"DoN. Nichols" wrote:

On 2012-02-21, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Their early models were brass & steel parts, wih a small glass window
over the mechanical displays.

Hmm ... early being when? I first saw them back in 1960/1961
IIRC.


I'm talking about the all mechanical cash registers that were the
main products of NCR. The had several large buildings in the Dayton
area that were machine shops cranking out all the parts to feed their
assembly plants. They started building them over 100 years ago.


Speaking of "mechanical displays", we had one DVM at a later
date which was a servo driven Veeder-root counter which rotated the
digit drums do display the position of a 10-turn pot. I forget who made
those. Not very impressive, really. :-)


Sounds as bad as the old HP printer with a bunch of rubber wheels and
solenoids to rotate them to the proper number to log a frequency.



Yes -- a problem. That's why I wanted one with a built in
bridge rectifier. Are those made now?

O.K. A quick search finds this:

http://www.martekled.com/-strse-173/midget-flange-based-LED/Detail.bok

and they offer your choice of AC, positive center contact, and negative
center contact. (And, your choice of colors, too.) And the price is
down to $4.25 if you buy in sufficient quantities (1000). :-) Unit price
is $8.95 ea, which is better than it once was, at least.


That's a big improvement. The AC version in white would make a nice
universal replacement, but colored lamps would eliminate the need for
those tiny colored silicone rubber covers.

I first saw the 327/328 lamps on a tour of the VOA Bethany facility
while it was being upgraded from the original design. It was one tech's
job to wander around the facility to test & replace bad lamps. There
were over 3,000 in use, and they were still installing new equipment.

--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.