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Related

Show us your junk!

neuromodulator
neuromodulator over 6 years ago

I love junk, specially when it can be fully restored, has interesting parts or uses interesting technology. Most of the junk I get, comes from the university, its dumped because its either too old or it doesn't work anymore. I'll start this thread by showing one of my latest junk acquisitions:

 

imageimageimage

 

 

This is an autotransformer made by a company called "The Superior Electric Co" from Bristol, Connecticut. It was apparently build in the 60s (according to what I found in the net) and supports a max of 1.2 kva. The autotransformer works as expected but of course it shows its age, the rubber cable is not in the best condition and so isn't its paint. In the future I may repaint it and replace the cable but for now its good enough as it is.

 

Have you also found nice junk? Show us!

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Top Replies

  • michaelkellett
    michaelkellett over 6 years ago in reply to neuromodulator +13
    Here is the first processor controlled instrument I designed. Intel 8748, code hand assembled on paper and entered into Intel desktop dev system by hand in hex. Not really junk, but not very useful now…
  • dougw
    dougw over 6 years ago +12
    While looking for something else deep in the "archives" I came across my favourite scientific calculator. (circa 1975) It still works fine. The LEDs were so power hungry I eventually built a power supply…
  • genebren
    genebren over 6 years ago +11
    In the spirit of your original request (show us your junk!), here is some of my junk. One of my many past jobs was working for a life sciences company that built instrumentation for various forms of testing…
Parents
  • rstone
    rstone over 5 years ago

    1982 Radio Shack TRS-80 Pocket Computer PC-2, with printer cassette interface!

    When the Lincoln/Mercury dealership that I managed the parts dept at closed down in 2010/11 I found this shoved in a box in the back of the warehouse. The owner was going to throw it out, so it came home with me. It was used with InstaLease software and looks to be in perfect shape. It even has a 4 pen plotter instead of a thermal printer that I would have thought to be more common. I've never plugged it in, I'm afraid to let the smoke out of the nearly 40 year old power supply.

    Has anybody ever used one of these? It runs a version of Basic.

     

    Thanks for looking!

     

    Rick

     

    image

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  • rstone
    rstone over 5 years ago

    1982 Radio Shack TRS-80 Pocket Computer PC-2, with printer cassette interface!

    When the Lincoln/Mercury dealership that I managed the parts dept at closed down in 2010/11 I found this shoved in a box in the back of the warehouse. The owner was going to throw it out, so it came home with me. It was used with InstaLease software and looks to be in perfect shape. It even has a 4 pen plotter instead of a thermal printer that I would have thought to be more common. I've never plugged it in, I'm afraid to let the smoke out of the nearly 40 year old power supply.

    Has anybody ever used one of these? It runs a version of Basic.

     

    Thanks for looking!

     

    Rick

     

    image

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  • clem57
    clem57 over 5 years ago in reply to rstone

    Nice find rstone ! Check out  Radio Shack TRS-80 PC-2 pocket computer for background and stats. If you have the numbers off the device, you can get the user manual here

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  • clem57
    clem57 over 5 years ago in reply to clem57

    The PC-2 cost $279.95 when it was introduced in 1982, but that price dropped to $199.95 by the following year. It was the only Pocket Computer that had speed and memory capacity that was competitive with a contemporary desktop computer. The PC-2 wasn’t manufactured by Radio Shack, but was a rebadged Sharp PC-1500. It wasn’t compatible with any of the hardware or software Radio Shack sold for the PC-1.

     

    The Sharp PC-1500 was a pocket computer produced by Sharp during 1981-1985. A rebadged version was also sold as the TRS-80 Pocket Computer PC-2. The whole computer was designed around the LH5801, an 8-bit CPU similar to the Zilog Z80, but all laid-out in power-saving CMOS circuits. Equipped with 2KB of on-board RAM, the programming language is BASIC. Later German engineers provided an assembler for the machine. Later even a C compiler followed. An external slot is available and accept memory and rom modules.

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  • rstone
    rstone over 5 years ago in reply to clem57

    I have everything but the cassette player and cassettes. I may have overlooked them when I grabbed this.

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  • clem57
    clem57 over 5 years ago in reply to rstone

    I bet you could build a serial device to handle the sounds and play then back...

    Hardware – Cassette | Ira Goldklang's TRS-80 Revived Site

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  • rstone
    rstone over 5 years ago in reply to clem57

    Thanks!

    Another rabbit hole to fall in.

    I was wondering what I was going to do with all my free time! image

     

    Rick

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  • clem57
    clem57 over 5 years ago in reply to rstone

    image Better than wondering what's on TV!

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