Identifying BYTE magazine's vintage components - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: rea5245
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2014, 06:39:42 pm
content: Hi,Many people here are probably familiar with Robert Tinney's Byte magazine cover "Computer Engineering" (http://www.digibarn.com/collections/mags/byte-covers/BYTE-1977-07-cov1.jpg) showing a train chugging around a PCB.I want to re-create this image in a photograph using real electronic components on a real (though non-functional) PCB. It's more of an art project than an electronics project. I've gotten most of what I need (or acceptable substitutes - sometimes the colors are a little different) but I'm not sure what two of the components might be. I hope someone here can help.The big blue trimmer pot has an axial component to the left, and a red one to the right. I have a bunch of tantalum capacitors, one of which I'm using for the big axial component in the foreground. But they don't quite match the thing left of the trimmer: one end of my capacitors has that that black inner circle, but also has a "nipple"; the other end has no nipple, but doesn't have the black inner circle.The red component to the right of the trimmer, I have no idea what it's supposed to be. I guess I could always take a carbon resistor and paint it red, but that would be cheating.Anyone know what these parts are likely to be?Thanks,Bob

author: calzap
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2014, 06:59:20 pm
content: Bob,It's possible that Tinney was taking some artistic liberties in the first place, so you really can't cheat on something that was fictional. You can find lots of red resistors on eBay, usually wire-wound. Just search: red resistor -LED.Mike in California

author: Balaur
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 05, 2014, 07:02:49 pm
content: Something likethat?

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2014, 07:08:27 pm
content: Quote from: Balaur on January 05, 2014, 07:02:49 pmThat's too big, the red thing is more the size of a 1/4 Watt resistor. Like already said there is some artistic liberty in that picture and it would be hard to recreate with real components,

author: rea5245
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2014, 07:20:54 pm
content: I'm inclined to think that he did not take license with the components. (Well, the bands on the resistor maybe. And the train.) This is because (1) he was not an electronics hobbyist himself and might not want to risk drawing something ridiculous, (2) every time I thought he was taking license, I turned out to be wrong (the square notches on the ICs, the red thing way in back of the ICs), and (3) there'd be no reason to; a banded resistor would've been more visually interesting than that red thing.I'm more inclined to think it's a package that just isn't used anymore.- Bob

author: dfmischler
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2014, 07:25:38 pm
content: Maybe you should ask him. Of course, he may not remember.Robert Tinney Graphics

author: Thor-Arne
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 05, 2014, 07:34:13 pm
content: The red one is a older style case diode like onthispicture. The white one looks like a ceramic resistor package, perhaps a little to small.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2014, 08:16:15 pm
content: The res is a small film resistor, often the older close tolerance ones were red painted with printed values. The white is a capacitor in a hermetic case. Try looking on Ebay for Russian components like resistors and capacitors as they often will be what you are looking for. the surplus ones are pretty close to the shapes you are looking for. You will even get the dipped green ceramic disc capacitors there.

author: rea5245
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2014, 10:32:03 pm
content: The red thing does, indeed, appear to be a resistor likehttp://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Pack-TEXAS-INSTRUMENTS-RN60C-432-OHM-1-PRECISION-METAL-FILM-RESISTOR-/180753690324. (Sorry, the link will only be good for a few months. I couldn't find a more permanent link that showed the right thing.) Looking closely at Tinney's painting, I can see that the cylinder is narrower in the center than at the ends, just like the resistors I found on eBay.The hermetic capacitor is the best match I've found, but it's not quite perfect. As I mentioned earlier, the end of the cap with the black circle also has a nipple. Maybe Tinney just left it out.Thank you all for your help.- Bob

author: rea5245
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 07:12:12 pm
content: I've finally completed this project, so I thought I'd let people see the results.As a reminder, this project was inspired by Robert Tinney's painting "Computer Engineering" for Byte magazine. It was a painting of a train chugging around a printed circuit board. My idea was to create a photograph showing the "real life scene" that he might have painted. That is, I made a printed circuit board that resembled the one in the painting, photographed it, and Photoshopped a picture of an HO scale model train onto it. You can see the result on my blog athttp://www.galacticstudios.org/byte-magazine-cover/.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 08:36:37 pm
content: That's cool!

author: AF6LJ
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 08:43:39 pm
content: That is a fictional part..Everything that was color coded back then didn't have that many bands.As for Byte Mag...I sure miss Wayne Green.A man that had the same spirit of entrepreneurism my grandparents did.You ether loved Wayne or you hated him. there were very few were in the middle.

author: rea5245
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 09:04:38 pm
content: Quote from: AF6LJ on November 20, 2015, 08:43:39 pmI knew that the bands on the resistor were artistic license. But even that style of resistor (the straight brown cylinder) is no longer made.- Bob

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 09:18:54 pm
content: I wish I'd seen this thread when it was first posted (difficult, since I hadn't discovered eevblog back then), because the mom-and-pop electronics shop around the corner is simultaneously a shop and a museum, in that they have components in stock that have been sitting there since before I was born. They've got tons and tons of brown resistors, matte green (or yellow) ceramic caps, and any other kind of archaic component you can imagine. Should you for some reason decide to make a V2 of this project, let me know and I can check the shop for the old parts for you!

author: AF6LJ
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 09:30:40 pm
content: Quote from: rea5245 on November 20, 2015, 09:04:38 pmThat could have been a molded RF choke.But the body profile did suggest a resistor.