Thrift Store Finds 04/22/22
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I like to stop by thrift stores  when traveling, and as I finally took
the  family on  a  road trip  recently,  I  had a  change  to visit  a
few.  Retro tech  is  getting more  and more  rare  in thrift  stores,
understandably.

Didn't find  much that I wanted  to cart home,  but I did pick  up two
items that I'm happy about:

1. An iPazzPort  mini touchpad/keyboard. Came with  everything, in the
original blister-back setup. Not new, but everything was there. Got it
home and cleaned  it up, charged the BL-5C Li-on  battery up and tried
it out. No dice... the little  battery light was flashing. I happen to
have one  more device  in the house  that uses a  BL-5C battery,  so I
tried a swap, but still no luck. With nothing to lose, I opened it up,
and immediately spotted two SMD resistors  that were popped off at one
end (there's  not much  on the back  of the pcb,  so they  stood out!)
Gently pushed them down into place  and applied the tip of a soldering
iron to  the ends...  and presto!  The thing  worked right  away. I'll
probably use  this for a Pi  project, or eventually in  that cyberdeck
that I want to build... Paid about $3.

2. Also scored  an Alphasmart 3000. Great  condition, everything works
(well, I didn't test that odd "printer port" that they have on there.)
From the Alpine School District, Alpine,  AZ. The kind of remote place
that  would still  have these  lying around!  I have  no use  for this
thing, but since  I have an Alphasmart  Dana, I figured I'd  add it to
the collection. Paid about $5.

Wish I had more  to report about the thrift stores,  but I really only
got to visit a few, and nothing insane happened that comes immediately
to mind. It was fun though!