Fran looks pretty good for 105 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: notsob
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 07:00:54 am
content: 106 next birthday, look at forum calander August Sat 3rd 2013

author: firewalker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 07:33:33 am
content: Who is Fran? A company? Or the girl with the Apollo program boards?Alexander.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 02:32:48 pm
content: Maybe Fran has found an electronic path, to the fountain of youth; or is it her Apollo back-engineering, time dilation off-shoot... if you have Fran ? let us all know the design please.

author: Frantone
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 08:01:43 pm
content: As a teenager I gave Lee De Forest the idea for the Audiotron, and I never saw a red cent. Bastard!

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 08:10:17 pm
content: Yes it sucks, I mean, I told Swan how to make lamps, and what thanks did I get, Edison stole the whole idea.

author: Frantone
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 08:31:02 pm
content: Yea - I was working on Philo Farnsworth's farm and I mentioned that he could probably make a picture in the field if he intermittently lifted the plow blade as he made each pass. He told me to shut up and keep hoeing the rhubarb.

author: AlfBaz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 10:24:48 pm
content: I was stoned out of my brain in a greek bathhouse staring at the tiles, and said to the dude next to me "Hey man, if you squint your eyes..."

author: nitro2k01
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 10:58:45 pm
content: Quote from: AlfBaz on April 10, 2013, 10:24:48 pm...Wait what.

author: AlfBaz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 11:15:54 pm
content: Quote from: nitro2k01 on April 10, 2013, 10:58:45 pmLOL... Pythagoras

author: Frantone
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 11:25:52 pm
content: I once told Pythagoras to his face that theorem of his was complete BS.... but he just stared at me like I was crazy. Then I realized he didn't speak any English.

author: amspire
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 12:40:53 am
content: Quote from: Frantone on April 10, 2013, 08:31:02 pmFor us brought up in Australia, we are taught from childhood that Baird invented the television - the Royal Society said so! We even named our TV awards "The Logies" in honour of the guy who paid Philo for the technology to build a TV system.So we have never heard of Philo Farnsworth.

author: Frantone
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 01:21:52 am
content: Indeed! In fact, the new Baird HD wide screen system I have runs on 27 klieg lights and a 1200 horsepower diesel engine. 45 minutes of viewing per gallon - Beat that Farnsworth!

author: amspire
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 01:46:58 am
content: Quote from: Frantone on April 11, 2013, 01:21:52 amPerfection! Electronic TVs cannot hope to even get close.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 05:25:53 am
content: Quote from: amspire on April 11, 2013, 01:46:58 amThey tried so hard getting this electronic stuff working, but today they are out of businesshttp://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/Time/4-1965/zenith_hand_made.jpg

author: amspire
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 05:55:00 am
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on April 11, 2013, 05:25:53 amI hadn't realized that circuit boards were a sign of poor quality. From now on, every computer, mobile phone, tablet or other electronics devices I buy will be hand crafted with no circuit boards. Like the Zenith ad, I will only accept carbon composition resistors with mangled leads.

author: peter.mitchell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 06:23:19 am
content: i saw the bent lead and the pliers and was like "wait, how could somebody genuinely want that?"

author: Frantone
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 10:07:08 am
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on April 11, 2013, 05:25:53 am"Printed" circuits??? What kind of boulderdash is this?!. I want my electronics written in longhand.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 04:01:08 pm
content: Ah, the old warm day's of valve technology, and hand wired TV's...Indeed in England and channel Islands, it was a dream to service KB Kolster Brandes set; a sub company of Standard Telephones & Cables (STC); they never went down the PCB avenue, where so many other companies went to reduce build costs thus, due valve heat and paper-resin PCB's they became carbonised, and failed.So, PCB TV's required many hours grafting on-board a sub valve holder, and then hand-wire onto the cleaned PCB tracks; after that the sets died of natural causes... low valve emission, Hunts capacitors going leaky, and all those high Megohms resistors of 20% tolerance going even higher. Good day's however, and got you out of the workshop on service calls too.Image found on the web, valve TV K-B Feather-light:

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 04:04:34 pm
content: That is one frightening TV.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 04:08:09 pm
content: Ah, that was there smallest set all crammed-in parts, but easy to service...Another Image found:

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 04:13:36 pm
content: You forgot the old triplers, with an output valve entombed in either wax or oil, along with doorknob capacitors, and PCB filled paper capacitors all over. Add to that the new fangled 90 degree deflection tubes, and those all new plastic wires instead of the good old reliable asbestos covered ones, and no more ballast leads for the sets.

author: Frantone
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 04:28:10 pm
content: Quote from: vlf3 on April 11, 2013, 04:01:08 pmAh....Feather-Light. Back when birds weighed over a metric ton. Check out the channel selector across the entire front of that thing! Gorgeous.Portable tube TV Sets were just a concept too. In those days you could weld a handle to virtually anything and call it 'portable'.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 04:32:25 pm
content: It's in the name... Feather-Light.

author: JoannaK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 05:54:53 pm
content: Quote from: Frantone on April 11, 2013, 04:28:10 pmBy military definition.. Anything that a full squadron can lift, is portable.

author: Frantone
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 11, 2013, 11:36:56 pm
content: Just to prove I am indeed 105 years old - here is the underside of the all valve single ended stereo amplifier I designed and built in 2000:http://www.frantone.com/designwritings/design_writings3.html#model-aNo printed circuit boards here!It has an all vacuum tube 500VDC power supply (B++), tube regulated 210VDC supply (B+) and dual triode driven cathode ray tube indicators. The amp weighs 65 lbs and puts out 7 watts. Portable? Yes. Mostly.

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 12, 2013, 12:08:50 am
content: Quote from: Frantone on April 11, 2013, 11:36:56 pmBeautiful.QuoteIf that's portable, then so is my washing machine, as soon as I finish bolting this handle to it...

author: N2IXK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 12, 2013, 01:45:21 pm
content: Actually, when PC boards first appeared in consumer gear, they were crap. Cheap phenolic/paper substrate prone to cracking, with traces that would fall off with the slightest provocation. The heat from the tubes would carbonize the board, and the heavy bulky components would initiate cracked traces and solder connections in portable gear.Zenith was always one of the "quality" manufacturers, and their sets were among the most reliable until close to the end when they shipped assembly down to Mexico to try to compete with the Japanese.Even once they shifted over to PC boards in the mid 70s, they kept them small amd modular, and retained the large metal chassis framework for structural support. Made their sets easy to service, but HEAVY.

author: Frantone
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 12, 2013, 02:35:43 pm
content: Quote from: N2IXK on April 12, 2013, 01:45:21 pmThe real flaw in consumer level tube gear was that they did not care about heat dissipation or component load. Televisions gave valve technology a bad rap because manufacturers began to run tubes either at or past their limits for plate voltage, bandwidth, and current. I worked at a radio station back in the 90's that still ran the original all tube Gates mixing board, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week - with not a single tube failure in over 15 years. When tubes are run well within their design specs, they perform very well.I own a 1959 Philco Predicta that has a dense PCB (with silicon rectifiers!) and I have kept it in great shape by placing a computer fan with a foam rubber seal against the ventilated back of the TV to create a forced vacuum in the chassis. This draws air into the chassis from the CRT on down to the dense tube cluster and exhausts the heat. With the fan the Predicta has run for over 20 years without a failure (I turn it on occasionally) - but without the fan the Predicta would blow parts every year.Oh, and I was 51 when I got that Predicta in 1959.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 12, 2013, 03:44:49 pm
content: Very nice Amp Fran; oOh those hot electrons and two EM87... it's all to much a visual feast, with Retro design ergonomics and that stepped level stereo control with high tolerance resistors, all hand wired too.Here is a Magic Eye display I built years ago now, sorry for poor image: