If I could go back in time with modern equipment and knowledge... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 01:04:46 am
content: ...I would open a radio repair shop on the main road of a small town in the early 1950s. People would bring in their dearly loved radios that could actually be fixed. Nobody except maybe a special few would be allowed to see my 21st century test gear. The radios and occasional hifi amplifiers would be dead easy to fix and everybody would be so glad.

author: neo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 01:54:24 am
content: Quote from: Circlotron on July 10, 2017, 01:04:46 amI like your thinking though two points to be made.1) You would in theory be stuck there.2) What would you do if you were stuck there and something broke?Otherwise i love your idea!

author: xrunner
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 02:02:14 am
content: Quote from: Circlotron on July 10, 2017, 01:04:46 amOh you cheater! Also, hope you don't ever need a firmware update via USB from the non-existent internet.

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 02:07:48 am
content: But you might accidentally step on a butterfly, killing it instantly, and changing the time lines, forever...Then North Korea, may have won the Korean war, back then.So maybe we would all be under North Korean Communist rule...So the modern test equipment, would never come into existence, and would silently teleport away, as the time lines, stabilize...Leaving you WITHOUT the modern test equipment, and everything being run by North Korea.Tough...Enjoy the concentration camps...

author: Nusa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 02:39:24 am
content: Quote from: Circlotron on July 10, 2017, 01:04:46 amI'd suggest that 1950's test gear would serve you just as well with respect to 1950's-era consumer products. In some cases it would even be superior. How many modern tube testers have you seen?The important thing you would bring is knowledge, but would that actually be more effective than the knowledge of 1950's repairmen? The parts available in the supply chain would be completely different, and foreknowledge of how capacitors will die really isn't going to change much, since you still have to use them. You would be at the very start of the transister era, which could be interesting.

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 02:44:24 am
content: Quote from: Nusa on July 10, 2017, 02:39:24 amI would also have a magic bag / wormhole where I could reach back in the present and get nice things like polyester caps, decent high value, small electros etc.

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 02:50:05 am
content: Quote from: Circlotron on July 10, 2017, 02:44:24 amSo you are going to put modern day, low max temperature capacitors, inside very hot running valve/tube equipment, with semi-red hot mains voltage droppers, and other really hot items, such as glowing valves/tubes.How are you going to solder tiny surface mount components, using non-PCB, tag strips and other assembly technologies of the 1950's ?

author: Cthulhoid
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 02:59:52 am
content: This would be "Moon Six" by Stephen Baxter. (It's availableon the interwebsif you haven't read it yet.)

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 03:05:01 am
content: Quote from: blueskull on July 10, 2017, 03:02:20 amYou'd then spend/invest it all on a US home purchase and maybe other investment properties. The US property market would then crash, and you would be penniless again.

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 03:20:17 am
content: Quote from: MK14 on July 10, 2017, 02:50:05 amNah. Only use modern equivalents of old timey parts. Stuff anyone from that era would recognise. Some differences though like transformers would have plastic bobbins and resistors would have coloured stripes instead body-tip-spot coding. Maybe even a few nice power and signal diodes.Edit -> and I have been messing around with valves on and off since 1971 so I do have a bit of a feel for what is involved.

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 03:27:28 am
content: Quote from: Circlotron on July 10, 2017, 03:20:17 amBut then, sooner or later. Someone else would either open up the equipment, or try to repair it (e.g. another repair shop, because the customer moved to another place/country, and took the radio/stuff with them). They then might notice theoddcomponents. This could then lead to them being examined by electronics experts from the 1950's, who would then (probably) examine them and test them.They might then be realized, to NOT be anything available from that time era. So you could be either publicized as being from the future on TV, or accused of being an Alien, with Alien technology, or something.You then get locked up and questioned all the time, about how you got the components.I guess you could escape by using the worm hole, back to 2017. Then fill us in on what happened, in this thread.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 03:46:13 am
content: Quote from: blueskull on July 10, 2017, 03:02:20 amWhy buy Bitcoins when you can take an ASIC miner with you and mine them? (Granted, you'll probably need to throttle it back considerably so you don't mine a suspiciously large amount and cause panic...)What I would do is get a bunch of USB mining sticks and a few larger ASIC boxes, travel back to when ASIC miners were first coming out (and really expensive), keep a few USB sticks for myself but give away the rest to my best female college friends, making sure to give them my contact info and make a bold prediction that Bitcoin would skyrocket in a few years. As the difficulty rises, the bigger ASIC boxes start coming into play and at least one of the friends will inevitably ask why the stick isn't working as well as it used to. I would then take her out on a nice date, give her a quick explanation of how Bitcoin works, and if she seems to be a good match, I would share some of my mining profits with her. Then Bitcoin prices spike and I'll end up with a bunch of very happy friends and hopefully at least one trying to be the "lucky one".

author: Electro Detective
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 03:56:40 am
content: With my luck there will be others there already from the future, out in the street b!tching about who got there first,price undercutting on repairs and mods etcThe police will arrive to break it up, ask what it's about, who began the scuffle and whyOnce the explanations stop flowingall the 'time travelling techs' will be bundled up in straight jackets,and off to the nearest asylum..i.e. make sure the time travel agent gives a 24 hour cooling off period and refund, minus 10%

author: alm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 04:02:18 am
content: What a lack of ambition. Instead of using modern knowledge to improve the space program, jump start the computer and information revolution or tell Bill Gates that 640k is not enough, you guys use it to make some money without working too hard.

author: Electro Detective
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 04:10:54 am
content: Circlotron's plan to fix stuff and make people happy will no doubt attract plenty of female actionLet the suckers enjoy their Space Race and Cold War BS,that stuff won't get you laid

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 06:43:43 am
content: Hmm, how about a riddle along similar lines:- How far back in time could you go,- With a minimum of hardware, and whatever knowledge you know of,- To do things how amazing?Some examples could be very simple... imagine bringing modern knowledge just of chemistry, metallurgy, biology for that matter, back to any era of civilization -- you could cure ills while developing weapons able to crush all nations. Bootstrapping yourself chemically (locating/mining and synthesizing all the reagents, and building all the equipment you need, to do analytical chemistry) could take quite a long time, even bringing along a few select important books, but given a few decades? Sure.Tim

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 06:58:08 am
content: Take a Bitcoin and Ethereum ASIC mining rig back 8 years and make yourself into a multi billionaire.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 07:29:04 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on July 10, 2017, 06:58:08 amNah, just buying a few PCs available at that time (knowledge) would be enough. Or just buying bitcoins for peanuts while they did not cost anything. ASIC miner would insta-kill bitcoin at it's infancy as it would exceed computing speed of entire network.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 07:33:41 am
content: Quote from: MK14 on July 10, 2017, 02:50:05 amModern capacitors have higher temperature ratings than old ones.

author: bjcuizon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 08:02:14 am
content: If I could do back indeed, like Marty McFly, I would help Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard make their "cheaper" audio oscillators...Just buy a $5 sig gen board on ebay and give it to them to experiment on 1939

author: neo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 08:08:28 am
content: You want to know what i would do if i had a magical portal? Invest in Apple, Coca-Cola, Microsoft and a few others, then i would go back to the year 1953 and i would buy a house with a a lot of land and build a garage. I would buy every old car i want and piece of test equipment and have it all waiting for me perfectly preserved by a groundsman that was paid through the years by a blind trust.No i would not kill Hitler, the greatest illusion of all is the illusion that we can change anything. There will always be a man and there will always be a city.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 08:18:56 am
content: Quote from: alm on July 10, 2017, 04:02:18 am+1Heck, even the time machine only can pass human tissue or living cells, and will destroy all non living material, you still can memorize few high price patents details, company stocks for long term fund, while buried treasure locations, lottery and etc for short term big fund.Once settled, buy all T&M gears that money can buy, and open up a repair shop for free (heck, even branches), and become a legend yet filthy rich.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 10:36:34 am
content: If you could go back to the '50s, that will be quite an adventure, but that kind of fantasy really starts to fly if you play it the other way around:Pretend for yourself that you are from the future, and for today you traveled back in time in order to visit "El año de Gracia 2017".Seriously, just pause and image that. Good. Now, continue your today 2017's day. Act normal, but in your mind keep thinking like you were a visitor from the future. If you'll do it right, then any ordinary instance of "now", any developing story, any moment of the current life, even a dull one, anything can be experienced like an epic slow-mo flashback, filled with time nostalgia if you want.How awesome is that!

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 10:51:54 am
content: Quote from: wraper on July 10, 2017, 07:33:41 amI can believe that. Presumably in old equipment, they located the capacitors, away from big heat sources, so that the temperatures were NOT too high for the capacitors of the time.EDIT: My original reply was more trying to make a funny/joke, rather than be absolutely 100% technically accurate.E.g. Mains dropper resistors, don't really partially glow red hot (as far as I remember). I was just exaggerating to make it more funny.

author: DenzilPenberthy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 11:39:28 am
content: 'If'....Clearly someone has already done it which is why we are now in the dystopian alternative timeline where evil Biff Tannen is president of the USA.

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 12:03:46 pm
content: I would make a very round wheel and perhaps do some work with fire.If that went according to plan I would try and move on to electric lighting for the cave.Finally I might build a hang glider and fly it (subject to Pterodactyls not being in the areas)(Oh and I might predict the next solar Eclipse and see if I could get myself set-up as high priest or deity etc.)

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 12:07:28 pm
content: Quote from: NivagSwerdna on July 10, 2017, 12:03:46 pmAfter the inventions of the Wheel and fire, you could start inventing farming, by "raising some chickens" and sort out an automatic way of locking their pen. Maybe using 4 AA batteries.

author: LaserSteve
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 01:42:16 pm
content: You guys are doing it all wrong. Rent the DVD of the movie "The Final Countdown". Watch the folks in the Limo and learn.Really, Really, Good Movie, done before CGI.Steve

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 02:01:26 pm
content: All you need:http://geekologie.com/image.php?path=/2009/11/25/time-machine-cart-full.jpg

author: tronde
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 04:41:10 pm
content: Quote from: Nusa on July 10, 2017, 02:39:24 amhttp://dos4ever.com/uTracer3/uTracer3_pag0.html

author: lapm
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2017, 05:30:34 pm
content: Forget about modern instrument, give me notebook of every lottery number, sports bet, stock market history... I would have more money then banks to buy equipment i want, not to mention invest big on technologies i know will be big in "future". Microsoft, Apple, IBM...

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2017, 08:41:53 pm
content: I don't need to go back myself, or even want to. No Internet, no forums, no modern medicine, no surface mount, no GPUs, no PC gaming, booooring...My time travel needs are simple. All I want is a small time portal, about 2cm in diameter. Enough for a sighting camera and about .22" clearance to spare.Since if we're assuming time travel at all, the ability to change the past is a given.Though, this is a proof time travel is impossible, since if it _was_ possible, the past and present would be very, very different. Much worse or much better, depending on the philosophy of whoever invented time travel first.And there would be no monetized betting schemes, since running them at a profit would be impossible.

author: neo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2017, 09:05:35 pm
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on July 12, 2017, 08:41:53 pmCongratulations you found the biggest problem of time travel, multiple paradox syndrome. We could of course change nothing that matters but we can't do that now, so what would the difference be? Inside knowledge? That is a concept that is laughable at best, but it would not be completely futile.

author: Neomys Sapiens
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2017, 09:22:39 pm
content: Whoa, you are all really on a collision course with history!When I did read the title, it didn't take me that far at first. I thought back 25..30 years, when neither a DSO (hurray, we have a DSO!) nor the well known LAs were much help with a unknown serial protocol and you often ended up counting and deciphering the bits from the scope's screen.

author: Neomys Sapiens
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2017, 09:28:42 pm
content: And you, Sir, are finally convincing me that all the lewd and depraved things that I have heard about Australians were not exaggerated even to the slightest degree!

author: Electro Detective
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2017, 11:39:26 pm
content: Quote from: Neomys Sapiens on July 12, 2017, 09:28:42 pmBeg to differ Sir, Australians are still at the starting gate compared to our european cousinsIt takes a quite a few decades for the original full strength lewdness and depravity to make its way over here and seep in

author: Neomys Sapiens
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2017, 12:51:35 am
content: Glad to help out there - my former co-worker converted to marsupialism and resides in NSW. (I always wondered what sort of a direction North-south-west is meant to be). As far as lewdness is concerned, he is as good as they come.

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2017, 01:12:13 am
content: Hey Trump, you should run for Presidency.I think; that's a very; very; good idea.On a more serious note: all of my back in time fantasies involve bringing my laptop. I'd be strange and wondrous for a good 4 to 8 hours, then I'd be constantly putting together strange piles and hoping they're within the voltage spec of the laptop's input DC-DC."Who's that mom?". "Oh that's just crazy Whales, making towered stacks of strange chemicals and burning his shack down all the time. We think he's trying to get his strange machine to work, but he made a mistake years ago and destroyed it.But he still tries. Every day."

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2017, 01:42:15 am
content: Quote from: Neomys Sapiens on July 12, 2017, 09:28:42 pmMaybe you should stop devoting so much of your time listening to lewd and depraved things.

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2017, 01:49:00 am
content: Quote from: T3sl4co1l on July 10, 2017, 06:43:43 amI'm reminded of Mark Twain'sConnecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court.As I recall, it doesn't end that well.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2017, 03:15:30 am
content: Quote from: Circlotron on July 10, 2017, 01:04:46 amRadio repair shops were thin on the ground in really small Australian towns in the 1950s.Most such stuff went either to a city, or the nearest large town.1950s Electronics were a lot more reliable than people think using hindsight, so rather than repairing "dearly loved radios", most of the time, as Mains power was not near as widespread as it is now, you would probably be selling "dry batteries".These would be 45v "HT" batteries (often used in series to give 90v HT), I.5v or 9v filament batteries (depending on whether the battery radios used parallel or series filaments).Alternately, you would be recharging 6v "accumulators" (car batteries) for larger home console radios using vibrator power supplies.http://radioremembered.org/vpwrsup.htm)"HI-FI" was pretty much a geek hobby back then, & most of the gear was made by the owners, who wouldn't need your help.QuoteBy the 1950s, plain old paper capacitors were a lot better than their older versions,.If you wanted something better, AEE sold metallised paper capacitors, & Ducon & UCC sold polystyrene caps.Interestingly, Polyester (1951), & Polycarbonate (1953), caps existed, so a well read 1950s Serviceman wouldn't have been awed by them.What he would probably point out was that the working voltages of your 2017 versions were too low .Most capacitors were 400v working or better, with 600vw common.What would you use your "decent high value, small electros " for?Cathode bypasses are the only thing that comes to mind.Quote"Body tip & spot" coding was long gone for new components by the 1950s, so no problem there, except they usually only used the E12 code, so the extra bands would be a bit confusing----hell! they confuse me!Some 1950s power & audio transformers used plastic bobbins, but it was more common in European stuff.IF transformers, & so on, used plastic.By the way, could you pick me up some 1950s IF transformers & poke 'em back through the wormhole?

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2017, 04:59:06 am
content: Quote from: helius on July 13, 2017, 01:49:00 amTim

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 14, 2017, 01:05:50 pm
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on July 12, 2017, 08:41:53 pmTime travel is not only possible it is the normal state when stationary / moving at significantly less than light speeds etc, not being near large amounts of matter.I'm travelling at approx 1 second per second.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 14, 2017, 02:06:26 pm
content: Quote from: MK14 on July 10, 2017, 10:51:54 amHeh, except when they did because something had shorted or someone had shortened or replaced the dropper mains cable with a nice, clean modern looking flex.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 14, 2017, 02:17:09 pm
content: Quote from: T3sl4co1l on July 10, 2017, 06:43:43 amImagine bringing back documents and proof some 117 years. Documents, describing every war, with results. Describing every natural disaster. Describing every plane crash, and stupid decisions, that lead to stock market crash.And release that information. Hey country X, you will start a war, you going to lose, and a total of 40 million people will die, and it leads to another war, where 80 million people will die. And maybe make the 20. century decent.

author: Electro Detective
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 16, 2017, 10:10:24 am
content: Quote from: NANDBlog on July 14, 2017, 02:17:09 pmI'd say it may be worth making any last minute changes to the Will... ASAP