Commander X16

Browsing the Interwebs I recently found a reference to those science kits that exisited here in Germany. Philips and Kosmos at all. I had the "Kosmos Junior-Elektrotechnik" I posted a picture of. ? What were the ones in your part of the world? Did you guys also had some in your youth?



Wandering around I found out that there are hardly any that deal with electronics nowadays or on a _very_ basic level. Which is a shame, thinking of Ben Eaters videos I thought I'll go look for something about computer technology or so in the vein of these old sets. Philips doesn't make them anymore at all and Kosmos (big company still making science kits for kids) also basically has abandoned electronics as a topic. Arduinos and Raspberries rule. Which is not a bad thing but not what I am looking for.



But I found one that actually does that, with a NAND-Gate 4093, JK-Flipflop 4027 a 4040. It's not a complete computer in the end as far as I can tell but the closest I can get. I think I found something to fiddle with at my next birthday. ? Franzis Verlag came to the rescue. I'm curious how it will turn out.

I had this one as a kid:



Now, I got this one for my daughter:

I had this!

 

35 minutes ago, desertfish said:

I had this!

Oh, nice. That were originally the Philipps ones, Schuco took them over beginning of the 80s.

 

1 hour ago, SlithyMatt said:

Now, I got this one for my daughter:

That looks like a fun one. I'm sure she'll have lots of fun with it.

 

 

Yeah mine was a  Philips one.  Dutch .  I couldn't find a picture of the proper branded one that wasn't a tiny smeary thumbnail

2 minutes ago, desertfish said:

Yeah mine was a  Philips one.  Dutch .  I couldn't find a picture of the proper branded one that wasn't a tiny smeary thumbnail

Look here for information overload on these, all the info and pics one could want (or not) (unfortunately only in german).



http://norbert.old.no/kits/

?

I was amazed to find out, their more komplex kits at one point included a real cathode ray tube, so you could build a complete TV:

http://norbert.old.no/kits/ee2000/ee2007.html

 

ah i found that site via google, but all the images are really tiny

 

edit: wait, what? a CRT? Isn't that dangerous high voltage stuff?

1 hour ago, desertfish said:

edit: wait, what? a CRT? Isn't that dangerous high voltage stuff?

What I remember from physics class, the voltage you need depends on the size and intended brightness of the image. This one seems quite small and the specs of the kit speak of 12 x 1,5V Monocells (Size D nowadays)  and it contains a transformer. It was in a plastic case, so no touching. Definitively something for older kids.

But yes, they had some interresting stuff at some time. Like some early radio kits actually containing instructions how to make a transmitter. ?



If you want weird: ☢️







https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_U-238_Atomic_Energy_Laboratory

(shudder)

 

3 hours ago, SlithyMatt said:

If I didn't have one of those as a kid, myself, then I had something very close to it. I specifically recall the springs. That said, I found that I didn't really learn a whole lot from it. ? I'd connect up the projects, but never bothered to make sense of why things were connected the way they were. Definitely something I wish my parents had been more involved with, but then I think it was a gift from one of my uncles.

13 hours ago, Falken said:

If you want weird:

When I see that, I hear Fallout's radio atomic songs from my speakers..... "Uranium Feeeeeverrr....."