with all my SCSI cables. It seems a shame to bin it. For real legacy enthusiasts I have a shiny new PCMCIA GPIB adapter. Then there are the two boxes full of dc power supplies, some of which work. John

Thanks. I think I'll give that a go.

I had a drawer full of old cables and realised I no longer had equipment that used any of them. Put in couple of carrier bags and dumped in the small electrical items cage at the local recycling centre (aka the tip)

The cables were a lot more flexible and didn't strain the plug/socket connection.

I found this one.

That one uses the PCI bus which is not used in modern PCs. It needs to be PCI-e instead. John

So yes, loading it into a recycling bin helps ensure we have copper for other things of more value in the future. Like that fine new grid we will be getting :-) We will need copper for that.

Copper is now in many ways, in the same class as gold. It is quite pricey stuff.

Paul

Most of the grid wiring is aluminium, both overhead and underground. John

Google's AI, him say:

"The spot price for gold is currently around $3,322.69 per ounce, while copper is trading at approximately $5.56 per pound."

Even ignoring the different units involved, there is a bit of a price gap.

You're thinking of the Peritel standard as that was definately French SCART was in fact developed by Sharp for use across Europe and Asia.

I've had TWO ebay Listings on for over six months..... no one has bought either of my Thor IXOS gold plated scart cables......

Have you considered a converter?