Oldest electronic technology you still use?

[Psamathe]

I still have my Psion Organiser LZ

from 1986? forerunner of the PDA which then evolved into today's smartphones, all kicked-off by an amazingly inventive British company.

And it has an extra 32K Datapak except I don't have any EPROM UV eraser to reformat the datapak). All in pretty well mint condition.

Confess I keep it for nostalgic reasons and don't actually use it any more.

Ian

 

[presta]

As for electronics, we still have a Fisher HiFi that we bought a couple of years after marrying. The cassette decks don't work very well, and the record player needs a new stylus, but otherwise it still works.

My 40 year old Pioneer HiFi system is all in working order except for the cassette deck, which accumulates the traditional tangle of tape you get when the clutch wears out.

 

[raleighnut]

My 40 year old Pioneer HiFi system is all in working order except for the cassette deck, which accumulates the traditional tangle of tape you get when the clutch wears out.

It's probably the drive belt to the 'take up' capstan.

 

[presta]

It's probably the drive belt to the 'take up' capstan.

The take up spool has to have a drive that slips to convert the constant speed variable torque from the motor into a constant torque variable speed at the spool so that it can maintain a constant peripheral speed as the spool fills up, otherwise it'll snap the tape. When it's too worn to overcome the friction in the cassette, the spool stalls whilst the capstan keeps spewing out tape.

 

[Jenkins]

Another old one I've just found - from the late 1970s a Casio MQ-1 calculator. Not in regular use, but stuck a pair new batteries in and it still works, although the display is a bit faded. Don't know what the connection is, but it keeps getting linked to Boba Fett in Star Wars

 

[raleighnut]

The take up spool has to have a drive that slips to convert the constant speed variable torque from the motor into a constant torque variable speed at the spool so that it can maintain a constant peripheral speed as the spool fills up, otherwise it'll snap the tape. When it's too worn to overcome the friction in the cassette, the spool stalls whilst the capstan keeps spewing out tape.

Nah it's the 'pinch wheel' that moves the tape across the 'head' most likely to be an old belt not driving the take up capstan

 

[presta]

Nah it's the 'pinch wheel' that moves the tape across the 'head' most likely to be an old belt not driving the take up capstan

The capstan doesn't 'take up' anything, the pinch wheel presses the tape against the capstan which winds it through at a constant 1 7/8" per second, and the peripheral speed of the take up spool therefore has to also be exactly the same speed otherwise the tape will either break or go slack. Since the effective diameter of the take up spool clearly increases as the tape accumulates, the angular velocity of the spindle driving it needs to decrease, so there has to be some means of providing a constant torque variable speed from the constant speed produced by the motor. One way would be to use a separate motor running from a constant current, but it's far simpler and cheaper to drive the spindle via a slipping clutch.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I have a torch I bought in the 80s. It was a powerful torch for its time. It takes three D type batteries. If I ever replaced the bulb with a modern LED I reckon I could burn through trees with it. As it is, it makes a handy truncheon in the event of burglars.

 

[Drago]

I have a 6 D cell maglite I bought in 1991mwhen I joined the police.mmi also had a side-handle attachment for it to make a very effective PR24.

As a related aside, I was permitted to continue carrying the side handled peg when the Home Office went over to asps and straight batons. First time I hit someone round the head with a straight peg - he had a kitchen knife, so was fair game - it snapped, leaving me with just the handle, so they gave me the PR24 back. I'm proud of the fact that I am the only known bobby who hit someone with such force they broke the baton.

 

[MichaelW2]

My 1980 Casio watch still lurks in a drawer. I use my 1985 Casio fx 35 calculator and a Casio digital watch from 1990.
I sense a theme.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

It was a powerful torch for its time. It takes three D type batteries.

And lasts less than 3 hours…

 

[Conrad_K]

That would probably be my home stereo, which I acquired from a friend in the mid-'90s. He was moving to a different state and didn't have room, so I drove more than two thousand miles to his place and back to get it.

It's mostly Carver stuff from the 1980s, but without pulling things apart and looking for data plates, I don't know exactly when. I'll point to the main speakers in particular. They're the original "Amazing" speakers, five by three foot black trapezoid monoliths. Apparently "Amazing" got applied to a bunch of different speakers over the years, but these are the ones you can see in the movie "I Come in Peace" with Dolph Lundgren (1990) or "Die Hard" with Bruce Willis (1988).

It's a pretty insane system, and I could never have afforded such a thing without the "buddy deal". The speakers are high fidelity, but low efficiency. Each has its own amp, as does the subwoofer and the peripheral speakers. The living room lights flicker when I turn the volume up, and during loud passages the lights will dim; they're on the same breaker as the stereo.

My favorite demonstration track is Alan Parsons Project's "In the Lap of the Gods". It starts off slow and quiet, and accelerates until >2Kw of amps push them back into the couch. The live version of Judas Priest's "Turbo Lover" is another good one for a demo. The live cut is, amazingly, *much* better than the album version. Usually live performances sound flat without the fancy mixing in the studio, but in that performance they cranked it past "11" to "12."

I'm mostly deaf now, and don't make as much use of the stereo as I used to. But every now and then I'll toss an Ozzy Osbourne disc in and crank it up. When I listen to Ozzy, everyone on the street listens to it too.

Yeah, that makes me a bad neighbor. I figure it's a fair exchange for their vandalous little brats, barking dogs, late-night police swarms, unmuffled exhausts, and thumpa-bumpa car stereos.

"I've listened to preachers.
I've listened to fools.
I've wassailed with dropouts
who make their own rules..."