18:58 - That's not just being clever with the System 6+ trash icon. There's a system extension called "The Grouch" made by Eric Shapiro. Whenever you empty the trash, an animated Oscar the Grouch comes out waving and sings one of two melodies: "I love trash!" or "I love it because it's trash!" I install it on every vintage Mac I own. :)
And of course for replacing broken LEDs in vintage equipment. A new LED will look like an eyesore next to it, shining so bright you can't tell if the others are on or not. And everyone else can tell from a mile away this LED ain't original.
Cool trick if you want a nice indicator level LED: get a modern "ultra bright" green type LED, then throw a 10K resistor on it. Very negligible power consumption even for battery usage, and plenty bright to be visible without blinding. High efficiency!
Yes! My Technics turntable from the 1970s has the coolest crimson LEDs, they are not very bright, but they have a very deep colour that looks way better than modern red LEDs.
I was still a little kid then, and didn't realize they were only recently a thing, but they were definitely fun. Loved those Radio Shack assortment packs too, presumably they were from surplus parts, at least at first.
@@scottlarson1548 LOL. I still have a bi colour led in a chrome bezel that to this day I have never used as it cost me £8 when I was 13. LED resistor maths was hard back then.
To find out the chip ID when they are unmarked, pick up an XGecu T48 programmer. This includes a chip test function that will also identify unknown chips. Super useful.
I used to do printer repair and had one of those really long Philips screwdrivers. They are not just great for reaching tight places but they make it easier to break loose stubborn screws. The length tends to reduce the angle of the screwdriver and thus keeps it more firmly seated in the screw. People used to look at as strange when they saw us use them, but they were a life saver!
I have had long screwdrivers like those going back in my days as a pc service engineer. So good for working on PC and removing motherboards without scraping your knuckles on the sharp old beige cases.
I built several projects with the SPO256AL2. It’s a standalone speech IC that can be controlled with a parallel port. You create speech by piecing together allophones to make words. GI also made a companion microcontroller, the CTS256, that did text to speech for this chip. Radio Shack used to sell both in the mid 80’s. Fun ICs!
I used a SP0256AL2 with an Acorn Atom computer (6502), very fancy with the use of the interrupt that requested for a new phoneme. Recently I ordered a few at Aliexpress but they all were not the SP0256AL2’s but they were not programmed with phonemes, but with sentences and words. Not usable for what I needed them for…
Those brown can resistors (and orange sprague caps to a degree) are particularly sought after in antique TV restoration because they keep the period look. If you don't have any use for them, maybe list them up on ebay so vintage TV restorers can use them? BAndersenTV is one on youtube who does that sorta thing. And some of those vintage LEDs can be worth a small fortune to collectors. Super cool stuff!
@@Colaholiker That's the kind of reference it came to my mind and I love to find other people mentioning him since he's not got that many subscribers or views (don't quite understand why, honestly).
@@BilisNegra Yeah, that is something I don't get ab out UA-cam. There are very high quality content channels that are extremely underrated and deserve more attention, and there are some channels that just pump out garbage filler between ads and "message from my sponsor" segments, and they get insane amounts of subscribers. To me, this is extremely unfair towards the high quality content creators.
@@Colaholiker Uploads like The Digital Basement and Mark Fixes Stuff demand that the viewer has an attention span of more than 3 minutes and, dare I say it, a modicum of intelligence. The "shouty" channels don't...I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions here ;-)
Those sprague high voltage capacitors are called ORANGE DROP. The really old ones made by sprague are paper film like RIFA. If they are NOS, you can use them in case orange potting is not cracked anywhere.
Those "Track Zero Detectors" you show were also very commonly used in ball mice - The slitted disc would go through the middle, to trigger pulses as it rotated.
Fran is a fan of old diodes, has a huge collection of retro diodes and 7 segment displays. I sent you a video from Fran a couple of months ago on Patreon if you remember. (maybe it wasn't the LED video but some instructional video on how to restore edge connectors but it was uploaded to Fran's YT channel)
1)A can opener will open most blister packs with minimal fuss. 2)The phototransistors really are phototransistors. They're packaged like that. 3)The clear LED that "didn't work" probably is infrared as you said the second time you tested it.
Adrian, you definitely want to measure the value of those old carbon composition resistors before you use them. They do have a tendency to drift upwards in value after quite a few years. And from what I understand, the Sprague orange drop caps are generally good quality, and would be suitable for your CRT TV / monitor repairs. Also, you might want to make an LED checker with a coin cell battery, a small resistor, a bit of wire, and clips. Comes in handy from time to time.
Those Allen Bradley style resistors are probably fine. The old 'roundy' resistors are another matter, they were not sealed well and have a tendency to drift. You can tell a roundy by its rounded ends. All of the caps should be fine with the possible exception of some of the electrolytics, but if they were not used they are probably OK too.
The Allen-Bradley style resistors have a weird following. They are basically junk. They drift, when they get hot they have hysteresis and permanently change their resistance, and generally there’s exactly zero benefit to them other than retro looks.
For those old passives, check out Mr. Carlson‘s Lab on UA-cam. He uses those kinds of things in a lot of his restorations, and I’m pretty sure he has at least a couple videos just talking about components. He’ll tell you all about the different types, which ones go bad overtime, how to test them, etc. etc. etc.
the Sprague high voltage caps should be fine, they are well know in the vintage guitar amp crowd and are often referred to as orange drops. audiophiles love them.
Yeah, if it'd been the sprague black beauty caps, then they would have only been worth keeping for those that absolutely *require* their vintage amps to have period correct parts. Otherwise they're trash as they drift with age.
@@Choppy_PHC In my experience, they just want it to look right, which is somewhat reasonable. It does look odd to have an old piece of equipment with exposed circuitry that has a random tiny blue resistor in there.
@@wbfaulk I can understand and accept the want/need to use period accurate parts (I have a replica 1964 fender vibrolux reverb amp I hand built) but it the argument ‘audiophile experts’ use saying the old parts provide better sound when I’m most cases it’s just not true.. aesthetics aside when it comes to passive components like resistors and capacitors then good quality modern day parts are always better…
The carbon composition resistors will need testing, ahead of use. 20% tolerance is rather precise for those. The bright orange caps and anything not electrolytic should be fine. Fran Blanche is an expert on old LEDs, amongst many other things, she can undoubtedly help you ID what you have. As for the electrolytic caps... I'd put each and every one of them through a good, _dedicated_ capacitor tester. I have a story there, an Internet friend once gave me a bunch of similarly ancient capacitors, amongst other components, by mail... I used one cap, only one. Didn't work. A different friend of mine, a local pal who, unlike me, is rather handy with the heatgun, tried to take it off... went off like a firecracker. He had a tech shop in a smallish building with a bunch of shared offices, and when I went around to reassure everyone -- it was LOUD mind you -- I was told they'd all thought it was a gun going off! It stunk, too. Dang thing was dry as Saharan sand.
That haul of resistors and axial caps would be a fantastic find for guys that are restoring old radios, and those that are making Vacuum tube amps. I know id be stoked to find a motherload like that. i think the resistors can drift if they were stored in a damp environment, other there than that I would think they were perfectly fine to use.
At 10:22 that's actually just what they look like. They have the same casing as a regular LED. Useful replacements for old remote controls, as they mostly use the same package.
The orange drop sprauge caps are really good. They are likely polystyrene or mylar I’ve used many of those for guitar tube amplifiers. We would replace bypass caps with orange drops and remove all the old carbon resistors like the ones you have there. They are prone to drift after they have been heated.
Those IR transmitters & receivers are still used in manufacturing. We have a 20 bin collator and each bin has a pair of these to detect paper misfeeds. The machine also has them throughout the paper path.
I was actually looking at vintage 7 segment displays on the electronic bay a couple of months ago, for a vintage style clock project I wanted to do. I found a few sellers in the US America and other places, but I thought the prices were a bit crazy. However I randomly came across one seller who had soviet era VFD displays that were designed for a clock, which they were selling for a very reasonable price, and curiously enough they were in Ukraine. So I figured why not, VFDs are even cooler than vintage 7 segment LED displays, and they showed up a couple of weeks later. Even better they were all intact with a reasonable value of resistance on the cathode filaments and dark unoxidised looking getters, so it looks like none of them have let the air inside. (And yes, they did come from the "good part". I doubt they'd show up if they came from the other place.)
I've got a 300mm long screwdriver that I used to use for mounting gear in racks. The long shaft helps with making sure the screws are aligned and not cross threading, and also in the back of the rack if the rails are set too close to the power strip at the back, the long shaft can reach past it. But I think those ones might even be a bit long. These days I use my Borscht electric screwdriver with a 300mm long Phillips head 1/4" hex shank bit. It's the 12V professional series with a variable clutch, not the crappy unadjustable type of electric screwdriver that always over-torques the screws and doesn't have enough torque to undo them.
I used to collect "zero tracking sensors" out of old tape transports, mainly tape decks. VCRs could have a sensor to detect if the capstans are turning. High end compact cassettes. Some robots may use them. But they don't seem to be quite as ubiquitous as they used to be.
The CDP 1800 series was an early 8-bit microprocessor series produced by RCA. I seem to recall, many years ago, once disassembling an early Pong-like video game that I got at a garage sale, and being surprised to find an RCA 1802 microprocessor inside.
That was probably an RCA Studio II, the second software cartridge game system ever. (Channel F and Atari 2600 were first and third.) Had one back in the day, only recently found out that it got its distinctive "chirp" sound through a cap on pin 5 of a 555 timer.
The CDP1801 (split on two ICs) and CDP1802 (single-chip version) was also officially called "COSMAC". It basically was a CPU meant for the military which RCA tried to find other applications for. These were early, low-power CMOS chips with a single supply voltage (needed 10V, though), fully static operation (could be slowed down as needed) and some variants with broad operational temperature range (-55 to +125°C) for military applications. It was also famously used in several space probes (Voyager, Viking and Galileo) as they used a silicon on sapphire process which hardened the chip and made it less susceptible to radiation. While it had many good features like many registers, I/O-ports and DMA-support it had no conditional branching, no stack and subroutine support (these could be implemented somewhat by clever programming but the original design goal was a "simple chip").
Adrian, I have TOTES full of old vintage electronics exactly like you got in that box. 10,000's of vintage parts. LED's of all sizes, caps, resistors exactly like you show, adjustable resistors, tons of chips from the 70's, diodes, transistors, and more. I too wonder if my tote of caps are still good, i seriously have a huge Walmart tote full of 1000's of capacitors never used from the 70's and 80's. I got all of it from a local company that went belly up and sold it for cheap 20 yrs ago and i have had this stuff forever. if you ever need something vintage and cant find it let me know. I will send it to you for free if I have it. Love your channel!!! Keep that old stuff alive.
SP0256 - happy memories of the Fuller Master Unit add on for the ZX Spectrum. Came with a list of allophones and spent much time stringing them together in DATA statements to speak my chosen words. Had an an AY-3-8912 installed for added goodness!
That display looks like a TIL311 display, which by coincidence I bought a few of a couple of weeks ago for a replica computer I am building (COSMAC ELF computer based on the CDP1802 processor from a 1976 Popular Electronics artical). They have a binary input and display the hexadecimal digit on the display. IIt is a 7 segment display, except the segments are comprised of several LEDs (probably because 1976 LEDs were so dim!) I got quite excited when I saw the pin straightener as I had designed and put on Thingiverse a straightener like that, but that one isn't mine. Mine prints in 2 parts that clip together but otherwise works identically. I had been looking around for one like that because I lost the commercial one I bought, but because Thingiverse's search is so bad I never found that design until some time after I'd designed my own! I know I should have found it because the page number was smaller than the one for mine.... Oh well, it was an interesting exercise :)
Clamshell packaging: The best thing I've found is the Zibra OpenIt. It's garbage "as seen on TV" quality with a bunch of "and it's also a ____", but the basic design is perfect. They're heavy-duty offset shears with a gap at the back of the jaws. They're heavy enough to cut that clamshell plastic, but the offset and gap allows the offcut to just pass through the back. Seriously, check them out.
Don't know how others feel but I don't mind a bit if the videos go different directions. Some great content on both channels. I like the way he had the caps divided as I have a large coffee can of all types mixed up. Going to pick up small sandwich bags tomorrow. Also, one forum suggests that the unmarked chips might be ULN2244 or ULX2244. Not sure of the value of that info...
In 1984, I made a PCB to interface the SP0256A-AL2 (purchased at Radio Shack) to the user port of my Commodore 64. The second version of the PCB had the proper hardware handshake line to keep the allophones from triggering at 6502 machine code speeds and producing a jumbled cacophony with the last tone of the last allophone continuing infinitely. I wrote a dictionary program to convert words to the proper sequence of allophones. About a week later, someone showed me SAM (Software Automatic Mouth). My circuit was already made obsolete with software and the SID Chip. At least I learned how to make printed circuit boards. Still make them today (completely different and better process). Thanks for the nostalgia.
The rainbow shirt is a play on the opening graphic of ABC's TV Movie of the Week from the early 70s. The most memorable such was "The Love War" with Angie Dickenson and Lloyd Bridges - a sci-fi movie about alien invasion and lust in the dust.
On storing things in snack bags, after many years I have learned the most important thing about parts storage is transparent containers, which snack bags are great for, but they're best for "mushy" stuff like wires and wall-warts. The second most important is keeping to a few consistent sizes, especially if they can stack. I like those bead kit storage containers with the 12 or so compartments. I also like little food storage containers, the best are some I get from lunchmeat, where they sell two bags of meat inside a container, completely transparent. (They're also clean, because of the bags!) SP0256 is the main speech chip, you could get them at Radio Shack back in the day. Somewhere I have one, plus a 16-pin expansion ROM chip for it. = I also have quite a few '70s LEDs from Radio Shack back in the day, and that's what you got. = Photodiodes often look like LEDs, though sometimes they are in black plastic, especially IR. = As for the CDP18xx stuff, look up "COSMAC ELF". = Back in the day I ground down the handle of a T-15 driver to use it for a Mac. = "Oscar" was once an extension for Mac where he popped up when you did Empty Trash, I think he even sang "I Love Trash".
I literally go out of my way to buy hillshire farm lunch meat so I can keep that container afterwards. What I really need them to do is put that on the label as a selling point so people don't throw those containers away. "REUSE THIS CONTAINER!" should be the second biggest text on the label after what type of meat is inside.
I store a lot of electronics, wires, spare parts in freezer and snack bags too. But I’ve always wondered, is there a big static hazard? I wasn’t sure if this type of bag would cause static buildup.
Yeah, I wouldn't have put memory sticks in a bag like that. Maybe with some tinfoil around them. Still, snack bags are one of the best things ever. Also those "dime bags" you can get at Walmart or a hobby store are great when you take something apart and don't want to put the screws back in yet.
I have a couple of those black IC pin straighteners that get a lot of use. For straightening pins that are too mangled for them, I use a small octagonal carbide cutter insert from a lathe.
I have a #2 Phillips that long which I used at work repairing certain large HP Laser printers many years ago. I haven't had it in my work kit for 15years, but I keep it around and ready at home. It comes in handy on occasion. I have various Bradly Carbon Composition Resistors that I have had a few decades. Resistors like that are commented by people to drift, it seems referencing mostly they can get moisture or some damage depending how they are stored like in electronics kept in less than optimal locations. Any I have tested have been right where they should be, and haven't been stored in bad conditions. I use them in various projects when I have an appropriate value. I am pretty sure my C64 test harness uses several.
It might actually be photo-diodes/transistors in the container marked as such. That might also explain the 13V diode drop when you measured a similar part.
I've been looking for a really long P3 screwdriver for a really long time. The longest I could find like 12" and that just wouldn't work for doing computer racks. You need a really long screwdriver to undo the screws or to tighten the screws properly on a computer rack at the back. You can use a shorter one but having one you can use with the handle being outside of the cabinet makes it so much easier to manage.
i totally had that speech chip -- radio shack sold them for awhile in the 1980s. i had a VIC-20 full of chips i wired into various holes in its address space, and that phoneme chip was in one of them. i wrote some programs to say various things, mostly obscenities, because i was like fifteen at the time
Actually Sprague Orange-drop caps are supposed to be pretty legendary in the domain of audio gear, worth a dig on the Internet, quite robust and long shelf-life.
The long screwdrivers are handy for TV and monitor repair. I have had some for decades now. Not used all the time but when you really need them them it's nice to be able to reach for one. The old IC leg straighteners design has not changed in 30 years. My vintage one just says "Japan" on it, no manufacturer. Not sure about the electrolytic caps.. but the Duballier "orange drop" caps should still be good. Always a good idea to do a (electrical) leakage test on vintage caps before trusting them.
The yellow high voltage caps; I’ve never heard of those going bad as long as you respect the voltage rating. The old brown/orange caps can be used if they test low ESR, but - if you intend to use then for high voltage applications - you’ll need an older capacitor tester (line operated) that can test for leakage at 600 volts or so; the battery-operated testers can’t test them under load. As for the electrolytic caps, toss. ‘em unless they’re Panasonic or Nichicon brand (then test them first). An auto-ranging DMM is - hands down - the best way to test resistors. If you test an LED but it doesn’t light up, check for continuity as per an ordinary diode. If it tests good as a diode, it’s probably an IRED, or a phototransistor. Most cameras on cell phones can detect the IR from an IRED (like on a TV remote), and if the resistance changes drastically as you shine light on it, then it’s a phototransistor. HTH! 😌
I got ya beat on the screw drivers! I had a pair of bookshelf speakers I need to take apart so I could gut them and use the amp and speakers somewhere else. I could not find a screw driver long enough to take them apart because the shaft started at the back and the screw was all the way in the front. Weird way of doing it but whatever. I finally found myself at an automotive store where I found a 2 foot long Phillips.
I wish LED's were still like they were back then. Just bright enough to work as an indicator, instead of LED's now days that are bright enough to sear your eyes (especially the blue ones manufacturers insist on using in everything.
I totally disagree. Those old LED's used a lot of power compared to modern ones and all LEDs need a current limiter (a resistor usually). Just use a higher value resistor.
Not surprising that people would want to talk to you in person. I personally feel like i know you a little bit, just from watching the videos, and i cannot be the only one. But us nerds are a shy, and easily startled bunch! ^-^ But i would totally want to sit down and have a beer with you if we ever had a chance to meet in person. Just to say thanks for the many, MANY hours of enjoyment from your channel. Huzzah to you, my friend, Huzzah! ^-^
The SP0256 sounds remarkably like the speech synthesis chip my dad used in a robot that he built named "Huey" -- it was one of his first major experiments in terms of a self-sustaining system, where the robot was capable of determining when it needed to recharge itself and was capable of navigating back to a base station where it could refuel itself. Dad also built another robot known as Avatar, that used a speech chip based on one of the Texas Instruments speech synthesis chips of the mid 70s and early 80s which was also initially designed as a robotic "assistant" capable of some very simplistic manipulation of objects and which was also supposed to be able to sustain itself. Avatar spent some time in the Boston Computer Museum, and Huey, despite being over 30 years old, is still running today. Avatar's core system runs on an 8085A, and has a backpack featuring a single 5.25" floppy disk drive. Dad originally built Avatar as a means to have a system to write assembly language code for the 8085 using ISIS-II.
Hi Adrian, The easiest and quickest way to determine an I.R. led it to point your cellphone camera to it. It will appear purplish in colour. To experience it, get a T.V. remote and aim your cellphone camera directly to tje leds and press a button on the remote, you will see its pulses.
SPO256-AL2 was sold by radio shack as a kit. This shows how much of a Need I was when I was 11. I took my vic-20 and my tools with me to the beach and completed the interface to the ViC-20 and wrote simple basic programs POKe commands to get it to speak text. it was a very rudimentary speech tech but it worked.
I'm glad I waited while you uncomfortably tried to extricate yourself from a monopolizer at VCFMW. You have the patience of a saint when it comes to fans. :)
you can drive the spo chip almost directly from a standard parallel printer port, just needs a bit of logic to convert the data values slightly, i did plan to build a speech unit some years ago but never got round to it, i have the as yet untried circuit somewhere...
Yeah I had to buy a very long screwdriver bit for the Mac Classic, couldn't find a full screwdriver of that size. So now I can use an impact driver on all in one Macs, much to everyone's terror.
Those unmarked chips with 2244 on the underside could be resistor blocks. The large MR series diodes may be high voltage rectifiers used in the line output stage of TVs. The orange drop caps should be ok and the disc caps.
You will find that those long shafts will be more handy than you think. Not only will they reach. They allow you to apply more torque to a screw without striping out the head. If you find one of those vintage machines has a really stuck screw try giving it the long shaft treatment.
If you have a 3d printer you should look into Zack Freedman's Gridfinity for storing and organising your smaller components and tools. That system has been a life changer for my workbench. I print in white pla so I can just scribble on the front of the box with a black marker
The photo-transistors @10:14 are not LED's. They had 2 and 3 pin devices back then. Think of the transistors "base" lead being the light used to switch it on. Of course an actual lead would allow you to bias it.
![Adrian's Digital Basement ][](http://yt3.ggpht.com/ytc/AIdro_k7CrQRe71qN6c0Ua7A1P_I8KkxjqLa70u0zYeCvdvnKw=s48-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)
18:58 - That's not just being clever with the System 6+ trash icon. There's a system extension called "The Grouch" made by Eric Shapiro. Whenever you empty the trash, an animated Oscar the Grouch comes out waving and sings one of two melodies: "I love trash!" or "I love it because it's trash!" I install it on every vintage Mac I own. :)
I can’t decide which new ringtone to use. “Everyone loves a long shaft” or “Look at the shafts. So long”
Have to agree, almost blew tea out my nose when I heard that! I think I'd go with "Everyone loves a long shaft", LOL Thanks Adrian!
Big Clive would be proud of both of those.
actually i like the dim leds often better for indicating something rather than lighting up the room 🙂
Old LEDs are so cool! I remember when they were the newest thing going.
And of course for replacing broken LEDs in vintage equipment. A new LED will look like an eyesore next to it, shining so bright you can't tell if the others are on or not. And everyone else can tell from a mile away this LED ain't original.
Cool trick if you want a nice indicator level LED: get a modern "ultra bright" green type LED, then throw a 10K resistor on it. Very negligible power consumption even for battery usage, and plenty bright to be visible without blinding. High efficiency!
Agree, they won hurt your eye and don't have to find a resistor.
Yes! My Technics turntable from the 1970s has the coolest crimson LEDs, they are not very bright, but they have a very deep colour that looks way better than modern red LEDs.
When I played with LEDs in my Radio Shack kits back in the 1970s, I never thought, "Someday these will light entire cities."
I was still a little kid then, and didn't realize they were only recently a thing, but they were definitely fun. Loved those Radio Shack assortment packs too, presumably they were from surplus parts, at least at first.
Mmm radio shack Christmas kits 🤗
and they where about £3 each!
@@UberAlphaSirus And that's why you quickly learned to connect a resistor between it and the battery (poof).
@@scottlarson1548 LOL. I still have a bi colour led in a chrome bezel that to this day I have never used as it cost me £8 when I was 13. LED resistor maths was hard back then.
2:37 Totally fine with dragging on if you are! Hearing stories is part of the content of these channels!
To find out the chip ID when they are unmarked, pick up an XGecu T48 programmer. This includes a chip test function that will also identify unknown chips. Super useful.
I was thinking the same, but the mystery chips may not be logic ICs, so the T48/56/866ii, whatever won't be able to identify those.
My ABI DIT-24 also has an identification function, I guess there are more programmers out there that can also identify chips.
TL866 also can.
My old EP1132 gave me a Chip-ID for a chip that wasn't in the device-list, but I have no database of IDs to compare it to...
I used to do printer repair and had one of those really long Philips screwdrivers. They are not just great for reaching tight places but they make it easier to break loose stubborn screws. The length tends to reduce the angle of the screwdriver and thus keeps it more firmly seated in the screw. People used to look at as strange when they saw us use them, but they were a life saver!
3:13 "this is one of those... period-correct sockets" 😅 when you don't want to say "not good"
I still have my Ohmite resistor wheel from high school in 1969...always fun to show to our ham radio class students!
DDR2 is hard to come by! Be thankful in this holiday time Adrian! :)
I have had long screwdrivers like those going back in my days as a pc service engineer. So good for working on PC and removing motherboards without scraping your knuckles on the sharp old beige cases.
I built several projects with the SPO256AL2. It’s a standalone speech IC that can be controlled with a parallel port. You create speech by piecing together allophones to make words. GI also made a companion microcontroller, the CTS256, that did text to speech for this chip. Radio Shack used to sell both in the mid 80’s. Fun ICs!
I did the same. Used them for a project in college for my introduction to digital electronics course. Earned me an A. Lots of fun memories
I used a SP0256AL2 with an Acorn Atom computer (6502), very fancy with the use of the interrupt that requested for a new phoneme.
Recently I ordered a few at Aliexpress but they all were not the SP0256AL2’s but they were not programmed with phonemes, but with sentences and words. Not usable for what I needed them for…
@@DutchBigEd Are they actually SP0256-017? Those were preprogrammed for use in talking clocks.
@@GeeWillikersMan I don't know what the real types were, but they had SP0256-AL2 imprinted on them and sold as such. Obviously they were semi fake…
@@DutchBigEd likely old stock or 'pulls' cleaned up and remarked, they may not have known the suffix meant it was different
Those brown can resistors (and orange sprague caps to a degree) are particularly sought after in antique TV restoration because they keep the period look. If you don't have any use for them, maybe list them up on ebay so vintage TV restorers can use them? BAndersenTV is one on youtube who does that sorta thing.
And some of those vintage LEDs can be worth a small fortune to collectors. Super cool stuff!
Ron is one of the nicest people in the vintage computer community that I've met!
Thank you for the kind words, Adrian!
A good bit of shaft-related innuendo never gets old :-D
I had to double check if I am still in Adrian's basement or if this turned into a Mark Fixes Stuff episode... 🤣
@@Colaholiker That's the kind of reference it came to my mind and I love to find other people mentioning him since he's not got that many subscribers or views (don't quite understand why, honestly).
@@BilisNegra Yeah, that is something I don't get ab out UA-cam. There are very high quality content channels that are extremely underrated and deserve more attention, and there are some channels that just pump out garbage filler between ads and "message from my sponsor" segments, and they get insane amounts of subscribers. To me, this is extremely unfair towards the high quality content creators.
@@Colaholiker Ha, yes indeed, though Mark has tamed the double entendres recently, it seems.
@@Colaholiker Uploads like The Digital Basement and Mark Fixes Stuff demand that the viewer has an attention span of more than 3 minutes and, dare I say it, a modicum of intelligence. The "shouty" channels don't...I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions here ;-)
Those sprague high voltage capacitors are called ORANGE DROP. The really old ones made by sprague are paper film like RIFA. If they are NOS, you can use them in case orange potting is not cracked anywhere.
Those "Track Zero Detectors" you show were also very commonly used in ball mice - The slitted disc would go through the middle, to trigger pulses as it rotated.
Fran is a fan of old diodes, has a huge collection of retro diodes and 7 segment displays. I sent you a video from Fran a couple of months ago on Patreon if you remember. (maybe it wasn't the LED video but some instructional video on how to restore edge connectors but it was uploaded to Fran's YT channel)
1)A can opener will open most blister packs with minimal fuss.
2)The phototransistors really are phototransistors. They're packaged like that.
3)The clear LED that "didn't work" probably is infrared as you said the second time you tested it.
Love all those old components. Neat!
Adrian, you definitely want to measure the value of those old carbon composition resistors before you use them. They do have a tendency to drift upwards in value after quite a few years. And from what I understand, the Sprague orange drop caps are generally good quality, and would be suitable for your CRT TV / monitor repairs. Also, you might want to make an LED checker with a coin cell battery, a small resistor, a bit of wire, and clips. Comes in handy from time to time.
Those Allen Bradley style resistors are probably fine. The old 'roundy' resistors are another matter, they were not sealed well and have a tendency to drift. You can tell a roundy by its rounded ends. All of the caps should be fine with the possible exception of some of the electrolytics, but if they were not used they are probably OK too.
The Allen-Bradley style resistors have a weird following. They are basically junk. They drift, when they get hot they have hysteresis and permanently change their resistance, and generally there’s exactly zero benefit to them other than retro looks.
"Everyone loves a long shaft." ~ Adrian 2022
The minipro software has a detect-mode among the logic chip tests. Try that and see if those unmarked chips are detected as some logic chip.
For those old passives, check out Mr. Carlson‘s Lab on UA-cam. He uses those kinds of things in a lot of his restorations, and I’m pretty sure he has at least a couple videos just talking about components. He’ll tell you all about the different types, which ones go bad overtime, how to test them, etc. etc. etc.
the Sprague high voltage caps should be fine, they are well know in the vintage guitar amp crowd and are often referred to as orange drops. audiophiles love them.
Yeah, if it'd been the sprague black beauty caps, then they would have only been worth keeping for those that absolutely *require* their vintage amps to have period correct parts. Otherwise they're trash as they drift with age.
@@bruwin it still amazes me that audiophiles think vintage carbon composite resistors sounds 'better' them modern day metal film....
@@Choppy_PHC In my experience, they just want it to look right, which is somewhat reasonable. It does look odd to have an old piece of equipment with exposed circuitry that has a random tiny blue resistor in there.
@@wbfaulk I can understand and accept the want/need to use period accurate parts (I have a replica 1964 fender vibrolux reverb amp I hand built) but it the argument ‘audiophile experts’ use saying the old parts provide better sound when I’m most cases it’s just not true.. aesthetics aside when it comes to passive components like resistors and capacitors then good quality modern day parts are always better…
The carbon composition resistors will need testing, ahead of use. 20% tolerance is rather precise for those. The bright orange caps and anything not electrolytic should be fine. Fran Blanche is an expert on old LEDs, amongst many other things, she can undoubtedly help you ID what you have. As for the electrolytic caps... I'd put each and every one of them through a good, _dedicated_ capacitor tester. I have a story there, an Internet friend once gave me a bunch of similarly ancient capacitors, amongst other components, by mail... I used one cap, only one. Didn't work. A different friend of mine, a local pal who, unlike me, is rather handy with the heatgun, tried to take it off... went off like a firecracker. He had a tech shop in a smallish building with a bunch of shared offices, and when I went around to reassure everyone -- it was LOUD mind you -- I was told they'd all thought it was a gun going off! It stunk, too. Dang thing was dry as Saharan sand.
That haul of resistors and axial caps would be a fantastic find for guys that are restoring old radios, and those that are making Vacuum tube amps. I know id be stoked to find a motherload like that. i think the resistors can drift if they were stored in a damp environment, other there than that I would think they were perfectly fine to use.
14:49 LMAO my favorite part. giggled like a maniac
At 10:22 that's actually just what they look like. They have the same casing as a regular LED. Useful replacements for old remote controls, as they mostly use the same package.
Exactly. They only need two leads as the base is "fed" by the incoming light.
Wow! A real treasure!
I'd try those unmarked chips in the retro chip tester and see what it says they are.
You don't know how lucky you are! I am I am jealous:) i love old electronic parts! Love your channel ❤
The orange drop sprauge caps are really good. They are likely polystyrene or mylar I’ve used many of those for guitar tube amplifiers. We would replace bypass caps with orange drops and remove all the old carbon resistors like the ones you have there. They are prone to drift after they have been heated.
Those IR transmitters & receivers are still used in manufacturing. We have a 20 bin collator and each bin has a pair of these to detect paper misfeeds. The machine also has them throughout the paper path.
awesome, Adrian's Digital basement Square Bracket Squared
I was actually looking at vintage 7 segment displays on the electronic bay a couple of months ago, for a vintage style clock project I wanted to do. I found a few sellers in the US America and other places, but I thought the prices were a bit crazy. However I randomly came across one seller who had soviet era VFD displays that were designed for a clock, which they were selling for a very reasonable price, and curiously enough they were in Ukraine. So I figured why not, VFDs are even cooler than vintage 7 segment LED displays, and they showed up a couple of weeks later. Even better they were all intact with a reasonable value of resistance on the cathode filaments and dark unoxidised looking getters, so it looks like none of them have let the air inside. (And yes, they did come from the "good part". I doubt they'd show up if they came from the other place.)
I've got a 300mm long screwdriver that I used to use for mounting gear in racks. The long shaft helps with making sure the screws are aligned and not cross threading, and also in the back of the rack if the rails are set too close to the power strip at the back, the long shaft can reach past it. But I think those ones might even be a bit long.
These days I use my Borscht electric screwdriver with a 300mm long Phillips head 1/4" hex shank bit. It's the 12V professional series with a variable clutch, not the crappy unadjustable type of electric screwdriver that always over-torques the screws and doesn't have enough torque to undo them.
I used to collect "zero tracking sensors" out of old tape transports, mainly tape decks. VCRs could have a sensor to detect if the capstans are turning. High end compact cassettes. Some robots may use them. But they don't seem to be quite as ubiquitous as they used to be.
Those long screwdrivers were essential in the TV service trade. I do have a modest collection of Old TVs so these come in handy sometimes.
The CDP 1800 series was an early 8-bit microprocessor series produced by RCA. I seem to recall, many years ago, once disassembling an early Pong-like video game that I got at a garage sale, and being surprised to find an RCA 1802 microprocessor inside.
That was probably an RCA Studio II, the second software cartridge game system ever. (Channel F and Atari 2600 were first and third.) Had one back in the day, only recently found out that it got its distinctive "chirp" sound through a cap on pin 5 of a 555 timer.
The CDP1801 (split on two ICs) and CDP1802 (single-chip version) was also officially called "COSMAC".
It basically was a CPU meant for the military which RCA tried to find other applications for.
These were early, low-power CMOS chips with a single supply voltage (needed 10V, though), fully static operation (could be slowed down as needed) and some variants with broad operational temperature range (-55 to +125°C) for military applications.
It was also famously used in several space probes (Voyager, Viking and Galileo) as they used a silicon on sapphire process which hardened the chip and made it less susceptible to radiation.
While it had many good features like many registers, I/O-ports and DMA-support it had no conditional branching, no stack and subroutine support (these could be implemented somewhat by clever programming but the original design goal was a "simple chip").
Adrian, I have TOTES full of old vintage electronics exactly like you got in that box. 10,000's of vintage parts. LED's of all sizes, caps, resistors exactly like you show, adjustable resistors, tons of chips from the 70's, diodes, transistors, and more. I too wonder if my tote of caps are still good, i seriously have a huge Walmart tote full of 1000's of capacitors never used from the 70's and 80's. I got all of it from a local company that went belly up and sold it for cheap 20 yrs ago and i have had this stuff forever. if you ever need something vintage and cant find it let me know. I will send it to you for free if I have it. Love your channel!!! Keep that old stuff alive.
SP0256 - happy memories of the Fuller Master Unit add on for the ZX Spectrum. Came with a list of allophones and spent much time stringing them together in DATA statements to speak my chosen words. Had an an AY-3-8912 installed for added goodness!
That display looks like a TIL311 display, which by coincidence I bought a few of a couple of weeks ago for a replica computer I am building (COSMAC ELF computer based on the CDP1802 processor from a 1976 Popular Electronics artical). They have a binary input and display the hexadecimal digit on the display. IIt is a 7 segment display, except the segments are comprised of several LEDs (probably because 1976 LEDs were so dim!)
I got quite excited when I saw the pin straightener as I had designed and put on Thingiverse a straightener like that, but that one isn't mine. Mine prints in 2 parts that clip together but otherwise works identically. I had been looking around for one like that because I lost the commercial one I bought, but because Thingiverse's search is so bad I never found that design until some time after I'd designed my own! I know I should have found it because the page number was smaller than the one for mine.... Oh well, it was an interesting exercise :)
Clamshell packaging: The best thing I've found is the Zibra OpenIt. It's garbage "as seen on TV" quality with a bunch of "and it's also a ____", but the basic design is perfect. They're heavy-duty offset shears with a gap at the back of the jaws. They're heavy enough to cut that clamshell plastic, but the offset and gap allows the offcut to just pass through the back. Seriously, check them out.
Don't know how others feel but I don't mind a bit if the videos go different directions. Some great content on both channels. I like the way he had the caps divided as I have a large coffee can of all types mixed up. Going to pick up small sandwich bags tomorrow. Also, one forum suggests that the unmarked chips might be ULN2244 or ULX2244. Not sure of the value of that info...
In 1984, I made a PCB to interface the SP0256A-AL2 (purchased at Radio Shack) to the user port of my Commodore 64. The second version of the PCB had the proper hardware handshake line to keep the allophones from triggering at 6502 machine code speeds and producing a jumbled cacophony with the last tone of the last allophone continuing infinitely. I wrote a dictionary program to convert words to the proper sequence of allophones. About a week later, someone showed me SAM (Software Automatic Mouth). My circuit was already made obsolete with software and the SID Chip. At least I learned how to make printed circuit boards. Still make them today (completely different and better process). Thanks for the nostalgia.
The rainbow shirt is a play on the opening graphic of ABC's TV Movie of the Week from the early 70s. The most memorable such was "The Love War" with Angie Dickenson and Lloyd Bridges - a sci-fi movie about alien invasion and lust in the dust.
Hi Adrian! Chips marked '2240' could very well be Fairchild uA2240 timer/counters. Used to be very popular at the time.
On storing things in snack bags, after many years I have learned the most important thing about parts storage is transparent containers, which snack bags are great for, but they're best for "mushy" stuff like wires and wall-warts. The second most important is keeping to a few consistent sizes, especially if they can stack. I like those bead kit storage containers with the 12 or so compartments. I also like little food storage containers, the best are some I get from lunchmeat, where they sell two bags of meat inside a container, completely transparent. (They're also clean, because of the bags!)
SP0256 is the main speech chip, you could get them at Radio Shack back in the day. Somewhere I have one, plus a 16-pin expansion ROM chip for it. = I also have quite a few '70s LEDs from Radio Shack back in the day, and that's what you got. = Photodiodes often look like LEDs, though sometimes they are in black plastic, especially IR. = As for the CDP18xx stuff, look up "COSMAC ELF". = Back in the day I ground down the handle of a T-15 driver to use it for a Mac. = "Oscar" was once an extension for Mac where he popped up when you did Empty Trash, I think he even sang "I Love Trash".
I literally go out of my way to buy hillshire farm lunch meat so I can keep that container afterwards. What I really need them to do is put that on the label as a selling point so people don't throw those containers away. "REUSE THIS CONTAINER!" should be the second biggest text on the label after what type of meat is inside.
I store a lot of electronics, wires, spare parts in freezer and snack bags too. But I’ve always wondered, is there a big static hazard? I wasn’t sure if this type of bag would cause static buildup.
Yeah, I wouldn't have put memory sticks in a bag like that. Maybe with some tinfoil around them. Still, snack bags are one of the best things ever.
Also those "dime bags" you can get at Walmart or a hobby store are great when you take something apart and don't want to put the screws back in yet.
I have a couple of those black IC pin straighteners that get a lot of use. For straightening pins that are too mangled for them, I use a small octagonal carbide cutter insert from a lathe.
I have a #2 Phillips that long which I used at work repairing certain large HP Laser printers many years ago. I haven't had it in my work kit for 15years, but I keep it around and ready at home. It comes in handy on occasion. I have various Bradly Carbon Composition Resistors that I have had a few decades. Resistors like that are commented by people to drift, it seems referencing mostly they can get moisture or some damage depending how they are stored like in electronics kept in less than optimal locations. Any I have tested have been right where they should be, and haven't been stored in bad conditions. I use them in various projects when I have an appropriate value. I am pretty sure my C64 test harness uses several.
It might actually be photo-diodes/transistors in the container marked as such. That might also explain the 13V diode drop when you measured a similar part.
4:42 CDP 1800 CPU. such as the RCA CDP 1802 used in the Netronics ELF. I built the kit in 1978
SPO256 was used in the Super Voice pak for the CoCo
check the logic chips with your TL866 programmer it has a 'detect' function
I've been looking for a really long P3 screwdriver for a really long time. The longest I could find like 12" and that just wouldn't work for doing computer racks. You need a really long screwdriver to undo the screws or to tighten the screws properly on a computer rack at the back. You can use a shorter one but having one you can use with the handle being outside of the cabinet makes it so much easier to manage.
i totally had that speech chip -- radio shack sold them for awhile in the 1980s. i had a VIC-20 full of chips i wired into various holes in its address space, and that phoneme chip was in one of them. i wrote some programs to say various things, mostly obscenities, because i was like fifteen at the time
Thanks for the Videos this year Adrian, looking forward to next year. Merry Xmas and all the best from Yorkshire UK.
I need one of those long torx for OG Macintoshes.
7:49 DDR2 Ram was in the Intel Core2Duo/Quad (socket 775) 2005 - 2009
Actually Sprague Orange-drop caps are supposed to be pretty legendary in the domain of audio gear, worth a dig on the Internet, quite robust and long shelf-life.
One tip opening blister packaging. Use scissors to cut all the perimeter. It will open easily in two
The long screwdrivers are handy for TV and monitor repair. I have had some for decades now.
Not used all the time but when you really need them them it's nice to be able to reach for one.
The old IC leg straighteners design has not changed in 30 years. My vintage one just says "Japan" on it, no manufacturer.
Not sure about the electrolytic caps.. but the Duballier "orange drop" caps should still be good. Always a good idea to do a (electrical) leakage test on vintage caps before trusting them.
I used the GI chip in a home built voice synth on my TRS-80 COCO you can change the voice and speed
I have one long screwdriver and it's a godsend for getting to some screws.
Yes you can use old high wattage resistors. When they fail, they fail open, no risk of fire.
Adrian, I believe I speak for everyone here when I say, for goodness sake, don't run with those new screwdrivers! 😨
He could go Jousting with them! ^_^
The yellow high voltage caps; I’ve never heard of those going bad as long as you respect the voltage rating. The old brown/orange caps can be used if they test low ESR, but - if you intend to use then for high voltage applications - you’ll need an older capacitor tester (line operated) that can test for leakage at 600 volts or so; the battery-operated testers can’t test them under load. As for the electrolytic caps, toss. ‘em unless they’re Panasonic or Nichicon brand (then test them first). An auto-ranging DMM is - hands down - the best way to test resistors. If you test an LED but it doesn’t light up, check for continuity as per an ordinary diode. If it tests good as a diode, it’s probably an IRED, or a phototransistor. Most cameras on cell phones can detect the IR from an IRED (like on a TV remote), and if the resistance changes drastically as you shine light on it, then it’s a phototransistor. HTH! 😌
Unreasonably long screwdrivers come in handy when working on old AIO’s such as old Mac’s. Oh and old monitors, too.
When I used to repair copiers and printers those long drivers are a god send ...
I got ya beat on the screw drivers! I had a pair of bookshelf speakers I need to take apart so I could gut them and use the amp and speakers somewhere else. I could not find a screw driver long enough to take them apart because the shaft started at the back and the screw was all the way in the front. Weird way of doing it but whatever. I finally found myself at an automotive store where I found a 2 foot long Phillips.
Those vintage diodes are seriously cool.
This HV caps are really good for tube base stuff as well.
I wish LED's were still like they were back then. Just bright enough to work as an indicator, instead of LED's now days that are bright enough to sear your eyes (especially the blue ones manufacturers insist on using in everything.
I totally disagree. Those old LED's used a lot of power compared to modern ones and all LEDs need a current limiter (a resistor usually). Just use a higher value resistor.
Long shaft, big tip... sounds like a good time!!!
Merry Christmas Adrian
Not surprising that people would want to talk to you in person. I personally feel like i know you a little bit, just from watching the videos, and i cannot be the only one. But us nerds are a shy, and easily startled bunch! ^-^
But i would totally want to sit down and have a beer with you if we ever had a chance to meet in person. Just to say thanks for the many, MANY hours of enjoyment from your channel. Huzzah to you, my friend, Huzzah! ^-^
Old LEDs seem to get more dim by age and need more current, even if they have been unused. I have had issues with that on some retro hardware.
All LEDs fade to varying degrees, it’s pretty interesting
The SP0256 sounds remarkably like the speech synthesis chip my dad used in a robot that he built named "Huey" -- it was one of his first major experiments in terms of a self-sustaining system, where the robot was capable of determining when it needed to recharge itself and was capable of navigating back to a base station where it could refuel itself.
Dad also built another robot known as Avatar, that used a speech chip based on one of the Texas Instruments speech synthesis chips of the mid 70s and early 80s which was also initially designed as a robotic "assistant" capable of some very simplistic manipulation of objects and which was also supposed to be able to sustain itself. Avatar spent some time in the Boston Computer Museum, and Huey, despite being over 30 years old, is still running today.
Avatar's core system runs on an 8085A, and has a backpack featuring a single 5.25" floppy disk drive. Dad originally built Avatar as a means to have a system to write assembly language code for the 8085 using ISIS-II.
Hi Adrian,
The easiest and quickest way to determine an I.R. led it to point your cellphone camera to it. It will appear purplish in colour. To experience it, get a T.V. remote and aim your cellphone camera directly to tje leds and press a button on the remote, you will see its pulses.
A lot of phone cameras have IR filters now, annoyingly. I mean, it’s good for shots directly into the sun, but it’s annoying for this purpose.
SPO256-AL2 was sold by radio shack as a kit. This shows how much of a Need I was when I was 11. I took my vic-20 and my tools with me to the beach and completed the interface to the ViC-20 and wrote simple basic programs POKe commands to get it to speak text. it was a very rudimentary speech tech but it worked.
Yes it the entire speech chip, it just needs a clock crystal and caps. and a audio amp.
I'm glad I waited while you uncomfortably tried to extricate yourself from a monopolizer at VCFMW. You have the patience of a saint when it comes to fans. :)
I have a few half meter long phillips screwdrivers, saved me a lot of trouble many times
Congrats on the supply of parts. Everything is good, just test it.
you can drive the spo chip almost directly from a standard parallel printer port, just needs a bit of logic to convert the data values slightly, i did plan to build a speech unit some years ago but never got round to it, i have the as yet untried circuit somewhere...
leds will be dim on a multimeter diode/ohms test as only a very few ma, need to test at average of 15/20 ma
I've used those stud type diodes to fix the whistle in Lionel train transformers
Yeah I had to buy a very long screwdriver bit for the Mac Classic, couldn't find a full screwdriver of that size. So now I can use an impact driver on all in one Macs, much to everyone's terror.
Those unmarked chips with 2244 on the underside could be resistor blocks. The large MR series diodes may be high voltage rectifiers used in the line output stage of TVs. The orange drop caps should be ok and the disc caps.
I used the SP0256-AL2 (bought at Tandy) connected to my Atari 800XL, sounded great for the time :)
I could have used that long #2 a couple days ago underneath a kitchen sink.
You will find that those long shafts will be more handy than you think. Not only will they reach. They allow you to apply more torque to a screw without striping out the head. If you find one of those vintage machines has a really stuck screw try giving it the long shaft treatment.
If you have a 3d printer you should look into Zack Freedman's Gridfinity for storing and organising your smaller components and tools. That system has been a life changer for my workbench.
I print in white pla so I can just scribble on the front of the box with a black marker
“I can drag on and on and on with this stuff sometimes” - but what if we like you dragging on and on?! I do 😂, at least.
The photo-transistors @10:14 are not LED's. They had 2 and 3 pin devices back then. Think of the transistors "base" lead being the light used to switch it on. Of course an actual lead would allow you to bias it.
The 2244 ic's are dual opamps in a dip package. The name are OPA2244 for datasheet. Hope it helps?
I thought the caps were candy!
Forbidden candy, maybe!
One can always use a longer shaft.