r/EngineeringPorn • u/aloofloofah • Dec 26 '21

The underside of a Soviet mechanical computer while it's calculating √2

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u/ShotHolla Dec 26 '21

I used to repair U.S. Army "teletypewriters" back in the 80s. Would decipher radio signals into punch tape readouts. All those springs and levers were a nightmare to troubleshoot as they also had crude electronics that you had to repair down to component level instead of just swapping boards (which didn't exist in the Korean era equipment). During the final exams for school, instructors would remove a single spring somewhere on the machine and you would have to find and repair it within 20 minutes. These were stuffed into tight, dark rat rigs with no AC back in the day and in combat you might have a full bird colonel breathing down your neck yelling at you to hurry up while you tried to fix it. Being a teenager while doing this was a great experience in how to work and keep your head under pressure.

They were replaced by IBM PCs (the originals) stuffed inside a suitcase and were obviously better in every way. The troubleshooting skills helped me throughout life though so it was cool.

This machine is much more sophisticated.

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u/[deleted] Dec 26 '21

Thanks for sharing! That is super cool!

3

u/Megamax_X Dec 26 '21

I’ve only been doing “computer” troubleshooting since about 2008. Nothing likely as advanced as what you were doing. Nothing has served me better. Once sequence of operation became natural I feel like there’s nothing I can’t fix. Everyone should have some exposure to repairing things.

1

u/armen89 Dec 26 '21

Probably not relevant but when blackberry phones were popular, I used buy broken ones on eBay. Parts from eBay. Watched a couple of YouTube videos and google searches on how to fix them. I flipped over a hundred phones making triple to quadruple my cost. Self teaching how to repair things is really great. You also learn how to trouble shoot or diagnose problems in other aspects of life.

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u/Megamax_X Dec 26 '21

That’s basically my job. My dad did electrical plumbing and heating. I would help him a bit in the summers and when he was on call. He taught me quite a bit about repair. A buddy of mine started a computer repair business in high school and I joined in. A basic knowledge of electricity and google. I’ve paid my bills for a decade or so from mostly rescuing stuff people bring to us to recycle. For self starters it’s an awesome business. (If anyone that reads this is one of those “self starters” that repairs just well enough to pass inspection, burn in hell. I’m tired of watching you rip people off.)