"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 11:35:48 -0000, "IMM" wrote:

Study British society and the class structure permeates it. It is its
downfall.

The permeation is largely in your mind.

snip tripe by a brainwashed Little Middle Englander

Sad but true.

In article ,
IMM wrote:
snip tripe by a brainwashed Little Middle Englander

Better than a brain dead chav?

--
*For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism *

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

"IMM" wrote in message
...

"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 11:35:48 -0000, "IMM" wrote:
snip

The permeation is largely in your mind.

Sad but true.


LOL ! IMM finally speaks the truth....

IMM wrote:

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...

IMM wrote:


and *resent it*, and people notice
this and avoid employing you?

I work for me.

Naturally. No one else would ever employ you.


I don't want them to.



sour grapes.

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes
In article ,
Set Square wrote:
Study British society and the class structure permeates it. It is its
downfall.


So what's stopping you from emigrating - and doing us all a favour?!g

Just about every country has immigration requirements. Like at least half
a brain.

Shaky ground there ...

Wouldn't he qualify for a green card on that basis

--
geoff

In message , The Natural
Philosopher writes
IMM wrote:

wrote in message ...

Set Square wrote:

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
IMM wrote:


Study British society and the class structure permeates it. It is its
downfall.


So what's stopping you from emigrating - and doing us all a favour?!g

Sadly since the internet covers the world so even if IMM goes overseas
it makes no difference.
You are right. There is no need to emigrate. Being an
international man I
am at home anywhere.

I bet you never even got as far as Dover.

By his own admission he got kicked out of Kent

He prolly got to Nor**** once

--
geoff

In message , Set Square
writes
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
IMM wrote:


So if you have a 4 floor house and the pump and boiler in the
basement the pump may not reach the top floor radiators.

That might be true if the pump was picking up its water from an
open-to-atmosphere trough in the basement. But, of course, it isn't! It's
being fed with a static head of water commensurate with the 4-floor house -
and only has to generate sufficient *dynamic* pressure to overcome the flow
losses.

Back to your Physics text book, Mr IMM - if you ever had one!

I don't think Ladybird ever did one of those

--
geoff

In article ,
raden writes:
In message , Set Square
writes
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
IMM wrote:

Back to your Physics text book, Mr IMM - if you ever had one!

I don't think Ladybird ever did one of those

Oh, several: http://www.easyontheeye.net/ladybird/60s/621/621.htm

--
Andrew Gabriel

Andrew Gabriel wrote:

Oh, several: http://www.easyontheeye.net/ladybird/60s/621/621.htm

Wow - whoever said nostalgia isn't what it used to be?
http://www.easyontheeye.net/pifco/index.htm is worth a look too.

--
Andy

The Natural Philosopher wrote in message ...
Charles Middleton wrote:

What is head when talking about water systems in a house?

Something to do with sucking off. ;-)

Does this have anything to do with the thread on deep throat F clamps?

"Andy Wade" wrote in message
...
Andrew Gabriel wrote:

Oh, several: http://www.easyontheeye.net/ladybird/60s/621/621.htm

Wow - whoever said nostalgia isn't what it used to be?
http://www.easyontheeye.net/pifco/index.htm is worth a look too.

They look like 1930s books. Are they still available?

IMM wrote:

They look like 1930s books. Are they still available?

Hey, I'm not that old! Late 1950s & early 60s I think you'll find.

--
Andy

"Andy Wade" wrote
| IMM wrote:
| They look like 1930s books. Are they still available?
| Hey, I'm not that old! Late 1950s & early 60s I think you'll find.

I was tempted by some Practical Mechanics etc magazines on eBay from the
1950s. How to make your own wind power plant, Interplanetary travel, Make
your own duplicator, The new Rover gas turbine engine...

They are (quite a lot) older than I am. Not quite in the "Table-top nuclear
fission for Tiny Tots" league, but people then (well, some of them at least,
the ones that weren't working down t'pit 26 hours a day) seem to have had
more fun than today's play-station generation.

Owain

In article ,
Owain wrote:
I was tempted by some Practical Mechanics etc magazines on eBay from the
1950s. How to make your own wind power plant, Interplanetary travel, Make
your own duplicator, The new Rover gas turbine engine...

Used to be known as 'Camm's Comics' after the editor who also edited other
similar titles like Practical Wireless.

As a kid, I used to daydream about making some of the things in PW, but
never had the money for the bits.

--
*Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film *

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

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
raden writes:
In message , Set Square
writes
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
IMM wrote:

Back to your Physics text book, Mr IMM - if you ever had one!

I don't think Ladybird ever did one of those

Oh, several: http://www.easyontheeye.net/ladybird/60s/621/621.htm

I see no ladybird book on how to give head

--
geoff

"raden" wrote
| I see no ladybird book on how to give head

Given the school curriculum these days, the publishers are missing an
opportunity.

Owain

In article ,
Owain wrote:
I see no ladybird book on how to give head

Given the school curriculum these days, the publishers are missing an
opportunity.

Ladyboy books?

--
*Plagiarism saves time *

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

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Used to be known as 'Camm's Comics' after the editor who also edited other
similar titles like Practical Wireless.

As a kid, I used to daydream about making some of the things in PW, but
never had the money for the bits.

F. J. Camm and the various surplus shops in Hurst St. and Digbeth in a
certain city have a lot to answer for so far as I'm concerned. And F.
G. Rayer, whose designs in PW never worked, but had proved very
educational by the time I got them going. Yes components were expensive
in those days of 2/6 a week pocket money. I used to scrounge old TV and
radio sets to recycle the components.

http://www.oldtimesupplies.co.uk/ is worth a look - has images of lots
of old magazine covers. If you remember the Bernards Radio Manuals,
have a look at http://www.oldtimesupplies.co.uk/otsw/bern_05.htm and
note the name of the author of the one at the bottom.

--
Andy

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 11:57:54 +0000, Andy Wade
wrote:

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Used to be known as 'Camm's Comics' after the editor who also edited other
similar titles like Practical Wireless.

As a kid, I used to daydream about making some of the things in PW, but
never had the money for the bits.

F. J. Camm and the various surplus shops in Hurst St. and Digbeth in a
certain city have a lot to answer for so far as I'm concerned. And F.
G. Rayer, whose designs in PW never worked, but had proved very
educational by the time I got them going.

There were numerous companies offering kits of valve based designs as
I recall.

Yes components were expensive
in those days of 2/6 a week pocket money.

I can remember paying 10/- for a small germanium transistor......

I used to scrounge old TV and
radio sets to recycle the components.

I used to fix them for old ladies. Often it was valve pins
oxidising and making poor contact or likewise with the contacts on the
variable capacitor, or hum as a result of the smooting capacitor in
the power supply having dried out.


http://www.oldtimesupplies.co.uk/ is worth a look - has images of lots
of old magazine covers. If you remember the Bernards Radio Manuals,
have a look at http://www.oldtimesupplies.co.uk/otsw/bern_05.htm and
note the name of the author of the one at the bottom.

"No stock" was a popular author and still is - far too often.

Clive Sinclair authored a number of books like this. Most of his
circuits were "unusual" to be diplomatic about it.




--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Andy Hall wrote:

[electronics nostalgia]

There were numerous companies offering kits of valve based designs as
I recall.

Yes, loads, going back to the early days of broadcast radio.

I can remember paying 10/- for a small germanium transistor......

I remember my dad shelling out 26/- for a genuine Mullard OC44 after
considerable frustration with 'white spot' transistors - remember those?

I used to fix them for old ladies. Often it was valve pins
oxidising and making poor contact or likewise with the contacts on the
variable capacitor, or hum as a result of the smooting capacitor in
the power supply having dried out.

aol Me too. /aol ... or rectifier valves failing, output valves
going soft, waxed paper 'condensers' going leaky, various timebase
faults on TVs - all usually easy to recognise and fix.

Clive Sinclair authored a number of books like this.

"Authored" - oh please! Go and wash your keyboard. You'll be using
"leverage" as a verb next... Yes, Clive's early career working for
Bernards is quite well documented - e.g. in the book "Sinclair and the
'Sunrise' Technology" by Adamson and Kennedy (ISBN 0140087745): an
entertaining read.

Most of his circuits were "unusual" to be diplomatic about it.

But some of them actually worked quite well (which is more than can be
said of some of the products which were to come later :-) ).

--
Andy

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 22:12:10 +0000, Andy Wade
wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:

[electronics nostalgia]

There were numerous companies offering kits of valve based designs as
I recall.

Yes, loads, going back to the early days of broadcast radio.

I can remember paying 10/- for a small germanium transistor......

I remember my dad shelling out 26/- for a genuine Mullard OC44 after
considerable frustration with 'white spot' transistors - remember those?

Definitely. I can remember using a white spot one to make a
photodiode. I carefully cut the glass envelope near the bottom and
washed out the blue-white paste inside, then replaced the glass with
clear epoxy. It worked quite well.



I used to fix them for old ladies. Often it was valve pins
oxidising and making poor contact or likewise with the contacts on the
variable capacitor, or hum as a result of the smooting capacitor in
the power supply having dried out.

aol Me too. /aol ... or rectifier valves failing, output valves
going soft, waxed paper 'condensers' going leaky, various timebase
faults on TVs - all usually easy to recognise and fix.

Clive Sinclair authored a number of books like this.

"Authored" - oh please! Go and wash your keyboard.

Whoops..... sorry, that was a real slip.


You'll be using
"leverage" as a verb next...

Never that. I go through presentations from the U.S. and remove
those and correct the spelling mistakes and date ordering.


Yes, Clive's early career working for
Bernards is quite well documented - e.g. in the book "Sinclair and the
'Sunrise' Technology" by Adamson and Kennedy (ISBN 0140087745): an
entertaining read.

Most of his circuits were "unusual" to be diplomatic about it.

But some of them actually worked quite well (which is more than can be
said of some of the products which were to come later :-) ).

The designs of some like the Spectrum relied on undocumented features
of some of the components in misguided attempts to cut costs.




--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Andy Hall wrote:


Yes, Clive's early career working for
Bernards is quite well documented - e.g. in the book "Sinclair and the
'Sunrise' Technology" by Adamson and Kennedy (ISBN 0140087745): an
entertaining read.


Most of his circuits were "unusual" to be diplomatic about it.

But some of them actually worked quite well (which is more than can be
said of some of the products which were to come later :-) ).


The designs of some like the Spectrum relied on undocumented features
of some of the components in misguided attempts to cut costs.

His later business strategies seemed to be based on those of
Bialystock and Bloom.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Andy Wade wrote:

Go and wash your keyboard. You'll be using
"leverage" as a verb next...


That's one of my pet hates, too - especially when it's pronounced
"levverage"! Ugh.
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 22:53:16 -0000, "Set Square"
wrote:

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Andy Wade wrote:

Go and wash your keyboard. You'll be using
"leverage" as a verb next...


That's one of my pet hates, too - especially when it's pronounced
"levverage"! Ugh.


It usually is........



--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

In message , Andy Hall
writes
On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 22:12:10 +0000, Andy Wade
wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:

[electronics nostalgia]

There were numerous companies offering kits of valve based designs as
I recall.

Yes, loads, going back to the early days of broadcast radio.

I can remember paying 10/- for a small germanium transistor......

I remember my dad shelling out 26/- for a genuine Mullard OC44 after
considerable frustration with 'white spot' transistors - remember those?

Definitely. I can remember using a white spot one to make a
photodiode. I carefully cut the glass envelope near the bottom and
washed out the blue-white paste inside, then replaced the glass with
clear epoxy. It worked quite well.

This is going to turn into another "Wayfinder" thread, isn't it

BTDT, they didn't have such easily printed T-shirts in those days
--
geoff

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 23:58:03 GMT, raden wrote:

In message , Andy Hall
writes
On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 22:12:10 +0000, Andy Wade
wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:

[electronics nostalgia]

There were numerous companies offering kits of valve based designs as
I recall.

Yes, loads, going back to the early days of broadcast radio.

I can remember paying 10/- for a small germanium transistor......

I remember my dad shelling out 26/- for a genuine Mullard OC44 after
considerable frustration with 'white spot' transistors - remember those?

Definitely. I can remember using a white spot one to make a
photodiode. I carefully cut the glass envelope near the bottom and
washed out the blue-white paste inside, then replaced the glass with
clear epoxy. It worked quite well.

This is going to turn into another "Wayfinder" thread, isn't it

BTDT, they didn't have such easily printed T-shirts in those days

I seem to remember T-shirts being smaller in those days though.
Nowadays they seem to shrink so much.......




--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Andy Wade wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:

[electronics nostalgia]

There were numerous companies offering kits of valve based designs as
I recall.


Yes, loads, going back to the early days of broadcast radio.

I can remember paying 10/- for a small germanium transistor......


I remember my dad shelling out 26/- for a genuine Mullard OC44 after
considerable frustration with 'white spot' transistors - remember those?

I used to fix them for old ladies. Often it was valve pins
oxidising and making poor contact or likewise with the contacts on the
variable capacitor, or hum as a result of the smooting capacitor in
the power supply having dried out.


aol Me too. /aol ... or rectifier valves failing, output valves
going soft, waxed paper 'condensers' going leaky, various timebase
faults on TVs - all usually easy to recognise and fix.

Clive Sinclair authored a number of books like this.


"Authored" - oh please! Go and wash your keyboard. You'll be using
"leverage" as a verb next... Yes, Clive's early career working for
Bernards is quite well documented - e.g. in the book "Sinclair and the
'Sunrise' Technology" by Adamson and Kennedy (ISBN 0140087745): an
entertaining read.

Most of his circuits were "unusual" to be diplomatic about it.


But some of them actually worked quite well (which is more than can be
said of some of the products which were to come later :-) ).

Not the ones Clive designed, they didn't.

The guy ddn't have more than half an A level to rub together, and no
concept of anything technical, other than what he read in books.

He was a bit like IMM, with slightly more education, but just as
dangerous around small children.

Eiron wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:


Yes, Clive's early career working for Bernards is quite well
documented - e.g. in the book "Sinclair and the 'Sunrise' Technology"
by Adamson and Kennedy (ISBN 0140087745): an entertaining read.


Most of his circuits were "unusual" to be diplomatic about it.


But some of them actually worked quite well (which is more than can
be said of some of the products which were to come later :-) ).



The designs of some like the Spectrum relied on undocumented features
of some of the components in misguided attempts to cut costs.


His later business strategies seemed to be based on those of
Bialystock and Bloom.


His earlier one's too.

Clibes whole career was a hype, and a fraud. It was mere accident that
Curry and Hauser actually produed something that worked for him, much to
his surprise. It was the first thing that actually DID. And the last IIRC.

Casny ou think of any other product that actally WORKED apart from the
ZX81 and the spectrum?

I can't.

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Eiron wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:


Yes, Clive's early career working for Bernards is quite well
documented - e.g. in the book "Sinclair and the 'Sunrise'
Technology" by Adamson and Kennedy (ISBN 0140087745): an
entertaining read.


Most of his circuits were "unusual" to be diplomatic about it.



But some of them actually worked quite well (which is more than can
be said of some of the products which were to come later :-) ).




The designs of some like the Spectrum relied on undocumented features
of some of the components in misguided attempts to cut costs.



His later business strategies seemed to be based on those of
Bialystock and Bloom.



His earlier one's too.

Clibes whole career was a hype, and a fraud. It was mere accident that
Curry and Hauser actually produed something that worked for him, much to
his surprise. It was the first thing that actually DID. And the last IIRC.

Can you think of any other product that actally WORKED apart from the
ZX81 and the spectrum?

Micromatic radio. The circuit board broke on first insertion of
a battery. It worked after a fashion after that was beefed up.

The 1970's "hi-fi" stuff worked in a manner of speaking,
though the low-tolerance linear volume pots were dodgy,
the sound was curiously wooden and they kept blowing transistors.

The Black Watch - accurate to two minutes a day.

A calculator with reverse polish logic. That was a good idea!

Can't remember which "computer" it was in about 1980 but with
1KB of memory I wouldn't class it as working.

The C5 - we had a grand prix in the science park when Sinclair
closed, leaving a load of them. They were fun.
This was a good example of his strategy. He promised an electric
car with new battery technology, got loads of venture capital
and came out with a nominal product to save face.

Anyone old enough to remember the Class-D audio amps in 1965?
I wonder if they ever worked?

--
Eiron.

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 11:22:13 +0000, Eiron wrote:



Micromatic radio. The circuit board broke on first insertion of
a battery. It worked after a fashion after that was beefed up.

The 1970's "hi-fi" stuff worked in a manner of speaking,
though the low-tolerance linear volume pots were dodgy,
the sound was curiously wooden and they kept blowing transistors.

The Black Watch - accurate to two minutes a day.

A calculator with reverse polish logic. That was a good idea!

Cambridge or something? I made one of those from a kit but it was
rather a disaster because the battery life was about 10 minutes and
you couldn't read the display.



Can't remember which "computer" it was in about 1980 but with
1KB of memory I wouldn't class it as working.

ZX80. It had 1k of memory but could be expanded to 16k at great
cost.



The C5 - we had a grand prix in the science park when Sinclair
closed, leaving a load of them. They were fun.
This was a good example of his strategy. He promised an electric
car with new battery technology, got loads of venture capital
and came out with a nominal product to save face.

Had a washing machine motor IIRC.


Anyone old enough to remember the Class-D audio amps in 1965?
I wonder if they ever worked?

Were these the slimline look things in black styling with panel about
3cm high and about 20cm wide with the rotary controls on spindles
going through trimpots on the PCB?




--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Andy Hall wrote:

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 11:22:13 +0000, Eiron wrote:

Anyone old enough to remember the Class-D audio amps in 1965?
I wonder if they ever worked?


Were these the slimline look things in black styling with panel about
3cm high and about 20cm wide with the rotary controls on spindles
going through trimpots on the PCB?

No, those were the early '70s things I mentioned before.
The later '70s stuff had sliders and was usually stuck to the
front of a turntable, at least the preamp sections were.
The PSU and power amps would go inside.

The Class D stuff was my memory failing me.
This was what I was thinking of:

From the Sinclair MicroFM advert:
"The final IF amplifier produces a square wave of constant
amplitude which is eventually converted into uniform pulses
so arranged that the original modulation is reproduced
exactly. A pulse-counting detector ensures absolute linearity
and therefore better audio quality at the output stages."

Eiron.

In article , Andy Hall
wrote:
Anyone old enough to remember the Class-D audio amps in 1965?
I wonder if they ever worked?

Were these the slimline look things in black styling with panel
about 3cm high and about 20cm wide with the rotary controls on
spindles going through trimpots on the PCB?

If some published a book of all those ads (not forgetting the
Amstrad Hi-Fi amps with 92 knobs to turn) I'd be the first to buy a
copy.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 12:28:02 +0000, Eiron wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 11:22:13 +0000, Eiron wrote:

Anyone old enough to remember the Class-D audio amps in 1965?
I wonder if they ever worked?


Were these the slimline look things in black styling with panel about
3cm high and about 20cm wide with the rotary controls on spindles
going through trimpots on the PCB?

No, those were the early '70s things I mentioned before.
The later '70s stuff had sliders and was usually stuck to the
front of a turntable, at least the preamp sections were.
The PSU and power amps would go inside.

The Class D stuff was my memory failing me.
This was what I was thinking of:

From the Sinclair MicroFM advert:
"The final IF amplifier produces a square wave of constant
amplitude which is eventually converted into uniform pulses
so arranged that the original modulation is reproduced
exactly. A pulse-counting detector ensures absolute linearity
and therefore better audio quality at the output stages."

Eiron.


Oh yes. This was the thing that assumed zero rise time for the
active components......



--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

In article , Tony Bryer wrote:
If some published a book of all those ads (not forgetting the
Amstrad Hi-Fi amps with 92 knobs to turn) I'd be the first to
buy a copy.

I couldn't wait, so Google turned up
http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/audio/audio.htm

Helpful commentary on each product such as "The Z-50 amplifier was
added to the Project 60 range in June 1970. The Z-30 was rated at 30
watts, so Sinclair decided to advertise the Z-50 as rated at 50
watts. However, the device expired at between 37-40 watts, so their
designer suggested 30 watts as a rating; the final compromise was 40
watts. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Z-50 was not a particularly
reliable device."

and

"Although it[Z12] was claimed to achieve "laboratory standards of
performance", whatever those may be, its performance and reliability
were questionable. It reportedly only achieved a maximum output of
three watts, despite being advertised as being capable of 12 (hence
the name). Its lifetime was also problematic - if run continuously
at full output, as little as 12 hours (presumably not alluded to by
the name). The problem probably lay in the fact that, like many
Sinclair products of the time, it was built with cheap transistors
that had been discarded by other manufacturers as rejects."

Lots more in similar vein!

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm

In article ,
Eiron wrote:
The Class D stuff was my memory failing me.
This was what I was thinking of:

From the Sinclair MicroFM advert:
"The final IF amplifier produces a square wave of constant
amplitude which is eventually converted into uniform pulses
so arranged that the original modulation is reproduced
exactly. A pulse-counting detector ensures absolute linearity
and therefore better audio quality at the output stages."

PWM - pulse width modulated. I know a couple of people that made them, but
failed to get them to work.
The principle is around today, though.

--
*It IS as bad as you think, and they ARE out to get you.

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

"Eiron" wrote in message
...
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
snipped

Can you think of any other product that actally WORKED apart from the
ZX81 and the spectrum?

Micromatic radio. The circuit board broke on first insertion of
a battery. It worked after a fashion after that was beefed up.

The 1970's "hi-fi" stuff worked in a manner of speaking,
though the low-tolerance linear volume pots were dodgy,
the sound was curiously wooden and they kept blowing transistors.

The Black Watch - accurate to two minutes a day.

A calculator with reverse polish logic. That was a good idea!

Gah! He produced a whole raft of them, the Executive (plus Memory version),
the Cambridge (plus Memory, Universal and Programmable versions), the
Scientific, the Oxford series and the Sovereign series (which looked more
like a modern TV remote control than a calculator). Pretty sure the last
Sinclair calculator came out in about 1979. Didn't he do a kit to make a
calculator designed to be worn around the wrist as well?


Can't remember which "computer" it was in about 1980 but with
1KB of memory I wouldn't class it as working.


The ZX80 had 2K of memory, but to be honest was pretty useless as the
display broke up every time a command was executed. This survived in the
ZX81 as FAST mode.

The QL worked (eventually), but completely missed the boat. The Z88 was
actually a good product, but once again was incompatible and arrived too
late to ever be a success

The C5 - we had a grand prix in the science park when Sinclair
closed, leaving a load of them. They were fun.
This was a good example of his strategy. He promised an electric
car with new battery technology, got loads of venture capital
and came out with a nominal product to save face.


Don't forget the Zike, an electric bike from the early 90's. Or the Zeta
which was a bolt-on electric motor for push bikes, power being transmitted
via friction drive to the rear tyre. Like that's a sound concept.

Anyone old enough to remember the Class-D audio amps in 1965?
I wonder if they ever worked?


Did anyone ever use any of the Sinclair Digital Multimeters? The impression
I got was that they were pretty competant bits of kit, most likely as a
result of Clive Sinclair having no involvement (or interest).

Cheers
Clive

In article ,
Clive Summerfield wrote:
Did anyone ever use any of the Sinclair Digital Multimeters?
The impression I got was that they were pretty competant bits
of kit, most likely as a result of Clive Sinclair having no
involvement (or interest).

That's the opinion of

http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/other/multimeters.htm

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser
http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm

Eiron wrote:

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Eiron wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:


Yes, Clive's early career working for Bernards is quite well
documented - e.g. in the book "Sinclair and the 'Sunrise'
Technology" by Adamson and Kennedy (ISBN 0140087745): an
entertaining read.


Most of his circuits were "unusual" to be diplomatic about it.




But some of them actually worked quite well (which is more than can
be said of some of the products which were to come later :-) ).





The designs of some like the Spectrum relied on undocumented features
of some of the components in misguided attempts to cut costs.




His later business strategies seemed to be based on those of
Bialystock and Bloom.




His earlier one's too.

Clibes whole career was a hype, and a fraud. It was mere accident that
Curry and Hauser actually produed something that worked for him, much
to his surprise. It was the first thing that actually DID. And the
last IIRC.

Can you think of any other product that actally WORKED apart from the
ZX81 and the spectrum?


Micromatic radio. The circuit board broke on first insertion of
a battery. It worked after a fashion after that was beefed up.


Mm. Actally the X-12 power amp worked if you didn';t mind 15% distortion...

The 1970's "hi-fi" stuff worked in a manner of speaking,
though the low-tolerance linear volume pots were dodgy,
the sound was curiously wooden and they kept blowing transistors.


Yes. Clive didin;t design those , and teh bettest of all, the 4000.
which Richard Torrens designed (he's still around) Clive scrapped becase
he hadn't had anything to do with it.

The Black Watch - accurate to two minutes a day.

A calculator with reverse polish logic. That was a good idea!

Trying to do the undoable with crap technology on the cheap.


Can't remember which "computer" it was in about 1980 but with
1KB of memory I wouldn't class it as working.

The C5 - we had a grand prix in the science park when Sinclair
closed, leaving a load of them. They were fun.
This was a good example of his strategy. He promised an electric
car with new battery technology, got loads of venture capital
and came out with a nominal product to save face.

Anyone old enough to remember the Class-D audio amps in 1965?
I wonder if they ever worked?

No.

One in ten sort of worked.

Ypu have forgotten the project I worked on - the pocket television.

After taking ten years of advance orders, he shipped just enough rubbish
to avoid being sued, and it vanished wiothout trace.

I left because i told him it wouldn't work, and he wouldn't believe me,
and his current shagbunny called me names, and I told her what to do.

Complete tosser, con artist and self publicist. No wonder maggie
knighted him

Andy Hall wrote:

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 11:22:13 +0000, Eiron wrote:



Micromatic radio. The circuit board broke on first insertion of
a battery. It worked after a fashion after that was beefed up.

The 1970's "hi-fi" stuff worked in a manner of speaking,
though the low-tolerance linear volume pots were dodgy,
the sound was curiously wooden and they kept blowing transistors.

The Black Watch - accurate to two minutes a day.

A calculator with reverse polish logic. That was a good idea!


Cambridge or something? I made one of those from a kit but it was
rather a disaster because the battery life was about 10 minutes and
you couldn't read the display.



Can't remember which "computer" it was in about 1980 but with
1KB of memory I wouldn't class it as working.


ZX80. It had 1k of memory but could be expanded to 16k at great
cost.



The C5 - we had a grand prix in the science park when Sinclair
closed, leaving a load of them. They were fun.
This was a good example of his strategy. He promised an electric
car with new battery technology, got loads of venture capital
and came out with a nominal product to save face.


Had a washing machine motor IIRC.


Anyone old enough to remember the Class-D audio amps in 1965?
I wonder if they ever worked?


Were these the slimline look things in black styling with panel about
3cm high and about 20cm wide with the rotary controls on spindles
going through trimpots on the PCB?



No. That was the 4000, a halfway decent amp, if a bit cheap.

The PWM amp was trying to do with germanium transistors what is just
about achieveable with current switching MOSFETS, but no one does,
becuse its hard to get the quality.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

PWM - pulse width modulated. I know a couple of people that made them, but
failed to get them to work. The principle is around today, though.

There were two PWM amplifier products, IIRC, the X-10 and the X-20.
These were 10 and 20 'watt' (that's Sinclair watts, not SI watts)
supposedly hi-fi amps. They came as kits - just a bare PCB and handful
of components - no housing of any kind.

I had an X-10 and also failed to make it work in any meaningful fashion.
There was no filtering of any kind on the output, so the RFI generated
was considerable: enough to wipe out LW and MW radio reception for a
considerable radius. I did get some audio o/p - into a Goodmans Axiette
8 (more nostalgia) - but hi-fi it certainly wasn't, more like 50% THD.
I gave up on it and never bought another Sinclair product, ever. In
contrast the Mullard 3-3 valve amp design I'd built a year or so before
worked very nicely for several years, eventually being replaced by the
Bailey 30W transistor design published in the Wireless World (~ 1968).

I've still got the X-10 in its original box somewhere in the loft. I
wonder if it's a valuable collector's item by now?

--
Andy