4 ms·

The descriptions of the American components (resistors, diodes, etc...) reflect what I've seen in all of the consumer electronic components that I've busted-ope

The descriptions of the American components (resistors, diodes, etc...) reflect what I've seen in all of the consumer electronic components that I've busted-open here in the U.S. -- ones which are often made outside of the U.S. The fact that these consumer electronics are built according to the American way as opposed to the Russian way - is that a reflection of selling to a U.S. market, U.S. companies selectively working with manufacturers that do things in a familiar way, general wide-adoption of the U.S. ways, or something else? If I were to be in Russia or a former Soviet state, would I see consumer electronics looking more like this Soyuz clock?

dfox 7y ago
Surprisingly large amount of soviet era consumer electronics are built quite similarly and use what in essence are military/space grade parts (and meticulously made cable looms). I assume that this is simply caused by using whatever was available in large enough quantity in combination with slightly different engineering culture (cable looms!).
- dfox 7y ago
  If I think about it I probably can pinpoint the reason for the soldered cable looms: not only in SSSR but across the whole eastern block in general there simply weren't any reasonably cheap and reliable board to board or board to cable connectors for general use with reasonable density. Edit to add: there were various ribbon cables used in eastern block electronics, but mostly with hand soldered connectors, not IDC. Two exceptions I can think of are Shugart-compatible floppy drives (although some Czech computers actually use ribbon cables with hand soldered board-to-card connectors) and some Metra-branded measurement equipment which uses MicroD-like IDCs internally.
blattimwind 7y ago
It's a reflection of color coding (with painted rings or dots) being vastly cheaper than printing text proper. Many lower cost European transistors (almost exclusively the TO-92 variety) were marked with colored dots or half-rings. Similarly some film and tantalum capacitors were marked with colored dots as well. Precision or otherwise higher grade (e.g. ceramic wirewounds) components were always usually marked with text.

dfox 7y ago

Surprisingly large amount of soviet era consumer electronics are built quite similarly and use what in essence are military/space grade parts (and meticulously made cable looms). I assume that this is simply caused by using whatever was available in large enough quantity in combination with slightly different engineering culture (cable looms!).

dfox 7y ago
If I think about it I probably can pinpoint the reason for the soldered cable looms: not only in SSSR but across the whole eastern block in general there simply weren't any reasonably cheap and reliable board to board or board to cable connectors for general use with reasonable density. Edit to add: there were various ribbon cables used in eastern block electronics, but mostly with hand soldered connectors, not IDC. Two exceptions I can think of are Shugart-compatible floppy drives (although some Czech computers actually use ribbon cables with hand soldered board-to-card connectors) and some Metra-branded measurement equipment which uses MicroD-like IDCs internally.

blattimwind 7y ago

It's a reflection of color coding (with painted rings or dots) being vastly cheaper than printing text proper. Many lower cost European transistors (almost exclusively the TO-92 variety) were marked with colored dots or half-rings. Similarly some film and tantalum capacitors were marked with colored dots as well. Precision or otherwise higher grade (e.g. ceramic wirewounds) components were always usually marked with text.