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geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: Internetlad on Fri, 18 November 2011, 15:12:21

Title: not sure about "great" price, but an interesting fleabay find. (Non-KB)
Post by: Internetlad on Fri, 18 November 2011, 15:12:21

I'd grab it if I had 500 bucks to blow. Any nerd who likes vintage stuff would have their interest piqued by this

http://www.ebay.com/itm/vintage-Soviet-calculator-computer-ISKRA-123-16-NIXIE-TUBES-1979-MASSIVE-/330635154251?_trksid=p5197.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D2%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D4289758617732576497#ht_5168wt_1163

Some sort of old pre-LED calculator. Cool.

Title: not sure about "great" price, but an interesting fleabay find. (Non-KB)
Post by: dorkvader on Fri, 18 November 2011, 22:41:23

Wow, 16 nixie tubes, it's almost worth that much if only for those.

good find, indeed.

Title: not sure about "great" price, but an interesting fleabay find. (Non-KB)
Post by: Ekaros on Sat, 19 November 2011, 05:14:11

That is so cool... I wish I had money to wast... invest ;D

Title: not sure about "great" price, but an interesting fleabay find. (Non-KB)
Post by: Gerk on Sat, 19 November 2011, 11:18:53

But the question is ... are the keys mechanical and are the keycaps doubleshot? :D  Seriously though it's really cool but out of my price range for toys.

Title: not sure about "great" price, but an interesting fleabay find. (Non-KB)
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Sat, 19 November 2011, 11:51:04

I believe it had spst pole switch. If you look careful on the picture without the cover, you can see 2 wire coming from each switch under the plate. These aren't that rare really, well perhaps the particular model is hard to find, but many like this were made. You can find them at bazaars (flea market) pretty often in ex-USSR. I prefer the smaller Elektronica models personally though they were mostly later and used vfd instead.

Title: not sure about "great" price, but an interesting fleabay find. (Non-KB)
Post by: dorkvader on Sat, 19 November 2011, 14:33:02

Quote from: lysol;455512

I believe it had spst pole switch. If you look careful on the picture without the cover, you can see 2 wire coming from each switch under the plate. These aren't that rare really, well perhaps the particular model is hard to find, but many like this were made. You can find them at bazaars (flea market) pretty often in ex-USSR. I prefer the smaller Elektronica models personally though they were mostly later and used vfd instead.

VFD's are pretty excellent, too. I'm glad they haven't all gone: you can still get them.

Title: not sure about "great" price, but an interesting fleabay find. (Non-KB)
Post by: fohat.digs on Sat, 19 November 2011, 17:22:50

****ing awesome.

I am in no position to throw big wads of cash at anything right now, but that is totally cool.

Thanks for posting it.

Title: not sure about "great" price, but an interesting fleabay find. (Non-KB)
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Sat, 19 November 2011, 18:01:41

If you want a clock there are some decent priced Elektronika ones on ebay, all you need to do is modify the power unit for 110v.

Title: not sure about "great" price, but an interesting fleabay find. (Non-KB)
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Sat, 19 November 2011, 18:59:31

Probably bad power supply, which you would want to replace with a 110v anyway. Commodore floppy power supply are compatible you just need to pay attention to the power circuit and do a step up to drive the nixie part. Unfortunately no way of knowing if the tubes are all good but if they were a potentially decent price. I think the switches on that one are capacitive, but not sure.
That clock is nice, and has the higher quality wood casing, there were a couple of the white plastic case ones for less, but they must have ended or been sold. Or perhaps it was for the vfd ones...

Title: not sure about "great" price, but an interesting fleabay find. (Non-KB)
Post by: dorkvader on Sun, 20 November 2011, 11:17:13

I'm also considering making an oscilloscope clock with my old 'scope.

Yeah, that's the problem, if all the nixie tubes are bad, it'll be expensive to replace.
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What's special about the commodore floppy power supply that it'll work with this?