Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/

On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/

They'll have to make a good job of it and keep the prices down too. When
Maplin had become far more expensive than RS and never had more than a
few of each item in stock, it had clearly lost its way.

Mail order it would have to compete with RS, Farnell (plus their CPC
arm), Jaycar, Amazon and Ebay - and, for me at least, RS and CPC have
the advantage of trade counters for urgent purchases and Amazon has very
quick deliveries.

SteveW

On 2020-04-09, Steve Walker wrote:

On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/

They'll have to make a good job of it and keep the prices down too. When
Maplin had become far more expensive than RS and never had more than a
few of each item in stock, it had clearly lost its way.

Mail order it would have to compete with RS, Farnell (plus their CPC
arm), Jaycar, Amazon and Ebay - and, for me at least, RS and CPC have
the advantage of trade counters for urgent purchases and Amazon has very
quick deliveries.

Also Pimoroni for fun stuff & kits, & AliExpress for cheap but not at
all urgent components.

On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/



Just another start up company using an established name. It's just
another example of badge branding.

Possibly a name firmly associated with expensive toys for boys that
no-one purchased rather than ethos of original company when they first
started. Some of the comments about the article suggest that they are
not competitive on price for items that can can be obtained easily
elsewhere.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/


It is a competitive market. Besides there being no shortage of suppliers
of genuine arduino products and numerous r pi (re)sellers, the Chinese
turn out arduino copies/clones by the container load.

Maplin were never cheap, they were sometimes useful if you needed the
odd part quickly etc but even that became questionable in later years as
local stores seemed to stock fewer and fewer components.

While I don't wish them ill, I do wonder if this will last.

In article ,
Steve Walker wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/

They'll have to make a good job of it and keep the prices down too. When
Maplin had become far more expensive than RS and never had more than a
few of each item in stock, it had clearly lost its way.

Mail order it would have to compete with RS, Farnell (plus their CPC
arm), Jaycar, Amazon and Ebay - and, for me at least, RS and CPC have
the advantage of trade counters for urgent purchases and Amazon has very
quick deliveries.

you've missed Rapid Electronics, the only one to be able to produce a fuse
holder for fuses about ¼inch* in diameter. RS had spare fuses, but no
holders.
*I can't be bothered to find the relevant bit of kit to check on the exact
size.

The original Maplin was basically by post, but thre was a shop in Southend.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

On 09/04/2020 12:35, Adam Funk wrote:
On 2020-04-09, Steve Walker wrote:

On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/

They'll have to make a good job of it and keep the prices down too. When
Maplin had become far more expensive than RS and never had more than a
few of each item in stock, it had clearly lost its way.

Mail order it would have to compete with RS, Farnell (plus their CPC
arm), Jaycar, Amazon and Ebay - and, for me at least, RS and CPC have
the advantage of trade counters for urgent purchases and Amazon has very
quick deliveries.

Also Pimoroni for fun stuff & kits, & AliExpress for cheap but not at
all urgent components.

Rapid electronics


--
€œIt is not the truth of Marxism that explains the willingness of
intellectuals to believe it, but the power that it confers on
intellectuals, in their attempts to control the world. And since...it is
futile to reason someone out of a thing that he was not reasoned into,
we can conclude that Marxism owes its remarkable power to survive every
criticism to the fact that it is not a truth-directed but a
power-directed system of thought.€�
Sir Roger Scruton

On 09/04/2020 12:45, Brian Reay wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/



It is a competitive market. Besides there being no shortage of suppliers
of genuine arduino products and numerous r pi (re)sellers, the Chinese
turn out arduino copies/clones by the container load.

Maplin were never cheap, they were sometimes useful if you needed the
odd part quickly etc but even that became questionable in later years as
local stores seemed to stock fewer and fewer components.

While I don't wish them ill, I do wonder if this will last.


Its hard to know what in fact one can do these days without a reflow
soldering station, and access to pcb manufacturing stuff. Everything is
surface mount by and large and many modules are cheaper to buy than to make.

Most people who might have been soldering transistors in the 60s are
programming raspberry pis...

--
€œIt is not the truth of Marxism that explains the willingness of
intellectuals to believe it, but the power that it confers on
intellectuals, in their attempts to control the world. And since...it is
futile to reason someone out of a thing that he was not reasoned into,
we can conclude that Marxism owes its remarkable power to survive every
criticism to the fact that it is not a truth-directed but a
power-directed system of thought.€�
Sir Roger Scruton

On Thu, 09 Apr 2020 12:35:15 +0100, Adam Funk wrote:

On 2020-04-09, Steve Walker wrote:

On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...sts-raspberry-
pi-arduino-2020-03/

They'll have to make a good job of it and keep the prices down too.
When Maplin had become far more expensive than RS and never had more
than a few of each item in stock, it had clearly lost its way.

Mail order it would have to compete with RS, Farnell (plus their CPC
arm), Jaycar, Amazon and Ebay - and, for me at least, RS and CPC have
the advantage of trade counters for urgent purchases and Amazon has
very quick deliveries.

Also Pimoroni for fun stuff & kits, & AliExpress for cheap but not at
all urgent components.

CPC trade counter currently closed.

In a small way (but fast delivery) look at Cool Components.



--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

In article ,
Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/


Seems odd to me to use the name of a company that in the last half of its
life, totally lost direction. And those who do remember it as a once half
decent company, perhaps no longer customers for this sort of thing?

--
*Organized Crime Is Alive And Well; It's Called Auto Insurance.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 2020-04-09, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 09/04/2020 12:35, Adam Funk wrote:
On 2020-04-09, Steve Walker wrote:

On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/

They'll have to make a good job of it and keep the prices down too. When
Maplin had become far more expensive than RS and never had more than a
few of each item in stock, it had clearly lost its way.

Mail order it would have to compete with RS, Farnell (plus their CPC
arm), Jaycar, Amazon and Ebay - and, for me at least, RS and CPC have
the advantage of trade counters for urgent purchases and Amazon has very
quick deliveries.

Also Pimoroni for fun stuff & kits, & AliExpress for cheap but not at
all urgent components.

Rapid electronics

Interesting -- thanks for the tip. (I see they also sell lab
glassware & a bunch of other non-electronic stuff.)

"Peter Parry" wrote in message
...

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/

I wonder if this will be as successful as the Woolworths online
reincarnation?

tim

On Thu, 09 Apr 2020 12:03:59 +0100, Peter Parry
wrote:


Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/

It could be slightly reminiscent of the good ole days where I remember
wandering round the local (ours was not-so-local) Computer shop,
looking at all the very expensive gear on offer from the likes of BBC,
Tandy, Commodore, Sinclair and Atari.

Floppy drives, RAM packs, Sideways boards and the like. ;-)

Being a keen user of the RPi (I think I have at least one of each
model) and Arduino / ESP32's it might be handy for those not yet so
equipped to go, see and buy.

I have a Maplin RPi starter kit (with keyboard, mouse, RPi, PSU and SD
card etc) that was given to me by a family member who was given it for
Xmas but didn't really get into it. I sent some money back for the lad
as I couldn't just take it. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

On Thursday, 9 April 2020 12:45:19 UTC+1, Brian Reay wrote:
Maplin were never cheap,

But they used to be reasonable, and reliable, and filled the gap between Radiospares (if you had an account) and Trustworthy Terry's Tested Transistors of Tooting.

Owain

On 09/04/2020 15:52, wrote:
On Thursday, 9 April 2020 12:45:19 UTC+1, Brian Reay wrote:
Maplin were never cheap,

But they used to be reasonable, and reliable, and filled the gap between Radiospares (if you had an account) and Trustworthy Terry's Tested Transistors of Tooting.


Not for the last 20 years!


--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

Brian Reay wrote:

It is a competitive market. Besides there being no shortage of suppliers
of genuine arduino products and numerous r pi (re)sellers, the Chinese
turn out arduino copies/clones by the container load.

Since one of the main points of Arduino is that the hardware design is
open source there really isn't such a thing as 'genuine' Arduino.

--
Chris Green
·

On 09/04/2020 12:53, charles wrote:
In article ,
Steve Walker wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/

They'll have to make a good job of it and keep the prices down too. When
Maplin had become far more expensive than RS and never had more than a
few of each item in stock, it had clearly lost its way.

Mail order it would have to compete with RS, Farnell (plus their CPC
arm), Jaycar, Amazon and Ebay - and, for me at least, RS and CPC have
the advantage of trade counters for urgent purchases and Amazon has very
quick deliveries.

you've missed Rapid Electronics, the only one to be able to produce a fuse
holder for fuses about ¼inch* in diameter. RS had spare fuses, but no
holders.
*I can't be bothered to find the relevant bit of kit to check on the exact
size.

The original Maplin was basically by post, but thre was a shop in Southend.

and don't forget CAShTel :-)


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Thu, 09 Apr 2020 23:14:29 +0100, John Rumm wrote:

On 09/04/2020 12:53, charles wrote:
In article ,
Steve Walker wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin
Electronics (www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...sts-raspberry-
pi-arduino-2020-03/

They'll have to make a good job of it and keep the prices down too.
When Maplin had become far more expensive than RS and never had more
than a few of each item in stock, it had clearly lost its way.

Mail order it would have to compete with RS, Farnell (plus their CPC
arm), Jaycar, Amazon and Ebay - and, for me at least, RS and CPC have
the advantage of trade counters for urgent purchases and Amazon has
very quick deliveries.

you've missed Rapid Electronics, the only one to be able to produce a
fuse holder for fuses about ¼inch* in diameter. RS had spare fuses, but
no holders.
*I can't be bothered to find the relevant bit of kit to check on the
exact size.

The original Maplin was basically by post, but thre was a shop in
Southend.

and don't forget CAShTel :-)

I used that a lot.

--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

Chris Green wrote:
Brian Reay wrote:

It is a competitive market. Besides there being no shortage of suppliers
of genuine arduino products and numerous r pi (re)sellers, the Chinese
turn out arduino copies/clones by the container load.

Since one of the main points of Arduino is that the hardware design is
open source there really isn't such a thing as 'genuine' Arduino.


You may care to watch the Julian Ilett video on YouTube where he discusses
the various Arduino originals and clones.


The problem with the €˜open source culture, everyone forgets there is no
such thing as a free lunch.

The mistake Maplin made was to go onto the high street at a time when
people like Tandy and other medium sized chains were pulling out. They knew
the writing was on the wall as costs rose for having high street outlets.
Brian

--
----- --
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"alan_m" wrote in message
...
On 09/04/2020 15:52, wrote:
On Thursday, 9 April 2020 12:45:19 UTC+1, Brian Reay wrote:
Maplin were never cheap,

But they used to be reasonable, and reliable, and filled the gap between
Radiospares (if you had an account) and Trustworthy Terry's Tested
Transistors of Tooting.


Not for the last 20 years!


--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

In article , John Rumm
wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:53, charles wrote:
In article , Steve Walker
wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin
Electronics (www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/

They'll have to make a good job of it and keep the prices down too.
When Maplin had become far more expensive than RS and never had more
than a few of each item in stock, it had clearly lost its way.

Mail order it would have to compete with RS, Farnell (plus their CPC
arm), Jaycar, Amazon and Ebay - and, for me at least, RS and CPC have
the advantage of trade counters for urgent purchases and Amazon has
very quick deliveries.

you've missed Rapid Electronics, the only one to be able to produce a
fuse holder for fuses about ¼inch* in diameter. RS had spare fuses, but
no holders. *I can't be bothered to find the relevant bit of kit to
check on the exact size.

The original Maplin was basically by post, but thre was a shop in
Southend.

and don't forget CAShTel :-)

and Henry's Radio. and Proops (a lunchtime excursion)

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

In article , Brian Gaff \(Sofa 2\)
wrote:
The mistake Maplin made was to go onto the high street at a time when
people like Tandy and other medium sized chains were pulling out. They
knew the writing was on the wall as costs rose for having high street
outlets. Brian

not just the cost of the premises. The cost of stocking them. too

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

On Friday, 10 April 2020 09:03:02 UTC+1, charles wrote:
not just the cost of the premises. The cost of stocking them. too

And probably the amount of stock that went walkies ...

Owain

Brian Reay wrote:
Chris Green wrote:
Brian Reay wrote:

It is a competitive market. Besides there being no shortage of suppliers
of genuine arduino products and numerous r pi (re)sellers, the Chinese
turn out arduino copies/clones by the container load.

Since one of the main points of Arduino is that the hardware design is
open source there really isn't such a thing as 'genuine' Arduino.


You may care to watch the Julian Ilett video on YouTube where he discusses
the various Arduino originals and clones.


The problem with the €˜open source culture, everyone forgets there is no
such thing as a free lunch.

.... and what has that got to do with my comment? It may well be that
suppliers very in quality, that is to be expected, but there isn't
such a thing as a 'genuine' Arduino, that's all I was saying.

--
Chris Green
·

On 10/04/2020 09:01, charles wrote:
In article , John Rumm
wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:53, charles wrote:
In article , Steve Walker
wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin
Electronics (www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/

They'll have to make a good job of it and keep the prices down too.
When Maplin had become far more expensive than RS and never had more
than a few of each item in stock, it had clearly lost its way.

Mail order it would have to compete with RS, Farnell (plus their CPC
arm), Jaycar, Amazon and Ebay - and, for me at least, RS and CPC have
the advantage of trade counters for urgent purchases and Amazon has
very quick deliveries.

you've missed Rapid Electronics, the only one to be able to produce a
fuse holder for fuses about ¼inch* in diameter. RS had spare fuses, but
no holders. *I can't be bothered to find the relevant bit of kit to
check on the exact size.

The original Maplin was basically by post, but thre was a shop in
Southend.

and don't forget CAShTel :-)

and Henry's Radio. and Proops (a lunchtime excursion)


DISTEL ??

On 09/04/2020 13:00, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:45, Brian Reay wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin Electronics
(www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/



It is a competitive market. Besides there being no shortage of
suppliers of genuine arduino products and numerous r pi (re)sellers,
the Chinese turn out arduino copies/clones by the container load.

Maplin were never cheap, they were sometimes useful if you needed the
odd part quickly etc but even that became questionable in later years
as local stores seemed to stock fewer and fewer components.

While I don't wish them ill, I do wonder if this will last.


Its hard to know what in fact one can do these days without a reflow
soldering station, and access to pcb manufacturing stuff. Everything is
surface mount by and large and many modules are cheaper to buy than to
make.

Most people who might have been soldering transistors in the 60s are
programming raspberry pis...


if they can actually SEE what they are doing though ..

Ditto Jessops of Leicester, Allders of Croydon, ...

On 10/04/2020 06:41, Brian Gaff (Sofa 2) wrote:
The mistake Maplin made was to go onto the high street at a time when
people like Tandy and other medium sized chains were pulling out. They knew
the writing was on the wall as costs rose for having high street outlets.
Brian

On 10/04/2020 09:59, Andrew wrote:
On 10/04/2020 09:01, charles wrote:

The original Maplin was basically by post, but thre was a shop in
Southend.

and don't forget CAShTel :-)

and Henry's Radio. and Proops (a lunchtime excursion)


DISTEL ??

Heh, I once saw the actual computer that ran that ..

Display Electronics has been subsumed into a prop hiring company, a
roundabout way of getting some value from now very redundant electronic
technology that today's purchasers were increasingly shying away from.

https://www.electroprops.co.uk/

--
Adrian C

In article ,
Adrian Caspersz wrote:
On 10/04/2020 09:59, Andrew wrote:
On 10/04/2020 09:01, charles wrote:

The original Maplin was basically by post, but thre was a shop in
Southend.

and don't forget CAShTel :-)

and Henry's Radio. and Proops (a lunchtime excursion)


DISTEL ??

Heh, I once saw the actual computer that ran that ..

Display Electronics has been subsumed into a prop hiring company, a
roundabout way of getting some value from now very redundant electronic
technology that today's purchasers were increasingly shying away from.

https://www.electroprops.co.uk/


I was rather surprised, somewhere round about 2005, when working on a
networked TV game show, to discover the on screen game graphics being
provided by a quite old Acorn RPC - with home made interface to feed it
into the system. Explanation was simple. It worked, and no security issues
leaving the gear in a studio. Unlike, say, a laptop.

--
*Drugs may lead to nowhere, but at least it's the scenic route *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Fri, 10 Apr 2020 14:20:38 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I was rather surprised, somewhere round about 2005, when working on a
networked TV game show, to discover the on screen game graphics being
provided by a quite old Acorn RPC - with home made interface to feed it
into the system. Explanation was simple. It worked, and no security
issues leaving the gear in a studio. Unlike, say, a laptop.

Back in the late '90s my eldest son was an edit assistant on The Chart
Show where the graphics were provided by an Commodore Amiga.

--
TOJ

On 10/04/2020 09:01, charles wrote:
In article , John Rumm
wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:53, charles wrote:
In article , Steve Walker
wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin
Electronics (www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...duino-2020-03/

They'll have to make a good job of it and keep the prices down too.
When Maplin had become far more expensive than RS and never had more
than a few of each item in stock, it had clearly lost its way.

Mail order it would have to compete with RS, Farnell (plus their CPC
arm), Jaycar, Amazon and Ebay - and, for me at least, RS and CPC have
the advantage of trade counters for urgent purchases and Amazon has
very quick deliveries.

you've missed Rapid Electronics, the only one to be able to produce a
fuse holder for fuses about ¼inch* in diameter. RS had spare fuses, but
no holders. *I can't be bothered to find the relevant bit of kit to
check on the exact size.

The original Maplin was basically by post, but thre was a shop in
Southend.

and don't forget CAShTel :-)

and Henry's Radio. and Proops (a lunchtime excursion)

CASHTel (Computer Aided Shopping by Telephone) was an early Maplin BBS
style service, that you could use to do mail order and other stuff. You
used ASCII terminal software and a 2400bps modem or similar. It let you
enter order codes and quantities.

I quite liked using it at times (even though I only lived a 10 min walk
from the shop) since it let you assemble a long order while sat in front
of all your notes and documentation etc.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 10/04/2020 15:41, The Other John wrote:
On Fri, 10 Apr 2020 14:20:38 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I was rather surprised, somewhere round about 2005, when working on a
networked TV game show, to discover the on screen game graphics being
provided by a quite old Acorn RPC - with home made interface to feed it
into the system. Explanation was simple. It worked, and no security
issues leaving the gear in a studio. Unlike, say, a laptop.

Back in the late '90s my eldest son was an edit assistant on The Chart
Show where the graphics were provided by an Commodore Amiga.

Yeah I remember that, they just genlocked the main Workbench screen over
the top of the video...


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
I was rather surprised, somewhere round about 2005, when working on a
networked TV game show, to discover the on screen game graphics being
provided by a quite old Acorn RPC - with home made interface to feed it
into the system. Explanation was simple. It worked, and no security issues
leaving the gear in a studio. Unlike, say, a laptop.

If that was Millionaire, AIUI the format was sold as a bundle that
stipulated every clone of the show had to use the same graphics, so every
country used the same Risc PC system to generate the graphics.
(in the beginning, anyway - they probably upgraded at some point, maybe when
HD came along).

Theo

In article ,
Theo wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
I was rather surprised, somewhere round about 2005, when working on a
networked TV game show, to discover the on screen game graphics being
provided by a quite old Acorn RPC - with home made interface to feed it
into the system. Explanation was simple. It worked, and no security issues
leaving the gear in a studio. Unlike, say, a laptop.

If that was Millionaire, AIUI the format was sold as a bundle that
stipulated every clone of the show had to use the same graphics, so every
country used the same Risc PC system to generate the graphics.
(in the beginning, anyway - they probably upgraded at some point, maybe when
HD came along).

Never worked on Millionaire, but could well be the same company supplying
the graphics for that game show I mentioned. And can't remember the name
of. ;-)

Even an RPC can work in HD, though. They had more than one there.

This one has a digital output Viewfinder card, running above TV HD.

--
*I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Fri, 10 Apr 2020 09:01:29 +0100, charles wrote:

The original Maplin was basically by post, but thre was a shop in
Southend.

and don't forget CAShTel

and Henry's Radio. and Proops (a lunchtime excursion)

Does anyone remember (back in the 60s/70s) a form called Techincal
Trading? They had a few shops, mainly south coast, and one at the bottom
of Tottenham Court Road.

They also did mail order (advertised on page 3 of Practical Wireless).

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On Fri, 10 Apr 2020 16:14:51 +0100, John Rumm wrote:

On 10/04/2020 09:01, charles wrote:
In article , John
Rumm wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:53, charles wrote:
In article , Steve Walker
wrote:
On 09/04/2020 12:03, Peter Parry wrote:

Electronics Weekly has a report of the re launch of Maplin
Electronics (www.maplin.co.uk) as an on-line retailer

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/ne...n-enthusiasts-
raspberry-pi-arduino-2020-03/

They'll have to make a good job of it and keep the prices down too.
When Maplin had become far more expensive than RS and never had more
than a few of each item in stock, it had clearly lost its way.

Mail order it would have to compete with RS, Farnell (plus their CPC
arm), Jaycar, Amazon and Ebay - and, for me at least, RS and CPC
have the advantage of trade counters for urgent purchases and Amazon
has very quick deliveries.

you've missed Rapid Electronics, the only one to be able to produce a
fuse holder for fuses about ¼inch* in diameter. RS had spare fuses,
but no holders. *I can't be bothered to find the relevant bit of kit
to check on the exact size.

The original Maplin was basically by post, but thre was a shop in
Southend.

and don't forget CAShTel :-)

and Henry's Radio. and Proops (a lunchtime excursion)

CASHTel (Computer Aided Shopping by Telephone) was an early Maplin BBS
style service, that you could use to do mail order and other stuff. You
used ASCII terminal software and a 2400bps modem or similar. It let you
enter order codes and quantities.

I quite liked using it at times (even though I only lived a 10 min walk
from the shop) since it let you assemble a long order while sat in front
of all your notes and documentation etc.

ISTR there was an even earlier one that used the phone keypad.

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Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
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On Saturday, 11 April 2020 13:01:42 UTC+1, Bob Eager wrote:
ISTR there was an even earlier one that used the phone keypad.



Yes, you had to change all the Maplin AB12Z order codes into numeric equivalents :-)

Especially fun for Rs and Cs.

Although that might have come *later* than CashTEL, as DTMF phones weren't widely used but Maplin customers could build their own modem.

Owain

On Sat, 11 Apr 2020 05:21:37 -0700, spuorgelgoog wrote:

On Saturday, 11 April 2020 13:01:42 UTC+1, Bob Eager wrote:
ISTR there was an even earlier one that used the phone keypad.



Yes, you had to change all the Maplin AB12Z order codes into numeric
equivalents :-)

Especially fun for Rs and Cs.

Although that might have come *later* than CashTEL, as DTMF phones
weren't widely used but Maplin customers could build their own modem.

I had one of those DTMF boxes.

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wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
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On Saturday, 11 April 2020 15:20:16 UTC+1, Bob Eager wrote:
I had one of those DTMF boxes.

So did I, but I discovered it didn't work on a 706 with carbon microphone very well.

Owain

In message
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:

In article ,
Adrian Caspersz wrote:
On 10/04/2020 09:59, Andrew wrote:
On 10/04/2020 09:01, charles wrote:

The original Maplin was basically by post, but thre was a shop in
Southend.

and don't forget CAShTel :-)

and Henry's Radio. and Proops (a lunchtime excursion)


DISTEL ??

Heh, I once saw the actual computer that ran that ..

Display Electronics has been subsumed into a prop hiring company, a
roundabout way of getting some value from now very redundant electronic
technology that today's purchasers were increasingly shying away from.

https://www.electroprops.co.uk/


I was rather surprised, somewhere round about 2005, when working on a
networked TV game show, to discover the on screen game graphics being
provided by a quite old Acorn RPC - with home made interface to feed it
into the system. Explanation was simple. It worked, and no security issues
leaving the gear in a studio. Unlike, say, a laptop.

Another reason was reboot time about 30 seconds.


--
John Bryan