RC2021/10 Final post

Well, I ended up having a very busy October (baby is due November 1st!), so I didnt get much done for RetroChallenge. I kept looking for a Zaurus I/O connector or serial cable on eBay, but did not have any luck. That said, I feel good that I helped organize my first RetroChallenge event, and I think it was a great success with 44 entries! I also did some programming on Google Suite to set up some infrastructure for the event. So, all in all a good month, despite the lack of retro computing!

Stylus Fix

Well, with virtually no hope of getting a serial cable for my Zaurus, I moved on to some other bits that the Z needs. Really soon after I bought this thing, I managed to drop the stylus and break the tip off. I tried super glue in the past but it would not hold for very long. When I pulled it out of the box, it saw that I had wrapped electrical tape wrapped around (all gross and sticky after 5+ years) it and could not fit in the handy stylus holder built into the body of the Zaurus. Oh, the indignity! First I had to get the broken threaded base out of the body of the stylus. Since it had broken off flush with the body, I could not grip it. I had to use a small file to cut a channel in the plastic to fit a flat head screwdriver. Then I was able to unscrew it from the metal.

I have had good luck lately using ABS glue on all sorts of automotive plastic, so I thought this guy would be a good candidate.

After applying some of the ABS cement (typically used for septic pipes), it was clear that the plastic was getting gooey and would make a nice chemical bond. I put the stylus in a framing square to keep it straight, and I now have a nice usable stylus for my useless Zaurus!

Not much progress, but it's something!