Favorite Obsolete Tech

Do you collect old tech or use them in any personal projects?

  • Yes

    Votes: 11 50.0%

  • No

    Votes: 5 22.7%

  • No, but I want to.

    Votes: 3 13.6%

  • Old tech doesn't interest me.

    Votes: 2 9.1%

  • Prefer not to say >_>

    Votes: 1 4.5%
  • Total voters
    22
Morgan_

Morgan_

Duckerz
I could list off a whole bunch of stuff but that would ruin it for everyone else if I did so I'll just leave it as one for the first post. Feel free to list as many as you want since a lot of them can be tied together. Maybe there are still applications for old tech today, or in hobbies? Repurposing old stuff for personal projects seems really neat.


This thing is cool.




Obsolete technology be like:
 
I like CRTs and cassettes, which I use both. Also, tube amplifiers. Not really a collector per se, but at concerts I prefer to buy tapes (or vinyl) whenever possible, I sometimes use a Walkman instead of my phone, and I have a Tascam Portastudio 424 MkII (and another tapedeck) that I would prefer to use with my band over the usual digital interfaces. I still have a CRT on my desk both at home and at my work as a secondary monitor, and I have five different guitar tube amps and I'm planning on building a Fender 5e3 circuit at some point (got the 5Y3 recto tube here already), as well as having the parts for a Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster including a NOS OC71 germanium transistor.
 
Yeah, CRTs and anything with tapes are nice. I still have CRT tv that I grew up with and a bunch of the old vhs tapes including N64.
I'd like to put together a nixie tube clock/timer just for fun. They just look so cool and have this charm to them.

upload_2021-8-28_12-35-59.png



Also, speaking of CRTs:
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/13/1-37-crt-restored-by-hacklab-for-miniature-mame-cabinet/

upload_2021-8-28_12-35-13.png


Satisfying tiny CRT.
 
Morgan_ said:
Yeah, CRTs and anything with tapes are nice. I still have CRT tv that I grew up with and a bunch of the old vhs tapes including N64.
I'd like to put together a nixie tube clock/timer just for fun. They just look so cool and have this charm to them.

View attachment 20673


Also, speaking of CRTs:
https://hackaday.com/2014/12/13/1-37-crt-restored-by-hacklab-for-miniature-mame-cabinet/

View attachment 20672

Satisfying tiny CRT.
Click to expand...
Hm, tiny CRT... If anyone wants to make a proper PipBoy.

This looks like a brilliant CRT for use in such devices. Interesting design, with a curved screen of sorts kinda parallel to the emitter. If real CRTs are not available, I like the idea of using special lenses of sorts to give a small flat screen a CRT-like look. Get an RPi with a one of their screen-hats and it would be a nice way to make a PipBoy.
As for Nixie tubes, I have the parts for a single digit Nixie counter. Project that my dad gifted me, he built several Nixie devices like clocks and thermometers. This Nixie counter is built discretely, so lots of components just to control that one. Also, not sure what I can even do with a single tube. I should get into it some more; not bother with the use of discrete transistors, but bite the bullet and get into microcontrollers. Or just Arduino. Get a few more tubes and just build a nice clock.
 
My dad is constantly messing around with rpi and microcontrollers. Currently setting up his own smarthome stuff with them. Quite a few ways to do it outside of just buying it. I don't really know how it all works yet.

I need to do nixie tube project and then post here. Would be cool.
 
Is collecting the same as "I didn't want to throw it away because it technically works"?
 
I got an old wood paneled Panasonic radio from the 1980s I got from a second hand store. It now sits on my dresser playing classic rock radio.
Also a Duracell flashlight from that same decade, but I'd hardly call a flashlight obsolete.
 
Not obsolete yet, but i'll always prefer physical media over digital.
I find digital to be too impersonal for me. I can see why People would prefer to write a letter over sending an E-mail.

Things like cds feel more satisfying to listen to on a sounds system through a CD player rather than a phone or tablet.

That And Vinyl looks great And feels like a special occassion when you play them
 
I've amassed a decent collection of VHS tapes, takes me back to when I was a kid and my dad would bring me and my brother to Blockbuster's on the weekends for movie nights. Things were a lot simpler then, and I get the same kind of joy playing old films on VHS all these years later. Probably not the oldest or most obscure tech but thought I'd throw my two cents into the conversation!
 
Growing up I used to see a lot of those hulking stereo systems from the 90s sitting around in the corners of friends' houses. Massive tuners, input selectors, tape players, etc just gathering dust. I've always wanted to hear one in its full glory. They look really cool and beefy, and the level of control on those things is insane
 
I like the fact there is a Commodore 64 with a BBS out there you can connect to still running the earliest forms of the internet.
 
Once, I modified and installed an 8-track audio cassette player into a 5¼ drive slot on my PC. I was able to just insert the cassette, select a track, and play it through the PC soundcard.

I prefer the P-38 can opener to just about any other can opener I have seen or used.
 
Haha I just recalled a dream I had last night of a VHS tape being destroyed in the VCR.
 
I just came here to say VHS. Thanks.

I guess I'll also add physical media in general that you went to the store to go rent or buy or sell. That was cool.
 
Once... I had to dismantle my TV/VCR to retrieve a Blockbuster rental tape—to avoid the late fees; (it was not my rental tape).
 
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