Viewer Mail 10

Рет қаралды 45,436

5 жыл бұрын

Oh My! This Viewer Mail is so overflowing with cool stuff that it had to be broken into two videos! Yes, another to follow later this week. Get your fill of all the geek goodness I've baked into this one, but leave room for desert... in a couple days. Enjoy!
Just the files - • Display Innovations 19...
Sam's Super Planetary Music Program - • Video
The Max Headroom Live Broadcast cut-in video - • Video
The Casio VFD calculator - • FranLab: Viewer Mail #1
The Radium Girls Wiki article- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_...
Join Team FranLab!!!! Become a patron and help support my KZfaq Channel on Patreon: / frantone
- Music by Fran Blanche -
Frantone on Facebook - / frantone
Fran on Twitter - / contourcorsets
Fran's Science Blog - www.frantone.com/designwriting...
FranArt Website - www.contourcorsets.com

Пікірлер: 267

@FranLab 5 жыл бұрын

Somehow I do actually know that Indianapolis is not a state, but Indiana is. I think I should know that anyway.

@windmill1965 5 жыл бұрын

I might be incorrect but have the impression that the displays shown at 33:45 go together with the Japanese datasheet shown at 43:40. Feel free to contact me in case you need help in deciphering that Japanese document.

@XcaptainXobliviousX 5 жыл бұрын

Hey Fran, did you see your shout-out on ElectroBoom? Mehdi is watching!

@unmanaged 5 жыл бұрын

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datakit

@pheenix42 5 жыл бұрын

Don't worry about things, Fran, as a lot of people consider us here in Cornfield Country to be a flyover state! :D

@bobnicholas5994 5 жыл бұрын

I live in Indianapolis and it is pretty much the state of Indiana. Beautiful fun city.

@jerryvr 5 жыл бұрын

There's only one female KZfaqr that sees an antique clock radio and pulls out her own Geiger counter... Fantastic video as usual Fran!

@eccremocarpusscaber5159 5 жыл бұрын

Fran, I love the noises you make when you are delving into boxes of exciting mail. You are an all-round brilliant, interesting and funny person. I adore having this bit of you in my life!

@peckelhaze6934 5 жыл бұрын

To Sam from another Brit, keep up the great work and you obviously enjoy what you are doing. A big WELL DONE. Nice collection there Fran.

@openg739 5 жыл бұрын

Wow. The clock radio thing was actually kind of eerie. Hearing the geiger counter some to life was very strange.

@laptop006 5 жыл бұрын

I guess you could say ... it's an atomic clock. I'll go back to my Cesium & Rubidium clocks.

@martinpickard6043 5 жыл бұрын

So pleased to find this a couple of days after release. So good to find you still posting and sharing your knowledge, enthusiasm and love for all things tech to all your fans

@MadMaxMiller64 3 жыл бұрын

I could watch your channel all day long! Thanks Fran for many hours of fun.

@GrannyBender 5 жыл бұрын

Dear!!! That's some really impressive donations! And that first letter and synth project is truly, truly awesome!

@Fireship1 5 жыл бұрын

Love the viewer mail. We get to see some cool stuff and hear your take on it’s history and uses. Love it!

@mavos1211 5 жыл бұрын

Fran I have only just found your channel and I think you are just adorable! I watch you with my two daughters as I really want to encourage them to learn about electronics and just how things work. Anyway I love what you do and look forward to watching your old videos as well as up and coming. X

@robertdougherty349 5 жыл бұрын

Viva STEM girls !

@mkilner 5 жыл бұрын

welcome aboard! 👏🏻🔎

@Joetechlincolns 5 жыл бұрын

The TI calculator brings back memories of me taking dad's calculator and playing with it. It looked very much like that one.

@Joetechlincolns 5 жыл бұрын

I think my dad's had a red display. The digits were small.

@robertdrinkall8947 5 жыл бұрын

Fran, Your showing up regularly now in the Recommend section. Seems your little moan did some good.

@kenwinston2245 5 жыл бұрын

Haha! Philly-style 😃 does that make you a philli - stine ? Greetings from an Oregonian 😃 here's some RF fun not everyone knows about. Put one of those old TI calculators on top of a pocket size AM radio and enter a few digits. Wacky space sythesizer cascades !

@chiquita71 5 жыл бұрын

Hi Fran, so glad to have you back in my subscriptions feed. Love your lab vids. I trained as a military electronic tech in the late 80s , (Now retrained as an RN in the OR). I work nights and my sleeping pattern awful. Your lab videos keep me company and my ex engineer Brain entertained when I can’t sleep. Still remember etching my own boards. Never used blue prints but we used a version of autocad from an ms dos based pc to create circuit diagrams. Want to dig out my soldering iron and build a nixie clock to get myself back into the craft. Thanks for restarting a former career with your educational videos. Kind Regards, Scottie x

@truckerallikatuk 5 жыл бұрын

Is this the real life? Is this just Frantasy... caught in a landslide.. no escape from nerd pornery

@PeteEllson5656 2 жыл бұрын

@Allison Pell- Great comment. Or should I say great song arrangement. Thanks

@cambridgemart2075 5 жыл бұрын

Great mailbox vid Fran. The EA5316 is a version of the National MM5316 alarm clock chip; I remember building my first 1 chip clock based on that!

@johnrobinson357 5 жыл бұрын

That is a treasure trove of awesome. Amazing that this stuff still exists in un molested form, hours of this would not be too much.

@johnstokes4905 5 жыл бұрын

Loved the blueprint. When I started in an electronics factory 50 yrs ago you used to go to the print room, they would get out a transparent blue print wrap it over a light box affair then lay some bromide treated yellow paper on top, cover with a white faced rubber sheet, turn on the lamp and expose fo approx 30 seconds. Remove the exposed paper then develop it with a sponge type plate washer dipped in ammonia

@uniservo 5 жыл бұрын

The white IC at 31.37 is an AMI S1856 - a digital clock device. AMI used those packages in production for a few years in the mid 1970s.

@RB-yq7qv 5 жыл бұрын

Wonderful letter from Sam His projects is very interesting please write to him it will make his day

@sookie1695 5 жыл бұрын

So much Love for you, happy I found your site. Be safe always.

@mycroftholmes7003 5 жыл бұрын

His name was Bryce Lynch.... Academy of Computer Science. Chris Young played the character. Now a TV producer if memory serves. Watched every episode. ;-) glad you are in my feed again. Keep doing great and fun things. YBM

@NotGamersHD 5 жыл бұрын

I have an old 1975 vintage APF mark 50 calculator that uses a 9v battery as well. It was quite strange to see, lol. I'm planning to send it to you soon alongside a few other cool goodies :) love this channel and your personality.

@jeffknott7360 4 жыл бұрын

Nuclear is the closest thing to magic we have in my opinion, just picture all those particles flying out and will keep producing them for many many years....it still amazes me to this day!

@tarzankingofthejungle1040 3 жыл бұрын

i LOVED Max Headroom!! you lucky dawg!! : ) thats so kewl. WAY kewl and kewl at&t clock!! You rock..yes yes,,even 2 years ago. haha

@Wildman9 5 жыл бұрын

I liked your Chevy Chase impression,great stuff.Have fun with that treasure trove of vintage gear.👍😎🔌

@JackdeDuCoeur 5 жыл бұрын

I think the TI1025 was the calculator popular in my office in the early 1980's, and no, the device was not very efficient in rendering that display. It ate those 9V batteries like popcorn.

@DrewskisBrews 5 жыл бұрын

With all these clocks, your place is going to look like Doc Brown's lab before long!

@TooManyHobbiesJeremy 5 жыл бұрын

I really really want to see a clock made with those beautiful small led display with the gold leads. A clear case or wider window would be great

@JIMO415 5 жыл бұрын

Ah the MM5369 is used in the time base in one of my homemade clocks. Lots of cool stuff!!

@ve2mrxB 5 жыл бұрын

JIMO415 I think I have one lying around in my spare parts... It's 32.768kHz to 60 Hz, right?

@JIMO415 5 жыл бұрын

ve2mrx, I have to be honest, I have not studied how it works yet but it is in one of my clocks doing just what you say. The output of that circuit is fed to a MM5314 clock chip which is weird because most builders used the mains frequency to signal the MM5314. You can see that clock on my channel, it is the one with the numitrons. Check it out.

@raymondkoonce5827 5 жыл бұрын

A museum would arm wrestle you for all those goodies!!!

@imaseeker100 3 жыл бұрын

5:55 - Fran: 'Probably T6 Aluminum'. What a treasure she is.

@bostedtap8399 5 жыл бұрын

Hi Fran, I think I can safely say you have the best viewer mail without equivocation.🎓🎩💫. All the best from the UK.

@MrStingraybernard 5 жыл бұрын

Some of this stuff I don’t understand but the videos are so relaxing to watch , don’t think I’ve missed 1 since I’ve subscribed

@nolaray1062 2 жыл бұрын

Glad I’m not the only one. There is so much she talks about that might as well be Greek to me, but I can’t stop watching! Lol

@bobfuller9759 5 жыл бұрын

We were taught how to make blueprints in drafting class in the 60's fun times thanks

@Astro-adventure 5 ай бұрын

I used to collect radioactive sources and I had hundreds of clocks before they got confiscated but they were actually so active that the meter would stop making noise

@rippenbug 4 жыл бұрын

Hey Fran! At 4:51 that little device is an l.e.d. used as a voltage clamping circuit for the solar panel. If you shine a flashlight into the solar panel you should see it light a little.

@swinde 5 жыл бұрын

I had a radium clock when I was younger (Baby Ben) and my parents had a "Big Be", also radium dial. People were not as fearful in those days. Later on I had a digital wristwatch which was LCD and permanently back-lighted by Tritium. I really liked the watch. There was a news report (mid 70s) about a rail car carrying tritium being derailed and the area evacuated and at the time I was still wearing this watch. Kids on the school bus (50s) even would play with a blob of mercury and use it to make a penny be silver colored. One kid put the blob in his mouth. Today they will evacuate a multi-block area and bring in Haz-Mat to "purify" the area. Thanks to the media, people are frightened of almost everything.

@FranLab 5 жыл бұрын

I too had a tritium LCD Timex watch in high school - It faded to barely visible in 10 years. I also played with mercury as a kid, my Dad was a chemistry major and had a nice bottle of the stuff - lots of fun rolling it around on the porch. I still remember the unique smell. Not at all wise, but as you say we just didn't know any better. Nevertheless I managed to grow up without major brain damage. Major, anyway. ☺

@yardleybottles6025 5 жыл бұрын

I remember those things, especially playing with mercury and making " silver pennies". : )))

@FennecTECH 4 жыл бұрын

*moves my matching clock about two feet further from my bed*

@Vbeletronico 5 жыл бұрын

Quite exciting collection of old parts and datasheets! I would try my best to digitalize them, given that several of these older parts have only specifications and not such complete datasheets. Great idea to verify the radioactive clock! I have plenty of older things and never thought about scanning them for such materials. The first scientific calculator I used was a VFD from Casio powered by two AAs. Casio fx-39. They had another with 10 digits (Casio fx-140). Common to both is the crappy membrane keyboard that becomes brittle with time and buttons start to fail... :(

@scotttrezise6092 3 жыл бұрын

Hi Fran I just stumbled on to your channel, my first time"IN THE LAB" and I'm still riding your 🌊 wave of cool🌬️❄️🎸 with the francaster, I'm now a Fran fan whaat ooh-yeea, this is sooo much fun, I'm feelin like a kid again 🖖❤️👍 with a new hobby, your just way cool 🌬️ please keep it going, thanks.

@Canerican. 2 жыл бұрын

That first letter was so adorable!

@KSMike1 5 жыл бұрын

Hmmm... “Bill’s Data Sheet Digitization Project?” Awesome stuff.

@JackLe1127 3 жыл бұрын

I wonder if you held a fluorescent light bulb next to the clock hands, the bulb would glow.

@n8lbv 3 жыл бұрын

Learned something new: I have always wanted something with radium paint and wondered if the glow material would still work or be petered out. Learned here that this many years later they no longer glow. Bummer! I'm guessing the two materials were originally granularized and mixed for proximity and max glow. Simply painting over with a new coat of something that glows when excited would not work nearly as well or be bright as the original stuff. I wonder how bright that stuff used to glow when it was new.

@matthewday7565 5 жыл бұрын

My regular calculator for ages was a Casio FX105 … still got it somewhere, I think, just ended up using a lighter and longer battery life LCD instead. Had the NP-2M rechargeable pack (with the plastic prod that enabled the charge function) and due to someone messing around, it fell out and broke in a very fortunate way, just chipped the end enough that I could easily slide the aging NiCd cells out and replace them. Just 2 AA it ran on, could use standard cells, but could only charge the pack

@AdrianCastravete 5 жыл бұрын

You do realise the At&T Aluminium PC thingie is in fact a Clock. It's one of those mass produced two button watch circuits. The buttons are often labeled S(et) and M(ode). Pressing Set once gives you the seconds for one moment, and then reverts to Hours:Minutes. Pressing M cycles through various setting modes, which probably end in displaying only the seconds.

@andrewfoster1641 3 жыл бұрын

12:00 Dip molded vinyl plastisol. Pad printed. USA made, probably near Detroit, as I know the manufacturer. Made with a one part mold, probably solid aluminum, dipped into liquid and heated to about 400F and then quenched. Can be cleaned in a dishwasher and will handle up to 212F without any problem. Plastisol will cold flow, so don't use it as a seal under pressure (it's not silicone). Great insulator. Will resist acid, sunlight fading, and oils without staining. Luggage tag is a great application. There are a couple of big plants doing dip molding in Doylestown, close by you. Still a pretty well established industry in US, though of course a lot of tool grip applications have moved to China.

@Rendercolorfulgoop 5 жыл бұрын

Hi Fran! long time youtube viewer, but today was the first time i saw your channel on the suggested column. the video i saw was about how your videos weren't appearing there and how your channel wasn't growing because of it. It seems they have started putting your videos in rotation. new sub :D cheers

@ogleogre 5 жыл бұрын

39:08 whoever knew a colon could look positioned so well? *changes career to digital clock designer*

@stevejones8665 5 жыл бұрын

Fran When I was a Nipper I used to put my clock under an incandescent lamp for an hour and the Radium dial would glow as good as new for week's then I was able to see the time in total darkness.

@gadget73 5 жыл бұрын

If the lens over the clock is glass that will actually shield a fair bit of the radiation. I have an old Westclox and it reads about 4x as much with the glass off vs on. Doesn't glow unfortunately, the phosphor is toast.

@devttyUSB0 5 жыл бұрын

Some interesting stuff in that last box or two!

@jamesmelendez9971 2 жыл бұрын

Wasn't it galena - iron sulphide. Died laughing with the radioactive clock display. Reminded me of the glow in the dark wristwatches of the 1980's which must have been radioactive!

@dhpbear2 5 жыл бұрын

4:15 - That Max Headroom calculator appears to be solar-powered! Note the solar collector above the display.

@samcam6932 5 жыл бұрын

Frantastic.😁👍

@ROBOTkw1 5 жыл бұрын

I was touched by the letter from 10 year old Samuel and your kind response. omg- MAX HEADROOM on your Pocket Calculator! .... =K R A F T W E R K= ....

@TheNeonRabbit 5 жыл бұрын

I wrote someone a letter on adding machine paper once. It was all one line horizontally. Kinda fun.

@southpawdj 5 жыл бұрын

Glad I found you during youtube trying to hide your videos! You can't hide a light in darkness!

@wktodd 5 жыл бұрын

I worked on maxhead room pilot film . my brother and i built some props and vehicles (one character ??? had worked/lived in a bus)

@RJDA.Dakota 3 жыл бұрын

That’s one reason why they don’t make radium dials anymore. I used to have a watch that glowed with radium. Nowadays I think that they use an entirely different element. This used to be very common. That’s also why TV picture tubes and some valves are no longer available or even manufactured. Back in the day we were told to stay a considerable distance from the TV screen.

@goodun2974 2 жыл бұрын

The Radium Girls saga is truly tragic; Women working in a clock factory painting the dials with luminous paint and absorbing radium which substituted for calcium in their bones and gave them terrible cancers and bone disintegration. And yes there were some vacuum tubes containing radioactive elements, primarily certain cold-cathode voltage regulator tubes but also some early receiving tubes that used thorium-inpregnated filaments. The radiation generated by television sets was from the picture tube and from some of the high voltage components inside, and in the form of x-rays, only when the set was operating, and with no radioactive elements involved.

@lloydgarland4667 5 жыл бұрын

See? You're loved!

@rich1051414 5 жыл бұрын

That mini computer, I think the right side LCD is busted. It probably was a clock, but now, the whole thing flashes black.

@doggodoggo3000 3 жыл бұрын

22:01 I don't know much about electronics but those are so freaking cool.

@savneetsinghrairai6823 3 жыл бұрын

I had same Casio green TFT calculator it's amazing how that tube is build

@betta67 5 жыл бұрын

Bill Morris... you didn't donate to Fran but to all of us! Thank you! Best regards!

@mikadoedwards3117 5 жыл бұрын

Ooh, I came from your black wing 811 pencil video, I love the video!!

@mirkomueller3412 5 жыл бұрын

34:30 The transparent layer surface in the reflection looks a bit like mica, but since mica cannot be casted (as far as i know) it must be something else...

@electron-1979 5 жыл бұрын

I was thinking the video was too long, but it was great!

@ZenZaBill 5 жыл бұрын

Now Th-th-that's a calculator.

@truckerallikatuk 5 жыл бұрын

I'm wondering if the odd thing at the base is a "non-replaceable" battery contact?

@jankcitycustoms 3 жыл бұрын

@@truckerallikatuk I thought it was to prevent it from turning on without the metal back on

@JVerschueren 5 жыл бұрын

Sitting here wondering why the 7 and divide button on the TI-1025 are more worn than the others... usually the decimal point and the multiplication one are.

@robertdougherty349 5 жыл бұрын

Now you can finally build that interocitor.

@jeffknott7360 4 жыл бұрын

10 yrs old? Wow what an amazing kid!

@mrmobodies4879 5 жыл бұрын

I got a Casio Personal-1. Just powered it up and display colour looks the same. The green colour looks peaceful.

@jeffreyoldham55 5 жыл бұрын

Cool knife for a cool rocker chick, Fran. I used to work for AT&T in KC, and have that exact same PC clock!

@signaljacker4830 5 жыл бұрын

The max headroom incident - broadcast signal intrusion at it's finest lol and they never caught him. . .or her? ;) I believe it's called a signal hijacking?

@CandidDate 3 жыл бұрын

Joke: Fran, what time is it? Fran: Do you want Nixitime, 8-segment led time, vacu-fluorescent time, BCD-time, analog time, or digital time?

@hitchawk4789 5 жыл бұрын

" It's not dead, it's just resting," (The Max Headroom calculator, that is,.....have you tried it in daylight?)

@henrikjohnsson9343 5 жыл бұрын

Quite a euphemism saying a room with a blueprint machine smells of ammonia.

@chilly313 5 жыл бұрын

watched your wtf vid and one other clip i watch little sci/tech and you have been in my recommend 5 times wow

@cookieshousecannabisco6963 4 жыл бұрын

the handwritten youtube link is so freckin adorable :3

@yardleybottles6025 5 жыл бұрын

A 50's radioactive clock - who knew? Keep it away from the Venus Flytraps! (FEEEED MEEE!) Thanks for another great video!

@FranLab 5 жыл бұрын

Yea - I hope you washed your hands really well after working on that! Thanks for the magic!

@yardleybottles6025 5 жыл бұрын

@@FranLab Didn't open the clock face, just turned the knob in back to rotate the hands, thus moving the internal parts of the telechron. Sorry, didn't realize those things threw off THAT much radiation! One more reason to watch your videos! BTW, that thing STILL glows like a bad boy after sitting in sunlight for a few hours! Thanks again for all your time and work in providing worthwhile viewing!

@m.k.8158 5 жыл бұрын

It might still glow from UV exposure, but when the phosphors were fresh, they would glow from the Radium alone-no UV required-and, no fade-out over time like it probably does now. BTW, the main issue with Radium paint is not exposure(the Alpha can not get through the housing or glass, and the Gamma is not that significant..the rest is Beta from the Radium "daughters"). In general, not a major hazard, unless you manage to get the paint into your body...generally by inhaling paint dust, or accidentally ingesting it. Also, if you have a quantity of Radium painted items in a small place, remember that Radium emits Radon gas...so good ventilation is a good idea.

@FranLab 5 жыл бұрын

I'm relieved! The far UV will stimulate the phosphors at a different energy level than the alpha emissions and they come back to life - it's one of the ways you can test for a radium clock without a geiger counter is use a UV flashlight.

@yardleybottles6025 5 жыл бұрын

@@FranLab Most interesting! PPS - I did read the "Radium Girls" Wiki piece. Like some corporations today, shop owners then considered workers "livestock". Very sad. Looking forward to your next appearance!

@SlightlyNasty 5 жыл бұрын

I've got a '70s "Microlith Scientific" that also runs a VFD display on a 9v battery. I would use it more often, but unfortunately RPN has ruined me for most of the calculators out there!

@NathanChisholm041 5 жыл бұрын

I'm subbed to your Chan and I DO not get notified at all! I've double checked settings and nope nothing.

@alien8r33d 5 жыл бұрын

At 35mA per segment and total of 245mA when displaying an '8' without the DP, a multi-digit display would more than likely have been multiplexed.

@cozzm0AU 5 жыл бұрын

38:09 - I spy a Toshiba logo on one of the drawings there.

@thisoldminer 5 жыл бұрын

I had a Radium watch when I was young.

@georgegherghinescu Жыл бұрын

@ 19:00 hahaha love the comparison!

@sideshowbob1544 5 жыл бұрын

Viewer mail is my favorite! No telling what those crazy viewers might send in.

@joehowe9020 5 жыл бұрын

With that clock chip please make a clock would be fun to watch you make a clock

@GlennSteffy 5 жыл бұрын

...... YESS !! ............

@merlingallagher4484 5 жыл бұрын

Well these alphas won't go through that plastic glass.

@mugrug12 5 жыл бұрын

Snail mail lp is TOPS!

@FranLab 5 жыл бұрын

It's a really great record.

@dentakuweb 5 жыл бұрын

I was wondering what that said. Even at 1080p I couldn't decipher it.

@Sharklops 4 жыл бұрын

Fran, some isopropyl alcohol might take care of the stickiness on that NASA badge holder

@goodun2974 2 жыл бұрын

At 22:30, I think Fran might have misspoken ---- she says that crystal radios used a crystal of "germanium", but I think it was actually Galena, which is a naturally occurring lead sulfide crystal if I remember correctly.

@Wenlocktvdx 5 жыл бұрын

GE also made VFD calculators, the Genius 50, 60 and 70 series were all VFD. I remember seeing one at high school in 1977-8. vintagecalculators dot com has a list of all kinds of vintage calculators.

@m.k.8158 5 жыл бұрын

APF also made some calculators with VFD displays that used a 9 volt battery. I'm fairly sure that other mgrs did too. Indeed, many of them DID use AA cells though.