Theory of operation

[jackmanjls]

dray0151...after those punch cards came machine language with handy dandy compiler, boy was that a major breakthrough.

Now those were the old days, vietnam era. I remember it well.

[dray0151]

I wonder if all the newbee's that write a lot of the code in today's specialized languages really know what all is going on in that little processor and how many 1 and 0's are flying around acting on their instructions? Haven't really paid attention if they learn all of that now or not but that was where you had to start when I was in school.

[rodbolt17]

back in the day I completed the BE&E course, FC(A) school FC(C) school and many test equipment schools magazine sprinkler .50 cal.CIWS tech for some years.
so yes I understand binary,hexadecimal amd octal.
I understand how it works as well as why it works.
my first 3 years in the USN I spent in various schools then did the pre commissioning and commissioning on the USS Arliegh Burke DDG51.
also spent some time with the Marines on NAB Littlecreek doing ships security force training. for 6 yrs before that I set up CNC lathes and mills for GOEX.
before that I started working on autos at age 15. my dad owned a wrecking yard when I was little and anything in it was fair ****.

sometimes I wish I could teach but I lack a bit of patience with some humans.
cats dog.s and machines don't frustrate me like someone who asks the same question twice in the same day.

[zenoahphobic]

The thing is we have never been able to see electricity, only what the transfer of energy does.
Because early humans didn't know it existed and when humans actually began to make use of it, it was in very simple (slow if you like) ways.
Humans get very upset when trying to comprehend things we can't see, that goes faster than we can comprehend, so it is just that this increase in anxiety is because we know more and more, and use it more and more.
We didn't invent this stuff but just harness it. So electrons can move and stop very fast and change direct very very quickly. 0 and 1 is just a switch, the stop and the go. Nothing really difficult to understand, it is just that we now make machines that do this incredibly many times in an incredibly short space of time.
This enables things now to happen "immediately".
Earlier history playing with transistors as switches was easy to "see" and therefore eventually understood but today we must accept devices that were designed and built by few others do what they say they do.
Technology has relegated most of us to fault find/ test in other ways.
Eventually I believe we will be at the total mercy of the product producers; when something goes wrong (may not even be anything wrong just our perception ) we buy another.

[ausnoelm]

We are quickly moving to the replace rather than repair generation, things can be made so incredibly cheap these days, I started my working life as a radio technician (we only had AM at the time) and I started on valve radios, I can even imagine someone fixing a radio now, most don't even own one, well except in the car or boat.

[pstephens46]

Modular design. Rodbolt mentioned the fabulous variable venturi Ford carb one time. Dad had one in a station wagon 30 years ago. 2 dealers told him he needed a new carb, 6-700 bucks. He was pissed. It was a CARB for Christ Sakes! He finally found some guy with patience to piddle with it. Fixed it and ran till Mom wrecked it. Good riddance. He never bought another American car after that.

[panasonic]

We are quickly moving to the replace rather than repair generation, things can be made so incredibly cheap these days, I started my working life as a radio technician (we only had AM at the time) and I started on valve radios, I can even imagine someone fixing a radio now, most don't even own one, well except in the car or boat.

I presume a "valve" is a vacuum tube? I got me a 1968 Fender guitar amp with 8 valves in it...works perfect, use it all the time.

Do you still have a tube tester?

[ausnoelm]

OH yeah, sorry, I forgot to "translate" the terminology, we did have a tester, but it was dumped years ago, we used to charge a whole 20 cents to test one, often customers would clean them up before bringing them in, this of course removed the identification numbers on the glass, so it was up to me and another tech to try to identify what it was from visual inspections and our knowledge gained from experience.

[zenoahphobic]

OH yeah, sorry, I forgot to "translate" the terminology, we did have a tester, but it was dumped years ago, we used to charge a whole 20 cents to test one, often customers would clean them up before bringing them in, this of course removed the identification numbers on the glass, so it was up to me and another tech to try to identify what it was from visual inspections and our knowledge gained from experience.

I still have a paper bag full of those glass valves- made me smile when you mentioned that people used to polish the faint grey/ black numbers off.
I never knew much about these but was able to fix the odd TV with them by simple substitution. And components showed melting and failure clearly. My expertise was more with transistorised radios (transistor) superheterodyne at that.

[pstephens46]

I still have a paper bag full of those glass valves- made me smile when you mentioned that people used to polish the faint grey/ black numbers off.
I never knew much about these but was able to fix the odd TV with them by simple substitution. And components showed melting and failure clearly. My expertise was more with transistorised radios (transistor) superheterodyne at that.

Vacuum tubes. How could anyone throw them away? Each one was a work of art. It would have been interesting to watch the manufacturing process.

[rodbolt17]

back in the day even sims grocery market in Grand Baly AL had a tube tester.
my DVM has a NPN/PNP slot.
never use it.

[oldmako69]

Just replaced 4 7591's in an old Fisher 500B.

[ausnoelm]

More modern technology changed radios big time, people had the choice of a "portable" radio that they could take to the beach, fairly recently I had the great pleasure of restoring an old vacuum tube radio for a mid 1950's car a friend is restoring, took him near on a year to find the radio that was an "accessory" when the car was purchased new, damn things would flatten the battery and warm up the interior if you left them on for more than about 15 mins without the engine running.

[boscoe99]

Vacuum tubes. How could anyone throw them away? Each one was a work of art. It would have been interesting to watch the manufacturing process.

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[rodbolt17]

somewhere in all my junk I still have a Transportable transistor AM radio from a 1958 olds 98.
you could insert it in a slot on the dash or take it on a pik a nic using a 9v battery.
high tech back in the day.