Well, the kids found it funny.....

[Rutts35]

When you visit the Science museum and a very similar model Megger to the one you own is on display......

 

[Evans Electric]

What are you saying ?  Thats my RCD tester in the middle  CBT3  ,  why would I buy another   :C  it works fine . 

 

[ProDave]

I have one of those too. Goes well with my wind up insulation tester.

Not sure what I am supposed to do with the house brick, or that coiled up something in the foreground.

 

[Rutts35]

Mine was the insulation tester at back. R/H side. Not a scratch on it. Still use now. The wife and the kids cracked up.

 

[Tony S]

A wind up Megger, Ductor, Tacho or an AVO Mk7 had to be signed out of the foreman’s office when needed. Rectifying a fault on plant was hit and miss at best.

When we started to use hard wired logic control the company had to admit that we each needed our own meters. AVO test probes could easily bridge two logic pins and caused no end of extra faults while testing. We then went to ITT meters, totally unreliable. A Megger multi meter was our final choice, they were easy to chuck in a tool bag/tool box and more importantly reliable.

 

[ProDave]

I still have my Avo 8 in my collection.

 

[Jono Pashley]

@Sidewinder has quite the collection of test gear throughout the ages im sure he would tell you what he has but if his missus finds any more test gear hes bought without her knowledge hes a dead man 

 

[Sharpend]

Perhaps the brick and coil of nails is a suggestion to what causes damage to a circuit, and the need for testers? 

 

[Andy™]

it looks similar to one of mine too

 

[Evans Electric]

The brick reminds me of our first cell phone .  I think half of it was battery but  because it only made calls  the charge seemed to last forever .  Provider was One 2 One  as I remember ,  swallowed up by  T.Mobile , swallowed up by EE  .    

 

[Tony S]

A visit to the science museum had me in fits of laughter. One of the displays was a mercury arc rectifier, the same model that I’d been working on the day before.

 

[Rutts35]

The brick reminds me of our first cell phone .  I think half of it was battery but  because it only made calls  the charge seemed to last forever .  Provider was One 2 One  as I remember ,  shallowed up by  T.Mobile , swallowed up by EE  .    

Don't worry. Our 'first' phones were there as well.

A visit to the science museum had me in fits of laughter. One of the displays was a mercury arc rectifier, the same model that I’d been working on the day before.

Couldn't see it this year. I could have told the kids how I'd worked on one. Would've made feel even older.

 

[ProDave]

I bet there is a lot of stuff I recognise now in the museum.

78 rpm records

45 rph records

33 rpm records

open reel tape

cassette tape

8 track

valve radios

valve tv's

valve record players gramophones

Radiogrames

Punch card somputers

teletype

telex

telephones rented from the GPO attached to the wall to a hard wired junction box, usually in the hall, with clockwork dials and bakerlite cases

Party line telephones

Round pin plugs and sockets

CB radio

Prestel

early tv video games (tennis etc)

Cameras that had film in them

Cine cameras and film

Sending your film off to be processed and waiting before you see what pictures you took

No I am not old enough to remember cylinder gramophone records and wind up record players, except in museums.

 

[Evans Electric]

yep  know all those Dave  ..except .."Prestel"    ..what was that ?  

I remember the assumption that anyone who was  .." On the phone"  ..was really posh  and a phone in a bedroom was only seen in films.  

 

[ProDave]

Prestel was an early subscription dial up information service. It used the same character set as teletext to show crude block graphics as well as text.

I only knew about it as I once had a television that had a prestel terminal built in and a friend when he knew I had it gave me his dad's account and password so I could use it.

About the most useful thing I used it for was looking up what was on tv.

 

[Geoff1946]

Completely with you there Dave. I taught myself electronics on "fire bottles" . Made beer money whilst a student fixing audio and TV gear. The circuits seem so simple now!

I can barely touch modern electronics without clumsily breaking something. I'm immensely proud that I've just managed to put a new battery in my iPhone without breaking anything!

 

[ProDave]

I had a nice little side line as a young lad. Buy faulty tv's the going rate was £10 for a broken tv. Then either fix it and sell it for £50, or if it beat me and I could not fix it, sell it as faulty for £10.  Perfect business model.

 

[Blue Duck]

I have a couple of old megger multimeters rescued from a store room clear out.

This one despite having two off buttons is out of juice, still in regular use though, I will see if I can dig out the others later!

 

[binky]

and will probably outlast anything you can buy now. Test gear (especially leads) just seems to be getting flimsy.

 

[Evans Electric]

Test Leads    !!!      Why do they charge so much for them   ??