As 2025 draws to a close, I wanted to thank all of you – my wife, viewers, subscribers, supporters, those who have bought anything from me, had anything repaired/serviced by me, or donated/sold anything to me – for making 2025 a great year.
I’m sending all of my best wishes to you and your loved ones for 2026 – I hope you get everything you want, and are able to spend it in safety and comfort.
Now that the sobby stuff is out of the way, let’s get down to business.
I didn’t post as much as I wanted to on my website as I’d have liked this year (though I’ve been quite active on Threads as usual), however it was still a good year for activity – clocking in at nearly 170,000 views and 40,800 viewers across 165 countries.
I’ve still been plenty hard at work in my workshop, so there’s lots of website content for me to catch up on, including some of my favourites from the past year or so.
My lovely wife also very kindly treat me to some nice collectibles for Christmas, including a Philips G7000 in its original box, a set of Star Trek movie laserdiscs, and a Seiko talking watch which needs some repair work (luckily, I know a guy).
2002 Nintendo GameCube
I got my first Nintendo GameCube – it was working but I fixed it up and performed some tasteful modifications.
1989 Tektronix 222 Miniature CRT Oscilloscope
I built a replacement pack for my Tektronix 222 miniature oscilloscope using a set of lithium 18650 batteries to replace the original SLA pack.
1983 IBM PC 5160 (XT) & 5151 CRT Display
I bought my first IBM PC from a farm in York (a pretty rare find in the UK!), about an hours’ drive for me, sold-as-seen on Facebook marketplace – everything was dirty, a bit rusty, and was apparently untested. I spent a lot of time refurbishing and upgrading the PC and its matching CRT display.
Kenwood Kitchen Stand Mixers – A701A, A901, A901E, & KM200
The repair cafés that I volunteer at have seen a large number of varying Kenwood kitchen stand mixers this year, which I took on as personal repairs, including: a A701A (1962-1976), A901 (1976-1980), A901E (1981-1985), and KM200 (1991-1998) – a full age range covering the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s!
2022 Shark STYLE iQ HD120UK Hairdryer
In addition to the repair cafes that I volunteer at, I do a lot of repairs for family and friends, mostly for household appliances, as well as stuff around our house. Lots of things are very easy and cheap to fix, and would otherwise go to waste, so it is economically and environmentally sensible to repair where possible.
For example, I repaired my wife’s Shark HD120UK hairdryer that she got for Christmas 2022, which started overheating just after it was out of its warranty period. This ended up being a pretty easy fix, so if you’re having this problem too, it would be worth giving it a go, you might save yourself some money – if you don’t have the confidence or experience to give it a go yourself, take it to your local repair café and they’ll help you out for free.
1990s Apple PowerBook 1400CS-166
I repaired an Apple PowerBook 1400CS-166 for a friend of mine, which required a recap of the mainboard, backlight board and display driver board, a replacement for the leaky original NiMH battery pack, a mainboard repair, and a new power supply.
1984 Viglen-Cased Acorn BBC Model B
I got my first Viglen-cased Acorn BBC Model B, which was very kindly given to me by a friend – these use most of the original parts from the converted Model B except for the top case, so require servicing before powering on due to aging RIFA mains filter capacitors which like to fail short-circuit and release clouds of nasty, acrid smoke.
1994 Amiga CD32
I got my first Amiga CD32, which was very kindly given to me by a friend – these suffer from bad electrolytic capacitors on the mainboard and need to be properly serviced.
1982 Commodore PET 8032 & 8050 Dual-FDD
I repaired a Commodore PET 8032 and I’m in the process of repairing its matching 8050 dual 5.25″ FDD for a friend of mine. The PET wasn’t working and needed its mains filter can removed, a keyboard service including a new shift-lock mechanism, and a general clean up – the 8050 wasn’t working and needed its mains filter can removed with a new IEC socket fitted, and is still not reading and writing disks properly so requires further investigation.
1983 Milton-Bradley Vectrex
I repaired a Vectrex games console for a friend of mine who runs Re:Wired Museum & Arcade CIC, a community-run project in Teesside which helps to preserve and showcase technology that has impacted society. Apparently the unit worked OK for a while after being whacked on the side, then stopped working completely following transit.
Elektor Engineering Insights #57 – “Bringing Vintage Computers Back to Life”
On Wednesday 29th October 2025, I featured on a live discussion and Q&A session with Elektor Magazine as part of their Engineering Insights series, in which Elektor’s editors and engineers discuss real engineering challenges and solutions with electronics industry experts. The full interview and also a short version are now available to watch on YouTube, for anyone who couldn’t make the livestream.
Recycling More Scrap Components
I’ve been doing some more component recycling, including making a pair of earrings for my wonderful wife out of old CPUs, and making some more PCB frames.
2001 Toshiba SD-23VB (3850R-Z243G) VHS/DVD Player
A colleague of mine very kindly gave me this Toshiba SD-23VB VHS/DVD combi player, which was completely dead and needed repairs to the internal PSU.
Pioneer CLD-950 Laserdisc Player
A couple of years ago, I fixed a laserdisc player for someone at one of the repair cafes that I volunteer at – I hadn’t seen laserdiscs before and found them pretty cool, so since then I have been looking for a player and library of my own.
A large lot was listed on Facebook marketplace near Manchester, including a Pioneer CLD-950 player and about 170 laserdiscs with some pretty good titles included – a friend of mine very kindly collected the lot for me and came up to deliver them the next time he came to collect the repairs that I’d done for him.
My wife and I sorted through which titles we wanted to keep, and ended up keeping about a hundred – I set the player up on the console stand in my office, where I’ve got a 6-way RGB SCART switch from RGC which I use to play any console at any time easily.
A colleague of mine very kindly 3D-scanned the plastic legs on my office TV, created a CAD model for an extended set from these scans, then printed them for me so I had enough room below it for the laserdisc player. Everything looks great!
1994 Panasonic 3DO (FZ-1)
A friend of mine very kindly gave me my first Panasonic 3DO, an FZ-1 model, in good physical condition but unknown operational condition – it had been stored in a loft for several years and needed repair and servicing.
2017 Samsung C49HG90DMU 49″ 32:9 Ultrawide Gaming Monitor
I repaired a Samsung C49HG90DMU gaming monitor which I got for free because it didn’t work properly when cold – it was a pain to take apart but it seems like it was an easy fix, just a ribbon cable that had came loose inside.
This is my first ultra-wide monitor, I’ve been wanting once for a while now but couldn’t justify spending so much money on one, so I’m very excited to have been able to fix this one – I’ve replaced a pair of full-HD 21″ monitors with this one and it’s made a huge difference for gaming, I’m really loving it.
The desktop calculator on my desk is a 1970s Monroe 610, which features a set of twelve miniature nixie tubes, and is one of my favourite collection pieces.
1982 Silver-Label Commodore 64 Charity Auction
I fixed up a silver-label Commodore 64 from 1982 that I bought sold-as-seen on Facebook marketplace and auctioned it off with 50% of the proceeds going to Cancer Research UK – thanks to everyone who got involved, we raised £185.00 for charity!
1980 Sharp MZ-80K
A few weeks ago I picked up a small haul of vintage computers fairly locally, including a Sharp MZ-80K in its original box – these are pretty cool computers and I’ve been after getting one for a little while, it took some fixing up but I’ve got it working.
1992 Amiga 1200s & Philips CM8833-IIs
I’ve been working on a pair of Amiga 1200s and matching Philips CM8833-II CRT displays which have been cleaned, serviced, and upgraded, and are available for sale:
- A1200 #1: KickStart 3.1 ROMs, polymer recap, GVP JAWS-II v3 with 68030 CPU @40MHz with 4MB 64pin GVP SIMM32 and battery-backed RTC, new keyboard membrane, Gotek USB FDD emulator, 4GB CF card with WorkBench 3.1 preinstalled.
- A1200 #2: KickStart 3.1 ROMs, polymer recap, 8MB RAM expansion with battery-backed RTC and 40MHz 68882 FPU, 4GB CF card with WorkBench 3.1 preinstalled.
1992 Amiga 4000
I got my first Amiga 4000, which was very kindly given to me by a friend – unfortunately this has pretty irreparable mainboard damage due to PRAM battery leakage, so I’m in the process of migrating all of the major components across to a modern replacement PCB.
The machine even came with an A3640 v3.1 CPU card installed with a full 68040 @ 25MHz – these suffer from electrolytic capacitor leakage so need to be recapped.
This version of the card has several capacitors fitted in the incorrect orientation for their polarity, so care needs to be taken when installing replacements.
I also installed thermal paste on the heatsink as there wasn’t much on there before.
The original mainboard is shown below – at a quick glance the battery corrosion looks pretty superficial, but removing the Super Buster shows a lot of damage to the PLCC socket below it, and with the PLCC socket removed it is clear just how much trace damage there is.
There is obviously quite a lot of work involved in transferring all of the major original parts to the new mainboard and then debugging the rebuilt system, so I fully expect to still be working on this at the next New Year.
1991 Apple Macintosh SE/30
Speaking of battery leakage, I finally managed to finish off the Apple Macintosh SE/30 that I bought way back in 2023 – its lithium PRAM battery had exploded and leaked all over the mainboard, leading to severe corrosion and damage that led me to condemn it and move all of the original parts across to a replica SE/30 PCB kindly provided by CayMac.
This machine also got an analogue board rebuild including new cooling fan, an FDD service, 128MB RAM, 2MB ROM, and an internal BlueSCSI SD card adapter with System 7.0.1 – I also repainted the metal chassis which had corrosion from the battery leakage.
Originally the mainboard damage was causing a “simasimac” pattern on-screen.
I spent a lot of time migrating the original major parts to the new mainboard, then a lot more time trying to diagnose the result (with a lot of greatly appreciated support from CayMac, who I would absolutely wholeheartedly recommend for anyone who wants to get this work done as a paid service), it is finally all working!
With the computer reassembled, it is all working perfectly!
I made the following frame out of the original mainboard, and hung it up on the wall in my office as a reminder never to buy compact Macs sold-as-seen on eBay again.
I can make the joke now that this SE/30 had me pulling my hair out…
1984 Seiko Talking Watch A965-4000
For Christmas 2025, my wife bought me a lovely 1984 Seiko A965-4000 “talking watch”, which had been sold-as-seen on eBay as none-working for spares/repairs.
When it arrived, sure enough it didn’t work. I fitted a new CR2016 coin-cell battery as per the user guide and reset the watch, it powered up and seemed to work OK but when I pressed the “talk” button it would crackle and reset itself. It was only a cheap battery so I figured it might not be supplying enough current, or that its voltage was collapsing under load, so I tried a good battery and everything seemed to work fine, including the speech synthesiser and speaker.
The original strap (Seiko part number B1661L 24mm x 16mm) was missing some links and its clasp on one side, so it wasn’t wearable unfortunately – thankfully we managed to find a new-old-stock original replacement part which was pretty easy to fit as the strap is just held in place with spring pins.
While the watch was all apart, I took the opportunity to give it a good clean out and to polish the metal casing with metal polish. I also cleaned the switch contacts and battery holder with contact cleaner. The electronics just pulls out and is connected to the speaker with a pair of delicate spring contacts. I also replaced a missing screw on the rear cover.
Now that the watch has been cleaned and repaired, it looks fantastic – the paint on the buttons has rubbed off a bit and there seems to be a bit of LCD leakage in the lower corner of the screen, but it’s still a really lovely watch as well as a neat piece of history and an interesting conversation starter.
