5 ms·

Give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish :/

by lozf 3y ago

mlyle 3y ago
You're never going to "teach a man to fish" on how to keep his one, mostly-reliable, tube type radio going. You can teach him to switch tubes, but eventually it's going to get more complicated than that, and you can only get so much experience from a touch of help every few years.
- hilbert42 3y ago
  Whilst it doesn't happen very often it never ceases to amaze me that some of those old radios will still work after being switched off for about half century. I've switched them on expecting fireworks—the plates in the 5Y3G/T or 80 rectifiers glowing red hot because the electrolytic caps had shorted to deck—but no they actually still worked. What's more I've even had some of those ancient wet electrolytic caps (the 1930s-style 8μF/400V types in vertical cans mounted on the chassis) actually work. Mind you, I certainly don't recommend you do that—do as I say not as I do (I'm rather gung ho about such matters and rather enjoy the fireworks). Be warned, you can not only blow up the rectifiers but also the power transformer and that'll likely be much harder to replace than the tubes. I recall several years back being so shocked that some of those old wet electros still worked that I pulled the top seals off several and stuck my multimeter in the electrolyte and noticed that essentially there was no voltage between the electrolyte and the case. I even stuck my finger on the Al foil and could feel very little until I pushed hard and then suddenly whammo—ouch. A fascinating exercise, it's an excellent illustration of how good aluminum oxide is as an insulator and dielectric. Please don't try this unless you are as mad as I am—and even then don't do it!
  - bombcar 3y ago
    Electronics (and machines in general are weird). My car dies in a month if I don’t start it because of parasitic drain. My 1969 deuce and a half fired up after two years with zero problem at all. I have ancient computers that work fine and much much newer ones dead by capacitor.
    - hilbert42 3y ago
      Had that problem myself. Parasitic drain is shitty bad design—full stop! The only things that should drain when the car's not being used are the clock and or the radio's memory and they only take flea power. Franky, I'm pissed off with much modern elecronics (I used to work in the prototype lab for a large multinational electronics company and crappy design like that wouldn't get past the breadboard stage let alone make it into production).
      - bombcar 3y ago
        It's doubly annoying because I know it is possible to design storage systems that do not require energy - every computer manufactured in the last 30 years has had them!
pfdietz 3y ago
That will never stop reminding me of the Pterry quote.

Give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish :/

by lozf 3y ago

Give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish :/

You're never going to "teach a man to fish" on how to keep his one, mostly-reliable, tube type radio going. You can teach him to switch tubes, but eventually it's going to get more complicated than that, and you can only get so much experience from a touch of help every few years.

hilbert42 3y ago
Whilst it doesn't happen very often it never ceases to amaze me that some of those old radios will still work after being switched off for about half century. I've switched them on expecting fireworks—the plates in the 5Y3G/T or 80 rectifiers glowing red hot because the electrolytic caps had shorted to deck—but no they actually still worked. What's more I've even had some of those ancient wet electrolytic caps (the 1930s-style 8μF/400V types in vertical cans mounted on the chassis) actually work. Mind you, I certainly don't recommend you do that—do as I say not as I do (I'm rather gung ho about such matters and rather enjoy the fireworks). Be warned, you can not only blow up the rectifiers but also the power transformer and that'll likely be much harder to replace than the tubes. I recall several years back being so shocked that some of those old wet electros still worked that I pulled the top seals off several and stuck my multimeter in the electrolyte and noticed that essentially there was no voltage between the electrolyte and the case. I even stuck my finger on the Al foil and could feel very little until I pushed hard and then suddenly whammo—ouch. A fascinating exercise, it's an excellent illustration of how good aluminum oxide is as an insulator and dielectric. Please don't try this unless you are as mad as I am—and even then don't do it!
- bombcar 3y ago
  Electronics (and machines in general are weird). My car dies in a month if I don’t start it because of parasitic drain. My 1969 deuce and a half fired up after two years with zero problem at all. I have ancient computers that work fine and much much newer ones dead by capacitor.
  - hilbert42 3y ago
    Had that problem myself. Parasitic drain is shitty bad design—full stop! The only things that should drain when the car's not being used are the clock and or the radio's memory and they only take flea power. Franky, I'm pissed off with much modern elecronics (I used to work in the prototype lab for a large multinational electronics company and crappy design like that wouldn't get past the breadboard stage let alone make it into production).
    - bombcar 3y ago
      It's doubly annoying because I know it is possible to design storage systems that do not require energy - every computer manufactured in the last 30 years has had them!

pfdietz 3y ago

That will never stop reminding me of the Pterry quote.