Author Topic: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics  (Read 9542 times)

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Offline david77Topic starter

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EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« on: October 30, 2010, 09:51:48 pm »
I'm speechless.

I'm starting to think about how much chartering a cargo plane might cost...

EDIT: @Dave: Did you actually buy something? Just as a souvenir...
« Last Edit: October 30, 2010, 09:53:19 pm by david77 »
 

Offline Kiriakos-GR

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2010, 10:37:46 pm »
souvenir...

Those souvenirs are banned from the Air lines ..  ;D  


« Last Edit: October 30, 2010, 10:45:04 pm by Kiriakos-GR »
 

Offline Everett_Tom

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2010, 12:17:53 am »
Are you gonna get a chance to run up and visit Fluke in WA since your "so close" ? I think the flight up that way is only 2 or 3 hrs. :)
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2010, 01:33:51 am »
EDIT: @Dave: Did you actually buy something? Just as a souvenir...

Fraid not, only had enough time to film stuff.
The video is my souvenir.

Dave.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #4 on: October 31, 2010, 01:34:55 am »
Are you gonna get a chance to run up and visit Fluke in WA since your "so close" ? I think the flight up that way is only 2 or 3 hrs. :)

Try about 20 hours now.

I'll be back in silicon valley in April.

Dave.
 

Offline Jon Chandler

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #5 on: October 31, 2010, 03:40:14 am »
Apex is amazing!  I'm pretty sure that anything that ever came in a rack-mount panel is there... somewhere. :)

But it's scary to think about being in that place in an earthquake!

It's about a 3 hour flight from LA to Seattle....and a little too far to make casual visits to Apex :(
 

Offline the_raptor

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2010, 05:26:37 pm »
I think if I ever went to a place like Apex I would never leave. I wish we had something locally as I would love an ancient o-scope just as decoration.
 

Offline JohnS_AZ

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I'm either at my bench, here, or on PokerStars.
 

Offline the_raptor

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #8 on: October 31, 2010, 07:28:12 pm »
Like this? ...  :)



https://www.fairradio.com/catalog.php?mode=viewitem&item=2505

Yes, but shipping to Australia would probably double the price.
 

Offline Kiriakos-GR

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #9 on: October 31, 2010, 07:38:54 pm »
ancient o-scope just as decoration.

Well in Athens Greece , there is lots of ancient o-scope , that had come from USSR ,
they sell the on small tables at the street.
Other than those , lots of old army type binoculars, film cameras , scales , hand tools, and more.

But personally , as decoration I prefer fresh flowers ..   :)
 
 

Offline slburris

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #10 on: October 31, 2010, 09:16:50 pm »
So what does an old USSR oscilloscope look like?  Are they their own designs
or a clone of Tektronix or HP?

Scott
 

Offline Kiriakos-GR

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #11 on: November 01, 2010, 01:11:39 am »
I do not know Scott , I do not trust to get any , there is no spare parts or schematics about them.
 

Offline Time

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #12 on: November 01, 2010, 02:03:11 am »
I would LOVE to have an old USSR scope.  That would be so sweet.
-Time
 

Offline slburris

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #13 on: November 01, 2010, 03:57:50 am »
I've spent a lot of time at the museum of Soviet calculators:

http://www.taswegian.com/MOSCOW/soviet.html

and it's fascinating to see the history as the cloned early calculators
before getting into their own designs.

Sadly, I know of no such site for Soviet oscilloscopes.

Scott
 

Offline Nermash

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #14 on: November 01, 2010, 07:41:38 am »
So what does an old USSR oscilloscope look like?  Are they their own designs
or a clone of Tektronix or HP?

Scott


Here is a "small" one :)
http://cgi.ebay.de/Russischer-Klein-Oszilloskop-1-67-/230427277373?pt=Mess_Pr%C3%BCftechnik&hash=item35a689383d

I kind of like ruggedness of soviet era gear, but problem with their surplus is that you don't know if it was used around hmmmm... Chernobyl?
« Last Edit: November 01, 2010, 07:43:29 am by Nermash »
 

Offline sonicj

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #15 on: November 01, 2010, 12:28:00 pm »
I've spent a lot of time at the museum of Soviet calculators:

http://www.taswegian.com/MOSCOW/soviet.html

and it's fascinating to see the history as the cloned early calculators
before getting into their own designs.

Sadly, I know of no such site for Soviet oscilloscopes.

Scott

nice link! wacky logic on some of those machines! i love 70's - 80's russian styling! those 9 segment & rounded vfd's are insane!
-sj
 

Offline david77Topic starter

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #16 on: November 01, 2010, 02:04:07 pm »
I'm not a big fan of USSR electronics, I had several things like a reel-to-reel tape deck, a small TV and a
bench power supply. The stuff worked, but some of the technical details were just...well, weird.
The tape deck used the kind of brown string that was used to sling arround parcels as brakes for the reels,
the plastic was spongy and wobbly, the TV turned into a radio after it got hit by a falling plug of a extension
cord and the psu used fuses made from paper. They cought fire when burning out, taking the whole fuse
holder with them. I replaced them with standard parts, then one of the power transistors died. It had the
weirdest of cases I have ever seen, like a small tin with leads hanging from the bottom. After that I chucked
the thing out.
All old soviet electronics I have yet seen sported rather dubious build quality.

 

Offline Time

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #17 on: November 01, 2010, 06:43:20 pm »
I just want it for the novelty factor.  Maybe turn it into a lamp or something.
-Time
 

Offline MrPlacid

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #18 on: November 01, 2010, 06:45:47 pm »
Almost finished cleaning and organizing my stuffs after two days; and seeing this video scared me.
 

Offline sonicj

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #19 on: November 01, 2010, 08:22:11 pm »
thats funny david!



here's a russian designed piece i wouldn't mind having when i hit the lottery... optimus maximus
 

Offline bogdan546

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #20 on: November 02, 2010, 07:53:47 am »
I do not have too many expectations from electronic devices USSR
 semiconductors were their worst possible
 I saw many electronic devices you realize we're neighbors with the former USSR
 

Offline the_raptor

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #21 on: November 02, 2010, 08:03:22 am »
I'm not a big fan of USSR electronics, I had several things like a reel-to-reel tape deck, a small TV and a
bench power supply. The stuff worked, but some of the technical details were just...well, weird.
The tape deck used the kind of brown string that was used to sling arround parcels as brakes for the reels,
the plastic was spongy and wobbly, the TV turned into a radio after it got hit by a falling plug of a extension
cord and the psu used fuses made from paper. They cought fire when burning out, taking the whole fuse
holder with them. I replaced them with standard parts, then one of the power transistors died. It had the
weirdest of cases I have ever seen, like a small tin with leads hanging from the bottom. After that I chucked
the thing out.
All old soviet electronics I have yet seen sported rather dubious build quality.

And yet they had a remote controlled rover on the Moon in the 60's. That is what I love about Soviet era gear, they did it like MacGyver with paper clips and rubber bands,  :D

I actually think the Soviet era allows a fascinating study into how technology isn't a straight path and has many divergences. I actually feel that we have lost something in the modern economically unified world.
 

Offline Miarro

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #22 on: November 12, 2010, 07:16:07 pm »
These days everybody learns from the same sources so there is less chance of finding completely new approaches to problems.
 

Offline Greg323i

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Re: EEVblog #124 – A Tour of Apex Electronics
« Reply #23 on: March 16, 2012, 09:20:30 am »
I know this thread is old, but seeing this video only last week brought a tear to the eye and made me homesick. I used to go to Apex all the time, usually just to look around in fascination but sometimes to buy stuff. Lockheed Skunkworks used to be about 6 miles from there and they'd sometimes get surplus from there, the stuff that didn't go in Lockheed's surplus store. I've seen dozens of Fender amplifier chassis sitting in there. Any possible type of wire that you could possibly need. X-ray tubes! Tubes of all kinds, it's definitely Disneyland for geeks!! That nose cone that David found has been there for at least 12 years.
 


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