Oldest electronic technology you still use?

[Ming the Merciless]

A casio calculator I had from 11. Use it when working from home, so 44 years old. It's still got more functions than I know what to do with.

Wait till you hear about how to subtract!

 

[stephec]

A casio calculator I had from 11. Use it when working from home, so 44 years old. It's still got more functions than I know what to do with.

As long as you can write 5318008 on it what more do you need?

 

[Marchrider]

I have a bike related one that is used on every ride Cateye Mity3, I gave up cycling in 1995 and it had about 15,500 miles on then, so I must of had it 3 or 4 years (it didn't come with the bike in 1988) So I will guess 1990

Its clearly past its best now with a button missing, and the clip on contacts died years ago so it is soldered in place, can't get to the button to adjust the time so I have to add 2hours 46min to make use of its main function the clock (it does also still keep overall distance)

 

[FrankCrank]

Wish I'd kept my Sinclair Spectrum from the early eighties.
Not sure it would still be working mind, but there's only so much ping-pong I could endure.

 

[Stephenite]

You've had an electric car since then 😲 The electronic starter motor in mine dates from 2008 (the car was nearly 4 years old when I bought it), the car though I would never class as my "Oldest electronic technology" as its petrol.

No, I haven’t had an electric car since 2013. That’s if you don’t count the radio controlled cars my son has had since he was small - they’re not in regular use anymore though. 😜

 

[Marchrider]

not that old realy 2012 ? but in terms of mobile phones it is decidedly prehistoric

works for what I need, a text when I'm out to say what time I will be back, such as " ETA 730 " only switch it on to send a text so battery stays charged for several months, £5 will last me a year

 

[wafter]

I like this game

I can offer:

Stereo: Mid- '90s Technics mini / faux-separates
Phone: 2007 Nokia 6230i
Camera: 2007 Canon EOS 40D
Desktop: 2009 Dell XPS

All still in regular use

 

[Sterlo]

I think the best I can manage would be a Toshiba DVD player bought around 2005. It still works great but I rarely use it as it's only got a scart connection. I bought a thick lead to get the best quality and it's that inflexible, the DVD player moves on it's own.

 

[tyred]

My vacuum cleaner dates from the mid '70s.

I actually do have my Sinclair Spectrum and an original Nintendo system at my parents house, although I haven't tried to use either in years.

I believe there's an old black and white portable in the attic as my parents are terrible hoarders so I could potentially have an '80s games night if I could be bothered. From memory, the tuning knob on the TV is broken and you need to use pliers to tune it.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I'm actually on the hunt for one of those or similar in charity shops when I visit, I don't want a modern one as they seem to be made of cheese and always break on me.

I really like the look of the old ones - it seems you can't really get a retro one now that as you say isn't made of cheap plastic, or has 976 of those annoying blue lights on. Or is £250 and comes with DAB and Bose speakers

 

[raleighnut]

I really like the look of the old ones - it seems you can't really get a retro one now that as you say isn't made of cheap plastic, or has 976 of those annoying blue lights on. Or is £250 and comes with DAB and Bose noisemakers

FTFY

 

[Dadam]

View attachment 760565

Got it from my aunt on my 18th birthday, so almost 42 years old - still used every single day. This is one reason I buy Sony equipment, all other things being equal

I had that exact model, bought it when I was at Uni in 1988. It lasted until about 10 years ago.

Still miss it. I wish I'd not got rid, I think it would have been repairable. You just can't get digital clocks with readable red LEDs now. Everything has to have blue/green/white or backlit LCD or OLED whatever, that might look great in the daylight but at 2am when you wake up it looks like someone turned a bloody searchlight on! If any device in my bedroom has even one of those tiny blue or green LEDs to show it's plugged in, like my phone charger, I cover it with black tape!

Red is perfect. It's clearly visible but doesn't light up the room. It's also good for short sighted people like me as red light is more easily focused on your cone cells. Or something. My aunt is a retired optician and told me this.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I had that exact model, bought it when I was at Uni in 1988. It lasted until about 10 years ago.

Still miss it. I wish I'd not got rid, I think it would have been repairable. You just can't get digital clocks with readable red LEDs now. Everything has to have blue/green/white or backlit LCD or OLED whatever, that might look great in the daylight but at 2am when you wake up it looks like someone turned a bloody searchlight on! If any device in my bedroom has even one of those tiny blue or green LEDs to show it's plugged in, like my phone charger, I cover it with black tape!

Red is perfect. It's clearly visible but doesn't light up the room. It's also good for short sighted people like me as red light is more easily focused on your cone cells. Or something. My aunt is a retired optician and told me this.

Agree. My sister once bought me one for christmas and it projected the time onto the ceiling. That was great, as you could set the dimmer to low at night, but it also had a back-lit board on it where you could write notes, and was very hard to cover up the blue back light

 

[Dadam]

Oldest in regular use is probably the bedroom TV, a little 19" LCD from 2008. I still have my Texas Instruments programmable calculator from 1985 which works fine but don't use it much. I tend to use the one on my phone or laptop whichever is to hand.

I still have my Sinclair Spectrum in the garage, and will get round to trying it out at some point. Reading online it's likely to need new capacitors and can't connect to modern TVs without some jiggery pokery.

There's also the Sony stereo which was a decent mid-level mini system from the 90s I think. It was the wife's. The electric cooker is from 2007 and that's in daily use but the oven heater element is currently broken. At the moment we use the hob and do oven stuff either in the combi microwave or the air fryer.

 

[Badger_Boom]

Although I haven't used it for a while, mine is probably my late 80s Peavey Envoy 110 guitar amplifier. I bought it from a small ad in the back of a guitar magazine in 1990, and my then girlfriend kindly picked it up for me from a chap somewhere in Manchester (I was working away at the time). It still works and sounds great for solid state.

Oldest in regular use is my 2005 iPod classic. I like to keep my music separate from my other devices, and I prefer to own rather than rent so I still buy CDs and transfer them across via laptop.