Things you regret throwing out... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 09, 2016, 11:53:32 am
content: Vintage tech is a huge topic these days.I think the single piece of hardware I most regret throwing in the garbage was my original Creative Labs Sound Blaster 1.0 card. I remember it vividly; It was given to me by my 'boss' at the time when I did work experience at a computer repair store at the age of 12. Back then it was merely outdated. These days, it's a collectors item.Before this card, I was limited to PC speaker beeps. 8-bit digital audio was all the shit back then. If you asked me, I could still point out to the nearest square metre where I was standing when I got handed this thing. I think these days the shop is a cafe or something but the main structure is there.What has everyone else thrown away/destroyed/mistreated and regretted?

author: eugenenine
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2016, 12:02:33 pm
content: I tossed a bunch of boards before we moved a few years ago. Several large boards measuring 18" square with a bunch of 7400's z80's rom, ram, etc.Bunches of old computer parts, printer parts, etc.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2016, 12:06:02 pm
content: I had one like this:-http://www.aaauctions.com/auctions/catalogs/150820/150820-019.jpgI gave it away to a "Radio Museum".Recently,the local council have "refurbed" the place,& I'm suspicious all but a handful of the old stuff has gone to landfill.I hope I am wrong!Wish I'd kept the old beast!

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2016, 12:18:42 pm
content: I still have a Diamond Monster 3D card, along with a bunch of other old computer stuff.

author: DTJ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2016, 12:31:55 pm
content: Things I've tossed and wished I hadn't:A Geiger counter I found as a kid at the rubbish tip in the 70's.A rack mount 100A 5V poser supply. It was too big and heavy to keep around.Literally dozens of Bakelite cased valve radios. I used to pull them apart for fun as a kid. Very cool and collectible these days.An old Racal counter timer. It had vertical columns of back lit digits. Like this one:http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/edte/RacalSA520/viewL.jpg

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2016, 12:49:15 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on March 09, 2016, 11:53:32 amI still have my Soundblaster AWE32 but I did throw away a PCB which was bend 90 degrees (from an IBM power supply). At the time I took it apart I was only interested in the parts but nowadays I realise the coolest part from the power supply was that PCB!

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2016, 02:40:07 pm
content: A big block of core memory. Picked it up from a junk toss at university, then in mid my 20s during a move from one flat to another, tossed it out with assorted other old stuff.My first S100 system. Sold it, rather than tossed out. But I still wish I'd kept it as a piece of my history.It was one of these:http://www.s100computers.com/Hardware%20Folder/Vector%20Graphic/History/VG%20History.htmFor 'makes me feel sick to think about it' stories, my very worst was the time I decided to NOT buy an Apple I card immediately, and instead wait a few weeks more for the Apple II. Gaaaah! Could have afforded both, and I would not have thrown that out. They are now worth over US$700K

author: rolycat
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2016, 02:50:50 pm
content: An early electronic calculator with torsion wire delay line memory:I was given it as a kid and threw it away after failing to figure out how it worked.

author: Vgkid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2016, 05:21:34 pm
content: I had 10 ad584-10vrefs of the 5ppm tc, and they all disappeared. I dont think i would have ever thrown away. Maybe fallen behind my desk, or even worse, sucked up by the shop-vac.

author: AF6LJ
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 11, 2016, 05:32:11 pm
content: My Ex-boyfriend...Nevermind he was a cheating dirt bag..

author: station240
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 11, 2016, 05:57:32 pm
content: When I was a teenager I had a magnet out of a mainframe hard drive. It was some sort of copper alloy, very powerful and very heavy.Due to it's ability to magnetise large screwdrivers with zero effort, it was keep under cover just outside the shed.One day I found it in the bin, fished it out and told my mother off, she did it a second time, I never saw it again.I still had the coil that fitted inside it until recently, could have built one of those Doc Brown giant speakers if I still had the magnet.

author: chris_leyson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2016, 06:11:02 pm
content: My early 1970's Philips EE kitThey were really cool.

author: ralphrmartin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2016, 08:09:27 pm
content: Quote from: chris_leyson on March 11, 2016, 06:11:02 pmHey! I still have about 2/3 of mine!

author: wkb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2016, 08:14:16 pm
content: Quote from: rolycat on March 11, 2016, 02:50:50 pmheck! I had one of those! Binned it

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2016, 08:22:56 pm
content: Mega STE with the "high resolution" Atari branded Microvitec monitor. Managed to replace the Mega STE but not the monitor. I've only recently come across modern monitors with such a... crisp image.

author: mmagin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2016, 08:53:45 pm
content: One of the old tube-era HP square wave generators. Wasn't as much into old stuff back then. But, aside from being dusty, it worked just fine.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2016, 09:28:55 pm
content: Quote from: chris_leyson on March 11, 2016, 06:11:02 pmWas that the one with all the components on their own little PCBs and funny little spring clips that fit at the corners and held the wires in place?

author: rolycat
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2016, 11:31:52 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on March 11, 2016, 09:28:55 pmNope, that sounds like the JapaneseGakken EX-systemfrom the late 70s. It used little plastic boxes with spring contacts called denshi blocks.Philips had theX-series kitssuch as the X40, produced for them by a company called Radionic Products Ltd.The individual components were bolted onto a large multi-purpose PCB. I still use the little tubular box spanner which came with mine - it's the perfect size for D-sub connector nuts.... I may also have held onto the manual and a few components for sentimental reasons:Mostly resistors, two diodes and a couple of bulb holders - LEDs were still too new and exotic, so the 'optoelectronics' consisted of 6V light bulbs and a cadmium-sulphide LDR.

author: RobertoLG
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2016, 11:46:00 pm
content: I had a Telefunken radio, almost exactly like this one...

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2016, 12:12:34 am
content: Quote from: rolycat on March 11, 2016, 11:31:52 pmA quick search confirms that I am talking about the Philip's EE kits, from the early seventies. I had one. Probably my first practical experience of electronics.It came with a piece of perfboard and a load of 'hairpin' clips you pushed through it and then pushed springs over these and trapped component wires between the clip and springs. Transistors and other major components that didn't have axial leads came on small PCBs. The PCBs had slots in the corners that the hairpin and spring arrangement could poke through and you trapped the PCB in place with the connected component wires. One of the transistors even had a basic heatsink attached to it. Frustration with the wildly intermittent nature of the contact system lead to me discovering Veroboard and learning to solder in quick order.Ah, I managed to find a, rather poor, picture.A quick search turned also up some old scanned manuals.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2016, 12:24:05 am
content: Sort of along the lines of the Radio Shack 20 in 1 kit I had in the early 70's, each component on a little plastic block with a spring terminal in each corner. Plastic clips attached the blocks together mechanically, and sheet metal tabs linked the spring terminals to wire the circuit. Not a whole lot of components, not like the larger 100, 150, and 200 in one kits that came permanently mounted in a wood (plastic for the 200 in 1) case and you used various lengths of jumper wires to wire up the circuits.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2016, 12:26:01 am
content: An early to mid '90s ISA flash drive. Something like 8MB that mounted as a drive.

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 12, 2016, 12:31:49 am
content: I still have bits of my EE20 floating around...My box looked like this:and inside it looked like this:No PCBs - just 2 x AC126 and 1 x AF116 with long leads....

author: rolycat
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2016, 12:46:57 am
content: Those Philips EE kits appear to be 1960s vintage - the date on one of the EE20 manuals is 1966.The Philips X40 kit of which I have fond memoriesisfrom the early 70s - 1973, in fact.Perhaps they superseded the EE kits because of the dodgy contact issues?

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2016, 01:11:31 am
content: Quote from: Brumby on March 12, 2016, 12:31:49 amI had that exact kit. It just gradually evaporated to parts ratting during my teens and 20s, then I finally threw out the box. Sigh. So stupid.Finding one to buy just for nostalgia is on my list. Unlikely to happen unless I get rich, since they are a) of no practical use, and b) quite pricey as collectors items now.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2016, 09:53:25 am
content: Quote from: rolycat on March 12, 2016, 12:46:57 amIMHO there are various generations of the EE kits. The oldest one I have (somewhere) has the spring-clip connection method. I also have the later series from the late 80's which uses the same connection system.

author: chris_leyson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2016, 10:13:50 am
content: Can't remember which EE kit I had but it came with "lockfit" transistors mounted on small boards, BC148, BC149 and maybe BF194 ?

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2016, 02:46:59 am
content: Quote from: rolycat on March 12, 2016, 12:46:57 amFunny, I remember the X.. kits as being much later. And, yes, I was jealous of them as they looked so much *easier* than the fiddly thing I had to contend with. Of course by then I'd discovered Op Amps, 74 series logic, beer and lovely lovely curvy women so I wasn't *that* jealous. Oh, and toast and really good marmalade and ...

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2016, 02:51:21 am
content: Quote from: chris_leyson on March 12, 2016, 10:13:50 amSmarmy bastard.If you had the BF194 you had the *posh* kit that you could actually make a working radio out of. My dad was atight bthrifty northerner so I had thecheapestleast expensive kit.

author: Skimask
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2016, 07:40:14 am
content: My Ex-Wife...Just kidding. Don't regret that one at all

author: Thilo78
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2016, 08:21:15 am
content: The one I regret:I had an electronics learning kit, that was manufactured in former GDR by "VEB Numerik Karl Marx" in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz again).Was the NKM100 basic and the NKM150 extension kit with a small dashboard and cover.NKM100 (German):http://www.experimentierkasten-board.de/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=664NKM150 (German):http://de.dawanda.com/product/60464251-ddr-elektronik-baukasten-nkm-150-ergaenzungssatzI couldn't figure out electronics back in the day, and also had little interest in that topic.So finally, it got dumped at some point in time.Having come back to electronics, I deeply regret not having saved that one, both for its actual function and the fact, that it came from GDR.Afterthought:We also had the Philips EE boxes, manufactured in the 80s.Same thing. Shouldn't have let them go...

author: mtdoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2016, 08:27:50 am
content: My first edition Horowitz and HilThe Art of Electronicsbought for my brief forray taking an electronics class as an undergrad 32 years ago.

author: m100
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2016, 08:54:57 pm
content: More than four linear metres of 1960's/70's/80's/90's databooks & application notesand one of these, 5.5kg of 'mobile' phone complete with interchangeable sealed lead acid batteries. Somewhere, post apocalypse, there will only be cockroaches and these left on earth.http://nokiamuseum.info/nokia-mobira-talkman/