*Found something about the company:* "Michael Roberts had founded Sydney- based Time Office Computers, originally called *Electronic Control Systems* , in the 1970s, intending to develop and market small computer terminals."

This is a so called "dumb terminal", meaning it absolutely needs to be hooked up to a mainframe in order to do anything at all. The high voltage sound means the CRT is probably working fine, there's just nothing to display 🤷🏻‍♂️

looks like a computer you would find in a fallout game

Would recommend not gutting it. Restore it to a working state, and since it just uses RS-232 for communication, you could hook up an external modern computer to it. This will preserve the units original state, while allowing you to use it with a modern system. EDIT: Ican almost guarentee thst the CRT itself is perfectly fine. You are almost certainly experiencing one of 2 problems: 1) Brightness knob is either turned down, or is bad (try spraying Deoxit into it and turning it repeatedly until it feels smooth). 2) The electronics on the terminal side are bad. This should not be too difficult to diagnose if you get help from the vintage computer community, as these terminals were usually quite simple.

I love the look of this technological artifact. I also am still bewildered at the fact that this was a late 70s/early 80s computer, fast forward 30 to 40 years and we now have super computers in the palms of our hands that most of us probably used to watch this video. I always get excited about technological advancements.

the "useless foam" is a sound dampener still used in custom keyboards to this day. also the grim on the inside of the keyboard indicates the ppl using it where smokers as that is what happens to electronics. when u smoke around them

That poor computer, looked so much happier after the clean :) Always love watching rare vintage electronics be cleaned up and/or restored to working order.

I was a drilling rig radio operator in the 80's and 90's and this system is extremely similar to what I knew as a Laine Data System. Effectively a terminal that ran a very basic system and connected to peripherals (in our case an early modem) via RS232 which, if memory serves worked at 300bps. Our modem was connected to a modified car phone that connected to the land based cell system.

There should be a warning on this video - "Don't watch this video if you are eating or about to eat ... or are a germophobe ... or an arachnophobe."

Those pieces of foam are not useless actually. They dampen the sound from key presses. It actually makes a difference from a completely hollow case

How I see my computer: a little dirty but pretty clean *How my mom sees my computer:*

It's hard to make me gag just by sight, but you cleaning the base was able to do it. You gained a subscriber just by having the stomach to clean this.

this isn't relevant to this video in any way, but I just wanted you to know i rescued a working 2011 iMac from the side of the road last week, bought her a keyboard roughly of the same age on eBay, cleaned her up, learned how to system restore, and brought her back to life. She's now running the newest software I could get her (High Sierra) and doing well. I've named her Gertrude, the very angry computer. Point is, I probably wouldn't have gone to the effort if it wasn't for you, so thank you for your work!

I've seen cleaner men's toilets after a football final.....

It looks very good aesthetically speaking but I would have loved to see it working

If this was a eBay listing it would be "SUPER GAMING COMPUTER USED NO DIRT"

The question is "Should you repurpose it?" ... To which my answer would be "It belongs to a museum" :) If you can't find any info on the internet, it looks like its rare, and part of the Australian computer history.

This would have gone quicker if you'd had a Ducktor on hand. He's always very helpful

Those vintage SA profile key caps are so sweet!! I’d love to hear a sound test on the restored keyboard & switches.

I'd be interested in seeing this old guy restored rather than gutted tbh, though im about a year late on commenting. That's an old school computer. More than likely it was from a period where individual computer set ups didn't have their own OS, and ran data fed into it from a cable connected to the main server. It used to be easier to do that since storage was incredibly massive and expensive back in the day. It made it possible to store the data in one space, and have a compact unit on your desk in your office.

I'd just like to add, I currently own some of the last surviving ECS stage lighting equipment, this appears to be an old ECS lighting computer console, as I have the serial system this plugs into. The CRT get input from a lighting desk, which this acts as monitor/keyboard for. These were developed in the late 1970s/early 80s. I'd be interested in buying this, as they are well obsolete but a part of theatrical history.

An Ebay Auction for this would be like:Almost New Condition, rarely used

You shouldn’t make it more modern it’s such a cool piece and considering even google doesn’t know much about it makes it really unique and rare in its own regard and also in a way one in a million I would keep it the way it is and put it on a shelf it would be a great conversation starter! Once it is restored of course.

This is e sort of stuff I love being preserved and deserves to be preserved, so so interesting and important to see how things have developed over the years to teach the younger generations how advancements work.

That high pitched noise might acctually be the horizontal sweep generator making that noise as its sweep rate is in the audible range for most computers. The sweep generator is meant to make the CRT beam sweep across CRT display so the entire screen is covered. The Sweep generator should be making a saw-tooth wave form at its output and feeding it into the horizontal deflection coil. Another problem maybe that the flyback transformer may be out. The epoxy may have degraded over time this letting in moisture or air allowing the HV to arc inside the transformer thus not letting the HV get to the CRT anode. Or possibly that is only a display for a external computer. With those dumb terminals it may be a data monitor. The CRT socket connector to the CRT pins at the back of the CRT may also be corroded and not making a good connection to either the heater element pin, cathode pin, focusing electrode pin, beam amplitude pin. Or its just that the main processor is dead or other critical components. One good idea though before checking anyone of these is to check all power supply voltage rails. There maybe a short on one of the supply rails and the current limiting protection kicking in. If you think that current limiting didnt exist back then you are wrong because I have experience working with 22** 4** series Tektronix oscilloscopes. The 22** series are from the 1980s and the 4** are from the 1970s. Check the fuses (if there are any). Well thats all I can think off the top of my head. Good luck.

It’s a computer data monitor. (Dumb terminals) probably from the ‘70s.

It's neat to see that the internal wires are actually braided. A very interesting detail

Cool idea putting modern internal parts inside an older 70’s computer case. I think that would be interesting to see

From one of the date codes on a transistor this looks like it is made in 1977. It's a terminal. Please keep it stock since it is so old

"unindentified grime" sounds scary

those pieces of foam aren't useless, they are there to dampen the sound the keys make to make it quieter

those pieces of foam are not random, they are for sound dampening when typing

The keyboard is beautiful. The blue too. You'd be hard pressed to find the replacement CRT

Be a parent and you will always find unindentified grime.

I would like to see you attempt and restore the hardware that is already inside the computer.

I'd suggest getting one of those giant plastic bins/tubs instead of that tiny bucket for future projects lol! I'd love to see you do a complete tear down and rebuild of the original hardware by replacing bad caps and that transformer and whatnot. I'd love to see the quality on that 30 year old monochrome display!

Great video Hugh. When I started my IT career in the 90's there were still a few terminals like these around the office, hooked up to either Honeywell Bull mainframes, or later DEC Alpha mini computers. In those days I worked with programmers who started programming with punch cards! This terminal would have been cutting edge stuff to them in the 80s :-)

I am 75 have been in IT since I was 19 and the name rings a bell with me. I'll watch your video all the way to see if it gives me a clue. Worst case I can ask a few of my contemporaries if they can recall ECS. May take a while they're in almost every time zone! (or no longer on the planet!)

This is a terminal. No computer bits inside. It is purely for displaying and entering data from another machine. Still is really cool. Nice video!

I can’t believe you didn’t show a split screen side by side comparison of the computer as you received it and once it was clean!

The next time I see a video with the words '…Dirtiest Computer…' in the title I’m going to comment "You obviously haven’t seen Hugh Jeffreys's."

The styrofoam on the key board is to act as a dampener, so when ur typing there is no hollow sound being created.

I know I'm late to the party but if you have not done anything with this beast, turn it into a Commodore Pet or TRS-80...since both are monochrome and I think you can get DIY kits for either. Quite honestly, I say to try to restore it to it's original glory. It is a piece of history after all.

It reminded me of burnt on chocolate cake when it's overcooked in the oven, and somehow I just can't face chocolate cake after watching this lol.... But I love cleaning, repairing and it's utterly as satisfying watching someone else do a sterling job of giving some love back to a forlorn piece of tech.

Hugh: *Random and useless pieces of foam* Custom Keyboard enthusiasts: *shaking their heads*

what all parents think their kids treat their electronics like:

This looks very unique and even rare. In my opinion it should end up in museum or something in unmodified state. However, you still have second keyboard so maybe you could do something with that.

POV: Mom i need pc. But you have pc . PC at home: 0:33

You should give this to Dankpod's friend James, he could probably fix anything.

Hugh: i dont have a scraper *uses scraper to take off the moldy serial # sticker

I truly love Hugh's voice, i nearly fell asleep in class from hearing it lol also would love to see this thing turned into a gaming PC case :)

Makes me think of how happy that computer from The Brave Little Toaster would feel if he got a restoration like this one.

Being a terminal, powering on at most on a working model would likely give you nothing but a flashing cursor if not connected to a host. This looks nothing like an IBM compatible mainframe terminal or a VT52/100 etc. (the obvious clue is in the keyboard content/layout). My guess is either a terminal for a lesser known mainframe series or more likely some sort of proprietary minicomputer (and there were lots of them until the likes of Wang and Prime started dying off in the 1980s) - also the company that made these in all likelihood just produced peripherals and not the machines you connected them to. Before terminal emulation on PCs became the done thing there were lots of non-OEM terminals available for most popular systems.

This has got to be the worst condition computer on youtube, even more than the 8-bit guy's VIC-20

I remember back in the 1970s when I was in junior high. Back then radio shack had groups of people who went into school to demonstrate electronics. That was where I had my first experience touching a computer. They would put the game pong up on the screen and talk about how that computer was programmed to play a game. They told us about the gaming and then explain how if you were to become a computer programmer perhaps you would invent a new game. I'm really enjoyed this video and thank you for bringing back some very fond memories. I most definitely hit the like and subscribe button. Look forward to watching more of your videos.

Very brave of you!! That thing probably won many awards for Natiest Computer in the World!!

I think you should try to fix it and keep the original internals, this computer deserves to live

You should repair it rather than put a new pc inside. It's quite unique, even the fan is really unique as I have never seen a computer use an AC fan

Mother: we have computer at home, the computer at home-

The historian in me is balking at the idea of gutting that to turn it into a completely new computer.

Looks like we need a collab with LGR or Retro Man Cave.

Please keep it retro and preserve the “living fossils” of the extinct computers so that inquisitive minds in the future won't only have to rely on the theoretical material but can look at well preserved fossils and learn “what it used to be” and “how far have we got” of the modern computers. Ik it has little to no functionality left or that it wasn’t a marvel of a computer in its own time either but it still looks good after cleaning. Can you please do that? : )

Love your videos Mr Jeffreys! I love seeing old things bought back to life ❤ I subscribed and gave you a thumbs up! You do such good work and your videos relaxes me also ❤

Still looks cleaner than my school's computers...

Whatever you do with it, i think it would be great to see the keyboard working with the final product. Its the perfect example of vintage goodness. Keycaps that put tungsten to shame, contactless honeywell switches, a case that you could probably use in the zombie appocalypse, i would love to see the keyboard speaking with a modern computer or something

11:16 I recognise that speaker mounted in the keyboard assembly, it was used in many Telecom Australia rotary phones from that time.

Those keycaps look amazing. I'd love to have something similar for my own keyboard

Finally a restoration video with audio commentary

"it's probably animal poop" Me: no i think its dirt "it has a foul smell" Note: don't let the cat sit on top of the computer

The mold when it touches the mold killer: *_A-_* **dead**

I absolutely love the bright red keys! Wonderful job on cleaning it!

If you jump on the Australian Vintage Computer Collectors group on FB, I’m pretty confident someone would know it’s full history.

I could imagine the smell just by looking at it, good work!

Tar from smoker's lungs removed from their lungs and placed on a 1980s PC

Little bit of a different repair than what you normally do but looking forward to watch it

"Chop and munch chew and crunch there's a lot here to destroy inches by inch a cinch bringing down this big old boy"

Next up: cleaning my filthy desk after the grotesque 1980’s computer.

Hey, I just ran across your channel and I love it! :) Im a HUGE fan of repair and restoration videos, there's something so satisfying about them :)

Oh mate, beautiful design, so solid and very retro-futuristic, I hope someday you can repair it to use as a terminal for some Linux Mainframe.

I love watching the ways restorers do things differently. I've gotta get into restoration maybe

I watch a lot of restoration videos and this is the first I've thought "I wouldn't touch that". Braver man than I.

hugh: after correcting my mistake and trying again this happened ... me waiting for a blast xd

honestly I just love the numerous spiders I spotted scuttling out of the way all “GOOD HEAVENS!!” while he was cleaning it

Can you please do an update video, checking the voltages, putting a scope, or logic probe on the clock lines, and checking some fundamentals. Read out the chip numbers on he bigger chips and we can do some detective work on how to troubleshoot. A lot of this stuff fails for simple things like shorted tantalum capacitors or dry electrolytic caps. Please don’t just bin it.

This needs to be talked about with Techmoan or sent to him. He'll know exactly what this is.

This would likely make a neat 'hidden gaming PC' with enough work.

That computer just proves that old is dirty and no not gold

It must have been amazingly satisfying to slowly see it becoming cleaner

the foam inside the keyboard is dampening foam to make it sound better when you type

You can tell that grime happened while it was in use. The keys that were used most often on the keyboard were a lot cleaner than the rest of them.

Loved this video, very satisfying!

I don't know how, but these are so satisfying to watch.

imagine if that keyboard had vintage cherry mx blacks in them

Should've just pressure washed this with some strong disinfectant.

Those diodes on the power supply board seem to have gotten coocked to a crisp. That's probably why it didn't want to turn on. That buzzing sound could be the flyback crashing because it doesn't get high enough voltage, along with a substantial ripple. Either that or it's a coroded connector somewhere that has gone high resistance.

Excellent cleaning job!

I would love to see it restored or preseved as it is kind of a piece of history I guess

the truth is that these videos are very satisfactory, I don't know if some of them like it

I watch you do all of these repairs. I want to bring these phones and computers and such back to life. I want you do all the time and effort. And I have to give you 100% credit. I do not believe I would have the patience to go the extra miles that you do to get this all equipment operational again. I love watching you do it without a doubt. Much like you I love to see old tech repurposed. But I just don’t think I would have the patience or think outside the box enough to come up with some of the solutions that you do. So my heads off to you, my friend. Nothing but respect. I watch several different people that do this type of thing on here. By far, however, you are the best and most enjoyable to watch.

You know what I like it but I don't see it as a modern build. Take an MS DOS running unit and install it inside. Maybe you can also find another CRT that can be transplanted inside? Make it into an MS Dos machine! Would totally work with the already terminal design