A look at vintage electronic components - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: Alex_Baker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2023, 10:35:30 pm
content: Hello everybodyThis post is more of a Hey! look at this cool stuff I found rather than a project, so hopefully some people here will find it interesting. I am also for some information on some of the stuff, I will mention that later.First I will get some of the more ordinary by still interesting stuff out of the way, at least for this nerdI thought the thing in the first image was fun, its an unopened pack of 555s from AMD, they seem to have a date code of 7509 1975!? (if that is not a date code correct me)The next image is less fun, but I still enjoy looking at old 7-segment displays.I will split this up here, the images are too large to put more in this post.

author: Alex_Baker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2023, 10:42:40 pm
content: Next UP!I got a whole box of these weird Texas instrument ICs, in lead frames. The number on them is SN15903, which comes up as dual 4-input NAND gates. The code on them is 6840A, could that be a date? seems pretty early for ICs. Anyways I was curios if it was a thing to buy these in lead frames, or could these be early samples of a TI product?Next is something completely unknown, gold-ceramic chips with the markings AD10/01, and a code of 7449 underneath that. A google search did not give me any leads on what these could be, I just bought them because they looked cool.

author: Alex_Baker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2023, 10:54:47 pm
content: Two final thingsMore unknowns! In this first image There are two unidentified SHARP chips, labeled IC201. A google search did not turn up anything except similar looking calculator-on-a-chip ICs, perhaps that is what this is. The black one and the ceramic one are the same part, sadly the ceramic one is badly corroded. I have no clue what the other IC is in the plastic carrier, I just grabbed it because it was old and neat looking.The last thing is what appear to be very early LEDs they are red, very dim, and marked FLV 101. I think this is a fairchild part, who according to my research were pioneers in LED tech. The image was taken with my phone, the LED that is lit was actually not nearly that bright in person and is a much more pure red, while still consuming 20mA. LEDs sure have come a long way.That's all I got, I was just having some fun looking at old electronic components, hopefully some other people on here do to. I would be awesome to find some info on some of the unknown parts. Some of this stuff I may play around with at some point, but most of it will be put into a little display that I have for old and interesting semiconductors. Thanks for stopping by!

author: Alex_Baker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2023, 10:56:12 pm
content: Also I just realized that the images got out of order to how I referenced them, so just be aware. you should be able to figure it out

author: moffy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2023, 11:20:35 pm
content: Thanks for the post. The seven segment LED brings back memories of the DIY 3.5 digit voltmeter kits. The AD10/01's look gold and ceramic, certainly mil spec maybe even space spec.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 06, 2023, 11:46:09 pm
content: Those technically aren't lead frames, even though there is a lot of commonality. They are called flat packs and were available in both plastic and ceramic versions back in the seventies. Unlike current similar products the customer was often (usually?) responsible for bending and trimming the leads to their needs. The other big difference is the lead spacing (50 mil if I recall) which was still fairly easy to install or rework manually.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2023, 04:17:32 am
content: Yes, those are late 60s datecodes. SN15930 can be found here; it's likely similar to Fairchild's 930 series DTuL:http://www.bitsavers.org/components/ti/_dataBooks/1967-68_TI_Integrated_Circuits.pdfAD10/01 is probably a custom-marked Analog Devices IC, based on similar patterns of AD10/nnn which correspond to other AD parts as mentioned here:https://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/t/33383.aspx321CJ is HNIL (High Noise Immunity Logic, a variant of DTL with large voltage swings) quad NAND, this is an Amelco/Teledyne part (Amelco logo is visible). More information here:http://eleken.y-lab.org/collection/dtl_series.shtml(Japanese)http://www.bitsavers.org/components/amelco/Amelco_Data_Book_1969.pdfFLV101s are indeed very early LEDs by Fairchild:https://datasheet4u.com/datasheet-pdf/FairchildSemiconductor/FLV101/pdf.php?id=1328545https://www.industrialalchemy.org/articleview.php?item=1146Unfortunately couldn't find anything on Sharp LI201, except that it's perhaps equivalent to IX0027 (not much info on that one either.)

author: Alex_Baker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2023, 04:55:38 pm
content: Quote from: moffy on May 06, 2023, 11:20:35 pmSpeaking of, I also picked up this gem in that batch of stuff. (see picture)As it says right on it, it is a 3.5 digit digital voltmeter that somebody built completely from scratch, except this uses a liquid crystal. The main IC is an Intersil ICL7106, which seems to be specifically designed for this sort of application, Its just cool that somebody built it into a functioning voltmeter. I powered it on and it seems to work perfectly, it was within 5mV of my cheap Dmm.

author: Alex_Baker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2023, 05:00:13 pm
content: Quote from: CatalinaWOW on May 06, 2023, 11:46:09 pmInteresting, it seems weird that somebody would need a package like that for just some NAND gates. Thanks for the info!

author: Alex_Baker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2023, 05:15:20 pm
content: Thanks amyk for that info, I had fun looking at those old electronics catalogsFrom that it looks like flat-packs were much more common in the late 60s and 70s, they are a bit different than the things called flat-packs these days.

author: dom0
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2023, 05:39:15 pm
content: Quote from: amyk on May 07, 2023, 04:17:32 amMakes sense that these look much brighter for a smartphone camera, because their peak output is around 670 nm, where the human eye is not very sensitive at all, but cameras are very sensitive in this band.

author: Alex_Baker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2023, 08:27:08 pm
content: Quote from: dom0 on May 07, 2023, 05:39:15 pmI did not think about that, yes you are right. Though my phone was definitely increasing the exposure because of the dark room, so that would make it look brighter as well.

author: DBecker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 08, 2023, 03:02:50 am
content: Those appear to be "jeweled" seven segment LEDs. That was briefly a style -- artistically intentional uneven lighting.