Thank You Fran. I used to make displays similar in my home shop in the 80's. Made Joystick interface for Quadriplegic wheelchairs. I used their chin controlled joystick, with a small switch to change between driving mode and accessory/function controls such as lighting, seat lift/recline, etc. Used Icons the patient and I made and I took sketches I made and designed final artwork on My Macintosh SE and laser printer I sent to photography for negative film. Every controller was unique to the patient. All analog for selection and operation. Did use LED's for illumination. Man, I was in my prime back then. Stayed up for days at a time for the first one. Brings back great memories. Thanks for that, Fran

I suspect there are two kinds of people in this world... a majority who see this and go "meh", and a minority, who, like you, find this techno-sexy!

I remember removing these from machine tools and replacing with HMI displays, they were 28v bulbs but when run at standard 24v the bulbs lasted a lot longer.

"1819" bulbs, pretty sure. We used those in some control rooms and 28V indicators were either 1819 or 1820's (1820's draw a bit more current). We sometimes would 'relamp' them from the back if we could reach it easily by pulling those two screws you did as well. But normally we had to go through the front and we used a short rubber tube to push in, sliding over the glass bulb to push and turn. Rubber 'hose' like tool gave us more 'grip' on those glass bulbs. :) Nice seeing someone interested in these old IEE displays. :)

I don't remember IEE switches or indicators at the BBC, but we had a lot of similar style things from Honeywell. When you showed the bulbs in their holes I remembered we had some special tools for them. There were tongs to take the fronts off some of the switches and indicators and a special tool for taking the bulbs out. A wooden rod with a beautiful Bakelite handle at one end and a rubber tube at the other that fit tightly over the bulb so you could take it out from the front. Occasionally the bulb would break and I would get the task of taking the whole panel out to get at the back! The other thing I remember was all the bulbs being rated at 28V, but run at 24V to extend their life. It's marbelous seeing all this old tech, and how well it was made.

I always need to pay attention not to read IEE as I-triple-E

12:35 You can see how the cold flowing of the solder has flattened the end contact over the years. This is why you don't tin wires under screw terminals.

I have a new appreciation for vintage status indicators thanks to you, especially after having to work on crappy, modern plastic ones (which WILL melt when used with the incandescent bulbs they come with).

Well put Fran, the incandescent fade in and out is special. Lovely indicators this and the last one. Love your channel, great vintage gear and really like your new series where you presented the F1 and the projection displays in the control center.

I miss the ramp and fade of incandescent too.

I would have never thought about how much engineering goes into these displays. Thanks for sharing these nifty little gadgets with everyone.

It's looks like you're back to churning out tons of high quality content, Fran!

This resembles the annunciation displays we had in the electrical substations and power plants I use to work. The manufacturer I recall was Panalarm. Makes me sad to refer this hardware as "vintage". Cool stuff. Thanks again Fran.

Hm... that would be a neat little indicator for some home automation project. I love the retro stuff.

I love how smooth and even the backlight is on those indicators.

Fran, thank you for the accelerated release schedule recently. I love your videos, and get great ideas from them. :)

The boilers at my last job had those indicators for the startup sequence. They stood up to some unpleasant conditions with zero problems. Those bulbs must have had an incredible life. Some stayed on 24/7/365, and I never had to replace one in the three years I was there...

I had an aircraft indicator display like this, had a load of segments with different status messages. It was circular, wish I still had it. Long tome ago now.

Very interesting. .I have never seen one of these, but it is what I would call a micro annuciator. In industrial control it is common to have an annuciator on the wall to display high priority alarms. These are important enough that you do not want to depend on the operator seeing them on his computer displays. They often have internal auditable alarms and flasher circuits. One brand for these is apanalrm,

Heh, the tapping the die-cast metal to show the quality reminds me of all the youtube cooking channels that show how crispy something is by running a fork across it. "Fork Don't Lie" :-)

Chuckled at the 'loving the incandescents fading out', jogs memory a bit, back to waiting for the TV to fade to that little white dot.. :-)

During the late 60s in to the early 70's, I worked on systems that used these types of indicator displays.

Blimey, that thing looks like it could take a direct nuclear hit and carry on working! Brilliant stuff Fran, absolutely love it! 8o)

I love these old analogue displays and gadgets you showcase. Very cool!

This format is great! I love following along with your exploration and sharing your sincere joy at the engineering and craftsmanship.

I love the channel. In the early 1980's IEE was a client of mine when I worked at a Hollywood film post production house. I was shooting slide film on an Oxberry animation stand for the inserts for similar pieces of hardware. Now I know what the finished product looked like. They were pleasantly geeky engineer types and were nice work for.

The same principle was used in my first car, a 1962 Buick Special Wagon, for the turn signal indicators. By the time I got the car, the green Kodalith inserts had faded with age. I cut some green plastic from a report cover and inserted it into the two panel recesses...voila! Lovely kelly green indicators!

For what it's worth, someone I worked with in the 1970's ran a company that built custom audio products. He used these 28 volt lamps but only ran them at 24 volts to extend their life. I wonder if that is typical?

I love little detailed videos like this. These indicators are interesting.

That Feed Hold remembers me CNC machines.

To me it looks like that indicator is from an automatic lathe or milling machine control panel.

Love the rich colors of the displays.

Those lamps are still in use in RF generators to this but are always run at 24v....love how much appreciation you have for the designers and manufacturers of a good product no matter how old it is.

Fran you are awesome! I JUST found your channel. OMG you are so smart and fascinating im looking forward to binge watching your vids lol. Thanks!

I found this channel like 2 days ago and suddenly it is my favorite channel

Great stuff! I love your unique channel. Thanks!

Puts me in mind of our Panalarm Annunciator panels at work. They have 2 lamps per segment, each segment is 1x3", arranged in 4x10 segments. Used for status indication of plastic extrusion lines.

These are such interesting displays. I am really fond of these retro displays. And I feel inspired to make something that looks like this (if i ever get a 3D printer). Thank you for the video and the explaination!

Many years ago, I used to work in a UK defence equipment manufacturer and a number of our units used something similar. They were much smaller and used 24v/28v miniature flange base style incandescent lamps. To get colours, the lamp would be fitted with a clear colour silicone cap. At the time, LED technology was improving and some lamps would actually be standard 5mm lens ended coloured LEDs with a minature flange base, also some would be two colour multi chip (GaPh) orange and green to mimic the "warm white" incandescent lamps. Others would be plain yellow and some later ones would use a cob style single white LED chip with no lens. The housings would contain a film with text on, just like those larger ones you have there. This would have a small lens that would sit on top of the text film, the purpose of which was to project the illuminated and coloured text onto a matt finish film on the front of the display. Only one would ever be illuminated out of a 3 x 4 matrix that projected onto the front 1 inch by 3/4 inch matt display film at the front. Common failure points were usually blown incandescents or overheated LEDs, poor electrical contact on the base contact springs due to wear, heat damage or corrosion (these units were used in a high vibration environment on sea going vessels). The other thing to watch with the miniature versions of these was soldering onto the centre contact, if you left the iron on the contact for too long, the solder would flow into the spring loaded contact rendering them useless. Sometimes, if you were lucky, you could re-heat the joint and remove the solder with a sharp downward tap on the bench. but if you were to do it with the displays in the equipment, you would have to disassemble half the equipment to remove the display! You only made this mistake once and learned from it!

Fun fact: Many indicator lamps in older cars (say, within the gauge cluster) work the same way... At least until they started using LEDs. The bulbs are in removable sockets that twist-lock into a PCB, and the bulb shines forward through a "tunnel" with a painted bit of plastic at the front to color the indicator and provide text/icons for the driver to see. 4:27 - It says "SHIFT ACTIVE," but all I can think of is "CHECK ENGINE." These are ingenious, in a way. Universal use, but for the specialized front lens.

Really enjoying your content!

I love it when Fran breaks down cool stuff that’s older than we are. :)

Very cool as always.

I like how you refer to this unit as sexy. Another informative video, great job.

That used one did run a long time! Got two different bulbs in it, a few must have been replaced at some time.

Well, they sure don’t make ‘em like they used to... stuff like this is exactly what people mean when they say that. Very cool! Thanks from a new subscriber!

That was Frantastic..

Beautiful device

Yessss another iee video

Very nice! You could probably get the used unit back into production by cutting a piece of smoked plexiglass and carefully filing it to an interference fit, then printing a mask onto one of those films that Big Clive uses for his home PCB production. Can't remember what that film is called right now, but it had a milky appearance which would diffuse the light from the bulbs very nicely.

Those indicator legends reveal that it's probably intended for a milling machine of some sorts. They are also used a lot on aircraft as annunciator panels, you can probably print your own legends using a few pieces of overhead projector transparency sheet.

I enjoy the various forms of early digital display techniques and what it took to make them operate. Thanks for showing several types I have not seen before. I refurbished an old Electro Instruments voltmeter with incandescent bulb lit "edge" displays a couple of years ago- search youtube- Edge Display Voltmeter.

What makes me cry is how all their trade show booth stuff is probably long gone, no photos or film :-( "Electro" the NYC Electronics Show used to have booths of display makers showing off all their stuff, new and old.

Thing of beauty, joy forevah!

The process computer that I maintained at a generating station (Westinghouse Prodac 510) used similar technology displays for the operators console digital display units. The display use bulbs that had twist lock base like this unit. If you did not get the bulb in the socket just right the numeral would be cut off on the sides or top or both. They were VERY fiddlly to work on. Ad they always had a bulb out. There were 7 of them in the control room.

In a post apocalyptic world and we are all scrounging to rebuild stuff, I would want nobody else but Fran Blanche around. She could rebuild technology!

Yey more intresting vintage hardware.

Remember the Lafayette Catalogue? Or walking around West Street in NYC and visit all the electronic surplus shops and push carts?

I have a bunch of those. I bought them on NYC's Canal Street, long long ago.

Thanks fran😉

It looks to me like the NC, NO, and C legends on the back are for pins that are not installed, rather than for the pins that are present. Presumably if a switch were constructed in this housing there would be additional pins present in those positions, and the switch mechanism would be inside the housing.

If I had to stare at indicators all day I'd much rather look at these then any screen. It's beautiful.

Looks like that was probably off of an NC lathe... could be prior to the advent of common CNC milling or turning equipment. Probably ran off of 10 meters of paper tape, which interestingly enough is typically 16 K worth of data.

Love the content

4:00 Yes this is exciting and I am just as riveted as you are :)

Me encanta tus expresiones faciales..me hacen reir..porque veo que te gusta lo que haces✌☺🌷

Just guessing, but I suspect a reason (and perhaps THE reason) for the bulbs being recessed so far was to protect the sheet with the graphics from heat from the bulbs. Another guess is that the bevel on one corner of the front glass is to force you to install it with a particular face facing out. I couldn't tell from the video, but perhaps one face is shiny and the other somewhat matte.

The independent bulbs for a staus indincator is not unigue. Usually a status indicator was located in a readily visible location so the operator could see status of several devices located in different areas

These are awesome. Why does it remind me of the Apollo C&WS display.

I think the springs help of reducing vibration and sound from the glass when build into a car or other moving application.

springs keep pressure on the screw heads for use in high vibration areas

Love your enthusiasm! Brilliant.....Also wasn’t the redundancy in the first unit making it wasteful? Seemed only 5 bulbs for a possible 12? Enjoyed video despite not knowing what was going on

Kodalith hmmmmm? I have a couple 100' rolls of that in the deep freezer. Now I need to come up with a project to use them in. Thanks for the idea!

Wouldn't just a fuse or breaker be part of that fancy stuff to help stop a short?

Love to see you make a new faceplate for the missing one. Make some cool indicators

Somebody ought to send Fran the rest of the Turbo Encabulator to go with the blinkenlights.

Hi Fran, I have 6 IEE. The number is 24275-01 It looked like a Blackjack card light sign so AWESOME! I wondered if you have an IEE book list? Also I want to know how much Voltage and Amp I need to get a power adapter. Cheer!

This left me wondering where the color filters were as there was nothing on the lamps and you said the text carrying (Kodalith) is black and white, just like all lithographic materials I have seen. So somewhere there had to be at least two kinds of color filters.

"Feed hold... Sounds dirty" Oh my god

I've always found incandescent indicators more attention grabbing than LEDs. Something about the warmth of the colors. For instance, warning lights on a car's instrument cluster. Specifically the amber warning lights lit by incandescent bulbs feel weirdly more "threatening" than amber LEDs.

Based on the disassembly, I'd wager that replacing the bulbs could be done from the front, post-install. Open the bezel, remove the baffle, and that would expose the tops of the bulbs. Then a little tool- I'm thinking a tiny suction cup device with a longish handle. Press that onto the top of the bulb, push down, then rotate, and the cup allows extraction. Install is the reverse. Re-install the lens/bezel, done. No need to even power the equipment down. ;)

I remember these on CNC's, not that i'm old enough to have run them when these were new. I would suspect that one came off a cnc in fact with that labeling.

Those in the know with some derision about IEE would probably had also called them I-error, after calculators which show "EE" for equation error.

A HAL 9000 nonsensical 3 letter status theme may be cool!

Any idea how the red display (or any other colour) was produced? I assume the film for the displays was monochrome. and any colour was added later. Yep, I to love the "ramp and fade" of incandescents.

I wish there was a model of something like this for those of us that want to recreate 3D printed led annunciator panels.

This thing is rediculously simple, unlike the Nimo tibes or Binaview displays, probably pretty easy to make one yourself

I miss the aesthetics of yore. Things now may be crisper and more precise, but there is an appeal in those old-fashioned tech. Recently the elevators in my building were refurbished (those are some OLD elevators, from the early 50's), and went from wood paneling, real-button buttons and incandescent bulbs for floor indicators to a stainless steel box with LED-ringed buttons and big 7-segment floor indicators. By themselves the elevators are okay, I guess, but they are woefully out of place in the building, with its travertine-clad walls and tile floors. I just don't know why they couldn't have gone with a traditional look for the paneling and buttons and indicators and a modern control system and motor.

I am rivetted. 😊

Wow Fran you really seem to know your stuff

You could make a custom screen and show it lighting up after the binaview crawl in the intro to announce the type of video that's coming... e.g. RANT MODE you could set off the starfleet siren for extra emphasis.

Amazing i'm going to build one the diy way

With the fully populated module I'm thinking that the lamps which appear new indicate fault conditions. With the others indicating normal operating conditions.

NICE.

Is it capable of being driven by multiplexing circuits, common cathode and common anode multiplexing to distribute power to the desired grid

@fran... where can I get the measures for this display? is there an old pdf or something somewhere? I was trying to get the size, to replicate with 3d printing....

Such indicators were normal in the 1960's and 1970's for build and durability. 28 V lamps normal in military aviation in that time period. These were on the racked test equipment. Such indicators too heavy for the smaller, high performance military attack and fighter planes I worked on. We had the status lamps around the CRT radar displays or offset panel potted in Lexan with the colored word indications silk screened by a black mask overlay. Special long lasting grain of wheat 28 V lamps in the faceplates. One goes out, the whole or a section of the faceplate escutcheon was replaced.

Maybe it's for some kind of video projection facility. PTE Projection Tube Enumerator?

Interesting teardown. You said you bought it new, was it new old stock or are these still manufactured?

Hmm very retro very well made still look so good incandescent light .....reminds me indicators of appolo moon mission....🤔