What other "old" technology do you use on a regular basis.

[Unknown_K]

I have some MO drives and media for my old systems. I have an external 230MB 3.5" unit that is used with some old macs along with a couple 5.25" drives that are 650MB per side (1.3GB total). I collect removable media in general (tape drives as well as removable mass storage). Oh yea and a couple WORM drives that were in expensive IBM PS/2 units (basically MO but not rewritable).

[mediasponge]

You can go to http://www.vacuumtubes.net and get all kinds of tubes there. I got replacements tubes from them for my HP400D VTVM. It is working fine now, and is good for rough indications in higher voltage circuits. It won't get damaged like a DVM might.

What I don't know is if Tektronix used strange tubes. I don't think so, but I am not certain. ... JDH

The plugins in Tektronix scopes used matched tube pairs, which is a PITA. Good info about vacuumtubes.net, thanks. They specialize in NOS tubes, not new. I have seen other sources for new tubes in the audio arena. These days, some of the better tubes are made in Russia! Svetlana and Sovtek are a couple of the brands. In my case, it might be a power supply problem, or a relay that is stuck. The Tek used special power supply sequencing circuits to make sure the deflection amps didn't blast the CRT before the signal circuitry was awake. These old Tektronix scopes were some of the highest quality pieces of electronic equipment ever made. Take a close look at some of the photos in the link in the next paragraph. Discrete components are soldered to metal inserts in blocks of ceramic using Silver-based solder. These things were built to last for decades. By comparison, the insides of the Dumont look like an old Heathkit.

It's funny how the common usage of the term "plugin" has changed over the years. In this context, THIS is a real plugin, not some webby thingie.

[mediasponge]

I have some MO drives and media for my old systems. I have an external 230MB 3.5" unit that is used with some old macs along with a couple 5.25" drives that are 650MB per side (1.3GB total). I collect removable media in general (tape drives as well as removable mass storage). Oh yea and a couple WORM drives that were in expensive IBM PS/2 units (basically MO but not rewritable).

I have a pile of SCSI DAT drives available, but it's probably not worth the shipping costs to get them to you. PM me if you want to discuss.

[jdhurst]

<snip> The plugins in Tektronix scopes used matched tube pairs, which is a PITA. Good info about vacuumtubes.net, thanks. They specialize in NOS tubes, not new. I have seen other sources for new tubes in the audio arena. These days, some of the better tubes are made in Russia! Svetlana and Sovtek are a couple of the brands. In my case, it might be a power supply problem, or a relay that is stuck. The Tek used special power supply sequencing circuits to make sure the deflection amps didn't blast the CRT before the signal circuitry was awake. These old Tektronix scopes were some of the highest quality pieces of electronic equipment ever made. Take a close look at some of the photos in the link in the next paragraph. Discrete components are soldered to metal inserts in blocks of ceramic using Silver-based solder. These things were built to last for decades. By comparison, the insides of the Dumont look like an old Heathkit.
<snip>

I have a 7704A and a 7104 in the basement. Even though 20 years newer than yours, the plugins were still really well built. I have one vertical plug-in with flakey contacts in the volts/div switch (those bifurcated gold contact arrangement). Careful cleaning keeps it going, but I should look for a replacement on eBay.

I have never seen a 545 series power supply, but the supplies in the 7704 and 7104 have distinct measurement points to determine if it is starting properly. You might see if you can separate the low voltage power supply from the vertical and horizaontal amplitfiers and see if you can get it to start. ... JDH

[mediasponge]

I have a 7704A and a 7104 in the basement. Even though 20 years newer than yours, the plugins were still really well built. I have one vertical plug-in with flakey contacts in the volts/div switch (those bifurcated gold contact arrangement). Careful cleaning keeps it going, but I should look for a replacement on eBay.

The 7000 series were excellent workhorses before digital and sampling scopes took over. I also have a 5000 series rack mount, which wasn't as good as the 7000, but a nice unit. Haven't used that one in a while either.

The one thing I liked about the ancient Dumont scope was that it had built in X-Y capability. For aligning tape heads (remember those?) you would play back a special calibration tape, feed the left channel into X and the right channel into Y, and when the resulting trace on the scope was a perfectly straight diagonal line, the tape heads were perfectly aligned. A lot of modern scopes ditched X-Y capability.

[jdhurst]

<snip>
The one thing I liked about the ancient Dumont scope was that it had built in X-Y capability. For aligning tape heads (remember those?) you would play back a special calibration tape, feed the left channel into X and the right channel into Y, and when the resulting trace on the scope was a perfectly straight diagonal line, the tape heads were perfectly aligned. A lot of modern scopes ditched X-Y capability.

Yes. I also have a Tek 455 A2B2 that I purchased new in 1979. It still works very well, it sports X-Y mode. This is useful for curver tracers as well as what you noted. I purchased the 7000 series machines on eBay at nicely low prices.
... JDH

[Unknown_K]

Tektronics made some nice circuit boards. I saved a couple boards from an old scope that was being recycled, all the chips have gold leads on them 1969 vintage. Every chip is socketed, and I love the hand routed circuits unlike the computer generated lines of today.

[mediasponge]

I'm happy to report that there's nothing really wrong with the old Tektronix. The power sequencer was working just fine, I just didn't wait long enough for it to switch on. I switched it off quickly because the thing didn't "sound" right. Good thing too. The fan wasn't spinning. I think I found the only cheap low-grade component Tektronix put in that unit: the fan motor. It was frozen solid, and would have burnt out if I left it on too long. The fan support bracket is a marvelous piece of cast Aluminum, but the fan motor is a hunk of junk. Got it spinning again, and buttoned the beast back up. Works OK. Nice square waves using the internal calibrator. Of course, the calibration is 20 years out of date.

BTW, when you folks talk about this laptop gets too hot and your desktop is a real space heater, I don't wanna hear it! You haven't seen space heater electronics until you fire something up with 50 vacuum tubes in the chassis. Of course, you're supposed to leave it on for at least an hour until the thing settles in and the traces stop drifting...

[Unknown_K]

There are two major things in computing I am glad I missed, vacuum tubes and punch card input.

[mediasponge]

There are two major things in computing I am glad I missed, vacuum tubes and punch card input.

Punch cards were actually more reliable than their immediate successor, the paper tape. Paper tape was notoriously unreliable and delicate. The big danger with a deck of punch cards was spilling them on the floor and getting them out of order. Paper tape was so easy to rip and got jammed in the machine so often it's no wonder it faded away so quickly. Cassettes were just as bad. Of course, the advent of floppy disks also meant something else: the rise of computer viruses. The very first home computer virus was spread by floppy disks ... on Apple II computers.

[Tasurinchi]

Not IT related, but I use a dynamo radio every day while shaving (small contribution to the environment as no battery changes needed)

[mediasponge]

Not IT related, but I use a dynamo radio every day while shaving (small contribution to the environment as no battery changes needed)

I have a wind-up shaver, but I don't use it much anymore. It takes too long to shave. Supposedly, one of these shavers went to the moon and back! It's very similar to this one, but with a clear plastic shell. The current generation of wind-up gadgets are mostly generating electricity and storing it in a battery or a capacitor. This shaver is clock-spring driven. I can't shave with a blade. It takes me 10 minutes to shave and 20 minutes to stop the bleeding.

[rkawakami]

There are two major things in computing I am glad I missed, vacuum tubes and punch card input.

Then you have never experienced the thrill of getting electrocuted while working on a TV or had great fun using chad as confetti .

[lemonstar]

I have a Remmington typewriter from the 1930's - I find it quite therapeutic typing up poetry on it and I type up my own songs when I want to spend time thinking about the lyrics - it slows me down and gives me something to do while I'm thinking about what want to say.

[lemonstar]

Then you have never experienced the thrill of getting electrocuted while working on a TV.

I've had that happen to me - bowled me over backwards off a kiddies stool when I took the HT line off the top of a TV tube that I'd been messing about with. Also managed to get a shock off a high isolation power supply I was building - the capacitors in the DC-DC converters in it were still charged up from when I'd had it powered up for testing - I leaned forward to solder something in and a wire pointing straight up that I didn't see, hit me on the eyelid and the shock knocked me off a high stool. I've also put my fingers into a live electric light socket to remove the bayonet fitting after the glass bulb separated from the metal part - the electrical wiring in the house had the light switch in the neutral line (on the return side) - makes me wince to think about it now - I was standing on tiptoe on one foot on the edge of an enamel bath at the time. Enjoy

[Harryc]

... bowled me over backwards off a kiddies stool when I took the HT line off the top of a TV tube that I'd been messing about with.

There's some serious voltage coming off of a CRT anode lead, even after the device has been powered off for some time. I used to be an IBM engineer (in another life/time) and one of the first things they taught us (while working on CRTs) was to ground (discharge) the anode lead to frame with a screwdriver prior to removing the lead. Good advice...too late in your case ;

[mediasponge]

I've had that happen to me - bowled me over backwards off a kiddies stool when I took the HT line off the top of a TV tube that I'd been messing about with. Also managed to get a shock off a high isolation power supply I was building - ... - I leaned forward to solder something in and a wire pointing straight up that I didn't see, hit me on the eyelid and the shock knocked me off a high stool. I've also put my fingers into a live electric light socket to remove the bayonet fitting after the glass bulb separated from the metal part - ... - I was standing on tiptoe on one foot on the edge of an enamel bath at the time. Enjoy

Hey, is this like the scene in "Jaws" where one of them goes, "OH yeah? I got that beat."?

I used to mess around with Tesla Coils a lot. One day while working on a pretty big one, I decided to try the "Human Ground Experiment". Good thing the thing wasn't working well enough to produce a continuous spark. I got one massive jolt that sent me across the room. I picked myself up and said, "So much for the Human Ground Experiment." I burned a hole through my finger with a carbon arc once. It was kind of at a shallow angle, but it burned a small hole clean through. Been shocked by car ignition systems many times. Always used extreme care around the HT leads in TVs and monitors, though.

You know the safest way to unscrew a broken light bulb after the glass pulls out of the base? A potato. Of course, switching off the mains is the recommended approach.

[jdhurst]

I have had these kind of shocks, although I am generally pretty careful.

Two things I did that made me unhappy:
1. I have a couple of AC cords with old style two prong connectors to an older TV (some tubes). The connection was poor so I tried to squeeze the brass socket (two of them) with a pair of (good Krauter) diagonal cutters that were in my hand at the time. The first socket tightened up nicely. I went to the second socket, tried to lever off the first one to tighten the other socket. I forgot the other end was plugged in. I chewed up the end of the diagonal cutters. Now Krauter make decent dikes, and the tip is where you can cut fine wire. The dikes were also fairly new at the time. Lots of sparks, too.

2. I had purchased and still have a Tektronix P6045 Probe. This is an FET active probe with high impedance and low input capacitance. Because it is active, it is also a 1:1 probe (no signal loss). I inadvertently applied it to a tube circuit (dumb) and wiped out the probe. Fortunately, Tektronix had a rebuild kit which I got. Now the circuit board inside a P6045 probe is smaller than a cigarette and has several active components including a field effect transistor (FET). It took quite a bit of patience and skill, but I did repair the probe and still use it.

... JDH

[killer]

There are people that still love old technology. See here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/hampshire/h ... 891591.stm

It seems amazing that more than 70 years since the Spitfire was first built there is still a market for these aeroplanes.

[A31]

I now have a 1997 DAN desktop PC, Windows 98 SE, 128MB RAM (now 384mb), 4GB HDD, CD-R, 350MHz Pentium II. Very big and heavy. I need a graphics card to get the screen to work though because it doesnt have a VGA port on the back as standard - I did use my old 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 6200 GT PCI card but I now have this card in a Windows XP machine that I have. The card it came with was only 64MB but sadly no drivers are available for it now so its pretty much useless.

[Falcon63]

AM Radio, carburetor with manual choke!

Really the only thing I can think about at the moment...

~Steven

[mediasponge]

Speaking of carburetors, I have been driving one of THESE regularly through the summer.

Although modern cars have gone to electronic everything, the conventional ignition system invented by Charles Kettering dates to 1910. There's an awful lot of them still on the road. Even if it has an electronic trigger, if it has a cap and rotor, it's a Kettering ignition. You may have used one today and not known it!

If you think about it, there are an enormous number of things in common everyday use whose basic form has not changed in decades or even centuries: the paintbrush, the comb, the pencil, eyeglasses. Where's James Burke when we need him?

[JaneL]

Where's James Burke when we need him?

I watched Connections recently - loved it just as much as the first time!

[Tasurinchi]

have been driving one of THESE regularly through the summer

That's a really cool car! Congratulations!

[Falcon63]

Speaking of carburetors, I have been driving one of THESE regularly through the summer.

An early Alfa... I want one so bad, I even bid on a cherry one on ebay. But the SOB pulled the add in the last seconds...

~Steven

[mediasponge]

You gotta watch those Fleabay auctions, especially for early Alfas. Are you familiar with the Yahoo group for the early Alfas? PM me if you want to join it. It's a private group. That might be your best way of finding one. If you're in the SF Bay Area, there are other options I can suggest as well.

An early Alfa... I want one so bad, I even bid on a cherry one on ebay. But the SOB pulled the add in the last seconds...

~Steven

[pHanNie]

a 5300 Nokia phone express music..

that is already 5 years old..

[Bookworm]

The ThinkPads I'm using now are both 10 years old, but having used my Tandy Color Computer 3 until I couldn't get an internet shell account anymore, they just don't seem old. Actualy I still use the CoCo some.

I just got a peice of "old" (also 10 years) technology that I expect to use constantly, if the postal disservice would just put in in my box. (They must regret the invention of tracking numbers sometimes.)

It's a Casio Cassiopeia E-125 Pocket PC.

I see a lot of other people with iPods. The Pocket PC is a music and video player. I've seen eBook readers on TV and at Mall Wart. They're ridiculous. The Pocket PC does that. You get your maps at AAA? I'll have more in my pocket than you can put in your whole car. GPS is optional - Just a cartridge, not a seperate device. It even has MicroSoft Office!

Basically, it does everything. That's probably why they don't make them anymore.

Best of all, it's not a $&%@ phone.

I do have some other old technology that even I consider "old". My stereo. But now the computer is the main part of that too. Music is software. So does anyone here have any experience installing that kind of "software" from vinyl records, cassettes, and 8-track tapes using Windows sound recorder?

Just so you can't accuse be of getting "Up to date" by installing my records instead of just playing them, I'm looking for a tube amp. They sound so much bettter, and the ThinkPad will hook up just like a tape recorder.

Maybe I'm getting "down to date"?

[craigmontHunter]

I do have some other old technology that even I consider "old". My stereo. But now the computer is the main part of that too. Music is software. So does anyone here have any experience installing that kind of "software" from vinyl records, cassettes, and 8-track tapes using Windows sound recorder?

I have a usb turntable and I use audacity to record instead of sound recorder, since the price is the same, and I can export to MP3 for my IPOD. I could have hooked up my computer to our stereo system, but the usb is so much more conveniant to move and you don't need an amp to listen to the output before equing.

[mediasponge]

I do have some other old technology that even I consider "old". My stereo. But now the computer is the main part of that too. Music is software. So does anyone here have any experience installing that kind of "software" from vinyl records, cassettes, and 8-track tapes using Windows sound recorder?

I do have a Pioneer RT-707 rack-mount reel-to-reel tape deck, but I don't use it much anymore. A USB turntable is the way to go for vinyl. Commercial grade cassettes are probably not worth the effort, as most titles have been remastered. If you have live recordings that were done on a high end cassette recorder, those should be saved.

The 8-track tapes should be ceremoniously buried.