This off-the-grid cassette player is a wind-up
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- A hand cranked cassette player that enabled tapes to be played pretty much anywhere.
Let’s take a look at it.
Special thanks to Esther who contacted me when this came into their ebay store. I’d been looking for one for a while. By way of thanks, here’s a link to their ebay store. www.ebay.co.uk...
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The mere thought of Matt randomly walking through the neighborhood while cranking out a song is never going to leave my head.
Probably a case of "the neighbours are used to it" at this point 😂
Modern version of an organ grinder. I want one
This is a great way to keep everyone away from you while going for a leisurely walk around the neighborhood. Just put in some crazy religious tape or self made agitated gibberish and you’ll have your very own privacy bubble! 😂
What a cranker.
It's no more ridiculous than someone balancing a boom box on their shoulder as they walk around. Always made me smile back in the day
Some sixty years ago, Crown International made a field tape recorder for the National Geographic Society. It was a portable reel-to-reel machine with transistorized electronics, but the capstan and take-up reel were powered by a mechanically-governed, spring-operated motor that one cranked up like an old Victrola. Fast-forward and rewind were achieved by literally cranking the appropriate reel by hand. The idea was that field recordings could be made in high-fidelity, but without the battery drain of powering motors. The electronics used such a small amount of electricity that the batteries would last many, many hours. The machine you've demonstrated reminded me of this.
Unlike this machine, the Crown's crank wound a spring, and the spring then powered the machine's mechanism. And of course, the electronics were battery-powered. One did not turn the crank while the machine was running.
Do you by chance know the model number of the Crown International clockwork tape recorder? I would love to find out more.
@@CassetteMaster I've been trying to find more about it myself for years. Sorry.
The National Film Board of Canada had a spring wound machine as well. Not sure if it was a Nagra but fairly certain it was.
These videos have become my "Saturday morning cartoons", as it were.
Nice touch seeing a post-apocalyptic Techmoan.
Aka Prepmoan
@@mondegreen9709🤣🤣🤣
Exactly the same for me too.
i follow 3 or 4 channels that usually post saturdays and feel the same way. back in the 80s or 90s we'd look at those paper tv listings to schedule our weekend tv watching. now we just open a few tabs to queue them up in any order we choose.
Haha that’s a brilliant analogy or a bit like a retro Tommorows world
It's actually kind of amazing how good that thing sounds.
It amazes me how repairable it is
@steelmote that's the power of evangelical fanaticism!
Hearing the Techmoan intro music always brings a warm sense of happiness and Saturday. Then seeing Matt walking across the screen, frantically cranking a hand cranked cassette player, makes one explode in laughter. You're the best!
I agree. I love chilling with a smoke and a coffee when the new Techmoan drops. Such a cosy ritual for me. 😊
Started hearing it other places as its royalty free but, in my head, its now fully associated with Techmoan so always double take its not a Techmoan vid.
I created the intro sting - the outro music though, that’s a TH-cam audio library track.
@@Techmoan I heard the outro music on another channel once and I was like "that bloke ripped off Techmoan!". lol
I don't think I have ever heard the outro song anywhere outside of a tech techmoan video, so I was none the wiser XD
I've had a windup flashlight that also used the crank to run an electric generator. The only difference is, the crank wound a large clock spring to store mechanical energy, so that the generator can power the small light bulb by itself off the clock spring for a minute or two (it also had a rechargeable battery for more storage). The mechanism takes up space inside the case, though, so the size of a tape player would probably double, along with the cost.
I have a similar unit but its a radio. It even has solar panels so it plays music in direct sunlight.
Imagine a VHS or Betamax and also a CRT TV all with hand cranks, you literally would need a household of "crankers" to keep everything running. After a weekend binge watching I'm picturing the boys stepping out the door with arms like BA Baracus.
You'd hope some kind of energy storage would be in place in some of those cases 😂😅
Don't CRT tvs use high voltage would be quite the hand crank lol
😂
No, for a TV you need to pedal on a stationary bike. This way you can get an all around training.
I would think this would put an end to speeding electric cars as well.
I live about 5 mins drive from the Australian office of GRN and had some friends who worked there for a time so nice to see some of their old tech featured from the other side of the world.
I have a wind up (real clockwork wind-up) reel-to-reel.
It's a Commonwealth Electronics type CEB, and is said to be the first portable tape recorder made.
Made in Sydney in the 1950s. Serial number is in the double digits. It works great.
Any more info on that? Sounds v interesting.
But doesn't it need batteries for the amplifier?
It probably has a generator that works from the wind-up mechanism. @@organfairy
It probably needs batteries for the electronics. Similar designs were made in europe for professional use, like film production and off-site recordings for radio. Might have been made by Nagra and/or Perfectone, at least? They used a high voltage battery (90 or 100 volt, like in a battery operated radio) to power the valve (tube) based electronics and a wind-up gramophone motor to drive the mechanism. Obviously done first and foremost to save power. Anyway, the introduction of transistors, better batteries and electronic motor speed regulators made this design obsolete after a relatively short time.
@@organfairy It does need old style radio batteries for the electronics. (All valve!)
This would be a great exhibit for the Techmoan Museum. Please open a museum!
And name it something like: The Museum of the Not Obsolete
Put all them nixie clocks in there 👍
A device that comes with detailed repair instructions _AND_ spare parts? Wow, that is definitely from a long lost era. Ingenious device!
Pretty neat! The crank could be a separate device, which could be plugged into the external DC input, so, "anything" could be crank-operated.
Good point, that would be handy for a torch or radio for instance. My guess is they didn't do that because it's cheaper to build the crank generator in, plus there's no cable to break.
Or you could add a spool of rope to the crank shaft, tie a weight to the end of the rope and make it gravity powered
@@Lachlant1984 Oh, yeah, less chance for problems if the crank is not a separate device ‒ but this way it only can operate what the crank is built into.
I wonder when the crank is turning, can the DC input operate as an "output"? 🤔
@@qdaniele97 Gravity operation is pretty limited, also, the player wound need to be placed high from the ground, which is not ideal...
I saw a radio on the internet, which had a "wind-up" feature, what was able to operate the generator internally without turning the crank.
That's Luke Talbot's MyPowerbank, a portable charger designed for the homeless to attach to TFL rental bikes whose chains can still be cranked in reverse when parked.
_Since the early days we've made hand wind audio players, and we still have limited supplies of the TapeTalk2 hand-crank cassette players._
~GRN
Apparently, they went to a second (similar) model which is still available. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have always loved the idea of having mechanically operated versions of electronic gadgets we use on a daily basis. Just in case the apocalypse were to happen... you never know.
For this reason I have a manual version of an electric tooth brush. Basically you have to produce the back and forth motion with your wrist. Tiresome, but one can handle 2 or 3 minutes at a time
I'm going to age myself here but during the y2k scare in 1999 we had a wind up radios that had built in flashlights just in case the grid went down we could get emergency broadcasts and have lighting at night.
The next logical step would be to have a clockwork spring attached, so that it could be powered that way, a bit like those radios that were, (or still are, for all I know), a thing about 30 years ago.
They probably thought of that but as a Watchmaker I can tell you it wouldn't be able to be serviced by a layman and it would add a host of things that could go wrong. Everything spring wound needs a bit of consideration, and the strong clocksprings are really dangerous if you don't properly unwind them before disassembly. Even when they are unqound they can be a right hassle to put back together.
An alternative to that would be to make it gravity powered. That would be quite feasible if you live a few floors up in an apartment building.
You still come across them in survivalist and outdoor goods stores. Beats trying to carry batteries and keep the unit dry when you only want short access to things like weather forecasts.
A better option would be to incorporate a battery which is then charged by the generator/motor. That would last a lot longer and take up less space.
they did sell higher end one that used a capacitor for longer tapes.
I actually would love to have one of these in working condition. I have tons of tapes and we regularly lose power here. I could give it to my daughter who could wind it to listen to music and give her something to concentrate on so she is not concentrating on being scared of the storm.
@Techmoan Im glad you stick around and make videos often.
Please never stop finding & show us all these great devices. Cheers from New York!
I imagined this would make one cranky but you showed how much cheer it would bring post apocalypse.
Thank you 🙏 so much. Every clip is a show. The intro alone is so much fun. Every time you make me laugh so hard. Many times that I end up under the table. This time at 9:21, imagine a smartphone with a crank like that to operate it. The whole thing in the public transport of our time during the rush hour. But that would have its own charm. To end a call, simply stop turning the crank.
Please keep up the good work. All the best. Cheers 🍻 and Servus from Bavaria.
I remember a similar device sold on a market stall in Manchester's underground market in the late 70s. He also sold radios and torches powered by clockwork dynamos. I bought a novelty watch from him featuring an image of Moshe Dyan
to protect it from the EMP just seal it in an old metal-style trash can and use the metal air duct type type to seal the lid to the can and keep it like that until after the bombs dropped and you got a still working tape player. the trash can works as a Faraday Cage protecting the electronics. This is all in theory, I don't have any Nukes or EMPs to test it out with but the logic is sound.
The coldest of opens ever put on the internet, it's just as clever as this cassette deck👌
Matt, that opening shot was Buster Keaton-level brilliant. 😂
What a video to try and wind down with!
This one was GREAT, I always loved Your humour, it’s really nice and it warms my heart up.
Loved your future plan, gave me a great laugh this morning. Thank you
Matt has a hidden untapped talent....comedy. He can totally do comedy sketches.
i love this channel so much... the hand-spun 80's music @9:50 is perfection.
Having repaired stuff for the last 40 years, I have to agree that is the best service manual I have ever seen, as for including spare parts inside the machine shows how well thought out it is.
Try even finding a repair manual for modern Chineasum gear!
Man, the idea and execution of this thing is so wholesome.
when I was a kid I visited a Amish village and 2 kids had one of these and they were playing back Disney music with it
Need this for the apocalypse for off grid listening of old AC/DC tapes.
That player could be modified to have a super capacitor that stores a charge.
I imagine SAW movies would have had slightly altered atmospheres with these wind-up players in them.
Very interesting device, thank you for showing it to us.
Well made, detailed repair manual, comes with spares... they were doing the Lord's work, literally!
A spinning wheel type treadle connection would make this far more convenient. You could literally play it by tapping your foot along to it! And you'd have to your hands free to do whatever else.
That is pretty neat.. I have never seen something like this.. Thank you for sharing!
Those machine very good in light post-apocalypse situation, so you can still listen to your holy cassette. Wind up mechanism, sparepart inside the machine, and very simple service manual with wide variety of languages its very helpful when professional techinician is gone, only you and local folk who are survived. Except when the magnetism on the world is degaussed, those machine would be useless
Such an interesting device, it really does serve it's purpose
Just last month. Had some extra/spare parts included when I built my PC, mainly motherboard extra screws, thermal pads, and a second heatsink bar for my MB. I was surprised to see such extra/spares included but at close to $600 for just the motherboard, I'm glad haha
Extremely well executed. Sadly showcases what the Victrola crank record player got so right in practicality terms. Hand held no. But will it be forgotten NO...
Love the Harry Enfield at the end. I remember that from a 90s Dime bar advert, but was it a catchphrase from his show too? Memory doesn't serve, but my friends and I used to quote that all the time :D
I’m amazed at the level of design, and subsequent implementation of engineering, invested in such a product. Certainly they couldn’t have thought that hundreds of thousands of them would be sold.
When homeless I wired up an electric wind up lantern with a solar panel in the same wire stretch used for the wind up part. It already had a BMS built in, no issues whatsoever.
It rarely needed winding, only when we partied till 2 am.
Clever little device.
That wind up MP3 Player would be amazing. Hopefully you will come across one of these one day.
That intro was simply great.
Please, don’t ever stop making videos.
awesome for an authentic posession sound
Just when you thought that he could not top previous videos, you find yourself rewinding before 30 seconds has even elapsed.
Wow, astounding, a very nice repair manual!
I have similar cassette player which I have bought from leftovers market at Karachi in less than a 5$ shield packaged excellent condition working so good.
I would LOVE to see you get your hands on that MP3 player version.
The spare parts kit did really impress me.
Another odd but interesting device, thought the opening sequence was fantastic. I did imaging trying to load and old 8bit game with that and you didn't let us down, the spectrum was probably the easiest to try but an Atari 8bit on the other hand would be a real test of endurance at 30 minutes a go.
Brilliant. Handwound music.
Last device I opened with spare parts was a framework laptop. Came with multiple spare color coded screws inside.
impressive construction quality and great power generator unit for that kind of machine.
When I heard the "That bloke's a nutter" comment I briefly hoped the puppets might be back.
I literally just saw a British chap walking around with a crank cassette player the other day. I thought, "What's next, a TH-cam video about this?
The device is cool and the humor is excellent.
Providing schematics is a righteous act!
Laughed my guts out! The post-apocalyptic vision of Matt, a grave expression on his face, regaling the few survivors with 80s music, turning the meat-mincer's handle... But otherwise I did like the device - surely I would have found it cool back in the 80s, although I do not think I would have had the patience required to operate it for more than 5 min.
Very neat video techmoan. Your arm would get tired because you can't stop cranking to get the music to play.
If the crank had a set position that you could stop and release the crank to play the music, that would be better
What a great sense of humour Mat owns ! lmfao
Fascinating! Imagine how much cranking it would take to power an 80's boombox normally powered by a dozen D-cells, phew
I remember in the bad old days when rechargeable NiCad batteries weren't yet available and having to frequently replace those C cells in a tape recorder. Of course a lot of the energy was used running the motor. I would have liked to have a tape recorder/player with a wind up motor like a Victrola record player, and uses the battery only to run the electronics. The battery would last almost forever.
Fascinating device.
We had that machine way back in the 80s. My dad was a minister
I have a collection of tapes I recorded in 18 when the brewers went to nlcs, trying to get through an entire game on that thing without stopping would be painful on the hard cranking the generator lol.
Best opening shot ever 😂
A hurdy-gurdy for the 21st century! 😀
2:08 OOH a Murraypro Pico PPM! Nice!
Great little video ❤ and a fantastic Device 👍🏻
The Wow and Flutter for this machine seems pretty impressive for what it is, when you are turning it fast enough the music sounds likeits playing at a pretty stable speed.
Wonder why they didn't increase the gear ratio a bit more, surely it would be easier to use if they reduced the speed you needed to crank the device in return for a bit more resistance.
I think this could work for books on tape as well as instructional audio. Crank a bit until you come to something you want to think on for a bit. Stop cranking. Then proceed. I won't ditch my Baygen radio, however.
In which Matt walks around, yanking his crank.
nice, no leaking batteries & always ready
Best intro you've ever done.
Girl [flirtatiously]: you have to wind me up a little, before you…
Me [having this cassette player]: I KNOW THAT, I have experience
Impressive intro and also the spare Parts 〽️😃😂
When they were designing this they should have added a speed increasing gear train to the generator assembly. That way, you can crank it slowly and still make enough power to run the cassette mechanism because the slow rotations from the crank are being sped up by the gear train causing the generator to spin faster.
Hmm, a gear box would add friction (thus increasing the amount of force to put on the crank) so it would it would be harder to turn the crank. Basically no win at all.
You'd still need to generate the same amount of power though? A gearbox can only modify the amount of torque, it can't modify the amount of power (the power is a physical "constant" based on the input work rate, after all). Despite turning slower, it would be much heavier to turn -- like a low gear on a bicycle.
Has the tour wound up yet, it sounds fun.
Oh wow. I kind of want to get one now (I have the original BayGen Freeplay Wind-Up Radio made in South Africa, a blue Freeplay Lifeline Radio, and a black Freeplay Wind-Up AM/FM radio).
Nice Olight S1R Baton II flashlight by the way, I have a black one.
Take enough at the rave and you can crank and dance the night away no problem.
Amazing device!!!
What a hero
I'd love to have this just for a cassette rewinder
Interesting device. Shame it didn't have some sort of power buffer (super-capacitor or rechargeable battery?) that'd let the user charge it up before playing the cassette. That or the clockwork mechanism.
This does have potential for a busker to be standing there singing to their hand-cranked music...
Very ingenious.. Looks like a battery could be added easily enough.
Talk about going off the grid!
Putting the 'crank' in "crank that Soulja Boy"
You keep finding such odd things. Very interesting video.
I'm a little disappointed that the thing doesn't have something like a spring or coil mechanism so one could just turn it for a bit & the spring would store the mechanical energy for future use.
It's still fun to learn about obscure electronics like this & electronics with clear housings that average people don't know about.
I can't imagine how jacked up, every Tool and Pink Floyd fans arms would get.
The people who wrote that service manual and included spare parts really were doing God's work, eh?
Always a top tier video bruv
These (along with their owners, the crankers) should be on every corner if you ask me.
I really need to know what that hand wound 80's music track was. I bet it slaps.
110 Herring road was a Ramada hotel from at least the late 80s. Must be older than that.