Ruthsarian
LightNews LightNews
banner
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Ruthsarian
@ruthsarian.bsky.social
85 followers 160 following 200 posts
I am an electronics hobbyist.
https://YouTube.com/ruthsarian
Posts Replies Media Videos
ruthsarian.bsky.social
At the end of my last YouTube video I mentioned that the day after Halloween you should go buy some discount decorations for modding. I did just that. I've turned this 1 dollar Halloween necklace into an accessory for droids from Galaxy's Edge.
November 3, 2025 at 12:41 AM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Finished modding this Halloween decoration of a skull inside an astronaut helmet Originally the light was only on or off. I added a motion sensor to it, which requires a boost converter give it 5V from the 3V battery pack. Came out nice. I did accidentally wire the switch backwards. Oh well.
Viewing from above the lighting unit that goes inside the decoration as it sits on cutting mat. There is a small, square PCB in the center with 4 warm white LEDs. To its left is a rectangular PCB that makes up the motion sensor and to its right is the boost converter. Red, yellow, and black wires connect everything together. The entire thing is about 3 inches in diameter. a close up of the on/off switch. it is currently in the on position, but the lighting unit is off as it was wired backwards. a view of the lit up decoration: a skull inside an astronaut helmet. The piece is white except for some accents on the helmet which are in a distressed/weathered silver. The entire decoration is about 9 inches tall and 7 inches in diameter.
October 27, 2025 at 2:07 AM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Made a holiday accessory for R-Unit droids from Galaxy's Edge. Was inspired after picking up an R2-H15 holiday droid and found the personality chip that came with it had no accessory sounds. Why not? Lack of holiday accessories? So I made one.
a Christmas tree shaped PCB about 2 inches tall with three LEDs down the center and resistors around the LEDs. it is plugged into the accessory port of an R-unit droid from Galaxy's Edge.
October 26, 2025 at 7:12 AM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
I plan on making a video about the mod soon. But here are some images showing mine that I installed in my BB.
The tilt switch mod for new BB droids from Galaxy's Edge. The PCB is L shaped with a hole in it. The idea is to use the hole to align the PCB with the motor housing in BB. The PCB consists of 4 resistors, 2 2N7000 N-Channel mosfets, a ceramic capacitor, a power transistor, and an SW-520D tilt switch oriented so it sticks up (and is this making a connection) while the BB is in operation. The tilt switch mod PCB is mounted inside a BB droid. Seen from the back, the hole in the PCB has been used to align its location and it's then been taped in place. hot glue works as well. a view from the inside, from the other side, of the BB unit with the tilt switch mod PCB mounted in place. The batter wires run to the mod PCB and then wires connect the mod PCB to the main logic board.
October 19, 2025 at 1:48 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
I'm designing a PCB to hold through-hole addressable LEDs. There's a limit on how long a PCB can be so I stitched segments together to get a 31" blade. I'm using wire soldered to plated through-holes on the power and ground rails to connect the segments. So far they're working really well!
A joint between two PCBs containing addressable (neo-pixel) through-hole RGB LEDs. The through-hole LEDs are laid horizontal with the PCB. The leads are trimmed to about 2mm in length. They are surface mount soldered to pads on the PCB. The PCB has holes next to the pads for each LED so the LED body can rest inside the PCB. This is similar to how Disney Galaxy's Edge lightsaber blades are designed, except they do not use addressable LEDs. At the joint, the power and ground traces that run along either edge of the PCB are exposed from the end of the PCB back about 5mm. Where the exposed pad ends is a plated through-hole. A wire (a lead from a resistor or LED) is threaded through the holes on the joining PCBs and soldered in place to for a mechanical and electrical connection. A third line is needed for data between the LEDs. For this I'm using a small gauge wire soldered to exposed pads at the joint, similar to how power and ground are connected. However difficulty in soldering this wire has me considering tweaking the design. The blade was assembled with 4 PCB segments each having 16 LEDs. This image shows about half of the LED string with LEDs on and set to a cyan color. A segment joint can be seen in the middle of the image.
September 23, 2025 at 1:34 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
I'd like to try and diagnose the drive, but I can't find much information on how to do that with a SCSI drive. All I've found is" install Linux on an old hardware with a SCSI card". so .. I dunno.
a view from the side of the non-working hard drive. it is a MiniScribe model 8425S. A view of the logic board on the underside of the MiniScribe 8425S.
August 16, 2025 at 9:24 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
TRMPWR connects to 5V via a diode, after which it splits to the internal and external SCSI connectors. external has 5V on TRMPWR, so that line is okay. confirmed no short on TRMPWR to ground on the internal connector. so I added a wire to reconnect the internal connector. powered up without issue.
a close-up of the underside of the Macintosh SE motherboard with a red wire connecting a via to a pin on the internal SCSI connector.
August 16, 2025 at 9:11 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
keyboard and mouse have been cleaned and reassembled and are working well.

booted into system 6 to confirm memory size. this came with 1mb, but the previous owner installed 2 1mb Simms and left 2 of the 4 256kb Simms for a total of 2.5mb of ram.
August 16, 2025 at 6:43 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Cleaning the keyboard. It had a taped down strip of labels along the top. I've removed it and the levels of yellowing show there's a history of several hotkey labels revisions on this keyboard. the earliest appears to be a single label over the F12 key.
a portion of the top bezel of a Macintosh keyboard. there are several degrees of yellowing present. the lighter areas represent areas that were first covered up. slightly darker areas were then probably covered up later on and then the darkest areas have never been covered up at all. the difference in color is due to yellowing of the plastics having been left in sunlight most likely over a period of years. the yellowing can be reversed in a process called retrobrite which I will likely not attempt for now.
August 16, 2025 at 4:16 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Mouse clean-up before and after, plus bonus shot of mouse internals. I covered up the chewed part with some cloth tape as the wires themselves are still good.
The underside of a very dirty Macintosh mous. The glide pads are discolored, there's a lot of grime, and part of the cable itself as its insulation chewed away. The underside of the cleaned up Apple Macintosh mouse. The glide pads are now clean and free of any discoloration, there is no more grime, and the area of the cable that had been chewed on is now covered in a black cloth tape. A view looking down inside the Macintosh mouse with its top removed. There is a small PCB, an area of white plastic where the mouse ball is kept, and a cable running off to the right. There is a DIP-18 IC visible on the PCB The markings on it seem to indicate that this is a PIC16 microcontroller.
August 16, 2025 at 3:47 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
When cleaning out the carrying bag, I found concrete evidence of mice. Including their entryway on the bottom of the bag.
the bottom of the carrying bag has a small hole in it about the size of a mouse.
August 16, 2025 at 2:45 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
I had noticed the cable for the mouse that came with the Mac had been nibbled on. Maybe a pet? But..
a close up of the cable for the mouse near the connector end the insulation has been torn away exposing the wires.
August 16, 2025 at 2:43 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Oh, I did remove the dead 3V lithium battery from the motherboard and rigged this thing that should let me use a 3V CR2032.

That blown trace runs to a via that is under this battery thing. Hmm...
A CR2032 battery holder soldered to a piece of perf board sitting on top of the motherboard.
August 15, 2025 at 9:48 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
The caps looked fine. I didn't see any signs of residue. But when I looked on the underside of the motherboard I found a trace going to the hard drive connector had acted as a fuse and burned itself up.
A close-up of the bottom of a PCB. There is a zigzagging line in the middle of the image where there is the remnants of a thin copper trace.
August 15, 2025 at 9:43 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Working on a Mac SE I picked up for $20 a couple weeks ago. I took it apart and cleaned it up. I cleaned and lined the floppy drive It boots! Pretty cool! But...
The front of a Macintosh SE on a workbench displaying System 6. Inside the case you will see the signatures of everybody who was involved in the Macintosh project. This is inside the cleaned up Mac everything looks pretty good the only thing missing is a hard drive that I have not yet put in.
August 15, 2025 at 9:38 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Had to switch over to my DSLogic Plus as the cheap analyzer I have only goes up to 16MHz and it wasn't quite getting the SPI clock signal. Now everything is jake!
A partial screenshot of the DSView application. It's zoomed in on a single SPI transaction and shows the signals for the data and clock lines as well as the decoded address and data values.
August 8, 2025 at 6:35 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Attempt #347 at figuring out details about the proprietary audio code used in Galaxy's Edge holocrons. This time sniffing SPI comms to understand how the silence and mark tables work.
A series 1 Jedi Holocron PCB is in a vice with wires connecting it to a logic analyze. There are also several other wires coming off the board connected to buttons to simulate the various functions of a Holocron.
August 8, 2025 at 5:51 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
finally got my hands on an updated Galaxy's Edge droid control board. These were introduced in early 2024 and carry a new Bluetooth SoC. Unfortunately, the tilt switch mod to wake the droid after it goes to sleep, will not work on this chip. time to experiment!
a PCB about 2x2 inches square held between an index finger and thumb. there is a daughter board soldered to it that contains the Bluetooth SoC (system on chip) and antenna. the markings on the chip, 'N52810', identify it as an nRF52810 from Nordic Semiconductor.
July 17, 2025 at 7:08 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
maybe nostalgia clouds my judgement, but I especially appreciate each album had a different tone or feel to it.
Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by Smashing Pumpkins Adore by Smashing Pumpkins
June 13, 2025 at 4:14 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
this is a variant of the savi's workshop chassis I have never seen before. normally there are 2 wires (power and ground) plus a ribbon cable that connects the top and bottom halves of a chassis's electronics. this one has a third wire, for blade data. (alt text for more info)
the back of a PCB with a 3-pin connector. three wires are connected to the PCB: red, yellow, and black. red carries battery +, black is battery -, and yellow is for the data line which is used to communicate with the lightsaber blade. this is the main logic PCB of a Savi's Workshop chassis. the yellow wire is soldered to a pad intended for a diode. on other chassis I've seen the diode is there, not the wire. this is because the data line comes through the ribbon cable and into the diode. no so here. and this is a 'factory' mod. this is the PCB from the top side of the chassis. there is a white wire connected to a point labeled 'IP'. this is the blade data. normally the data line continues over to the ribbon cable connector. but this variant has a diode between the IP point and another labeled 'B5'. soldered to B5 is a yellow wire that will run down to the bottom of the chassis. this is the blade data line being rerouted to a separate wire instead of the ribbon cable.
June 7, 2025 at 10:33 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
What did I buy that fluoresces? A ruby made by melting aluminum and chromium oxides with a 250 watt handheld laser.
a small sphere of ruby suspended in a gemstone display case with the text GemsOfScience.com along the bottom. The pen's UV light is shining on the ruby making it fluoresce.
June 5, 2025 at 1:55 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
Wait a minute... is this... a secret message pen?!?!!!
June 5, 2025 at 1:50 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
I bought a thing that fluoresces in ultraviolet light. I received a pen with it. The pen has a UV LED in it. That's pretty nice of the seller, giving me a UV light to use with my newly aquired fluorescent item. But the writing part of the pen doesn't work! It has ink in it, but it's a CLEAR ink?!
a smooth, plain looking pen with a button near the top and the tip of an LED poking out the top. the ink tube removed from a pen. the tube is clear plastic. the ink in the tube is clear in color.
June 5, 2025 at 1:48 PM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
the opposite side of the PCB with the card reader socket. looks like the text next to the epoxy blob, likely identifying the IC, begins with 'SNC'. I suspect this is a SONIX chip, perhaps similar to what is used on GE Holocrons.
a PCB maybe 1 1/2" square. there's a circular blob of epoxy at the top, covering a chip on board. below are a dozen transistors likely managing power to the LEDs in the figure. and maybe 2 dozen resistors supporting those transistors.
May 26, 2025 at 1:36 AM
ruthsarian.bsky.social
some PCB text
Tron Identity Chip socket PCB with the following text: 7372-1A Tron Figure EW R&D 20220819 the back of a single-sided PCB used for power distribution. Text is: VDD GND VDD5 VCC 7372-2A Tron Figure EW R&D 20220802 B7
May 26, 2025 at 1:32 AM