When the kids in my class asked for a hint, I told them it had something to do with RPMs. But, being a robotics class, that sent them off in a totally wrong direction: clutches, encoders, etc. Finally, one kid asked his mom, who recognized the device, and he reported back to the class. I think the others were about to kill me, for what they perceived as a red herring!
-Phil
Awesome sauce Phil!
@Erco: Hand painted inductors? They look cool. My favorite old school components are these:
Funny, I was at Numark looking for a USB turntable to digitize my collections of vinyls, and this was on the header.
My modest collection of 78 rpm disks contains some very old and hopefully valuable titles. I have two Victrolas and a 1941 Philco Radio/Phono to play them on. It's quite charming to hear them, scratches and all. But the tonearm tracking force is ridiculously heavy (feels like a half pound!) and even with a new needle it feels like a lathe, scratching material out of the groove. One day, after I get the Corvair running, girls thru college and all my old VHS videos digitized and Youtubed, I'll convert all the 78s to MP3s for posterity.
Unless a giant California earthquake reduces me and all my precious hoardables to rubble first. The race is on!
Funny, I was at Numark looking for a USB turntable to digitize my collections of vinyls, and this was on the header.
My modest collection of 78 rpm disks contains some very old and hopefully valuable titles. I have two Victrolas and a 1941 Philco Radio/Phono to play them on. It's quite charming to hear them, scratches and all. But the tonearm tracking force is ridiculously heavy (feels like a half pound!) and even with a new needle it feels like a lathe, scratching material out of the groove. One day, after I get the Corvair running, girls thru college and all my old VHS videos digitized and Youtubed, I'll convert all the 78s to MP3s for posterity.
Unless a giant California earthquake reduces me and all my precious hoardables to rubble first. The race is on!
I have a Victrola in fairley good condition. They do not sell well around here. Probably 6 dozen 78's, some never opened.
About those spindle adapters - I recognize them, from pictures, but the ones I used didn't have those cutouts. My turntables all came with a puck-like (just smaller) plastic thingy, and that's what I used.
Edit: After reading Localroger's post - yes of course, that's it - those thin adapters were for 'converting' the 45s to a narrow spindle, which is pretty inconvenient. They could easily fall out or disappear somewhere in the stack of records. While the adapter I used came with the turntable, a much more sensible approach.
My parents had one of those furniture console stereo cabinets that was about four feet long, with a sliding cover over the record changer and built-in radio. The record changer was one of those that would play a record then with a fully mechanical mechanism pull the tonearm out, sense the edge of the next record waiting to be dropped, then drop the record and position the tonearm to play it. Really slick late 60's / early 70's tech.
I used it to invent loop play. I had a couple of 45's I wanted to just listen to over and over. The changer came with a converter which was the opposite of the devices upthread -- instead of putting an insert in the 45 so it would fit on the narrow spindle, it fit over the spindle and adapted the entire changer mechanism to work with 45's. I made an adapter of my own out of styrofoam to fit over this big spindle, friction fit so that the tonearm would find it and think there was another record, but incapable of dropping when the mechanism freed it to do so. So it would play my song, the tonearm would sense "another record" but what it played would just be the same one still on the turntable. I wore out a couple of 45's that way.
When the furniture console was finally too obsolete and space-consuming to keep my parents let me take it apart. Turned out that apart from the vinyl record player mechanism and radio tuner, it was completely empty except for a little chassis box about six inches square with four vacuum tubes sticking out of it.
When the furniture console was finally too obsolete and space-consuming to keep my parents let me take it apart. Turned out that apart from the vinyl record player mechanism and radio tuner, it was completely empty except for a little chassis box about six inches square with four vacuum tubes sticking out of it.
Now that was minimalism at it's finest. I always admired those vacuum tube chassis that got so much out of so few components.
Turned out that apart from the vinyl record player mechanism and radio tuner, it was completely empty except for a little chassis box about six inches square with four vacuum tubes sticking out of it.
Also true of my '41 Philco radio phono, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Thisis back when radios were bona fide FURNITURE! Bought mine for $20 at Happy's flea market in Roanoke VA ~1980 when I was going to VA Tech. Still have it.
Philco was da bomb back then. I grew up with one of these:
It played 78s and (IIRC) 45s. I had it in my room while in high school and built a hiding spot into it for contraband. I think my brother still has it.
I acquired a portable tube type record player when my much older half-brother left for college. Had fun playing my dad's 78s on it. Had a couple of 45s too, with that big spindle adapter. Still remember that glow from the tuner dial at night. Something I touched on the turntable used to give me a shock, fun times.
Tunes you can't get enough of, and secret compartments, Do tell more.
So the top part I recognize (or think I do) as a 2.4GHz spread-spectrum receiver from HobbyKing. For some reason, another board is plugged into all the PWM servo ports. It appears to be a multiplexer. But why multiplex them? What device could benefit from wireless remote control but would need that number of channels of that type of signal? Beats me.
Maybe a seven-separate-servo-signals to cppm encoder? If you swap from FlySky to FrSky or Spektrum encoding, there are lots of of-the-shelf receivers that can do that unaided.
Comments
Those? Capacitors wearing their rates in color codes.
Oh and your robots are all away for March.
Awesome sauce Phil!
@Erco: Hand painted inductors? They look cool. My favorite old school components are these:
Not sure how I confused them.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracer_gun
My modest collection of 78 rpm disks contains some very old and hopefully valuable titles. I have two Victrolas and a 1941 Philco Radio/Phono to play them on. It's quite charming to hear them, scratches and all. But the tonearm tracking force is ridiculously heavy (feels like a half pound!) and even with a new needle it feels like a lathe, scratching material out of the groove. One day, after I get the Corvair running, girls thru college and all my old VHS videos digitized and Youtubed, I'll convert all the 78s to MP3s for posterity.
Unless a giant California earthquake reduces me and all my precious hoardables to rubble first. The race is on!
We have space enough now a days to use lossless encoding. Straight to WAV or FLAC.
Counter weight for a tone arm?
I have a Victrola in fairley good condition. They do not sell well around here. Probably 6 dozen 78's, some never opened.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ion-ION-CLASSIC-LP-Usb-Conversion-Turntable-For-Mac-And-Pc/46712212
That surprises me. I thought all New England was the mecca of antique dealers.
That makes you my new best friend! (My "Titanic" homage to actor Bill Paxton, who passed away Saturday.)
Edit: After reading Localroger's post - yes of course, that's it - those thin adapters were for 'converting' the 45s to a narrow spindle, which is pretty inconvenient. They could easily fall out or disappear somewhere in the stack of records. While the adapter I used came with the turntable, a much more sensible approach.
No sir. Nor is it a needle valve to blow up basketballs. That's a vertical conductor.
I used it to invent loop play. I had a couple of 45's I wanted to just listen to over and over. The changer came with a converter which was the opposite of the devices upthread -- instead of putting an insert in the 45 so it would fit on the narrow spindle, it fit over the spindle and adapted the entire changer mechanism to work with 45's. I made an adapter of my own out of styrofoam to fit over this big spindle, friction fit so that the tonearm would find it and think there was another record, but incapable of dropping when the mechanism freed it to do so. So it would play my song, the tonearm would sense "another record" but what it played would just be the same one still on the turntable. I wore out a couple of 45's that way.
When the furniture console was finally too obsolete and space-consuming to keep my parents let me take it apart. Turned out that apart from the vinyl record player mechanism and radio tuner, it was completely empty except for a little chassis box about six inches square with four vacuum tubes sticking out of it.
Now that was minimalism at it's finest. I always admired those vacuum tube chassis that got so much out of so few components.
Also true of my '41 Philco radio phono, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Thisis back when radios were bona fide FURNITURE! Bought mine for $20 at Happy's flea market in Roanoke VA ~1980 when I was going to VA Tech. Still have it.
It played 78s and (IIRC) 45s. I had it in my room while in high school and built a hiding spot into it for contraband. I think my brother still has it.
-Phil
Tunes you can't get enough of, and secret compartments, Do tell more.
-Phil
-Phil