Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Old gadgets quiz #1


This gadget is from around 1981 or 82. I have not used it for years. I am so surprised that it still works. Do you know what it is?

22 comments:

Icemoon said...

some kind of calculator?

peter said...

will be nice if you can strip the equipment and take photo of the inside. Those were the days of diodes, capacitors and thick single sided PCBs. I still have somewhere the first 10MB Seagate HDD which was stripped out of an old IBM XT PC model - must be a 1983 model. Weights a "ton" unlike today.

ahsiang said...

scientific calculator la~

Singapore Man of Leisure said...

Looks like calculator. Can you share in the answer why is there a need for the strange "hammer" shape at the top? Is there a function for it?

A calculator for loan sharks?

Ha ha!

Lam Chun See said...

Obviously it's a calculator; but there are additional functions. Even back in 1981, I did not have the 'talent' to qualify as a loan shark. LOL.

Peter Stubbs said...

It certainly looks like a scientific calculator. I bought my first such device in 1979. It cost a lot of money then, between a third and half of a week's wages.

I've still got my very first PC, which I purchased in the '80s. I practically broke the bank getting a 10MB hard disk model. It had MsDOS 3.3. It still works. I remember trying Windows 2 on it. That, If memory serves, came on about eight 3.5 inch floppies, and was not very good. I also ran Gem on it. Now who remembers that?

Lam Chun See said...

No. It's not a scientific calculator.

Anonymous said...

Those were the days of the Mainframes, mini and micro computers... of tape, cartridge and floppy drives... of punch cards, paper tapes, data modules, disk packs and cartridges, 8", 5.25" and 3.5" floppies... of computer brands like Control Data, Data General, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, Honeywell Bull, IBM, NCR, NEC, Perkin Elmer, Univac, Wang, etc... I recollect...

Tom said...

I think it ia a printer calculater.

peter said...

test equipment used on the shop floor?

Thimbuktu said...

Wow, Chun See! This aged working electronic collectible item could fetch an attractive price on eBay. This electronic device is no longer in production, I believe.

Brian and Tess said...

Well I for one can't wait for the answer. Yes it looks like it has the calculator functions on that key pad but that read out is strange and the side extension must be for some specialist function - magnetic card reader of some sort? I think I will check your CV Chun See to see what jobs you have done in the early 1980s!

Singapore Man of Leisure said...

Hmmm. And I thought the hammer shape is for knocking on borrower's head if they don't pay up......

2nd try. It shoots "laser" to measure distances and/or measures the gradient of a slope?

Anonymous said...

A calculator with plug-in modules ?

Lam Chun See said...

Thanks to everyone for trying. I didn't know it would be so difficult.

OK. Here's a hint. I was working as an industrial engineer in Philips at that time.

Tom said...

Chun See Iam going to have a good guess , is it a Graphic Calculater.

Anonymous said...

Data logger?

Edward said...

It's a Casio ST1 combined stopwatch and calculator, made around 1977. It uses 1.5V AA battery.

jade said...

I think it is a measuring instrument for varius electrical/electronic properties such as impedance, resistance, etc,.

Edward said...

Chun See, as an industrial engineer you were probably involved in “time and motion studies” in your workplace which required the use of the stop watch function in the Casio ST1.

Lam Chun See said...

Edward is right both times. More details later.

Monster said...

Fr : Murad... Wow... you guys are fantastic. Sometimes... just can't help those old memories of the Warong Ali next to Ah Bee provision shop... but I lost part of my memory when I got knock down by a car at the Bedok Bus Depot... in 1972. Therefore, I felt very excited with all your sharing as it tickles my brain and probably those lost memories still hidden behind my brain.