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2010-08-21 Do You Hear That, Mr. Anderson?
Posted by AnubisTTP

Numerous new tubes and displays have been added to the Gas Discharge Displays section in the past week, including an example of the very large NEO5000 planar gas discharge display. The NEO5000 may not be able to control the Matrix, but it, along with the NEO8000, are some of the largest Panaplex displays ever made available to the public. We have also added another planar display, the Pantek NCR08501 'mock VFD' readout, as well as two Nixie tubes, the RFT Z560M, and the crudely constructed Sovetek IN-1. We have also made a number of minor updates to the Filament Displays section, including the addition of datasheets and new pictures for several items.

2010-07-29 Silicon
Posted by AnubisTTP

How small can you make a projection display? If it is an IEE 340 series, the answer is 'quite small indeed'. With a digit height of only 13mm, the 340 series is one of the smallest projection displays available, yet it still contains all of the optical components of much larger projection displays. While on the subject of displays, we have also added two other display devices to the site: a Futaba 9CT06 multidigit VFD display and an early Monsanto MAN6A LED display. In other news, we have also added an entire new section to the website: Discrete Semiconductors, a place to cover early transistors and diodes. Currently this section contains entries for the Sylvania 2N35, Raytheon CK718, Western Electric 2N559, and the Western Electric GF401xx series devices.

2010-07-07 Dot Matrix Revolutions
Posted by AnubisTTP

Once again, we have added a number of new items to the Electronics Museum: * Incandescent Displays: A mechanical Ferranti-Packard flip dot display,a device that uses a 5x7 array of magnetic coils to store and display data on a matrix of rotating dots. * Gas Discharge Displays: The minuscule B4998, one of the worlds tiniest Nixie tubes. * Detection Tubes: A gigantic Hamamatsu R1250, a fourteen-stage photomultiplier used in scintillation counters. * Solid State Displays: Two similar LED displays - the MAN2185 and DL2185, eight-digit, 15-segment devices with integrated magnifiers.

2010-06-22 Objects Not to Scale
Posted by AnubisTTP

We have gone a slight bit off topic and posted a new project to the Articles page, describing the construction of a gigantic 5x7 LED matrix out of pink foam insulation and various other commonly available items. With a digit height of just over 32 inches, this is one display that even people with severe eye damage should be able to read. Speaking of projects, one of our customers has constructed an interesting dekatron-based lamp for the Coachella music festival that is definitely worth checking out. It contains an eclectic medley of vintage display technology, including an AR-1 argon filled lamp, three OG-4 dekatrons, an OG-3 dekatron and four IN-13 neon bargraphs. The Coachella lamp also uses a fistful of drivers, including one of our own Yilane YS-610 universal dekatron computers and an Arduino development board.

2010-06-03 Forty-Eight Chromosomes
Posted by AnubisTTP

The Monsanto MV2 is a part number recognizable to any LED collector. The world's first production LED, with its iconic gold package and dim red output, was the centerpiece of any collector's stash. People trolled Internet electronics forums, searching for someone with a sample to trade. In a world of ChinaCorp 5mm LEDs, eBay auctions for MV2s commanded sobering prices. The electronics world wanted the MV2, with all its dim-red-gold-plated pedigree. There is one big problem with this though: the Monsanto MV2 is a green LED. Sometimes mistakes are made. There are no datasheets available for the early Monsanto LEDs, no handy lists at Digi-Key, no dead links in worthless partminer sites. With no source of reference, it only takes one site inadvertently posting wrong information for a guess to magically change into iron-clad fact. The red LED that people have commonly considered the MV2 up to this point is actually the Monsanto MV1. They are still rare, and still hold the pedigree of being Monsanto's first LED part number. We have long suspected that the MV2 was a falsely identified part, but until we recently obtained sealed examples of both the Monsanto MV1 and MV2, we did not have the proof to make such an allegation. We have of course updated our website to contain the correct information and photos for both the Monsanto MV1 and MV2, which can be viewed on the Solid State Indicators page.

2010-05-24 Table Scraps
Posted by Accutron

Forgive me if my after-Hamvention news post isn't up to my normally prompt and ascerbic standards; one of my computers has had a meltdown, and most of our Hamvention photos and video are currently trapped on the startup drive. I really wish they could capture the viral reticence of a Macintosh and somehow inject it into an actual computer. As though a vengeful god read my 2008 after-Hamvention post, we had the unfortunate luck of being situated across from an evil gold scrapper this year. Last year we were across from Polka Bob, who didn't appear to be in attendance this time. Instead, his space was occupied by a particularly argumentative scrapper and his knife-wielding, Decepticon-t-shirt-wearing offspring. We watched them shred and stack random cool stuff for three days, including at least one core memory board and a number of Energon cubes. Nonetheless, the gold scrappers were unable to prevent us from finding interesting items composed of other materials. Notable finds include a number of highly toxic Weston cells which should immediately get us on the TSA No Fly List, and a 5J29 split anode magnetron which had to be rescued from its decorative employment in an acrylic desk lamp. We also had a forbidden Thursday purchase: a number of rare photomultipliers including an attractive RCA 6342A. One not-so-industrial tube we came across is an Aerolux Bluebird Bulb, a decorative phosphor-doped argon lamp.

2010-05-08 Ham Spam
Posted by Accutron

Dayton Hamvention 2010 is impending, and we will once again be occupying flea market booth numbers FE3038, FE3039 and FE3040. We will have our full online inventory available, as well as a generous pile of random heavy things too unspeakable to describe here. If you're one of the unfortunate geeks who has never attended Hamvention before, you might want to have look at our video from last year and see what you've been missing.

2010-04-30 Things are Made of Stuff
Posted by AnubisTTP

We have recently added several new items to the site, including a sample of the hard-to-find Monsanto MAN-4 to our Solid State Displays page. The MAN-4 is an early low-cost seven segment display, one which has been packaged in a standard plastic DIP instead of the PCB-and-epoxy packages of some earlier Monsanto displays like the MAN-1 and MAN-2. In other news, we have also added the rather common Soviet IV-4, and correspondingly uncommon General Electric Y4075 display tubes to the Vacuum Fluorescent Displays page, as well as a gold plated Delco 2DV4 Nuvistor to the Diodes, Triodes, Tetrodes & Pentodes page. If you are looking for vacuum electronics that will not clash with your ill-conceived tooth jewelry, this could be the Nuvistor for you.

2010-04-15 Eye of the Storm
Posted by AnubisTTP

We are happy to announce the release of our newest product, the YS-160 Tuning Eye Visualizer. The YS-160 is a compact 'magic eye' tuning indicator tube driver circuit, which will open and close the vanes of an EM84 eye tube in sync with a sound source you provide. The YS-160 is currently available in limited quantities through our web store as well as on eBay. Due to popular demand, we have also made available a kit version of the gears from our Square Gears article. As with the YS-160, we have made kits available both on eBay as well as our on-site web store.

2010-03-30 Incompetence
Posted by Accutron

Yesterday, I looked out the window, only to see a Time-Warner guy up on the pole, messing with our cable junction box thing. Apparently they were hooking up a new customer. Soon after that, I discovered that we had lost our internet. After sitting on the phone with our so-called providers for a half hour, we were informed that a technician would be out to assist us on Wednesday. Thus ensued much threats and cursing, which eventually convinced Time-Warner that it would probably be easier to simply get out here and fix the problem, rather than contend with my wife on the phone for the next two days. After working on it until 10:30PM last night, they finally gave up. This morning, it appears that service has been restored.

2010-03-21 Pixel Art
Posted by AnubisTTP

As part of our continuing campaign to prevent the heat-death of the universe, we have been busy adding a number of quite rare devices to the Electronics Museum: * Imaging Tubes: The rarely seen Futaba TL-3508XA, a monstrous eight pixel flood beam CRT, used in Sony's iconic 'Jumbotron' stadium displays. * Gas Discharge Displays: The completely bizzare Soviet ITM2M, a four color, 16 pixel gas display tube also for use in 'jumbotron' style displays. * Display & Counting Circuits: The rare Burroughs 'BIPCO' BIP-8001, an unusual Nixie display driver that incorporates custom Burroughs glassivated semiconductors. * Solid State Indicators: Two early orange LEDs, both misguided attempts to create an orange LED device by mixing dies and epoxy of differing colors.

2010-02-23 Finding Nimo
Posted by AnubisTTP

Humans have come up with a variety of ways to display numbers electronically, but Nimo tubes easily rank as one of the most bizarre. These devices, which consist of an array of electron guns covered by digit shaping masks, allow a numeric character to be drawn on the surface of a phosphor screen without the need for deflection or the other control signals present in conventional cathode ray displays. We have added two examples of this technology, an IEE BA-0000-P31 and a Telefunken XM1000, to the Imaging Tubes section. We have also added the odd-looking Telefunken RV12P2000 pentode to the Diodes, Triodes, Tetrodes & Pentodes section and an obscure Western Electric LED to the Solid State Indicators section.

2010-01-30 Be Counted
Posted by AnubisTTP

We are happy to fill a gaping hole in our counting tube collection: the GC10/2P dekatron is now finally represented on the Glow Transfer Counting Tubes page. This tube, the only miniature dekatron commercially manufactured by Ericsson Telephone Ltd., is quite uncommon and we are glad to at last have it represented on our site. Speaking of counters, we have also added a Beckman neon column counter to the Display & Counting Circuits section. These devices were in common use for counting and display before the advent of Nixie tubes, and it does not take much imagination to see why this is a display method in need of improvement. We have also added two other displays: the Soviet IV-15, a clone of the popular 6977 tuning indicator, has been added to the Variable Indicator Tubes section, and an extremely rare engineering sample variant of the GE Y1938 VFD has been added to the Vacuum Fluorescent Displays section.

2010-01-18 Coelacanth
Posted by Accutron

We've recently added the bizarre Melz LP-4 to the Beam Switching Tubes section of the museum. The LP-4 is a Soviet beam switching tube of extremely odd construction: unlike every other known production trochotron, the LP-4 features a linear construction, and represents a type of device once thought to have never been commercially produced. The LP-4 is electrically identical to a linear trochotron described in the original 1946 Ericsson patent, but incorporates an unusual pseudo-circular construction to accommodate its unique UFO-shaped acorn envelope. Another new member of the Beam Switching Tubes section is the Burroughs MO-10, perhaps the rarest cosmetic variant of the archetypal 6700. The MO-10 was produced for only a very short period, and we have the only surviving example currently known. We've also completed our Accutron Astronaut Variant Guide, a particularly useful collector reference that has been in development for over a decade, and is only about 40 years overdue.

2010-01-09 Filthy Capitalism
Posted by Accutron

We're pleased to announce the public beta launch of our new on-site web store. Our eBay customers shouldn't worry, as we intend to maintain the same eBay offerings we always have, but our new store will eventually include our entire electronics inventory, many hundreds of interesting vintage electronic items and some modern electronics as well. Having our own store allows us unrestricted inventory growth, without the accompanying unrestricted fees and headaches involved in eBay sales. In other news, we purchased a number of Honeywell GG440A18 'Golden Gnat' military surplus rate gyroscopes. The GG440 has gained recent fame on the electronics blogs, as a curious but somewhat unapproachable device. We haven't had a chance to fiddle with these odd components yet, but we have a few pretty pictures.

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