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   Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 07:49:22 JST Tube🌞Time

   so i did something totally insane. the local electronics store was closing down and so i (and two friends) purchased THEIR ENTIRE STOCK OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITS. and today i finally finished organizing my share into these 12 cabinets. 🧵

   • clacke likes this.
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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 07:49:20 JST Tube🌞Time

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     HSC/Halted has had several other locations over the years, but served as a steady source of parts for hobbyists and engineers. many famous individuals bought things here.

     kaia likes this.
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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 07:49:21 JST Tube🌞Time

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     (before being split, this means there were over 216,000 parts that we had to sort through manually!)

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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 07:49:21 JST Tube🌞Time

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     these parts started out at HSC Electronics (aka Halted) in Santa Clara and were collected over a period of 40 years.

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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 07:49:21 JST Tube🌞Time

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     HSC was on Ryder street for many, many years, but they had to move in ~2016. the building was demolished in May 2017.

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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 07:49:22 JST Tube🌞Time

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     a couple of statistics: there are 3,622 different part numbers and a total of 72,108 parts in this collection.

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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 08:23:52 JST Tube🌞Time

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     * yes, many of the drawers (for MOS parts) have ESD protection in the form of an aluminum foil layer. i applied it with glue and this custom 3D-printed jig.

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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 08:23:52 JST Tube🌞Time

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     HSC originally used black ESD foam which degraded horribly over the years. i hate that stuff. i hate the sour smell it gets when it degrades, and i hated having to pick hundreds of chips out of crumbling, decaying foam.

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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 08:23:52 JST Tube🌞Time

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     * rarest part i found? probably these 4004 processor chips. but there were other oddities in the collection, shift register memories, drivers, and that sort of thing.

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 08:23:53 JST Tube🌞Time

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     after separating out my share of the parts, i stuffed them into thousands of plastic ESD-safe bags, each labeled with a sharpie and stored in a moving box.

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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 08:23:53 JST Tube🌞Time

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     over the last few months, i spent hours and hours carefully packing chips into separate drawers. by putting multiple part numbers into a single drawer, i was able to reduce it down to just 12 cabinets.

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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 08:23:53 JST Tube🌞Time

     in reply to

     if you've been wondering why i haven't been posting as prolifically this year, this is the major reason.

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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 08:23:53 JST Tube🌞Time

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     OK some answers to questions you might have:

     * i don't want to run an electronics business so i'm not planning to sell any. doesn't mean i won't give parts to friends occasionally.

     * yes, i have a catalog of parts organized in a spreadsheet, which makes it much easier to find things

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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 08:23:54 JST Tube🌞Time

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     unfortunately, the company had to shut down their retail outlet in 2019.

     kaia likes this.
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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 08:23:54 JST Tube🌞Time

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     most of their inventory got sold to Excess Solutions (located in San Jose).

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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 08:23:54 JST Tube🌞Time

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     this was great for a while, but on July 16, 2022, Excess Solutions opened their doors to the public for the last time. and on that day, I decided to get myself a guaranteed supply of chips, and two of my friends were totally down for it.

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     Tube🌞Time (tubetime@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 14-Sep-2024 08:23:54 JST Tube🌞Time

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     we ended moving 80 cabinets -- containing 4,000 plastic drawers, to an undisclosed location where we could slowly pick through the collection, catalog it, and separate it out three ways.