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2009-07-02 Rarities
Posted by Accutron

Rarities Two new MBST part numbers have recently been obtained, the first new additions to the Beam Switching Tubes section in over two years. The parts in question are the rare-yet-boring BD-401 external magnet type, and the previously unknown BX-3001, an unshielded Beam-X Switch variant. Neither of these part numbers are listed in any known Burroughs documentation. Another recent 'addition' is the rediscovery of an older article, misplaced during a major site reorganization last year: the Hewlett-Packard First Generation Computer Census. This newly updated version lists every known extant specimen of first generation HP minicomputer, with accompanying details of various resolution and accuracy. If you have a computer eligible for this census, please submit your information via E-mail.

2009-06-06 The Spinning
Posted by AnubisTTP

We have added an assortment of new items over the past week, as the post-Hamvention shakedown continues. Most notably, a couple uncommon dekatrons have been added to the Glow Transfer Counting Tubes section: the Ericsson GS10E and Mullard Z302C. Several new items have been added to the Filament Displays section as well, including the DR2000 and DA2020 Numitron display tubes, and the rather uncommon DTF104B end-view Numitron. There has also been an update to the Dekatrons of the World reference; datasheets for many of the more common dekatron tubes are now available. Need to know the pinouts for a GSA10G? We've got you covered.

2009-05-24 Dichotomy
Posted by Accutron

In post-Hamvention tradition, I thought I'd rant a little bit. Now, I don't normally pick on stupid teenagers, but public ridicule is nature's way of balancing the pH in the gene pool. I woke up this morning, only to be greeted with the following comment on our new Hamvention video: "i went this year as well as last and all i seen out side was over priced junk". Allow me to translate: the grammatically challenged 19-year-old who posted the comment has apparently been attending Hamvention for the tenured span of two years, and is proclaiming that the outdoor flea market is nothing but overpriced junk. This is in response to me referring to the indoor offerings as "crappy overpriced stuff" in the video. This is a perfect demonstration of the social dichotomy that is Hamvention: there are outdoor people, and there are indoor people. I am an outdoor person. I care not about the newest Yaesu handheld, nor do I wish to buy counterfeit Luxeon stars for genuine Luxeon prices. I would much rather buy $100 tubes for $2, interact with intelligent people about diverse electronics subjects, listen to Polka Bob WC3P play the accordion, and of course make some money. The flea market is a vast collection of legitimate historical artifacts, floating in a sea of cash, wrapped in an insulating blanket of worthless obsolete ham equipment. With an applied knowledge of vintage electronics, the flea market will pay you thousands of dollars for your attendance. The indoor exhibits do nothing but make your feet tired and your wallet light, with little to show for it other than some obsolete PC RAM and a handful of Chinese LEDs. First rule of Hamvention: if all of the stuff you bought will fit in your Icom tote bag, you're doing multiple things wrong. Now, let's get back to those $100 tubes that we paid $2 for (approximately speaking). We've added about a dozen of these new devices to the following sections: Microwave Amplifier & Oscillator Tubes, Spark Gap Tubes, Trigger Tubes & Passives, and Diodes, Triodes, Tetrodes & Pentodes. It is Hamvention after all, so there's always a skew towards klystrons and other power radio tubes. Instead of me listing the new part numbers, just look for the entries with virtually no adjacent information.

2009-05-08 The Impending Pandemic
Posted by Accutron

Please pardon the absence of news as of late; Dayton Hamvention is once again upon us, and we've been quite busy getting ready. Next weekend we will be occupying flea market booth numbers FE3038, FE3039 and FE3040, and will be selling a very substantial inventory of interesting electronics, both old and new. Don't let our meager eBay offerings fool you, we will have our full inventory available at Hamvention, including pre-assembled Yilane YS-601 demonstrators and kit versions of other Yilane products. So, come spend $25.00 on a ticket, buy some electronics crap, meet nerds from all over the world and get infected with H1N1 swine flu. After all, if you're going to catch the swine flu, it might as well be at an event called Hamvention. Despite the lack of news, we have slipped in a few site updates. Several new entries have been added to the Solid State Indicators and Solid State Displays section, and I wrote up a little off-topic article on my favorite new toy, a Doxa SUB 600 T-Graph. We've also added Yilane product guides to the Articles section.

2009-04-01 Day of the Dekatron
Posted by AnubisTTP

We have added several new devices to the site in the past week, including a rare GSA10G 'direct drive' dekatron. As far as we know, this is the first time operational photos of this strange device have ever appeared on the internet. We have also added a number of devices to the Solid State Displays section, including the HP 5082-7415, the Litronix DL330, a Siemens DL340 display, and a previously unknown Litronix two-digit display. We have also added a new article, Dekatrons of the World, a comprehensive list of every known dekatron part number with diagrams and basic specificatons.

2009-03-13 Accutron Time
Posted by Accutron

I've finally finished a long overdue article discussing the Bulova Accutron Chronometric Micro-Powerplant, the definitive way to tell time during the 1960s. The Accutron was the most revolutionary timekeeping mechanism to be developed in over 300 years, yet it would be swept aside by quartz technology in less than a decade. Though it's not exactly my cup of tea, one of our customers has used a YS-601 in a piece of mixed media sculpture, which is currently being displayed in a Seattle art gallery and is available for sale. If you're in the market for a YS-601, an IN-12 nixie web counter and $3700 worth of wire coat hangers, this just might be for you. The sculpture in question can be viewed from 5:09 to 5:43 in the video.

2009-03-07 The Eyes Have It
Posted by AnubisTTP

We are happy to announce our latest product, the YS-150 Tuning Eye Demonstrator. The YS-150 is a compact 'magic eye' tuning indicator tube driver circuit, which generates a bouncing visual effect on an EM84-type side view eye tube. The YS-150 has two speed settings, slow-change RGB under-tube lighting, and perhaps the most unique of all, the YS-150 can be powered with a single 5VDC supply. The YS-150 is currently available in pre-assembled form on eBay, and we will also be offering it as a user-assembled kit in the future.

2009-02-27 Num3rals
Posted by AnubisTTP

An assortment of new number-generating devices have been added to the site in the past few weeks: * Solid State Displays: Two new Texas Instruments displays, the TIL311, and the TIA8447, as well as another HP intelligent display, the QDSP-2021. * Gas Discharge Displays: A tiny Beckman SP332 panaplex display. * Filament Displays:An alphanumeric minitron, the KW-105AL, and a bizzare light pipe display made by MSC. We are also happy to announce the kit version of our A108 dekatron spinner, available in our eBay store.

2009-01-28 Let There Be Spin
Posted by AnubisTTP

We have made several significant additions to the Glow Transfer Counting Tubes section over the past few weeks, including the addition of an extremely rare Elesta EZ10 nomotron tube. The EZ10 is the smallest, fastest nomotron in the world, and the only one known to be filled with something other than neon. Be sure to also take a look at the 7978 dekatron, one of the few counting tubes to be first-sourced by Raytheon. Other new additions include a GC10/4B counting tube, new better pictures of Western Electric's bizarre 6167 in operation, and two examples of the unusual GS12D base-12 selector tube. We have also added a few new dekatron videos our Videos section that are definitely worth a look.

2009-01-10 Stuff Happens
Posted by AnubisTTP

Another batch of new items have been added to the website: * Solid State Displays: Three new HP smart displays, the HDSP-2010, QDSP-2273 and the HDSP 5082-7359. * Analog & Mixed Signal Integrated Circuits: Analog Devices DAC80Z D/A converter. * Gas Discharge Tubes:Two new helium neon laser tubes, one manufactured by Melles Griot, and one made by Uniphase. We also have added a few new videos to our Video page, including one of the tiny A108 dekatron in operation .

2008-12-25 New Spinner
Posted by Accutron

We are pleased to announce our new in-house product branding, Yilane Systems, as well as our first product under the new brand, the YS-650 Dekatron Demonstrator. The YS-650 is a unique line-driven dekatron driver, designed to operate the tiny Sovtek A108 dekatron and other Sovtek dekatrons of similar configuration. The YS-650 is capable of driving the A108 off normal 60Hz line frequency, and can also accept a TTL pulse source (up to the 10kHz limit of the A108 dekatron) through the YS-650's external pulse interface. The first production unit has just been completed, and is currently available for purchase through eBay. We expect to achieve full-scale production of the YS-650 in the next few weeks, and will also be offering it in a user-assembled kit form, unlike our computerized YS-601 demonstrator which is only available in a pre-assembled state.

2008-12-06 Getting to Fifth Base
Posted by Accutron

We have recently obtained the world's smallest dekatrons, the Sovtek A108 and A109. Even smaller than the Elesta ECT100, the A108 and A109 are base-5 unidirectional selectors in an envelope identical to the Soviet IN-2 nixie tube. We have also added two different military ICs from the 1960s: the extremely early Texas Instruments SN514 NASA flat-pack, and the Western Electric GF40143 hybrid IC, used in the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) defense computer.

2008-11-15 Surprise, More Tubes
Posted by Accutron

We've added many new things to various sections over the past month. The Burroughs MBST reference has been updated with all known tube types and all known specifications, and we've added something akin to a development history to the MBST section of the museum. Digging through patents and internal documents is tedious and difficult, so please forgive any errors. We've also added new devices to the following museum sections: Glow Transfer Counting Tubes, Microwave Amplifier & Oscillator Tubes, Spark Gap Tubes, Trigger Tubes & Passives, and Diodes, Triodes, Tetrodes & Pentodes.

2008-10-05 Transmitter Tubes
Posted by Accutron

We've added a number of unusual TR cells to the Spark Gap Tubes, Trigger Tubes & Passives section: the Bomac JAN-CBNQ-724B, GEC VI507 and the postage stamp-sized Sylvania BW-382. We've also updated the Diodes, Triodes, Tetrodes & Pentodes section with a couple new transmitter triodes: the RCA 6161 and Western Electric 416B

2008-09-21 Outage
Posted by Accutron

We're back, after losing our power for 6 days, 9 hours and 43 minutes. The remnants of hurricane Ike moved by to the northwest of us last Sunday, attacking us with thousands of invisible 80mph vortices which literally sucked trees out of the ground, roots and all. The widespread damage to the power grid, combined with the general ineptitude of Dayton Power & Light, left us in the dark for nearly a week. DP&L claims to prioritize number of customers in service, but given their favoritism of wealthy suburbs, I'd guess their actual priority is number of watts in service. To no surprise, we received our electric bill in the mail about halfway through the outage.

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