Category Archives: retro technology

Technology mainly from the field of entertainment electronics, audio and video technology. Repairs and equipment presentations

retro technology

analogue multimeter – Goerz Minitest

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Goerz Minitest
Goerz Minitest

The Goerz multimeter, model: Minitest FE5101 dates from 1969 and was manufactured by the company Goerz Elektro Ges.m.b.H from Vienna.

Introductory sentence from the operating instructions: “It is a multi-measuring instrument, which is particularly suitable for service work in the field of news and radio technology and electronics due to its small dimensions and low weight as a pocket instrument It allows the measurement of: equal and AC voltages, DC and AC, resistance, capacitance and frequency. “

The internal resistance is 20kOhm for DC and 4kOhm for AC. The achieved accuracy is 2.5%

IMAG1503
inside view

As overload protection, the moving-coil meter is equipped with antiparallel-connected diodes.

In this model, the measuring ranges are not to be selected by a selector switch, but each individual measuring range is designed as a socket on the device. The sockets themselves are suitable for 2mm banana plugs. The power supply for the resistance measurement comes from a 3V dry cell battery (type 2R10 duplex battery).

 

IMAG1497
scale

For the measurement of the capacitance with this device an external voltage is necessary, because here no own alternating voltage generator is installed. This said external voltage is the 50 Hz mains voltage which is connected to the device via its own supply cable. So a capacity measurement up to 500nF can be achieved. Measurements greater than 0.5uF are no longer possible due to the low measuring frequency. Goerz supplied a polystyrene transport case for storage and transport.

retro technology

An old tin …

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… from the fund of grandmother’s cottage is this instant powder can.IMG_3873

The post does not have much to do with technology this time, but I’ve noticed this tin can because of the age and the designer graphics from times gone by. That’s why a few pictures of it must come in here. You do not see that very often anymore.

As can be seen in the photo, the instant powder can is the packaging of Ovomaltine.

Ovaltine contains the ingredients barley malt, milk powder, low-fat / de-oiled cocoa, whey powder, glucose syrup, yeast and honey. From the names of the ingredients is also the name Ovomaltine together: ovum (Latin egg) and malt (English malt). The high proportion of malt gives the Ovaltine their typical taste. Like the powder of instant cocoa drinks, Ovaltine is ready to drink after being stirred into cold or warm milk. (Wikipedia)

According to online research, the tin dates from the years 1954-1961 and was apparently used by my grandmother as a storage container for mothballs 🙂IMG_3880

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_3879 IMG_3878 IMG_3876

retro technology, vintage toys

Wickie, Slime and Paiper

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_20160611_185029
ISBN 3-205-98989-9

It does not have anything directly to do with technology, but perhaps fits under the title “retro” as a post very well in the blog: A book for browsing memories of the 70s and 80s is the band “Wickie, Slime and Paiper” by Susanne Pauser and Wolfgang Ritschl. The book was published in 1999 by Böhler-Verlag Wien. It is a printed summary of an online forum as a souvenir album for the children of the seventies. It mentions numerous products and fashions, television and radio programs that were up to date at the time and is discussed and commented by the protagonists of the forum, themselves children of the seventies. The print is accompanied by scanned images of posters, catalogs, advertising slogans.

 

wsup2
Eskimo  ice-pricesheet(prices in Austrian Schilling 😉 )

 

retro technology

Minerva Tempocord

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IMAG0039
Minerva Tempocord

A multi-band radio receiver from the year 1957 is the Tempocord of the company Minerva. The company Minerva was founded in Vienna in 1919 and began in 1924 with the production of radio receivers. The radios were initially made under the name Radiola or Aeriola. It was not until 1926 that the receivers were built under the name Minerva. The name Minerva was used until 1972.

The device here refuses any service after being supplied with the mains voltage. Thus, a first error is found quickly. The mains voltage does not reach the transformer. The reason for this is the mains fuses, which protect the transformer from all poles. Here are both broken. Probably because the transformer tap was clamped to 220V … Rectification and smoothing capacitors are fine.
 
IMAG0038
a look inside the paperfuse
IMAG0037
paper fuse
The fuses, however, are wrapped in paper security wires, which are wrapped at the ends each with a brass clip. Due to the lack of availability of these old fuses, the fuse holders located on the Trafoprint have been swapped for current ones and reinserted. After carefully raising the supply voltage, the receiver was again able to elicit sounds …

Technical Data:

 
  • Manufacturer brand: Minerva-Radio Wien
  • Model:  Tempocord
  • Construction year: 1960
  • Typ: Radio receiver (postwar receiver)
  • tubes: ECC85 ECH81 EF89 EBF89 EM81 EABC80 EL84 EZ80
  • Operating principle / construction: Superhet receiver IF 480/10700 kHz
  • 2 NF stages . 11 FM circles and 6 AM circles
  • wavebands: longwave, medium-wave, shortwave and ultrashortwave
  • Supplyvoltage: 110V, 130V, 150V, 220V,  240Volt
  • Speaker: dynamic permanentmagnet-ovalspeaker
  • Wooden housing with dimensions: (BxHxT)55 x 32 x 25 cm

(sources: wikipedia)

IMAG0040 IMAG0041

(the device was provided for documentation purposes by: Berti)

retro technology

Multimeter analog

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IMAG1347_1
Unigor 6e (ca. 1970)

A good friend of the older generation of technicians is certainly the analog multimeter of the manufacturer Unigor. In this case, it is the model Unigor_6e from the 70s.

An excerpt from the preface of the operating manual:

The electronic instrument Unigor 6e combines the advantages of classical measuring technology with those of modern electronics.

It was specially developed for measurements in the field of electronics and for all those applications where practically no power is required. The high sensitivity is achieved by means of a battery-powered transistor amplifier.

The field effect transistor chopper for DC measurements and the multiple negative feedback guarantee high stability and negligible drift. The large measuring range and the high accuracy of 1% at AC and DC, allows universal use in the radio and television service in test field and laboratories.

The “6e” offers a total

  • 54 DC and AC / voltage ranges
  • 13 dB ranges
  • 12 resistance and capacity ranges
  • 2 temperature ranges
IMAG1350_1
measuring ranges

The electronic components of the meter are powered by four 1.5V batteries and take a current of about 2.5mA. The working range of the electronics is between 4V and 7V. The battery is switched on with the rotary switch (which also represents the R, C adjustment knob at the same time). To check the battery voltage, a check position is provided on the measuring range shutter.

The Unigor 6e also offers a variety of protective devices and is therefore protected against damage caused by incorrect handling and overload. (I can remember quite well from my school time that this is not always the case: D)

The Unigor 6e has an electromechanical circuit breaker function. Its relay responds to overloads with DC and AC and requires no auxiliary power. The protection therefore remains fully effective even when the battery switch or battery is switched off. The restarting in case of permanent overload is prevented by a special switching mechanism.

Furthermore, fuses provide protection at the higher current ranges to respond in the event of a short circuit or tripping of the circuit breaker.

Against overvoltages at the inputs are voltage arresters at the input terminals whose breakdown voltage is lower than that of the internal circuit.

IMAG1349_1
Scale sheet of the Unigor 6e

 

retro technology

TEDDY automatic

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IMAG1321From the years 1970-1972 the radio receiver TEDDY AUTOMATIC 100 comes from the German manufacturer ITT – Schaub Lorenz. It is a multi-band receiver that covers the wave ranges of long wave, short wave, medium wave and ultrashortwave.

It is designed for mains and battery voltage (110-127V / 220-240V and for battery operation for 4×1.5 volt size AA cells).

IMAG1323

The output power is 0.8 watts and is transmitted with a dynamic oval speaker.

The technical structure according to the manufacturer consists of 6AM circles and 9FM circles. The receiver principle is a SUPERHET with ZF 460kHz and 10.7MHz. The housing is made of plastic (thermoplastic) and has the dimensions of 215x127x70 mm with a weight of 1.2kg.

 

IMAG1324
Connection for external sources
IMAG1325
Switch for receiving frequency

 

 

retro technology

The 80s and the Watchman

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In 1985, the company Sony brings a small, compact and above all mobile TV on the market. The Watchman Voyager FD20-AEB. It has been designed to be used everywhere. For example, in the car, on vacation, just everywhere.
It is not a TV with LC display, or TFT, or LED display. No. The TV brings the image by means of a cathode ray tube (Braun tube) to the eye of the beholder. And not in the brilliant color variety and resolution of today’s receivers, but in black and white (BW).

 

 

The screen diagonal of 4.7 cm can be displayed with the help of a clip-on magnifier still a little enlarged.
The receiver is a multinorm receiver that covered the European television standards.

It was tuned manually by means of a side-mounted “rotary wheel”. The reception tapes VHF / UHF can be selected with a slide switch. Of course, only analog TV reception is possible.

source drawing: Frank’s Taschenfernseher.de

 

 

 

Settings such as brightness, contrast and also the image capture can be carried out on the underside of the device.

 Tunermodule and flattube

The power supply comes from four 1.5 volt AA batteries or from a power supply. At a power consumption of 2 watts is relatively fast on battery operation. The high voltage generation and heating of the flat screen tube is probably one of the biggest consumers of electricity.

The structure of the boards is very discreet. There are hardly any integrated circuits. The large tuner module can be seen on the left in the picture. The supply of signals takes place exclusively via a telescopic rod antenna. A built-in speaker provides the sound. Optionally, a jack for connecting a headphone is installed.

today there is only more noise to be received
retro technology

from Video8 to Digital

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Now, during the holidays, it is a bit of time to copy the time stored on magnetic tape image and sound to new media.

The video recordings of the early 90s were still analogue on 8mm tapes instead. No, not Super8 (that was the movieformat like in cinema those times but much smaller), but on Video8 or HI8 (the better quality variant – comparable to VHS and SVHS, where the “HI” or the “S-” technically by a separate recording of the Y – and C- signal was realized (Y = luminance, so brightness information and C = chrominance, ie color information) .The recording itself, took place on magnetic tape in helical-scan technology (as well as VHS, U-Matic, Betamax, BetaCam, Video2000…). Except that the tape just has a width of 8mm and not 1/2 “or 1 inch, as with other systems. Also the sound is recorded in the helical scan.

In order to get the old records into a digital format that is common today, you need the following four things.
First, the tape (cassette) with the probably exciting content of days gone by. Next, a player is needed.

Here I got myself a then professional HI8 recorder, with which the playback of the tapes should work. The recorder is called EV-S9000E from Sony and came back to the net after almost twenty years break. After a short while, the smell of putrid fish was noticeable. An indication that some electrolytic capacitors of the SMD design are no longer in order. (A well-known problem with devices of older age and elko’s smaller, more compact design.) Nevertheless, I left the recorder on the net and made myself smart, which functions failed because of the numerous, not value-accurate components. So the power supply started and delivers at least. The flourescence indicator has failed. The 60V anode voltage seems to be missing here, no matter the tape drive works, so bring the analog signal to the computer.
 
 
For this I got myself a video to USB converter of elgato. Quickly installed the necessary software and inserted the first tape and pressed “Play”. The picture, however, was a disaster. All lines were totally distorted and offset. (As if the line frequency was wrong). So, before I put everything together again and disappear with the recorder in the workshop, I have again seen in the Config menu of the recorder. There I switched all AUTO options to manual, the television standard on PAL geknüppig and last but not least the TBC (TimeBaseCorrector) off. Lo and behold, the TBC is over too. Actually he should generate an absolutely stable time signal for the video line, but with defective electrics this is no longer possible.
Since I do not have ten tapes to digitize, the recorder should hold out …
retro technology

2.5 inches earlier and today

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Before it lands in the archive, I have to put it here too …
It is a hard drive from the 90s (exactly 21.10.1991) – namely a 2.5 inch disk from Seagate with the incredible storage capacity of 85.3 MB (yes MEGABYTE). In comparison, a 160 GB (Gigabyte) disk from Fujitsu in 2007.

The Seagate disc with the designation ST-9096 was installed in a Commodore Amiga 1200. It kept the complete Amiga OS 3.1 including plenty of applications space. At that time you could not get that 85MB so easy.
To the technical data: If you want to format it today, you should know the following parameters: 980 cyl, 10 heads, 17 sectors gives a capacity of 85,299,200 bytes. The HDD has a power consumption of 2W in read / write mode and 1W in idlemode. 300mW still consumes it in sleep mode.
Interesting is perhaps even the size comparison to current records.
 
The interface complies with the IDE standard (Integrated Drive Electronics).
Größenvergleich 
 /- 44-pin I/O Connector (* see below)
                                      |                     o o
                                    ::::::::::::o::::::::1  o o
                               =P=W=A===========#==================
                                                |           | |
       pin-20 removed for keying ---------------/           | |
                                                            | |
                                                            | |
 Drive is Master, no Slave drive present ------------------ 0 0
 Drive is Master, Seagate Slave drive present ------------- 1 0
 Drive is Slave to another ST9xxxA/ST9xxxA Master --------- 0 1
 Reserved Position (Do Not Use) --------------------------- 1 1

 * Drive uses +5vdc power supplied to the drive
   via the interface connector. The drive does
   NOT make use of a +12vdc power line.
   pin-41  +5vdc (Logic)
   pin-42  +5vdc (Motor)
   pin-43  Ground
   pin-44  Reserved