Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Side channel vid: EL teleprompter (Patreon)

Published:
2026-10-09 16:52:56
Imported:
2026-10

Content

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aInFen4X42Y

i shot and edited this video in a single day, largely to prove i could. enjoy!

Files

The prettiest teleprompter, for some reason

i left this thing at the store for like six months because i didn't want it to take up all that space in my house Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cathoderaydude Tip me: https://ko-fi.com/cathoderaydude

Comments

VCSMaster

EL, like Electroluminescent? I know what I'm watching on lunch today

Chas Becht

Fpgas are common in low volume devices. Cheaper than making a custom asic until the volume gets pretty high. I once dug a bunch of 10 Mbit unswitched Ethernet hubs (3com hubstacks I think?) out of a dumpster that were full of fpgas.

cathoderaydude

that's certainly true *now* but it changed rapidly over the 90s/2000s as far as I can tell. I'm surprised the 3coms would contain a single FPGA, what would it have been doing? In a plain repeater there's simply no need for that kind of sophistication, the only thing you really need to do is look for collisions and possibly partition ports, which requires either more or less complex parts. I really wonder what the hell those were doing in there.

AJ Fite (NCLF.net)

Are you sure they were FPGAs and not CPLDs? The latter is more common in that era in my experience

Chas Becht

Dunno, but they were the bulk of the ICs in the things. It was ports, magnetics, two honking fpgas, and passives as best I remember. I was surprised myself when I found them, which is why the memory stuck with me. (This would have been 2002 or 2003 I think, and they were being taken out of service for a long overdue upgrade to 100mbit switches) Edit: I remembered they were Xilinx parts, and some googling shows that some 3com ISA network cards circa 1992 or so had Xilinx parts on them. That seems like about the same era as the hubs. So maybe somebody at 3com was an early Xilinx fan? (https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/3com-etherlink-16)

cathoderaydude

there's a favor you could do me, if it's not too much to ask. if you could hit Google images and try and find the model you were looking at, old hubs show up at repc all the time and I may be able to find one and open it up and get answers to this, which would be fun

Chas Becht

That's a valid point. They could have been CPLDs. It's been quite a while. I vividly remember opening the cases and seeing PCBs dominated by two big black squares with Xilinx logos on them, being surprised, and looking up the part numbers. I have less clear memory of the exact parts. It's possible that I'm the intervening years I confused CPLDs for FPGAs.

Chas Becht

I've been googling, but I can't find the exact ones I remember. The haul included at least two models. The "SuperStack II" line might have been one of them. I could swear they were called "hubstack" or something with "hub" right in the model name. They had two big multipin connectors on the back panel for chaining them together into a larger Voltron zord switch. (Hence the "stack"). Once of the models had the connectors right above each other, and one they were on opposite sides of the panel. The ones that are striking in my memory had a plastic outer case and the sides were angled in making them slightly trapezoidal. Once of the models had a metal shell and might be the "SuperStack II" that I keep finding on Google.

Chas Becht

This is the closest match to my memory I've found so far: https://www.ebay.com/itm/224628598407 That listing has pictures of the back panel with the "up" and "down" voltron connectors. Side note: Why am I finding pictures of old 3com hubs with a 13w3 connector on the back. What the fuck? (Edit: Huh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB13W3#Non-video) This one (https://recycledgoods.com/3com-3c1661-superstack-ii-dual-speed-hub-500-24-port-tp/) has the 13w3 port that I don't understand, but also the voltron ports are the locking centronics ones, which I'm pretty sure I remember on at least some of the ones I had.

Vincent Deville-Duc

On the “margin” of tv signals back then : when I learnt how to frame while tvs were still very much CRTs, we were taught that we only could rely on 90% of the frame, in the center of the signal. Everything outside of it would be in an area that may or may not appear on tv. So you had to not put anything meaningful in it, and if you were a good pro, not anything annoying either (because it could appear on some displays). I think that’s where the 90% margin that you can set of pro viewfinder or pro camcorder comes from, even though it has no real meaning today. I use it to avoid proximity to edges when I shoot. Though I think the worst I lived through as a camera guy back then was when we (progressively, that’s the problem) switched from 4/3 to 16/9… that was a real nightmare. But I digress ;-)

Rusty Hackleford

Your side channel videos have been great recently. I appreciate the massive research and care you take in telling stories on your main channel, but it’s great seeing you shoot from the hip a little more and just talk about some interesting thing you found. I’m sure you’re probably researching a ton on these vids too, but you make it seem more casual and funny. Thanks for producing such great stuff.

Zarky

I would love to be the curator of this device for you! I have many bizarre ideas. Been looking for one for a while! First thing I want to do is play wipeout 2097 on it

Jack Menhorn

Love this format of videos. I hope it was as fun for you to make as me to watch!

The King Of Rhye

Wait...this is an electro-luminescent panel...so....it's an "ELP"? You should have had the lyrics to "Lucky Man" or something scrolling on it, lol