Carlos Randolph

The Sandbox: Fledgling Virtual Slum Lord…

Virtual lands? Are they the new gold rush? Who knows but I’m having fun with them. I bought one last year in The Sandbox and manage to make enough on staking bonuses to get my 2nd land today.

I make real money with the land by owning it. Later this year we will be able to rent land and I’m hoping that it sets up a 2nd revenue stream for the lands. Then as they make money buy a 3rd and so on.

It’s not my intention to be in this for money but I’m not going to turn my back on it. I’m hoping that I can rent these out to some really creative people that do great things with it. I hope they are successful and make some coin to buy their own land.

The Sandbox: Crypto Curve

The Sandbox (game) is based an NFT based game. You can buy NFTs assets that fall into 3 major categories: Land, Avatars and Assets. All of this is tied to crypto with SAND being the primary crypto.

My problem is that the experience to get things setup with all the crypto, wallets, apps, passwords, registrations, validations and so on complete sucks.

And even once you get it setup right, it can still bite you in the butt! Today I just sent about 1,000 SAND into the void by mistake. It was literally was such an easy mistake.

You CANNOT have game where you can randomly and stupidly lose $100’s or $1,000’s of dollar. I would avoid this until they get this fixed/improved.

Create a USB Boot Disk for Debian on Mac

Making a NET INSTALL USB Stick to build out a Debian box. So I download the latest NETINST image from the Debian site. The from a terminal I did the following:

Insert USB Stick
Star the Terminal program
Find the USB Stick, mine is /dev/disk5 yours may/will be different:
- sudo diskutil list
Erase/Partition:
- sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 USB /dev/disk5
Unmount the disk:
- sudo diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk5
Put image on USB Stick:
- sudo dd if=<path>/debian-10.6.0-i386-netinst.iso of=/dev/disk5 bs1m
Unmount the disk:
- diskutil eject /dev/disk5

Mac Mini – Super Machine

I have a Mac Mini 2014 that I use as my primary computer. I’ve been looking to update it for development but could not find an affordable option in Apple’s current line up. What I’m looking for is:

32GB of RAM
2+ TB of Storage
i7 or i9 processor
Decent GPU to handle games (Windows Bootcamp)

I looked at the MacBook Pro line but the 16″ is the only option and once configured, it was over $5000! I looked at the iMac and it didn’t have enough of a GPU. I looked at the iMac Pro and like the MacBook it was over $5000. I even looked at the new MacPro but once again, starting at over $5000.

So I decided to look at the Mac Mini. It’s a great little machine that you can upgrade. If you upgrade it to the i7 processor, 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD it will run you $2700. But even at that you don’t have a GPU worth anything. So I decided to see what it would cost if I took the base machine and upgraded it on my own.

Mac Mini – i7 processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD – $1300
OWC 32GB Memory (2 DIMMs) – $150
LaCie 8TB – 2Big Thunderbolt 3 RAID – $600
Sonnet 650W eGPU Thunderbolt Case – $300
AMD Radeon XT 5700 X – $425

That adds up to $2775. That’s only $75 more than the Apple Upgraded machine and you have a machine with 8TB of storage and a real GPU. This machine can handle boot camp with no issues and play what ever games you want.

OS X – Formatting SD Card from Terminal

I’ve got a MacBook Pro 17″, this is a 2011 model but it’s my work horse. These systems had a little slot where you can plug in an ExpressCard/34 size device. The OCD in me want to put something in there so I bought for like $5 a SanDisk SD Adapter. So now I can put SD cards directly into this system.

I can see the SD cards when I insert them but it kept failing when I tried to erase them with the Disk Utility tool. So off to the command line I went. First off, you gotta find which device is the SD card. So you will do a:

`diskutil list`

I got the following output and I can see that the 8GB device at /dev/disk2 is my SD card.

Now you need to issue the command to erase and format the SD card. Here is the command and I’ll explain the options:

`diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 SDCARD MBRFormat /dev/disk2`

“diskutil” is the utility program. “eraseDisk” is the command/action you are telling it to perform. “FAT32” is telling it to format the SD card with Fat32. “SDCARD” is just what to name the SD once formatted. “MBRFormat” is to set it up with a Master Boot Record. “/dev/disk2” is the device we are targeting. If all goes well, you should see something like:

That’s it. Two commands and you are off to the races!!

Macintosh LC II – Resurrection

I purchased a non-working LC II off of eBay. It’s in pretty good shape other than the fact that it does not power on. Dead as a door nail! Most of the time this is because the Power Supply in the system has failed and at this age it is usually due to failed capacitors. If you can desolder and solder basic parts then it’s an easy fix. So I’m going to resurrect this LC II and document it along the way

If you haven’t worked on an LC style Mac, they are super easy to take completely apart. The only screw, if the system has it, is the one on the back of the unit that holds the lid on. Mine didn’t. So I was able to go from the above picture to this in about 5 minutes with NO tools.

Basically the system breaks down into the case, a logic board, floppy drive, hard drive, fan, speaker, power supply, ROM simm, memory simms if you have it, and the PRAM battery.

PS, Logic Board, Speaker, Fan, Battery and ROM Simm

The power supply is the suspect here. So with a screw driver you can take it apart and you’ll see it’s pretty simple. Once it is out of its shell, you have to systematically desolder every capacitor on the board. As I take each one off I write down specs (capacitance, voltage, diameter) for each one as I go. I also clean with alcohol the area on the board where it was and # each spot so when I go to replace them, I know where everything goes. Remember that these capacitors have a + and – side. On the board, the – side is shown with a square around the hole for that pin.

Here is the power supply out of its shell

Caps removed and board numbered and cleaned

My current place to order parts is Mouser. They have a good filtering system and the ability to save the shopping cart as a Project that can used in the future and shared with people. The following is the list of capacitors (10 in all).

Mouser #	Mfr. #	Manufacturer	Description	Order Qty.	Price (USD)	Ext.: (USD)
647-LGU2G181MELB	LGU2G181MELB	Nichicon	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Snap In 400volts 180uF 10mm	1	$4.18	$4.18
647-UPW1E560MDD	UPW1E560MDD	Nichicon	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 25volts 56uF 5×15 20% 2LS	1	$0.33	$0.33
647-UPJ1E470MED	UPJ1E470MED	Nichicon	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 25volts 47uF 6.3×11 20% 2.5LS	1	$0.24	$0.24
647-UHV1E271MPD	UHV1E271MPD	Nichicon	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 25volts 270uF 105c 8×11.5 3.5LS	2	$0.50	$1.00
647-UPM1A271MED	UPM1A271MED	Nichicon	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 10volts 270uF 6.3×15 20% 2.5LS	1	$0.30	$0.30
647-UPM1A102MPD	UPM1A102MPD	Nichicon	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 10volts 1000uF Ultra Small Sz	3	$0.61	$1.83
710-860160672008	860160672008	Wurth Elektronik	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded WCAP-ATLL 8.2uF 50V 20% Radial	1	$0.17	$0.17

While on the sites I needed to get some batteries too. The PRAM batteries in these older Macs are usually 1/2AA, 3.6V, 900+mAh. I’ve seen the Tadiran (purple, green, black) and I’ve seen Saft (White with green lettering. Right now I’m getting the Saft batteries off of Amazon for about $13 for a 4-pack. You can find them here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004UHUGGC

So will I’m waiting for parts to come in, it’s time to clean the case and dust off the components. I do this to clean it up and inspect for any other damage that may be hiding. To clean the lid I just use hot water and a mild detergent. You’ll want a toothbrush to get down into the cracks of the case lid. There are aluminum liners inside the top and bottom pieces. I gently pry these off so as not to get water trapped under them.

This system has a 512k Video Simm, which is the max it supports. If yours has a 256k simm I would suggest replacing it. This system also has 4mb of RAM on the Logic Board with (2) 30-pin simm slots. I just ordered (2) 4mb simms off of eBay for about $15. While this will bring the system up to 12mb total, it can only address 10mb. So purchasing anything larger is pointless.

Once the capacitors for the Power Supply come in along with the RAM and the Battery, I’ll finish up this article. But for now I’ll publish this for people to start looking at.

Macintosh Classic – Recap

If you have older computers at some point they will start to fail. Could be you lose sound on the system. Video may show up kind of wonky. Smoke, sparks and fishy smells coming from the computer. While these machines will last a long time, they will eventually succumb to issues.

If the hard drive or the floppy drive fails then it’s relatively easy to replace those mechanical parts. Same thing goes for a video card or memory. But then there is an issue on one of the boards it gets a bit more harry and potentially costly.

I have a Macintosh Classic (all in one, little black and white screen Macs) here. I plugged it in the week and it didn’t start up. I saw a little whisp of smoke and then turned it off. I open the case and looked at the boards. I tried to turn it on again and I saw some sparks on one part of the board. All of these older boards have Capacitors that will fail over time. When they do, they can leak their fluid and end up bridging connections and causing all kinds of trouble.

I pulled the Analog Board, its the main power board on this Mac, and saw a few capacitors that have failed (leaked stuff). On this particular unit there are 25 capacitors on the board. “Recapping” is just coined name of replacing the capacitors on the board. The whole process goes like this:

Identify all the capacitors. Capacity, Type, Size, Voltage.
Order a new set. I used Mouser.com.
Desolder the old capacitor. Remove it from the board.
Clean up the area for that old cap.
Solder in the new capacitor. They have polarity, so make sure you put it back in the proper orientation.
Repeat for every capacitor.
While in there, clean up any other areas, make sure the goop is removed and no other parts are affected.

While working on something like an Analog Board, be very careful. This has some high voltage connections and you need to handle things properly. On these little units you have to discharge the CRT properly. If you don’t, you can electrocute yourself, even after the unit has been unplugged. The CRTs hold a charge!

While everyone has their own setup for their work area, here is what I have and used during this project:

Anti-static mat that I work on.
Desoldering Iron (suction bulb type) to remove old parts.
Solder Iron, I have a Hakko setup with temperature controls.
Thin and Thick solder, I mainly use the thinner strand but have the thicker stuff for the larger components.
Flux, this is the goop that helps the solder to spread properly. I have a syringe of it to apply small amounts exactly where I’m going to solder.
Solder wick, the copper braid to suck up solder. I use it after using the Desoldering Iron to clean up the contact pads.
Magnifying Lamp so I can see up close the exact area I’m working on.
Isopropyl Alcohol (99%) to clean the pads and goop.
Torx tools (the long ones) to get into these little Macs
Discharge tool to drain the CRT. There are official type tools but there are many homegrown tools.

Once the recap is done you place it all back together and test how you did. Does it work? Mine did. But while I’m inside the guts of this machine I also did the following:

Recapped the Logic Board. The capacitors on the logic board are surface mount so it’s different than above.
Replaced the PRAM battery

Now purchasing the new capacitors is confusing. There are a lot of parts out there and you have to know what you are buying. I looked at each capacitor, wrote down the values, measured the width and so on. While on the Mouser website I basically abused their filter system to get the right parts. There are lots of brands as well but I saw that most of the caps on the board was by Nichicon so I stuck with that brand.

To help out with anyone having to recap this particular Analog Board, I’ve providing the exact parts list I generated at Mouser.

Mouser #	Mfr. #	Description	Order Qty.	Price (USD)	Ext.: (USD)
647-UPW2E4R7MPD	UPW2E4R7MPD	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 250volts 4.7uF 10×12.5 ‘20% 5LS	1	$0.46	$0.46
647-UVR2E221MRD6	UVR2E221MRD6	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 250volts 220uF 22×30 20% 10LS	2	$3.39	$6.78
647-UVK1H010MDD	UVK1H010MDD	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 50volts 1uF 5×11 20% 2LS	5	$0.22	$1.10
647-UFW1H100MDD	UFW1H100MDD	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 50volts 10uF 20%	1	$0.17	$0.17
647-UKW1E221MPD	UKW1E221MPD	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 25volts 220uF 20%	1	$0.54	$0.54
647-UVR1E100MDD	UVR1E100MDD	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 25volts 10uF 5×11 20% 2LS	1	$0.17	$0.17
647-UHZ1C102MPM6	UHZ1C102MPM6	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 16volts 1000uF 8X20	1	$0.94	$0.94
647-UVR1C102MPD	UVR1C102MPD	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 16volts 1000uF	1	$0.43	$0.43
647-UVR1E470MDD	UVR1E470MDD	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 25volts 47uF 5×11 20% 2LS	2	$0.18	$0.36
647-UKL0J102MPD	UKL0J102MPD	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 6.3volts 1000uF 85c 10×20 5LS	1	$0.72	$0.72
647-UPW1E471MPD	UPW1E471MPD	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 25volts 470uF 10×16 20% 5LS	3	$0.46	$1.38
647-UPJ1C221MPD	UPJ1C221MPD	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 16volts 220uF 8×11.5 20% 3.5LS	1	$0.35	$0.35
647-UPW1A102MPD	UPW1A102MPD	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 10volts 1000uF 10×16 20% 5LS	1	$0.53	$0.53
647-UPM1A222MHD1CV	UPM1A222MHD1CV	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 2200 uF 10V AL-ELKO 12.5X31.5 0.2	2	$1.06	$2.12
647-UPA1C222MHD3	UPA1C222MHD3	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 2200uF 16V 20% Low Impedance	1	$1.19	$1.19
647-UHD1V102MHD1TO	UHD1V102MHD1TO	Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors – Radial Leaded 1000uF 35V 105c	1	$1.43	$1.43

Raspberry Pi – AFP server for Classic Macintoshes

Introduction

I have modern (OS X) and classic macintosh computers I work with. Boot strapping an older machine can be difficult and I want a cheap/effective solution to make this work. I found a page from Michael Arnold that talked about setting up a Raspberry Pi as AFP Server for older machines. Meaning I could:

Download images/files from the Internet on my modern mac,
Copy those files to the Raspberry Pi
Have the Raspberry Pi serve those files to the older Macs via AFP

This works for older Macs that have Ethernet capabilities but it leaves the oldest AppleTalk based Macs out. I’ve been working on that solution and I’m going to get an older Mac that has both Ethernet and AppleTalk and set it up as an Apple Gateway which will bridge the LocalTalk network to the Ethernet network. But that’s a post for another time.

What is needed

Raspberry Pi (I used an older one I have, model B)
CAT 5 Cable to wire the Pi onto the network
32GB, 64GB if you can, SD Card
Raspbian Jesse Lite – Use this:
- https://www.carlosrandolph.com/downloads/2017-07-05-raspbian-jessie-lite.zip
Netatalk 2.1.6 – I’ll provide a link to the correct one in my instructions below

Preparation

You need to know how to work with Linux and a Raspberry Pi. Here are the high-level tasks:

Download Raspbian Jesse (use link above) to you computer.
Burn the image to the SD card using something like Etcher.
Boot the Raspberry Pi with the SD Card
Configure the Raspberry Pi for your environment:
1. Locale / Keyboard
2. Network setup
3. SSH Access
4. Hostname
5. Modify password for the (pi / raspberry) account
6. Verify you can access it via SSH and sudo to root
As root, do an “apt-get update” to bring it up to date

Raspberry Instructions

Login to your Raspberry Pi and change over to root:

sudo su -

Change to the TMP directory as you work spot:

cd /tmp

Create the directory that will be your shared folder:

mkdir -p /mnt/apple

Chown the directory so your ‘pi’ account owns it:

chown pi:pi /mnt/apple

Get packages required for Netatalk:

apt-get install libavahi-client-dev libcups2-dev libdb-dev libssl-dev libacl1-dev libopenafs-dev gawk libltdl-dev libltdl7 autoconf libgcrypt20-dev libgcrypt20 cracklib-runtime libpam-cracklib lsof procps rc quota texinfo coreutils cdbs autotools-dev devscripts debhelper dh-buildinfo libwrap0-dev libpam0g-dev libkrb5-dev libltdl3-dev libgcrypt11-dev libcrack2-dev libldap2-dev d-shlibs

Download the Netatalk package that is configured for AFP:

wget https://www.carlosrandolph.com/downloads/netatalk-2.1.6.tar.gz

Unpackage the Netatalk package:

tar -zxvf netatalk-2.1.6.tar.gz

Change into the directory for netatalk:

cd netatalk-2.1.6

Configure the Netatalk package for compilation:

./configure --enable-debian --sysconfdir=/etc --with-uams-path=/usr/lib/netatalk --with-ssl-dir=/usr/lib/ --disable-cups

Compile Netatalk:

make

Install Netatalk:

make install

Configure Netatalk for use:

/etc/default/netatalk
- change ATALKD_RUN=no to:
  - ATALKD_RUN=yes
/etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default
- change the last line with the ‘~’ at the end to:
  - /mnt/apple "Apple Share" volsizelimit:2000
/etc/netatalk/afpd.conf
- add the following line to the bottom of file:
  - -transall -uamlist uams_clrtxt.so,uams_dhx.so,uams_dhx2.so
/etc/netatalk/atalkd.conf
- add the following line to the bottom of file:
  - eth0 -phase 2 -net 0-65534 -addr 65280.163
- NOTE: this assumes you network card is “eth0”, change it if needed

Set the Netatalk to start automatically:

update-rc.d netatalk defaults

Start the Netatalk service (one time):

/etc/init.d/netatalk start

Wrap-up

If the above was done right then you should be able to see the network share on you Macintosh. Make sure AppleTalk is enabled and operating on your Ethernet card. If you then go the Chooser, you should be able to click on AppleShare and see it. You should be able to login with the ‘pi’ credentials to access it.

I did not use ‘pi’ as my credentials. I create my own account with my normal OS X Login id. You can add your own credentials on the Raspberry Pi and use that. Just make sure that ID has access to the directory created for the share.

Creating an OS X 7 DVD Disc

I know. OS X 7 (Lion) is old and making a DVD disc seems just as old. So why am I doing this? I have an Xserve (A1196) Intel Quad Core server that I’m toying around with and need to do a fresh install. The latest OS you can put on it is 10.7.5. So I’m going to install 10.7 and patch up to 10.7.5. Once this is installed, I can install 10.7.5 server and get up and running.

I do have MacBook Pro 17” with a SuperDrive to do the work but I ran into issues doing this in the GUI. So a lot of searching and I found someone did this with creating a Sierra disc and figured to try it with Lion. It worked perfectly.

To clarify, I’m doing these command line commands on a MacBook Pro 17”, with a SuperDrive, and it is running OS X High Sierra (10.13.6).

Download the OS X Lion install from the AppStore
Open up a Terminal Window

Commands:

hdiutil attach /Applications/Install\ Mac\ OS\ X\ Lion.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/install_app

hdiutil create -o /tmp/Lion.cdr -size 7500m -layout SPUD -fs HFS+J

hdiutil attach /tmp/Lion.cdr.dmg -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/install_build

asr restore -source /Volumes/install_app/BaseSystem.dmg -target /Volumes/install_build -noprompt -noverify -erase

rm /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Base\ System/System/Installation/Packages 

cp -rp /Volumes/install_app/Packages /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Base\ System/System/Installation/

cp -rp /Volumes/install_app/BaseSystem.chunklist /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Base\ System/BaseSystem.chunklist

cp -rp /Volumes/install_app/BaseSystem.dmg /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Base\ System/BaseSystem.dmg

hdiutil detach /Volumes/install_app

hdiutil detach /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Base\ System/

hdiutil convert /tmp/Lion.cdr.dmg -format UDTO -o /tmp/Lion.iso

mv /tmp/Lion.iso.cdr ~/Desktop/Lion.iso

sudo drutil burn /Users/<YOUR ID>/Desktop/Lion.iso

On that last command, you want to make sure you have a Burnable DVD drive inserted. It needs to be a Dual Layer as well. Also, replace the “<YOUR ID>” with your login ID. You can’t use the ‘~’ reference because of the SUDO command.

UPDATE: I had some troubles booting the DVD on the Xserve. I can’t run the installer on the MacBook Pro because the OS is newer. So I started the MacBook Pro up on the new OS X Lion DVD and connected it to the Xserve with a FireWire cable. You can boot up the Xserve in Target Disk Mode, so the hard drives appear as a FireWire HD on the MacBook Pro. So the DVD is fine, it’s just the Xserve having troubles. Might be because I used a DVD+R DL, might try a DVD-R DL. Also, the ComboDrive has been acting up, I’ve ordered a replacement drive for the Xserve.

Longtime… updates for now. :)

Whelp, I’ve been a busy person. I’ve been spending a lot of time gaming, making videos on YouTube and streaming on Twitch. I’ve have a small niche community so far and it has been a blast…

I’ve been reworking the office here for more space. My primary work area is overrun with streaming equipment. So I’ve setup a secondary desk for my art and electronic gadgets. I couldn’t find a desk I like unless I would spend $1000+ and even then they weren’t perfect. So it was time to make my own. 🙂

I purchased a pair of steel legs that can support 6,000 lbs. I spray painted them black and then went to luck for a desktop. I bought huge single sheet of Birch Plywood from Home Depot and had them do their cuts so one piece was the size of my desktop at 52″ wide x 30″ deep and at it’s 3/4″ thick. Treated the wood and stained it Ebony with a lot of polyurethane as well.

I have cutting mats and soldering mats that I can put out when I’m working so it’s very versatile. I then added a monitor arm to get the monitor off my desk and my little art machine (Mac Mini) is mounted under the desk and out of the way. I’ve also now have room for my 13″ Wacom Cintiq which is really nice.

Now that I have my stuff out again I will endeavor to update a little more frequently.