Electronic Mystery Box - What Is It?
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- What is this strange electronic creation? Let's find out together, then let's bring it to life. For links, click the SHOW MORE tab below.
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#learnelectronics #repairvideos #MrCarlson
To learn electronics in a very different and effective way, and gain access to Mr Carlson's personal designs and inventions, visit the Mr Carlson's Lab Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab
Don't know what it is, but it's now $1K+ on EBAY
Mr Carlson the Mystery Box is cool
its to turn on and off olllllld xmas lights
Mr C that looks like something my father would bog together lol! A farm boy from Kentucky, with a 4th grade education loved electronics! I still have all his Heathkit projects! This apple didn't fall from that tree
8th grade education and I am an engineer for a radio station... and a farmer. These days you have to know some electronics even for farm work.
Someone put this all together with purpose, dedication and love. Irony, being, today all that could be in a cheap 50-cent chip -- but where would the fun be in that? 🤗 It's _definitely_ 70's as the components are all familiar to stuff I was building as a kid way back then.
The device I built was a character generator, think early Chyron, and control a bunch of VCR's to automate a cable TV channel. The whole thing could be done now with a Raspberry Pi and some python code.
Mr Carlsson the Mystery Box is cool
I can imagine a young genius Japanese boy tinkering and creating devices. He'd be in his early 60's by now.
CD4017 ie the decade counter IC that was used for knightrider units.
Ditto on the date, these are the same components I used in the 70’s and into the 80’s as well. Making stuff that didn’t really do much, but certainly got me interested in electronics and logic circuits in general.
@11:10 its a shift register! It feeds into the first register to keep the cycle going. And the button introduces a binary 1 at the first register when it's pressed at the right moment, which continues to cycle. When keeping the button pressed all registers are 1 so no more flashing. Cool old device
What do you think it was used for?
Yes! I was screaming "shift register" at the screen as soon as I saw a second light. lol
@@Steve_Just_Steve Something which plugs into it, such as strings of Christmas tree lights to blink randomly.
@@Steve_Just_Steve One of those Japanese game show count down stage effects during sudden death or maybe just some flashing window lighting for one of those casino/gaming parlors in japan. Or in Vegas it was triggering 3 neon words that say girls then a neon light shape in the figure of a stripper.
@@madmodders Ah yes, for whatever reason with shift register I had some of the later components in mind when I did assembler at university about 17 years ago. with each push of the button it just adds one "bit".
Or speaking of the Event and stage lighting I did at a side job for a while, you switched from a 1 light, to a two light, three light sequence. when all four are active unlike actual lighting controllers (well, nowadays that would almost be ancient ones with only four channels and only sequencing) it just does not reset again. (unless you cycle the device)
As someone with not a real electrical engineering background(Mechanical engineer though) your videos are just so enjoyable and really easy to watch. The way you can just describe how something works and creating an image in my brain it's simply amazing. Btw has anyone told you that you have just about the best audio on youtube ?
Thanks for your kind comment!
Looks like a “portable “ disco lights random switching home brew box . I did something similar back in the late 70’s
Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother,
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin'
And everybody shakin',
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
My first thought was that it was a disco light controller.
I suppose technically it would still do that, as long as its not overloaded.
Me too, I was fabricobbling a number of disco light devices around the time I left school, late 1970s. First thought was a 4 channel sound-to-light until he opened the back and I couldn't see an audio input jack.
@@Eon119 Some kid took this to parties on Friday night. Together with a turntable and a pair of speakers.
@@dadawoodslife I did the same thing! Those sound-activated lights were new and cool back then!
If Mr. Carlson ever got tired of doing what he is doing, he could always make a good easy-listening jazz DJ.
Calming voice of NPR.
@@jamesplotkin4674 The Bob Ross of electronics.
Don't think it was built in Japan. Most of Japan uses 103V 50Hz for basic home service and only reserves 200V for high power appliances. This looks like some of the Popular Electronics projects I used to build in the 1970s. Mine were a little neater, I dare say, but this one has the advantage of still working while all of mine have gone the way of the dodo or been stripped for parts several times over.
I was puzzled by the voltage issue. But I don't know another country that uses 200V for anything, plus that certainly appeared to be Japanese or Chinese writing on the card. Add in the use of Japanese transistors. Where do you think it comes from?
I was going to say the same. Right plug, but I think they're all 100V, but a mix of 50 and 60Hz. Europe does a lot of 220 for regular outlets.
I did some hunting. There are countries with that style plug that do 220V, but they'd be a bit unusual for showing up here. Places like China, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam being the bigger ones.
@@russellhltn1396 China is supposed to be 220V, not 200V, but maybe they figured "close enough." Someone in China with a handful of Japanese components? Neither the Phillipines, Thailand, nor Vietnam write with Chinese characters, as far as I know, although one might not be that surprised to find some Chinese written materials in any of those places.
Still, my best guess is Japan, built for some special spot where there happened to be 200 or 220V available. Maybe in an industrial setting of some kind. Or military, which might explain how it got to North America.
As a kid I used to love building stuff like this for my mate who ran a school disco. Only big clubs had professionally made light shows, and they weren't much better than this. Sound-to-light was the next addition to the device, so that the lights flashed different colours to the beat. In the seventies, different coloured flashing lights were the height of sophistication that were far-out, rock-solid and groovy!
me too - see my separate comment made just now
Great to see you post again! They canceled school today so I get to do this instead, which is great! Excited to watch the rest of the video, as I’m only in the beginning.
When did he stop posting?
@Google user right on!
That reminds me on the 70's. Everybody was building what we called a "light organ* for disco parties. The lamps reacted to different frequency ranges of the music. Was very popular back then.
It's not a color organ, it looks like it's just a chaser.
I made a light organ that used a tube amplifier to drive it.
@@richlaue oh wow. In my time thyristors where evailable already even in east Germany
Yes. My older brother built one of discrete components.
Very interesting Paul. That case reminds me of the old RCA RWM series of Am/FM radios from the early 70's. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for stopping by Buddy!
13:53 Why does the night light flicker if you reverse phase/neutral?
It looks like that was put together with whatever the person had laying around their workshop, possibly salvaged components, maybe even some from the radio that used to occupy that case. Very cool. I love seeing kind of ingenious homebrew stuff like that. He may have gotten the circuit design for it out of one of those paperback electronics project books that used to be around, like "101 Useful Circuits", or an electronics magazine of the 70s.
I loved those mags ,good memorys
I’ve never thought using reed relays that way. That pretty ingenious
They are available built that way, in a small plastic case encapsulated in resin, also screened metal case versions used in audio and telecoms.
One wonders how a homemade Japanese Christmas light/Disco flasher made it to Canada... There must be an interesting story.
Military stationed in Japan?
A lot of people emigrated to Canada (specifically BC) from Japan.
Buddy brought the device with him.
Probably part of a Kareoke set up or business sign
.. Хорошо помню, как в школьные годы я превратил свою безобидную домашнюю 4 - канальную"мигалку" в мощный источник света для школьной дискотеки.. 5 кВт..!!!.. Потрясающий эффект и потрясающие колебания электросети..))).. "Устройство" было признано чрезвычайно опасным для города, городского общества и даже самого государства.. И немедленно конфисковано..)))
interesting that a Mr. Carlson equivalent of forty years ago built this and the irony that the Mr Carlson of today got his hands on this piece of electronic folk art to keep it not only alive but to propel it into the future for again another Mr Carlson to discover this novelty someday. I wouldn't be surprised that this build came from a past electronic magazine article.
I love the way you have of talking to viewers without appearing to talk down to them. Not many UA-camrs have that extraordinary gift.
7407 on that integrated bridge rectifier seems like a plausible 7th week of 1974 date code
Right on Mr. Carlson's Lab, the white paper is a short circuit protector. Well stated.
@15:12 The beheaded Fluke DVM appears and continues to haunt your bench again!
About 3 minutes in when it appeared there was a radio in it, I thought it was a 4 channel color organ that was tuned to a set frequency. In the mid 70s they were very popular, and the parts would have been very similar.
Color organ was my first thought as well.
Great minds think alike! I built a few of these color organs when I was a kid. One popular model in Scandinavia from came from Josty Kit, a Danish electronics company. But instead of (reed) relays those constructions used diacs and mains voltage (220V) all over the place. Caused a few blown fuses and traces, sparks and shocks before we got the hang of being careful and do proper soldering joints. Those were the days! :)
Great video. Just a quick note: Many 220volt countries are also 50Hz instead of 60Hz. From personal experience, a transformer run at a Hz that it was not designed for can overheat. Replacing the existing transformer with a 110v 60Hz might be the simplest/safest fix.
Isn't Japanese mains 100V? That writing looks to be Chinese; China's mains voltage is 220V
Scroll down the list to Japan: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country
Residential is 100V, split phase and three phase 200v and 415V. And of course 50 and 60 Hz (cycles) some areas around US bases tend to be closer to 120V if I'm remembering that right might be confusing the Philippines. Probably far more likely that they used a 200V transformer at half voltage.
In the video, it didn't operate at half voltage, and the board is marked Japan.
Thanks for another unique and interesting video. I always learn something from you and your videos. I love how exciting you get when diving into unknown projects and figuring them out.
This is... analog electronic archeology. Not many to better host such. Top notch, as always.
I remember in the early to mid 80's there were many magazins for those of us who are into (like yourdelf) building and learning about electronics. the Light sequencer (Johnson counter) was fun.
As a retired Broadcast Engineer, I remember my mentor had contracts to maintain numerous radio stations. He had a half dozen radio tuners set up to monitor them. Mute circuits were added that were tripped off whenever station carrier was lost. This looks like a somewhat similar idea that scanned the stations, turning off and on individual stations. loss of audio would trip the mute circuit off and tell him that one of his stations had a problem. Maybe?
A lot of effort went into that project. It's a nice example of somebody's passion for the hobby. LOL, usually my early projects got abandoned half way through or are slapped together a lot quicker than that one was.
Might have been for a shop sign with lights around it that appear to move.
For my flux bottles I use blunt-tipped "glue" needles...they came with plastic covers that not only protect me from accidents but also helps keep the flux from drying out.
Would Eye Drops bottle work?
@@kareno8634
I'm not really sure...couldn't hurt to try it though :)
@@gregorythomas333 Thanks. haven't used needle[d] bottle - tho - may be 'lack skill' [?] with lid 'Spouts', either break or never seal well (cleaned). - not a glue connoisseur. lol
@@kareno8634 just don't make the mistake of putting flux in your eye, I cringe at the thought. Eye dropper not as precise as the metal blunt needle tip. I have an old syringe from the local feed store that sells health care stuff for farm critters. Just filed off the sharp point.
It probably has the radio dial to get it through customs inspection as a radio while it was used as an explosion sequencer for taking down structures. Pure sinister conjecture. :)
ROFL!!!
Uhh dont give anybody ideas haaaahaaa
It does look that way. That's why you would use an old radio dial too! The customs folks wouldn't know the difference. Now if it was used to take down buildings I can't say.
I would hate to be using that as an explosion seq. and accidently get it near anything with a magnet. Those reeds also triggered on being bumped, banged, or even loud low freq. sound. Come to think of it, they're the perfect tamper detector for IEDs.
I like it!! A work of art. Labor of love. Color Organ? Japan is 100V 50Hz in some areas, 60Hz in others. Now, other Asian countries do run 200V.
If it's not 70s, but 60s - psychedelia and not disco - it could've been Vietnam. But Canada, of course, wasn't in Vietnam, so if this has been in Canada the whole time, it seems unlikely.
It could also be the 70s and somebody doing duty with NATO in western Europe.
I just love that silent pause at the start of every video followed by arguably some of the best voice audio on UA-cam.
I was originally thinking it was a color organ with built in radio to flash the lights with the music.
Neat device. I'd just replace the transformer. :)
Nothing like a "homebrew" electronic piece of equipment to explore !!
Hi... Thanks for the interesting video ! I wonder if this perhaps was a project out of a 60's (or 50's ?) electronic hobby magazine... Further, I might wonder if it did work at 120 VAC and perhaps the neon tubes are just not lighting up after all these years as easily at 120 VAC as they did when you fed the circuit with 200 VAC...
Mr Carson, LOVE your stuff, I made the mistake of talking to my Ham folks about the "short wave" radio possibly owned by Howard Hughes ! if you are still working on it I completely understand. But if you are at liberty to tell us what happened it would be great. Thanks for your content, it's always relaxing and free from the fight I we are in to save the World from insanity.( I give you BIG plugs on the UHF band that I frequent) TNX KC6TRW
It's a gonkulator!
That took be back to when I was lad using Vero board , personal I would change that transformer recase it and bring out at Christmas
That Fluke remote display was really tripping me out, never seen that before! I was so confused. "Is that meter cut in half?" "Did he greenscreen/cgi that in there?"
My first thought was some kind of "light organ controller". Then a few minutes later thought "thought it was some kind of light sequencer." My second thought was correct!!
Well, that's obviously a, um, you know, its got numbers and a power cord. It has a power cord so it has to be a...uh...What IS that? :-)
Always nice hearing from you, thanks Mr Carlson! You have imbued a passion for repair and electronics and I have no words to express my graditude :)
Thank You for your very kind comment Gustavo!
I have an electronics education, but it was never used, I got a job with IT instead, 22 year now, but very interesting to follow you
Same story for me. 2 year electronics degree, have been working in IT over 20 years. Still like to tinker when the mood hits me though.
This was someones homebrew project. They repurposed the old radio case. If you ask me its kind of a cheezy selection even than for a project box as it was one of those late 1960s cardboard case radios but whatever works lol.
Not only wiring tiny electro magnets for tiny reed switches just lumping it all on a bit of breadboard would stump me what a feat of electronics just to do something a $5 Christmas tree light changer will do today How bereft of electronic devices we were in the 70's today we don't think twice about buying a set of Christmas lights that do much more with a tiny black box
it is a marquee sign motor . We had analog ones in High school in the 1980s
Love your videos!
Excellent explanations and very enjoyable content.
Glad you like them!
Mr. Carlson, you Sir, are wonderful. -- a bit of Mr. Rodgers, only with a lot more oscilloscopes.
I made something very similar to that in the late seventies or early eighties. Wound my own isolation transformers to run coloured mains lights or mains lights with coloured cellophane in front of them Mine was a disco light controller and one of the positions was sound to light setting. There was 4 lights in a 2 x 2 array., common arrangement in the seventies. The Circuit I used may have been Electronics Today magazine or Everyday Electronics In the UK
Addition: I remember the triacs had to be switched on the Zero crossing point of the AC voltage.
Ahh those were the days and I loved those electronics magazines. I built many a project from Electronics Today. That was when Maplins Electronics was a real mail order electronics company.
Smiling!
Christmas lights was my first guess, about 30 seconds before you said it.
paused at 8:42
Now lets see what it is.
It is a early model light chaser useing Germanium transistors for Christmas tree light Decorations or light display . He used an old. transistor radio body to conseal its true operation .very nice pice of equipment.
I'd be curious to see what you think the schematic might look like.
Back then there was a magazine in Europe ‘elektuur’ which had a lot of these schematics
Check some of RCA hobbyist manuals from the the 70s as well. Some interesting circuits as well. You should be able download online pdf.
上面有我看懂的文字 那張卡紙有一個公司名稱(電話號碼)像是(電視維修工程公司) 那個地方很多商場/大廈通常有些燈飾在閃或許是用在控制燈飾 字體是台灣或香港
Good possibility!
@@MrCarlsonsLab have a good day sir from H K fans
Love the hand-wound reed isolation relays, they have a satisfying click to them, I could imagine a home-brew relay computer being built from them, nice and compact.
Love it another mystery solved! Now we know what electronic Xperts do for fun...
It's a homemade light show sequencer for disc jockey or party club
Looks like an old light chaser circuit
We used to call a kit for disco light. In backday In 80, some of them could flash with music too , we used to have different colour for lamps , good quality had isolated chock transformer for triac.
Someone made a light organ...
Electromagnetic controlled light chaser. An older project from 1978. I saw this project in an old electronics magazine. The builder of this one put it in the old radio case, because it is most likely the only enclosure he/she had at the time.
Yeah, I think you are correct. I believe it was in a "Popular Electronics" but I don't feel like pulling out my collection to make sure.
Yeah. As a kid, I built pirate radio stations with audio mixers built inside cigar boxes and baby-wipe containers. The baby-wipe mixer worked best, but I didn't like the soapy smell when I was on the air.
The band Rainbow in the mid 70s had a massive, well, rainbow that spanned their stage. Stories say the control box was stupidly simple, and I like to think something like this might have powered it. It used to interfere with the amps, and was massive and hard to lug around. Apparently they were travelling by ship at some point and decided to just turf the dang thing into the sea, and were pretty happy to get rid of it.
I remember seeing that at Leicester De Montfort Hall in 1976
@@noelwalterso2 That's awesome, I only have a DVD of the '77 performance, as I did not exist at the time :)
I suspect a lot of stage lighting for music was extremely crude stuff like this box as its driver back in that era, just because it was still an early time in electronic light sequencing. After all the computer controlled multiple kilowatts of lighting we have today had to start somewhere. I wouldnt be shocked if a of the firms that build lighting shows now started as a few people with some boxes, parts and a soldering iron.
It is another guitar amp made by Terry at D-Labs...
if Terry made it there would be 6SN7 tubes instead of transistors!
Hi Paul and friends of this channel. Interesting device no doubt....I guess a analog light controller for some disco era DJ.... staying alive anyone?? When will we have some classic clase A audio restoration? Dual, Panasonic, JVC, Nakamichi, Sony....or even Naim, Krell or MLevinson?? Any chance of that Paul?
I have so much lined up, lots of neat repairs and restorations coming.
I think it is beautiful,
it turns lead into gold.
Alchemical transmutator?
200v ?? Japan is 100v not 200. Korea and continental China are 220v. The card looks like Chinese.
Japan is both 100v and 200v (and both 50 and 60 Hz oddly enough.) The breadboards were labeled "Nobel Japan" as well. What little we saw of the card couldn't determine if this was Chinese or Japanese as Japanese use many of the same Kanji. I would have loved to see the complete card.
Japan has 200V service. We have 120V and 240V, they have 100V and 200V.
@@MrCarlsonsLab But lighting circuits are like ours on the lower voltage.
Yes, you could be correct, but remember this is a home brew project, (could be for the stated transformer primary voltage,) and the labeling on the board indicates Japan.
Residential is 100V, split phase and three phase 200v and 415V. And of course 50 and 60 Hz (cycles) some areas around US bases tend to be closer to 120V if I'm remembering that right might be confusing the Philippines. Probably far more likely that they used a 200V transformer at half voltage.
I enjoyed this one a lot. Not sure why this one more than the others. Maybe because of the home brew nature. It would've been ten times more interesting if a circuit doing the same thing was engineered using the Mr. Carlson's approach. Maybe with a key fob 😆.
Still curious to know what was written on that note.
What is it? Why, it's a box of mysteries of course. :P
Fun little project. Oh, Paul, I just noticed that, a few weeks ago, you added electrical arcing to your closing graphic, essentially making the letters look like little Tesla coils. Nice addition!
I was hoping it would be one of the 'light organ' circuits that were in all the DIY magazines in the late 60s... Light sequencer is cool though..
When I picked that out of the box, my first thought was a light organ as well.
could have been a party DJ's lighting rig.
My first blind guess is it's a signal generator with 4 preset outputs.
My guess at 3:37 is to drive 4 strings of Christmas lights in a sequence.
Somehow somewhere I wish that the person who built this is watching this right now
Was Japan using 200V before? These days it is 100V of line voltage, got me puzzled when you said it is from there
Scroll down the list to Japan: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country
Residential is 100V, split phase and three phase 200v and 415V. And of course 50 and 60 Hz (cycles) some areas around US bases tend to be closer to 120V if I'm remembering that right might be confusing the Philippines. Probably far more likely that they used a 200V transformer at half voltage.
In the video, it didn't operate at half voltage, and the board is marked Japan.
@@MrCarlsonsLab Thanks for the answer! It does indeed say 100 and 200 volts. Probably it depends on the building, because I do not have 200V outlet. Gonna look for 200V outlets from now on)
I saw the inscription on the PCB, but assumed it was just exported from Japan - they were a big producer at the time.
Christmas light display control box.
That’s was a interesting vintage project, looks like they could have been using such devices in the old sci-fi movie’s for controlling the old computer panels.
At least it wasn't using point contact germanium transistors!
Actually it says Japan on the back of the pcb. 24:14
I can smell the vintage Vero board from here. 😂
Looks like a Christmas light string controller.
I uncovered a project I built back in the late 70's using TTL and wire wrap. One of the boards has over 50 chips on it. Unfortunately my hand drawn schematics seem to have disappeared. It is nearly impossible to trace out the circuits under that jumble of 30 GA wire! To make it worse, I used a couple of 74188 prom's and have no idea of the code I burned into them. Reverse engineering that sequencer would almost be child's play by comparison.
Plugging that in....you are a brave soul
*24:12** that's the fucking schematic dude*
always enjoy your explorations ( Reed sw with a wound coil is a wow), ( we tend to forget the wonderland past as we move ahead)
Glad you enjoyed!
Mr. C this my ham friend was a crazy kooky and very interesting video.Looks like something we would find in a swap meet tote. Thank you for bringing it back to life and sharing with us!
I made basically the same thing a few years back, but with a 555 and a decade counter. I used it to switch relays to sequence 4 kodak carousel slide projectors. Control voltage is 13V AC, hence the relays. If anyone wants to build something similar, a good tip is to use every other pin on the counter so the projectors don't run away and change slide twice. Used a pot to adjust the frequency.
Hello Paul
I like to experiment with building my own circuits. I converted a small three inch reel to reel tape recorder from DC bias to AC bias because they look better than they sound hahahaha 😆. The oscillator is a single transistor design using a small standby switch mode transformer taken from a scrapped TV power supply board. It works really good it has a frequency of 38khz at 45volt peak to peak clean sine wave and powered by a nine volt battery and very good sound with no noticable distortion. I wish I could show you the circuit. I've been working on it for awhile on and off getting it perfected. It taught me a lot about proper tape bias and equalization
OK, I'm only 6 minutes into the video. I say it's some sort of frequency counter. The lamps and outlets will activate according to sensing particular frequencies in the AM radio spectrum. EDIT: 22 minutes later, my guess was way off! The radio dial faked me out! 😄
It's borderline a piece of folk art. I can picture someone building it for a friend who is working as a dj. People and friends together partying and having a great time. You're going to have to get it out next Christmas...
I'd probably add fuses on both sides of that transformer and for each outlet. Based on the cord thickness and the wiring to those outlets I don't think I'd want to operate very high wattage lamps from it.
@@greendryerlint I think the fuses are a good idea to protect the weakest part. Make sure you don't clean it too much either it needs some original patina.
Would be neat if you could integrate this with the light bulbs that are in The evaluator
Thats a good idea.
These are great but when are you going to post a 3hr electronics marathon like you used to do? 😁
Working on one now.
I have that original radio - Jupiter
I'd guess late '60's and that it was used for shining colored lights on an aluminum Christmas tree. And a stretch of a guess - it was built by an EE, because they knew how to build it, but their soldering was poor. BTW, I always use my Exacto knife to clean the leads on old in-circuit resistors. The leads are always oxidized.
The aluminum was the old face-plate for the radio and they just flipped it over to create a blank face-plate. But they had to fill the big hole with something, so they put the dial display back in.
Hard to see but I'm seeing the Japanese or Chinese words "manufacturing process" and "telephone" on the back of that card. Might be a business card? Or maybe contact info for repairs?