RC286 - 2013-11-15
The Sharp Compet machines, of which I owned 3, were not constructed with all Germanium transistors as stated in the narrative. The Hitachi 2SC284, which drove the cathodes in the nixie tubes, and can be clearly seen in the close-up shot, were indisputably silicon. (All transistors with "2SC" prefix are silicon NPN.) So were most of the logic transistors, which didn't have type numbers, but were housed in tiny ceramic "pill" packages. This was pretty remarkable, as the vast majority of transistors in those days definitely were germanium. I still have many of these transistors, salvaged from the calculators before they were thrown away. After nearly 60 years, they still work just fine, and are just as good as modern ones. I still occasionally use one in a project or experiment.
Wow u r dedicated collector! Respect
I doubt anyone today knows what a NPN or PNP or CRT means lol...who is replacing yesterday tech?
Ahh, but you may be surprised. While technology in respect to transistors may have shrunk, the technology remains the same. If you're paying attention then you still understand the basics. Although, I am old an a former Nay ET. It wa my life for a period of time.
That"s crazy to think how far we've come in just 50 years
@Lyf3 1z TOUGH Speak for yourself! I'm turning 50 and I am enjoying more fruits of modern humanity than most have till this day. Fatalistic outlook.
@MorbidManMusic Oh, we have studied and learned humanity fine. Some choose not to practice or perfect this skill.
It excites and enthralls me. I'm an older fella with eyes wide open!
And after 20 years most industries (as we know them today) will come to an halt. Wait and watch.
Its crazy to think how fast calculators evolved within 10 years. They went from thousands of dollars to something most people could offord
This was a FASCINATING series of documentaries... I never knew much about how the Japanese electronics industry got to where it was at its height, and this actually explains a lot.
I actually have an old Texas Instruments LED screen calculator somewhere, dating from the mid-late '70s; it's not Japanese made, as far as I know, but seeing all this stuff has me nostalgic for that kind of thing.
Every calculator I use on a regular basis is vintage, all with vfd displays. I regularilly use my early 70's vintage busicom exec da-80 on my desk at work. no batteries, needs to be plugged in, with individual vfd tubes for each display segment. picked it up at a thrift shop some 8yrs ago for $0.99 and tax, works like new does what i need and is a great conversation piece.
RC286 I use vintage calculators but not that old, I have several HP and Ti that I use from the early 1990's and late 1980's, but I do have older 1970's ones as well, but I don't use them because they eat batteries too fast :-). All of them are pocket scientific calculators though, no business or general use ones.
Thanks a lot for posting this wonderful series.
When I was in medical school doing physics class, I used a slide ruler and logarithm tables. For sixty students, we had one calculator.
That was in 1972. Today, my son is doing his post-doc using the Stanford University mainframe through his 2014 MacBook pro Terminal for calculations in quantum chemistry.
How's that for a generation gap? We still both love Jimi Hendrix.
MorbidManMusic no, his son can concentrate on more complex problems because the basic ones are handled automatically, muppet.
What about the knowledge of soul and God?
mind-blowing how technology transforms within a short time
The Aleph Zero 101 used a magnetic logic device known as a Parametron, developed by Eiichi Goto at the University of Tokyo and later commercialised by TDK. A Parametron based computer, the PC-1, was also built at the University. Although superseded by advances in transistor technology, a variant of the Parametron using superconducting Josephson junctions, also developed by Eiichi Goto, is the basis for the logic elements of many of today's laboratory quantum computers.
douro20 Wow! Didn’t knew about the Parametron. Thanks for those details.
"quantum" computers. Fixed for you.
45 seconds in.
That comment wouldn't be allowed these days
Japan and the mushroom comment 🤐
Although these series of videos provide invaluable content for the history of science, the editing is terrible and the chronology of events is a big mess. You certainly need to watch it all over again or rewind several times to put it all firmly back in place. Anyway, it's a pleasure to watch and then meditate about technology and the rapid flow of scientific and technical progress not to mention the power of randomness and serendipity driving lots of fundamental breakthroughs.
12:50 The engineers suffered from heart problems while enviro testing calculators? That's some dedication right there.
@Koo Woo Because computers were enormous (the size of rooms) and much more expensive at the time.
Dedication? Or fear of not producing?,
and being taken behind the lab and flogged at that time.
cool video, thanks for going through the effort of copying it from VCR tape.
the busicom 161 use an italian devloped memory device, COOL !
4:00 - You'd need a big ass pocket to carry around that Casio calculator. Yuge, even. Haha!
This is a really interesting series of videos - Thanks for posting them! I well remember as a teenager tinkering with various projects building amplifiers, radios, burglar alarms and so on - Fascinating!
I still have that model Casio shown at 31:48, and I still use it.
Extremely informative and interesting documentary!
Thanks for uploading it on YouTube.
now i finally know why when prssing the 6 5 4 7 and rreset why evrything on the display lights up it is the test mode
Maravilhas da eletrônica!
Thanks again for posting this series.... quite interesting... even in spite of the adult fairytale mixed in.
Still got my school SHARP since the 90s.
60s japan was the china of today regarding IP eh? Interesting doc though.
No
Looks like they actually approached the IP owners and did deals as opposed to the outright theft happening with China.
Having worked in a couple of rural plastics and composites factories I think I've gained an additional perspective to the term "sweat shop" from the electronics industry.
"cåsiō" 😑
1961 Anita Mk8 16:56
1964 Sharp CS-10A 13:02
1969 Sharp QT-8D 25:18
1971 Busicom LE-120A 26:56
1972 Casio MINI 30:56
1973 Sharp EL-805 34:08
1979 Canon LC-7 34:26
interesting video i like the synth music 🎶 and the lowfi Bad Recording at the begening of the video😎
2:20 tough luck....no life for you.
it makes it look cool gritty and retro comming from a VCR tape its neat that its got a gritty tracking part at the start of the video
Thank you, RC286, for posting this video!
Sadly, it seems the producers didn't have anyone with technical knowledge check the writing and narration for errors.
Errata:
25:12 Sharp Micro Compet QT-8D, not "9T-8D"
27:45 "with polyvinyl chloride wires" should have been "with polyvinyl chloride insulated wires"
I love this kind of videos.
Very interesting. Thank you for uploading.
There needs to be a full documentary or movie about those 4 engineers from SHARP. I would seriously love that
Ah, that good 'ol square analog TV format and VHS recording hiccups. Dark times, but good times. Interesting watch, thanks for upload.
TheCaptain008 that’s why I like my Sony, where I can change the aspect ratio so easily.
This is fantastic, thanks for sharing!
Mr. Sasakki of Sharp only sent one very young engineer to the USA. Tight a$$es. Geeze.
The more eyes the better the prize.
My first simple calculator cost me $80.00 back in 1976. Cost today $4.00
Amazing, America was pioneer in many inventions we now take for granted and yet we now lack behind everybody ...
Good video, indeed one day google will pluck the muffin. Check closed captions at around 25:15 🙂
As a calculator collector... This video made me very very happy... and very very jealous of that HOARD!!! :D
That's an awesome collection.. Mr.
I can help you rebuild your website....
It's just been an issue of time and splitting it between projects. I actually recently did a little work on my site recently, just not in that particular area.
And thanks! Glad you liked the collection!
Respect u sir
think all r dead except digitron
My favorite calculator was a Casio talking clock calculator that I bought in Saudi Arabia in 1978. It came in handy at nights I did not have to turn on the light and look for my glasses to check time. I am unable to find a replacement after it died of old age.
Odouls77 Just ask Siri
34:21 HEY! That's Pigsy.
more of this please
when I went to school, we were required to use the slide rule.
And then the last year we were required to buy a calculator which cost $85 and weighs as much as a brick
I used a slide rule, some kids used calculators, whose batteries died during exams. I never had that problem.
We in Europe also were forbidden to use anything else but a pencil, paper and a slide rule so the rich kids had to show off their fancy calculators at the lunch table. And so they found out that girls didn't care about fancy electronics in watches or calculators. That meant double fun for us...
30:56 Most Japanese commercial ever?
26:30. Am I now proud to still own such a LC-8 device from sharp ? It still works. I love these green scribbly-looking numbers and the way how the keyboard clicks are sounding. But it is pretty heavy for being just a simple calculator.
please put link to previous video. it makes it easier to find the starting point.
I want a Casio relay calculator after seeing this, very cool piece of vintage kit. Goes along with my 80s Casio keyboard and my 90s Casio G-Shock watch.
I still wear my 90's G-Shock. Works flawlessly.
3:12 - Someone finally built Babbage's Analytical Engine! Success! lol
No, idiot. It's just a mechanical calculator. Like Pascal's one.
Amazing how you can now readily get a basic calculator at the 99 cent store and it costs far less to produce for the manufacturer.
Hell, I can buy a calculator for 50p
cmonkey63 - 2017-05-07
The Casio calculator shown at the very end, during the assembly process, I have one of those for over 20 years now! It runs on a solar cell, needs no battery. I bought mine in Cairns in 1994 and still use it all the time.
CrazyTesseract - 2020-03-05
The Casio HS-8G? They were built to last, MADE IN JAPAN in the 1990s.
kurmanali1984 - 2020-04-08
@CrazyTesseract rpx