On 2012-02-17, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

"DoN. Nichols" wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

How about their 'calculator' built with NE2 ring counters, and
'programmed' with a rotary switch and a telephone dial?

Hmm ... I seem to have missed that one. Perhaps when I moved
and it was a while before I could find a place to buy new issues?

Any idea when that one appeared? It sounds like fun.


'67 to '70, while I was in high school.

O.K. I was working by then, in electronics, and did not bother
with Popular Electronics by then. Instead, the industrial mags
available at work were more fun for me -- including the ad for a company
to do assembly work for your company. They pulled the nicest looking
receptionist from the front desk and posed here with a Ungar soldering
iron -- the kind with the screw-in ceramic heating elements. And had
her posed holding it by the ceramic, not the cork grip a little farther
back on the handle. Based on the serenity of her expression, it was
clear that the other end of the iron's cord was *not* plugged in. :-)

Come to think if it -- with the proliferation of LEDs, does
anyone still make and sell NE2s? Last I've seen them has been in AC
power switches in power fanout boxes for home computers, in generally
blinking or not even that as the lamps age. :-)
\

You can buy bags of 100 on Ebay, and I think Mouser still sells them.

Hmm ... 100 of those, and 100 caps and resistors and a diode and
other cap of the right size, and you could have a nice "old computer"
front panel simulator. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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