Restoring An Unusual Piece Of Computing History | Hackaday

Dragging classified ads or sites such as Craigslist to get interesting hardware is a pastime for many hackers. At least you can find deals on used tools and equipment. However, if you are lucky, you may stumble upon something very special.

what is the problem

. Contained in a series of gears that may have once belonged to the mute button, the device is a custom solid-state computer that seems to have been assembled in the early 1960s. It has a large transparent window, which is completely different from the windows on modern gaming computers, and its bracket can tilt it back at an angle of about 45°. Obviously it is designed for display. Maybe this is a teaching aid or even an entry for a science competition.

After some digging, it seems that the design of TRANSBINIAC is based on the plan of "Electronic Illustration" published in January 1960. Although there are some significant differences. The computer uses eight bistable flip modules instead of the original six, eliminates the multiplication circuit, and uses some simplified wiring methods. The people who built this machine knew exactly what they were doing, and it was really talking about it at the time. This truly unique machine is probably one of the first privately owned digital computers in the world.

This is why we are so happy to see [John] trying to restore the device to its previous glory. Naturally, this is a bit tricky because the computer has no documentation and its design does not exactly match anything there. However, with the help of other Hackaday.io users, he hopes to figure out all the problems. It sounds like the first step is to try to diagnose 2N554 germanium transistor flip-flop modules, because they seem to behave abnormally. If you have experience using such hardware, please feel free to join.

We are incredibly proud of so many early computer examples (and people who are fascinated by them) that they have recently found their way to Hackaday.io. They are actually

with

For future generations to learn. If it’s not a machine from the 1960s, such as TRANSBINIAC or

, Hackaday may not even exist. It seems that the least we can do is to give back favors and make sure they are not forgotten.

[Thanks Yann for the tip. ]

I remember reading the "Electronic Illustrated" article. The computer is essentially a binary counter driven by telephone dialing, but I have learned a lot from reading this article. I learned about flip-flops and two's complement algorithms. I no longer own the magazine, but I was very impressed with computers, so I decided to look for it 50 years after the article was published. I finally asked if anyone remembered this computer in an online forum and someone pointed me to an online EI. Therefore, this article is easy to find.

Do you mind sharing the link or at least the article title? Thank you

For a link to this article, see Dave Everett's comment below. The title of the article is "Build a Electronic Computer" by Ronald Benrey.

A real 8-bit computer.

I suggest you check every carbon component resistor and paper capacitor. Really, all capacitors. Carbon compensation resistors often change in value over time, sometimes many, exceeding 50%. But the worst problem is always capacitors. Paper caps and early metallized polymer caps will leak and shift, and electrolytic caps will dry out and become non-capacitors. I have seen 100uF capacitors over 10 years become <5uF, or just open circuit. Unless the power supply hits the trigger in the surge, I bet the transistor is ok. However, they can be easily checked using an electric meter, a few resistors and a small power supply. Check online.

Nice equipment! have fun!

By the way, if you are not familiar with prehistoric electronic products, carbon resistors are resistors with the appearance of dark brown bakelite, and their flat ends form an acute angle of 90 degrees with the lead, which is gradually reduced from modern through-hole resistors. The small taper differs in body and clues. I think(?) Those red and black body covers are paper parts. Make sure to check them for leaks. My experience shows that this is their most common failure mode. I have seen that many resistors actually become 1K or less.

If you are keen to keep the old look, I believe that certain guitar amplifiers and vacuum tube high-fidelity sound parts sellers will still sell this type of parts. However, modern through-hole parts are of extremely high quality and are inexpensive.

Someone installs old metal cans and waxed paper capacitors inside to install modern electrolytic, tantalum or other types of capacitors inside.

Before separating them, you need to understand the toxic chemical compounds in the old components. There was no ROHS at that time.

In the (Dutch) Navy, we call these resistors Allen Bradley resistors.

Good HF characteristics, but will fail a lot because they will absorb water, which will never happen on naval ships :-).

There is actually a glass tube containing compressed toner.

In fact, there is no need to keep them in this device, but searching for Allen Bradley can get a lot of success in the wifi online store.

Real Allen Bradley carbon compensation resistors can indeed drift, but they are almost the most stable resistors (other resistors are IRC, CTS, Ohmite, etc.-not much!). If this small object remains relatively dry, all resistors may still be within specifications, or at least close enough that no changes are required. I have always been able to get AB carbon compensation, and I would say that 80% to 90% is still under specification. Usually those are not so remote.

From the picture, they look like Allen Bradleys, but there are not enough details to say.

Likewise, at these low transistor voltages, the capacitors may not actually need to be replaced. Any leakage may not matter, and the risk of a fatal short circuit is greatly reduced.

I have tried to test old germanium transistors with one of those Fleabay clone AVR transistor testers. I found that a lot of them are mostly bad batteries, or these new devices are not equipped or programmed to test old germanium transistors. Actually I am not sure, but I suspect it is the latter.

Oh yes. Germanium transistors have considerable leakage current. In addition, Vbe is about 0.15 V, not about 0.6 V. The polarity is mainly PNP. The difference does not stop there.

Since the 1970s, germanium transistors have been eliminated. I don’t know if anyone is still producing them, unlike vacuum tubes.

You can find the "Electronic Illustration" problem here:

See page 26 of the magazine

"This unusual horn antenna designed by Bell Telephone Laboratories engineers will be used in experimental ground stations to explore the possibility of sending telephone calls and live TV to distant places in the world."

Isn't it the antenna that led Wison and Penseas to discover the cosmic background radiation?

After they figured out how to stop the pigeons from being cooked and sprinkled into small pieces, it was all right.

"Microwave hazards" on page 82/83, or how to try cooking mice, mice, rabbits, chickens and even beagles using radar beams!

The frequency they talk about is 24,000 mc. What unit is this

mc stands for megacycle, which is the term used before choosing Hertz as the standard.

"Mc stands for megacycle and is the term used before Hertz was selected as the standard."

I think it represents the frequency of "rat cooking". It can cook 24,000 mice per minute.

indeed!

It has been found that there is a direct linear relationship between the frequency and the rate (time period) of the timed mice, therefore, there is a linear relationship between the cooking frequency units of the mc mice.

It was later discovered that human exposure to these higher frequencies would cause pain, so it was changed to Hertz.

Or the one that inspired the invention of the microwave oven?

IIRC, Raytheon, had commercial uwave ovens as early as the 1950s.

Therefore, uwave can predate magazine articles many years.

Oh, shoot! This article says they introduced it in 1946!

Thanks for the link. The beauty of the sixties. Pg101 radioactive lights in the world tomorrow. Pocket size. Radiation is our friend. Your mutant kids will love it.

I have never read the electronic device problem illustrated, but I do remember seeing that the computer cover with the highlighted display is a tilted metal cabinet with indicator lights and a turntable. What memories to bring back.

If a few transistors are not bad, I will be shocked. Our filling technology is not the current one. A few years ago, a friend gave me a small bag of germanium transistors, and most of them were not good.

Prioritize replacement of paper capacitors. At the time they seemed to be a good idea, but they often failed. A few years ago, I was using Tek 310 and kept track of it. The correct ratio is 30%. Also replace the filter cover in the power supply.

Someone mentioned carbon resistors, but unless in high-voltage circuits, they will not drift too often. Pay attention at any time, but most of them are fine.

Tin whiskers in transistors are also possible.

Obviously, the "quick fix" for tin whiskers is to desolder the transistor, base, emitter, and collector together, and then take a charged capacitor and connect it to the case and the legs that are tied together. The blow will melt the whiskers, and the transistor may last for several years.

For TO-3, the situation is the collector, so you mean to tie the base and transmitter together.

Despite the wording of the article, from today’s perspective, this device is not a computer in any sense. It does not run the program, and even Turing finishes. It is a "computer concept demonstrator", especially a partially simplified arithmetic unit that can perform simple mathematical operations under manual control. Before the advent of the microprocessor, it was a common lie to call this device a "computer", but even Radio Shack sold a "computer kit," which was also a binary logic demonstrator.

It is also worth remembering that in the 1960s, the actual computer industry absorbed a large amount of early transistor production, and the products sold to hobbyists were usually products that failed the Q&A session (the output during the early manufacturing process was very bad) and " Good enough" for amateur use, but does not meet the specifications of industrial customers.

Literally, no one is confused by the terminology here. What is the significance of this comment?

So, like the actual electronic version of the paperclip "computer"?

It calculates numbers, so it is a computer.

Nowadays, what we call a "computer" does more than just calculate numbers. But somewhere in history, "computer" was renamed "calculator", and the "computer" we now know came into being.

There was a time when "computers" were human jobs, and they were proficient in mathematics, pen and paper and the like.

Without those guys and girls, NASA would not go to the moon!

Germanium transistors will deteriorate over time. They tend to get hot, which is of no avail. With age, many types will produce "tin whiskers". I have never seen a germanium transistor that still meets specifications for more than 30 years. When I found a completely effective method, I was actually very surprised.

Well, the problem is obviously that one should be flipped, but in fact it just failed.

After the restoration, the real challenge is to find useful things related to the thing, in addition to looking beautiful and collecting dust.

What a cool project! It must have been built by a wealthy engineer, because those transistors were very expensive at the time.

When repairing, I will take a look at the radio restorer to restore the radio to its original state and hide all replacement parts under the board (or possibly in the old capacitor). Antiqueradios.com will be the source of ideas.

If all other failures are related to passive components, then I will look at transistors. They can still be found, but they are expensive. Many modern transistor checkers cannot test them properly, and I found no NOS periodic replacement parts in the box. Germanium may be sensitive to temperature, but I am so sensitive to them that the gain drops every time I test them. European alternatives in the 1980s may be more reliable.

Take it out and put an Arduino

555 or 2 is sufficient. : P

Through this simple technique, your computer can be enhanced millions of times.

Can it be a binary translator? Does the EI article say nothing? (I don't have time to read it, just guess the name.)

Or battery...

I don't know if such a thing is the origin of accumulators with the names of special registers in modern CPUs and UC.

The counter configured as a binary counter fits the English definition of an accumulator very well.

Electronic illustration is here

Provided by my favorite search engine (hint: it’s not a

With G, that can’t be named).

This and it's a hint of the January 1960 issue resulted in:

The article is on page 84 (yes, they have a vintage table

content). For some reason, it is page 86 in the pdf.

Kids, learn to use search engines!

Page 84 (86 in PDF):

"Electronic Brain

Do you have any questions about electronics? send to

The electronic brain will provide the answer. "

> Kids, learn to use search engines!

Well, but obviously they shouldn't learn from you. :)

The article is on page 65 (67 in PDF).

The TRANSBINIAC guy is here. thanks for your support. If there is more time, I will update the project as soon as possible. Cliff Notes’s response to the comments in this article was that I replaced the original cover with an axial polyester film cover. The resistors I checked all met the specifications, and the transistors looked okay, although the leakage was more than I expected. Modern Components. stay tuned…

I tell you this is a good place :-)

Thank you for joining and sharing!

Do I remember seeing similar works between 1962 and 1964? In Ohio, businesses in the town got involved and let people come in and see what they did. There were no windows and there was nothing to see in the Bell Building in Ohio, but they let us in, and it was inside the door. This is a computer! Then you can look up, it should be the future.

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