Stuff you wish you had back-I can't believe they threw that out - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: MathWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2021, 06:43:15 am
content: AARRRGGGHHH, a few of the things off the top of my head, I wish I had back now, to poke at with a DMM and scope.Sony PlayStation2-stopped working, thrown outBlack and white vaccuum tube TV-thrown outmy old computers growing upSome sort of mini-1990's, field diagnosgic's, mini- bar shaped laptop, with some shell.A 1970's transistor TV, I saved a few boards........but I could have save them all, I have the transformers, but I can't find any schematics.

author: Kerlin
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2021, 12:57:18 am
content: The main board from an original Apple computerA Marconi 2955 radio test setA big collection of old valve radios, now worth a lotSome wide spaced high voltage variable capacitorsA large box of new (2008) ferrite and powdered iron coresFrom my youth- My early home made electronics builds - crystal sets, 1 and 2 transistor radios and audio amplifiers and the books I built them from

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2021, 01:20:18 am
content: so basically trash, sounds like you hit 40? :-) Hit up nearby recycling center or a hackerspace, all the electronic trash you would ever want.

author: lowimpedance
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2021, 02:30:11 am
content: Quote from: Rasz on February 01, 2021, 01:20:18 am...........and hitting 50 has not diminished the desire either...!.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2021, 03:26:27 am
content: My fully loaded Amiga 3000. 2M chip RAM, Fat Agnus, 16M fast RAM, 120M SCSI drive, 386SX BridgeBoard with 8M RAM and 387SX, 24 bit display buffer, 1.76M HD floppy, external 5.25", 24 pin dot matrix printer, Digi-View Gold with camera and color wheel, and stereo sound sampler.Rasz, please unleash one of your zingers at my post!

author: DTJ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2021, 03:29:43 am
content: Mainly things I found or was given as a kid and pulled apart to see what was inside.Old wooden boxed valve driven mantle radios - probably a dozen of them.Old wooden boxed mechanical spring driven clocks.A Geiger counter recovered from landfill.Dozens of old B&W valve TVs.Console radiograms.Box Brownie cameras.Pallets of 70s and early 80s communications test gear - written off and dumped by my employer at the time. Sig gens, level meas sets, N&D sets, counters, CROs, logic analysers...Microbee computer and floppy drives

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2021, 06:55:49 am
content: Quote from: Alex Eisenhut on February 01, 2021, 03:26:27 amIf you insist: do you mean ordinary PC HD floppy everyone and their dog was already using for at least the last 5 years? or the one "special" Commodore HD floppy made only for 4000, rotating and working at half speed?Btw it wasnt meant as a joke, but an acute observation. This is why model Train sets are not worth anything anymore (collectors died out), and instead NES/SNES era games are experiencing record speculation with stupid priceshttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/business/video-games-wata-heritage.htmlsame for 90s and early 2000 era PC hardwarehttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/style/retrocomputing.htmlIn 10 more years people will lament throwing out garbage Dell Pentium 4 office PCs. Some collectors are already preemptively buying out ~2008 socket 775 motherboards and early top end PCIE graphic cards while they are still somewhat cheap compared to 3dfx craze.

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2021, 11:02:43 am
content: A PDP11/05 with original DECtape 1 drives.

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2021, 02:31:07 pm
content: I'd rather like stuff you put away 20 years ago and now re-discover, not even remembering owning it

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2021, 05:16:22 pm
content: Quote from: Rasz on February 01, 2021, 06:55:49 amThat's it? I feel you're slipping, man. Yes I had the half speed hack drive for my A3000. I wonder if the same hack could be used on the 1581.Anyway, no comments on the A3000's need for strange ZIP RAM? Or the cost of the BridgeBoard compared to a stand-alone PC?Even you have to admit that an Amiga 3000 with a BridgeBoard and an Emplant (which I didn't have) was able to run Amiga, PC, and Mac software at the same time, and that's pretty cool, no?And yes there are people now nostalgic for their early 2000s machines. There are people selling all kinds of P-II and P-III motherboards for ridiculous high prices!

author: aqibi2000
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2021, 01:14:32 am
content: Faulty HDD with 7500 BTC

author: Runco990
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2021, 01:24:01 am
content: Wait for it......My fully loaded Apple LISA with the internal hard drive!How could I have possibly known.

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2021, 09:43:54 am
content: Quote from: Alex Eisenhut on February 01, 2021, 05:16:22 pmat lest you didnt call me slow, like your Amiga floppy *ba dum tsss*Do you happen to fondly remember blazing fast Workbench, and not icons slowly populating in random order in newly opened drawer while using fast harddrive? Some things are best left as memories.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2021, 02:23:09 pm
content: Quote from: Rasz on February 02, 2021, 09:43:54 amDude, Windows does the same shit all the time, randomly re-reading .ico files for all the garbage on my desktop, and what about the fun endless "green progress bar" where you have no idea the progress of what, how to stop it, and how to prevent it for next time?Software is software, sometimes acting very strange because of the assumptions of the programmers.

author: Ordinaryman1971
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2021, 05:54:34 pm
content: I guess I have to start selling my "stuff"... what you guys say it's worth some money. I may retire of of my junk.

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2021, 12:19:30 am
content: Visual Foxpro, Definitely matches that description

author: crerus75
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 06:23:05 pm
content: I walked a Tektronix boat anchor out to the dumpster at one place I worked because I didn't have a place to put it. Don't know the model number but I regret it to this day. I actually had it in the trunk of my car but changed my mind at the last minute. It's been almost 15 years and I'm still mad about it. I also tossed a broken Keithley bench DMM and a broken Micronta DMM, both of which had sentimental value, during a rather severe fit of cleaning. I got tired of shifting them from one "I'll get to it" pile to another.Ditto an elderly Dumont oscilloscope that wouldn't power up, and a Sencore tube oscilloscope (PS148, I think) that would trip a breaker. Both of those had sentimental value too-- given to me by a family member that had since passed-- but sentimentality gave way to practicality when I realized I could hardly walk around the piles of junk any more. They were pretty far gone, and while I know they could've been rescued I also knew that I wasn't the person to do it. A nearby HAM operator wound up with them, I think.I've sold lots of old vacuum tubes and a few tube radios that were full of mouse nests, just to get them out of the way. Truth be told, I regret selling the cool old red-and-black RCA vacuum tube caddy more than its contents. I'd like to find another one to use as a vintage-looking toolbox for mobile repairs, but the shipping costs usually kill that idea, and the only one I've found at a local yard sale was too warped and rotted to rescue.I tossed a BUNCH of NOS TV parts when it was clear that I couldn't even give them away. NOBODY wanted that stuff.I gave a Tek 922R to a friend when I upgraded. I don't regret it (well, Imostlydon't regret it), but I told him that I wanted first right-of-refusal if he ever decides to send it on its way. I grew fond of that scope despite its 15 MHz and huge footprint.I DID manage to keep an old Heathkit SO-4552 oscilloscope that has been in the family since the late 1980s, despite the fact that it spent years in a damp basement and wouldn't display a trace when plugged in. Turned out to be an intermittent connection on a wiring harness connector. I spend some time cleaning going over connections and contacts with DeOxit, after which it worked about as well as you can expect from a Heathkit scope made by Pintek. It has a component test function which is occasionally useful, but I'm not going to kid you-- this one is around for sentimental reasons. And it's STAYING.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 06:54:30 pm
content: Quote from: Runco990 on February 02, 2021, 01:24:01 amDitto. FFS.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 09:02:11 pm
content: Quote from: CJay on February 05, 2021, 06:54:30 pmA long time ago, when computer stores were still fun and run by nerds and characters, you could still find cool things in them.One of these long-defunct stores (Progeni in VSL for the curious), had a Lisa for sale, they also had a PET 4032. All I could afford as a kid was the old PET, I still have it. I hesitate to sell it due to the insane packaging requirements and how eBay would ding me for charging extra for proper shipping, ie sturdy box and packaging.Also the surplus stores had Commodore 16 parts that could be worth a lot today. The Plus 4 and C16 were dismal Commodore failures (paging Rasz) but somehow are worth a lot today.

author: MadTux
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2021, 12:13:30 am
content: Mac IIci or IIcx, died sometimes back in '95-96 or so and was trashed soon afterwards ;-(Had loads of games on it, great childhood memories......Nowadays, I probably would have fixed it within a few hours :-(

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2021, 12:59:44 am
content: Didn't exactly throw it out...I think I gave it to someone38 "step" programmable - very small and kind of cheap, but it worked! I have thought about getting another one from time to time, but it wouldn't be the same.http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/39538/Sinclair-Cambridge-Programmable/Now, I did toss a VT-52 into a dumpster once, but I don't want it back

author: mathsquid
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2021, 01:17:59 am
content: Star Wars toys sold at a yard sale.Commodore 1084s monitor that I tossed when it died.Wide dot matrix printer.Honorable mention: I've had occasional pangs of regret about an Amiga 500 computer. I gave it to a friend when my wife moved in and I needed to clear some space. But I'm glad it's gone (and that it went to a friend).

author: jerryk
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2021, 06:29:29 am
content: I had a small pile of surplus electric wheel chairs with joystick control boxes. Took up space for years. Lots of nice motors I tossed.Jerry

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2021, 10:11:20 am
content: Quote from: MadTux on February 06, 2021, 12:13:30 amNowadays you can buy one for few hours or EE wages

author: basinstreetdesign
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2021, 01:35:18 am
content: In university I was hauling around a few old books that my dad got from me from a friend of his who edited and proof-read electronics texts published by the government of Canada. One book was a 1942 copy of the Royal Signal Manual from the UK military. I was told once by a teacher that it was "as authoritative as you can get!". I stuck it in a locker in school back in the early 1970's and left it there over the Christmas break. When I got back I was told all lockers were cleared out and nobody knew where any of the stuff went. I loved that book and have wished for nearly 50 years that I had it back.

author: Ground_Loop
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2021, 02:47:04 am
content: I dumped (literally) my maxed out Tandy Color Computer 3 with expansion interface and two floppy drives. Also had the VGA display.

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2021, 03:22:58 am
content: A large cache (aprox 100) of Germanium transistors, including some huge TO-36 Delco Electronics power ones.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2021, 07:45:50 am
content: Quote from: schmitt trigger on February 08, 2021, 03:22:58 amAh yeah, I've done that too, pile of AD161/162 in there as well, but I only regret that because they're worth money now.

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2021, 08:55:03 pm
content: Exactly!Some Ge transistor prices are ridiculous.