To learn electronics in a very different and effective way, and gain access to Mr Carlson's personal designs and inventions, visit the Mr Carlson's Lab Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab
As a kid I used to love building stuff like this for my mate who ran a school disco. Only big clubs had professionally made light shows, and they weren't much better than this. Sound-to-light was the next addition to the device, so that the lights flashed different colours to the beat. In the seventies, different coloured flashing lights were the height of sophistication that were far-out, rock-solid and groovy!
Mr C that looks like something my father would bog together lol! A farm boy from Kentucky, with a 4th grade education loved electronics! I still have all his Heathkit projects! This apple didn't fall from that tree
@11:10 its a shift register! It feeds into the first register to keep the cycle going. And the button introduces a binary 1 at the first register when it's pressed at the right moment, which continues to cycle. When keeping the button pressed all registers are 1 so no more flashing. Cool old device
@@Steve_Just_Steve One of those Japanese game show count down stage effects during sudden death or maybe just some flashing window lighting for one of those casino/gaming parlors in japan. Or in Vegas it was triggering 3 neon words that say girls then a neon light shape in the figure of a stripper.
@@madmodders Ah yes, for whatever reason with shift register I had some of the later components in mind when I did assembler at university about 17 years ago. with each push of the button it just adds one "bit". Or speaking of the Event and stage lighting I did at a side job for a while, you switched from a 1 light, to a two light, three light sequence. when all four are active unlike actual lighting controllers (well, nowadays that would almost be ancient ones with only four channels and only sequencing) it just does not reset again. (unless you cycle the device)
Someone put this all together with purpose, dedication and love. Irony, being, today all that could be in a cheap 50-cent chip -- but where would the fun be in that? 🤗 It's _definitely_ 70's as the components are all familiar to stuff I was building as a kid way back then.
The device I built was a character generator, think early Chyron, and control a bunch of VCR's to automate a cable TV channel. The whole thing could be done now with a Raspberry Pi and some python code.
Ditto on the date, these are the same components I used in the 70’s and into the 80’s as well. Making stuff that didn’t really do much, but certainly got me interested in electronics and logic circuits in general.
It looks like that was put together with whatever the person had laying around their workshop, possibly salvaged components, maybe even some from the radio that used to occupy that case. Very cool. I love seeing kind of ingenious homebrew stuff like that. He may have gotten the circuit design for it out of one of those paperback electronics project books that used to be around, like "101 Useful Circuits", or an electronics magazine of the 70s.
As someone with not a real electrical engineering background(Mechanical engineer though) your videos are just so enjoyable and really easy to watch. The way you can just describe how something works and creating an image in my brain it's simply amazing. Btw has anyone told you that you have just about the best audio on youtube ?
Great to see you post again! They canceled school today so I get to do this instead, which is great! Excited to watch the rest of the video, as I’m only in the beginning.
Whether you're a brother Or whether you're a mother, You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Feel the city breakin' And everybody shakin', And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
Me too, I was fabricobbling a number of disco light devices around the time I left school, late 1970s. First thought was a 4 channel sound-to-light until he opened the back and I couldn't see an audio input jack.
Great video. Just a quick note: Many 220volt countries are also 50Hz instead of 60Hz. From personal experience, a transformer run at a Hz that it was not designed for can overheat. Replacing the existing transformer with a 110v 60Hz might be the simplest/safest fix.
That reminds me on the 70's. Everybody was building what we called a "light organ* for disco parties. The lamps reacted to different frequency ranges of the music. Was very popular back then.
A lot of effort went into that project. It's a nice example of somebody's passion for the hobby. LOL, usually my early projects got abandoned half way through or are slapped together a lot quicker than that one was.
May have been used for advertising (hotel, bar, car dealer, etc.), but almost perfectly matches the kind of sequencer used for DJ lighting cans. The various patterns and ability to change them really convinces me that this powered a set of DJ lights.
If it's not 70s, but 60s - psychedelia and not disco - it could've been Vietnam. But Canada, of course, wasn't in Vietnam, so if this has been in Canada the whole time, it seems unlikely. It could also be the 70s and somebody doing duty with NATO in western Europe.
I remember in the early to mid 80's there were many magazins for those of us who are into (like yourdelf) building and learning about electronics. the Light sequencer (Johnson counter) was fun.
Thanks for another unique and interesting video. I always learn something from you and your videos. I love how exciting you get when diving into unknown projects and figuring them out.
For my flux bottles I use blunt-tipped "glue" needles...they came with plastic covers that not only protect me from accidents but also helps keep the flux from drying out.
@@gregorythomas333 Thanks. haven't used needle[d] bottle - tho - may be 'lack skill' [?] with lid 'Spouts', either break or never seal well (cleaned). - not a glue connoisseur. lol
@@kareno8634 just don't make the mistake of putting flux in your eye, I cringe at the thought. Eye dropper not as precise as the metal blunt needle tip. I have an old syringe from the local feed store that sells health care stuff for farm critters. Just filed off the sharp point.
Love the hand-wound reed isolation relays, they have a satisfying click to them, I could imagine a home-brew relay computer being built from them, nice and compact.
As a retired Broadcast Engineer, I remember my mentor had contracts to maintain numerous radio stations. He had a half dozen radio tuners set up to monitor them. Mute circuits were added that were tripped off whenever station carrier was lost. This looks like a somewhat similar idea that scanned the stations, turning off and on individual stations. loss of audio would trip the mute circuit off and tell him that one of his stations had a problem. Maybe?
It's borderline a piece of folk art. I can picture someone building it for a friend who is working as a dj. People and friends together partying and having a great time. You're going to have to get it out next Christmas...
I'd probably add fuses on both sides of that transformer and for each outlet. Based on the cord thickness and the wiring to those outlets I don't think I'd want to operate very high wattage lamps from it.
@@greendryerlint I think the fuses are a good idea to protect the weakest part. Make sure you don't clean it too much either it needs some original patina.
We used to call a kit for disco light. In backday In 80, some of them could flash with music too , we used to have different colour for lamps , good quality had isolated chock transformer for triac.
Halo Mr Carlson ! This was interesting episode. You kept me glued to the chair. Thanks. Only small disappointment was a moment when you realised that There is some writing on the paper , but..... you didn't disassemble placeholders..... and see what is written at the hidden side. Who know ... what information is there ... waiting for 1/2 a century to be read ??? Lol... Keep posting. All the best !!!
This reminds me of a project I built many decades ago, based on a design in an electronics hobbyist magazine here in the UK. There was a box with 4 triac driven mains voltage outlets. You would plug coloured mains (240 volt) lamps into these outlets eg red lamps into outlet 1, green into outlet 2, etc. There was an electret microphone mounted just inside of the box. This was connected to an audio preamplifier and then to 4 audio filters that would sample different ranges of audio tones eg sub-bass, bass, mid range and top audio range. The outputs from these filters were amplified and fed to the triacs. The purpose of this was to produce coloured disco lights that flashed in time to the beat and audio frequencies of the music. It worked perfectly but was untidy. I got rid of it after my children moved on to other interests.
interesting, back in the perf-board days, many times quick crude stuff to save the day and make machines run again 🥳now a lot of it went to throw away modules 😟thanks cool video 😊
I 100% could use such a device for a christmas display idea I have for next year. I have enough old stuff around I could make it discrete, as opposed to a simple IC.
About 3 minutes in when it appeared there was a radio in it, I thought it was a 4 channel color organ that was tuned to a set frequency. In the mid 70s they were very popular, and the parts would have been very similar.
Great minds think alike! I built a few of these color organs when I was a kid. One popular model in Scandinavia from came from Josty Kit, a Danish electronics company. But instead of (reed) relays those constructions used diacs and mains voltage (220V) all over the place. Caused a few blown fuses and traces, sparks and shocks before we got the hang of being careful and do proper soldering joints. Those were the days! :)
Very cool. It’s one of the first things I learned with my kits as a kid. How you could make timers with simple circuits. Amazes me still today. I’d be very proud if I designed and built this At any age. Why not read that paper ? Looks like it had a map on it an explanation and maybe the designers name. ? Love to know how it came to you. Lol. This thing is very interesting because it is sending power to more than one light at the same time or so it seems. It’s very smooth.
Mr. C this my ham friend was a crazy kooky and very interesting video.Looks like something we would find in a swap meet tote. Thank you for bringing it back to life and sharing with us!
This guy is why , among other things, became a Mechanical Engineer. The other things were trying to how a 1950s TV worked, B&W, 2 chassis, 8 miles of wire, the second was trying to read a ARRL manual at 10 years old.
I made basically the same thing a few years back, but with a 555 and a decade counter. I used it to switch relays to sequence 4 kodak carousel slide projectors. Control voltage is 13V AC, hence the relays. If anyone wants to build something similar, a good tip is to use every other pin on the counter so the projectors don't run away and change slide twice. Used a pot to adjust the frequency.
That Fluke remote display was really tripping me out, never seen that before! I was so confused. "Is that meter cut in half?" "Did he greenscreen/cgi that in there?"
Fun little project. Oh, Paul, I just noticed that, a few weeks ago, you added electrical arcing to your closing graphic, essentially making the letters look like little Tesla coils. Nice addition!
@1:33 Looking at the circuit board I was thinking possibly a "Color Organ" type device, but I did not see any input jack(s). Now I'm thinking it is a light sequencer for marquee type effects, or a 4 channel flasher at different intervals. @2:20 The top half of the circuit board look like it contains 4 sets of transistor flip-flops, possibly a 4 bit binary counter. @11:30 Push button is a mode switch, 1 output on 3 off, 3 outputs on 1 off, all outputs on.
Yes! Colour organ or light organ. I built one of those. Neon bulbs at each of the three outlets. Pots for sensitivity. Some haphazard capacitors and such - so not really a proper frequency band thing... just blinked and flickered differently for each channel.
I was immediately thinking 4 flip flop circuits due to the 4 symmetrical transistor circuits on the board. Love the home brew reed relay idea. Necessity is the mother of invention. I have used factory made electromagnetic reed relays but never thought to wind my own.
It probably has the radio dial to get it through customs inspection as a radio while it was used as an explosion sequencer for taking down structures. Pure sinister conjecture. :)
It does look that way. That's why you would use an old radio dial too! The customs folks wouldn't know the difference. Now if it was used to take down buildings I can't say.
I would hate to be using that as an explosion seq. and accidently get it near anything with a magnet. Those reeds also triggered on being bumped, banged, or even loud low freq. sound. Come to think of it, they're the perfect tamper detector for IEDs.
Paused at 1:17 and I am guessing this is some kind of homebrew light chaser. 7:00 Yep! Johnson counters can be used in light chasers, so one step closer! 7:12 Christmas Light sequencer! Okay, I believe that is close enough to light chaser. We have a Bingo! I am surprised the guy that built it went through the trouble of making reed relay drivers for a triac output. It would have been simpler to go full on relays and have the transistors drive that directly and the output could be directly connected to the outlets.
It is a early model light chaser useing Germanium transistors for Christmas tree light Decorations or light display . He used an old. transistor radio body to conseal its true operation .very nice pice of equipment.
Hi... Thanks for the interesting video ! I wonder if this perhaps was a project out of a 60's (or 50's ?) electronic hobby magazine... Further, I might wonder if it did work at 120 VAC and perhaps the neon tubes are just not lighting up after all these years as easily at 120 VAC as they did when you fed the circuit with 200 VAC...
My first thought was some kind of "light organ controller". Then a few minutes later thought "thought it was some kind of light sequencer." My second thought was correct!!
At 6:52 Mr Carlson is pointing to a "... transistor ... here as well..." which are the two small black cans near the two large white capacitors on the right half of the board. I think that these are diodes making a full/half wave bridge to turn the 9VAC into DC. If you look next to the two large blue capacitors on the left side you will see a black round device which, from the symbols on top of the can, is definitely a full wave bridge. So each half of the circuitry has its own rather simple linear power supply. My best guess and $0.02.
I made something very similar to that in the late seventies or early eighties. Wound my own isolation transformers to run coloured mains lights or mains lights with coloured cellophane in front of them Mine was a disco light controller and one of the positions was sound to light setting. There was 4 lights in a 2 x 2 array., common arrangement in the seventies. The Circuit I used may have been Electronics Today magazine or Everyday Electronics In the UK Addition: I remember the triacs had to be switched on the Zero crossing point of the AC voltage.
Ahh those were the days and I loved those electronics magazines. I built many a project from Electronics Today. That was when Maplins Electronics was a real mail order electronics company.
No need to use reed relays or opto isolators in a closed system like this. As long as there is no external input to the count circuit, you can trigger a triac directly from the low voltage logic. But you must then reference the DC supply voltage to the AC line so it becomes a "hot chassis" device. I built a few of these just like that in the mid 70s - you know, the disco age. My logic array was all TTL gates with an open transistor drive to the triac gate. The +5 volt supply was tied to one the hot side of the AC line. Perfectly safe as a closed box but I blew several up in the troubleshooting stage by accidentally grounding the DC power supply common, which then put 120vac line directly across the 5volt supply! I too eventually went to opto isolators but they didn't have the fancy triac based isolators yet, at least not available at Radio Shack. So in using standard NPN isolators, I needed a second DC supply tied to the AC line. But at least the TTL logic was now safely isolated. My master clock was also a tad more advanced. I used a 555 timer which also allowed a variable speed control!
Looking inside of the box, I remembered the 1970s when I was making a toy like a walkie-talkie with one or two-transistors radio and a wireless microphone. I also used Noble brand boards. Thank you for the interesting video.
Surplus electronic place down the road had a customer of Asian origin used to come in all the time. When the customer passed, his wife called the store and begged the owner to come get all the stuff the old fellow had hoarded over the years. Test equipment, signal generators, digi voltmeters &c. In multiples. Some of it inexplainable or inexplainably modified & cobbled together. I ended up with some of it in my shop. This looks like a similar project from the old guy’s hoard. 73 de W8IJN
Fearless! I have worked in the field and yet you teach me something with every new vid. I was so proud of myself for recognizing the hand wound reed relays before you explained them. I think Forrest M. Mims III explains them somewhere. Cute easy to follow circuit if you understand the hand fabrication.
Apparently I _have_ been watching enough of your videos, Mr. C! After seeing the back off, my first guess was a light sequencer, probably for (indoor!) Christmas lights. First time I guessed correctly on one of your mystery videos! 😁👍️
The band Rainbow in the mid 70s had a massive, well, rainbow that spanned their stage. Stories say the control box was stupidly simple, and I like to think something like this might have powered it. It used to interfere with the amps, and was massive and hard to lug around. Apparently they were travelling by ship at some point and decided to just turf the dang thing into the sea, and were pretty happy to get rid of it.
I suspect a lot of stage lighting for music was extremely crude stuff like this box as its driver back in that era, just because it was still an early time in electronic light sequencing. After all the computer controlled multiple kilowatts of lighting we have today had to start somewhere. I wouldnt be shocked if a of the firms that build lighting shows now started as a few people with some boxes, parts and a soldering iron.
My dad made a light organ in his electronics class used a book shelf speaker box and some c6 colored lights and a plastic dimpled cover. It randomly changed to music and control on back adjusted the speed
Thank you for filming this unique device, if you ever work on this further, I would be interested to see if one could translate the writing on that piece of paper wired to the board (less it might damage something). Love your videos!
@@MrCarlsonsLab you really are one of TH-cam’s finest. I have a friend who was inspired by you and has become quite skilled. He knew nothing. Saw your work. Now he has a large, organized, and well equipped shop. His restoration work is great. You are making a positive difference to people and to the cause of retaining older equipment and past skills.
I was instantly reminded of a three-channel color organ box that I bought from Edmund scientific in the 70s The sound will be divided into frequencies and then channel to separate colored lights...
Thanks for the flux recommendation! Would have saved me some trouble with a Sony SQD 2020 with the dang double sided PCB with pins. I sucked all of the solder then re soldered, I tried the flux I have to no good effect. The recommended might have helped.
The case looks like it was an AM radio. I can remember buying a radio very similar and also remember the two snaps on back to get at the batteries, probably used 4 D-Cells. The dial would have gone side to side across the shorter width towards the top. I had one like that in the 70's. I had electronics in high school in the 70's and remember kids recycling cases for their projects. The perf board really looks like it was a high school project of some sort.
@@Runco990 I agree that shop classes were important. In my senior year I also took metal shop along with electronics. I learned how to gas weld, and still know 40+ years later. The ironic thing was that for my senior year of electronics the instructor had to "dust" off the class for tubes! He normally only taught Electronics every other year, and it was solid state based. We got enough students together to sign up for 12th grade, needed 7 students to keep the class but 12 to get it scheduled. We got 5 "burnouts" as they and everyone else called them (think pot heads) to come and sign up for the class so we could get it scheduled. First day of class the 5 burnouts came in, got a pass to the front office, so they could drop the class and get a study hall the last period of the day. All 12 of us students were happy and I got to learn tube technology. I only used it once. I bought a 1957 Thunderbird with AM tube radio that didn't work. I dusted off my knowledge and sorted it out and got it working again. I did need a huge DC power supply because of all those heaters. So watching this channel brings back memories of that and that tubes are not quite dead and there is at least Mr Carlson out there bringing one tube device back to life.
That’s was a interesting vintage project, looks like they could have been using such devices in the old sci-fi movie’s for controlling the old computer panels.
Hello Paul I like to experiment with building my own circuits. I converted a small three inch reel to reel tape recorder from DC bias to AC bias because they look better than they sound hahahaha 😆. The oscillator is a single transistor design using a small standby switch mode transformer taken from a scrapped TV power supply board. It works really good it has a frequency of 38khz at 45volt peak to peak clean sine wave and powered by a nine volt battery and very good sound with no noticable distortion. I wish I could show you the circuit. I've been working on it for awhile on and off getting it perfected. It taught me a lot about proper tape bias and equalization
I THINK I HAVE IT! I would bet that was a home made controller for a completely different type of "Christmas Tree" - the king at a racetrack. Hit the button and it sequenced the lights for the starter.
I enjoyed this one a lot. Not sure why this one more than the others. Maybe because of the home brew nature. It would've been ten times more interesting if a circuit doing the same thing was engineered using the Mr. Carlson's approach. Maybe with a key fob 😆.
Don't you just love old home made electronic devices? Probably saw an article in an electronics magazine and said to themselves I can make that. Now lets party!
i’m honestly curious to know approximately how many of your classes i’d have to watch before i was familiar with what you’re actually talking about in this or almost any other video of this sort. lots of jargon that i feel like my last two generations wouldn’t even know without an extensive education. stumbled upon your channel tryin to refurbish an old hifi unit before that came to a grinding halt from a broken needle holder (terms likely wrong). but definitely still watch your stuff and get lost pretty easily haha. curious for more tho. cheers from chicagoland
To learn electronics in a very different and effective way, and gain access to Mr Carlson's personal designs and inventions, visit the Mr Carlson's Lab Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab
Don't know what it is, but it's now $1K+ on EBAY
Mr Carlson the Mystery Box is cool
its to turn on and off olllllld xmas lights
I love the way you have of talking to viewers without appearing to talk down to them. Not many TH-camrs have that extraordinary gift.
As a kid I used to love building stuff like this for my mate who ran a school disco. Only big clubs had professionally made light shows, and they weren't much better than this. Sound-to-light was the next addition to the device, so that the lights flashed different colours to the beat. In the seventies, different coloured flashing lights were the height of sophistication that were far-out, rock-solid and groovy!
me too - see my separate comment made just now
Mr C that looks like something my father would bog together lol! A farm boy from Kentucky, with a 4th grade education loved electronics! I still have all his Heathkit projects! This apple didn't fall from that tree
8th grade education and I am an engineer for a radio station... and a farmer. These days you have to know some electronics even for farm work.
@11:10 its a shift register! It feeds into the first register to keep the cycle going. And the button introduces a binary 1 at the first register when it's pressed at the right moment, which continues to cycle. When keeping the button pressed all registers are 1 so no more flashing. Cool old device
What do you think it was used for?
Yes! I was screaming "shift register" at the screen as soon as I saw a second light. lol
@@Steve_Just_Steve Something which plugs into it, such as strings of Christmas tree lights to blink randomly.
@@Steve_Just_Steve One of those Japanese game show count down stage effects during sudden death or maybe just some flashing window lighting for one of those casino/gaming parlors in japan. Or in Vegas it was triggering 3 neon words that say girls then a neon light shape in the figure of a stripper.
@@madmodders Ah yes, for whatever reason with shift register I had some of the later components in mind when I did assembler at university about 17 years ago. with each push of the button it just adds one "bit".
Or speaking of the Event and stage lighting I did at a side job for a while, you switched from a 1 light, to a two light, three light sequence. when all four are active unlike actual lighting controllers (well, nowadays that would almost be ancient ones with only four channels and only sequencing) it just does not reset again. (unless you cycle the device)
Someone put this all together with purpose, dedication and love. Irony, being, today all that could be in a cheap 50-cent chip -- but where would the fun be in that? 🤗 It's _definitely_ 70's as the components are all familiar to stuff I was building as a kid way back then.
The device I built was a character generator, think early Chyron, and control a bunch of VCR's to automate a cable TV channel. The whole thing could be done now with a Raspberry Pi and some python code.
Mr Carlsson the Mystery Box is cool
I can imagine a young genius Japanese boy tinkering and creating devices. He'd be in his early 60's by now.
CD4017 ie the decade counter IC that was used for knightrider units.
Ditto on the date, these are the same components I used in the 70’s and into the 80’s as well. Making stuff that didn’t really do much, but certainly got me interested in electronics and logic circuits in general.
This is... analog electronic archeology. Not many to better host such. Top notch, as always.
I just love that silent pause at the start of every video followed by arguably some of the best voice audio on TH-cam.
Right on Mr. Carlson's Lab, the white paper is a short circuit protector. Well stated.
It looks like that was put together with whatever the person had laying around their workshop, possibly salvaged components, maybe even some from the radio that used to occupy that case. Very cool. I love seeing kind of ingenious homebrew stuff like that. He may have gotten the circuit design for it out of one of those paperback electronics project books that used to be around, like "101 Useful Circuits", or an electronics magazine of the 70s.
I loved those mags ,good memorys
As someone with not a real electrical engineering background(Mechanical engineer though) your videos are just so enjoyable and really easy to watch. The way you can just describe how something works and creating an image in my brain it's simply amazing. Btw has anyone told you that you have just about the best audio on youtube ?
Thanks for your kind comment!
Great to see you post again! They canceled school today so I get to do this instead, which is great! Excited to watch the rest of the video, as I’m only in the beginning.
When did he stop posting?
@Google user right on!
Looks like a “portable “ disco lights random switching home brew box . I did something similar back in the late 70’s
Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother,
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin'
And everybody shakin',
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
My first thought was that it was a disco light controller.
I suppose technically it would still do that, as long as its not overloaded.
Me too, I was fabricobbling a number of disco light devices around the time I left school, late 1970s. First thought was a 4 channel sound-to-light until he opened the back and I couldn't see an audio input jack.
@@Eon119 Some kid took this to parties on Friday night. Together with a turntable and a pair of speakers.
@@dadawoodslife I did the same thing! Those sound-activated lights were new and cool back then!
Great video. Just a quick note: Many 220volt countries are also 50Hz instead of 60Hz. From personal experience, a transformer run at a Hz that it was not designed for can overheat. Replacing the existing transformer with a 110v 60Hz might be the simplest/safest fix.
If Mr. Carlson ever got tired of doing what he is doing, he could always make a good easy-listening jazz DJ.
Calming voice of NPR.
@@jamesplotkin4674 The Bob Ross of electronics.
That reminds me on the 70's. Everybody was building what we called a "light organ* for disco parties. The lamps reacted to different frequency ranges of the music. Was very popular back then.
It's not a color organ, it looks like it's just a chaser.
I made a light organ that used a tube amplifier to drive it.
@@richlaue oh wow. In my time thyristors where evailable already even in east Germany
Yes. My older brother built one of discrete components.
A lot of effort went into that project. It's a nice example of somebody's passion for the hobby. LOL, usually my early projects got abandoned half way through or are slapped together a lot quicker than that one was.
May have been used for advertising (hotel, bar, car dealer, etc.), but almost perfectly matches the kind of sequencer used for DJ lighting cans. The various patterns and ability to change them really convinces me that this powered a set of DJ lights.
@15:12 The beheaded Fluke DVM appears and continues to haunt your bench again!
I like it!! A work of art. Labor of love. Color Organ? Japan is 100V 50Hz in some areas, 60Hz in others. Now, other Asian countries do run 200V.
If it's not 70s, but 60s - psychedelia and not disco - it could've been Vietnam. But Canada, of course, wasn't in Vietnam, so if this has been in Canada the whole time, it seems unlikely.
It could also be the 70s and somebody doing duty with NATO in western Europe.
I remember in the early to mid 80's there were many magazins for those of us who are into (like yourdelf) building and learning about electronics. the Light sequencer (Johnson counter) was fun.
Very interesting Paul. That case reminds me of the old RCA RWM series of Am/FM radios from the early 70's. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for stopping by Buddy!
Plugging that in....you are a brave soul
Always nice hearing from you, thanks Mr Carlson! You have imbued a passion for repair and electronics and I have no words to express my graditude :)
Thank You for your very kind comment Gustavo!
Thanks for another unique and interesting video. I always learn something from you and your videos. I love how exciting you get when diving into unknown projects and figuring them out.
Nothing like a "homebrew" electronic piece of equipment to explore !!
13:53 Why does the night light flicker if you reverse phase/neutral?
For my flux bottles I use blunt-tipped "glue" needles...they came with plastic covers that not only protect me from accidents but also helps keep the flux from drying out.
Would Eye Drops bottle work?
@@kareno8634
I'm not really sure...couldn't hurt to try it though :)
@@gregorythomas333 Thanks. haven't used needle[d] bottle - tho - may be 'lack skill' [?] with lid 'Spouts', either break or never seal well (cleaned). - not a glue connoisseur. lol
@@kareno8634 just don't make the mistake of putting flux in your eye, I cringe at the thought. Eye dropper not as precise as the metal blunt needle tip. I have an old syringe from the local feed store that sells health care stuff for farm critters. Just filed off the sharp point.
It is another guitar amp made by Terry at D-Labs...
if Terry made it there would be 6SN7 tubes instead of transistors!
Love the hand-wound reed isolation relays, they have a satisfying click to them, I could imagine a home-brew relay computer being built from them, nice and compact.
As a retired Broadcast Engineer, I remember my mentor had contracts to maintain numerous radio stations. He had a half dozen radio tuners set up to monitor them. Mute circuits were added that were tripped off whenever station carrier was lost. This looks like a somewhat similar idea that scanned the stations, turning off and on individual stations. loss of audio would trip the mute circuit off and tell him that one of his stations had a problem. Maybe?
It's borderline a piece of folk art. I can picture someone building it for a friend who is working as a dj. People and friends together partying and having a great time. You're going to have to get it out next Christmas...
I'd probably add fuses on both sides of that transformer and for each outlet. Based on the cord thickness and the wiring to those outlets I don't think I'd want to operate very high wattage lamps from it.
@@greendryerlint I think the fuses are a good idea to protect the weakest part. Make sure you don't clean it too much either it needs some original patina.
We used to call a kit for disco light. In backday In 80, some of them could flash with music too , we used to have different colour for lamps , good quality had isolated chock transformer for triac.
Halo Mr Carlson !
This was interesting episode. You kept me glued to the chair. Thanks.
Only small disappointment was a moment when you realised that There is some writing on the paper ,
but..... you didn't disassemble placeholders..... and see what is written at the hidden side.
Who know ... what information is there ... waiting for 1/2 a century to be read ???
Lol...
Keep posting. All the best !!!
This reminds me of a project I built many decades ago, based on a design in an electronics hobbyist magazine here in the UK. There was a box with 4 triac driven mains voltage outlets. You would plug coloured mains (240 volt) lamps into these outlets eg red lamps into outlet 1, green into outlet 2, etc. There was an electret microphone mounted just inside of the box. This was connected to an audio preamplifier and then to 4 audio filters that would sample different ranges of audio tones eg sub-bass, bass, mid range and top audio range. The outputs from these filters were amplified and fed to the triacs. The purpose of this was to produce coloured disco lights that flashed in time to the beat and audio frequencies of the music. It worked perfectly but was untidy. I got rid of it after my children moved on to other interests.
interesting, back in the perf-board days, many times quick crude stuff to save the day and make machines run again 🥳now a lot of it went to throw away modules 😟thanks cool video 😊
I 100% could use such a device for a christmas display idea I have for next year. I have enough old stuff around I could make it discrete, as opposed to a simple IC.
Love your videos!
Excellent explanations and very enjoyable content.
Glad you like them!
About 3 minutes in when it appeared there was a radio in it, I thought it was a 4 channel color organ that was tuned to a set frequency. In the mid 70s they were very popular, and the parts would have been very similar.
Color organ was my first thought as well.
Great minds think alike! I built a few of these color organs when I was a kid. One popular model in Scandinavia from came from Josty Kit, a Danish electronics company. But instead of (reed) relays those constructions used diacs and mains voltage (220V) all over the place. Caused a few blown fuses and traces, sparks and shocks before we got the hang of being careful and do proper soldering joints. Those were the days! :)
Very cool. It’s one of the first things I learned with my kits as a kid. How you could make timers with simple circuits. Amazes me still today. I’d be very proud if I designed and built this At any age. Why not read that paper ?
Looks like it had a map on it an explanation and maybe the designers name. ? Love to know how it came to you. Lol.
This thing is very interesting because it is sending power to more than one light at the same time or so it seems. It’s very smooth.
Mr. C this my ham friend was a crazy kooky and very interesting video.Looks like something we would find in a swap meet tote. Thank you for bringing it back to life and sharing with us!
What a labor of love...Triacs without heatsinks and probably hot tabs.
7407 on that integrated bridge rectifier seems like a plausible 7th week of 1974 date code
This guy is why , among other things, became a Mechanical Engineer. The other things were trying to how a 1950s TV worked, B&W, 2 chassis, 8 miles of wire, the second was trying to read a ARRL manual at 10 years old.
I made basically the same thing a few years back, but with a 555 and a decade counter. I used it to switch relays to sequence 4 kodak carousel slide projectors. Control voltage is 13V AC, hence the relays. If anyone wants to build something similar, a good tip is to use every other pin on the counter so the projectors don't run away and change slide twice. Used a pot to adjust the frequency.
That Fluke remote display was really tripping me out, never seen that before! I was so confused. "Is that meter cut in half?" "Did he greenscreen/cgi that in there?"
Fun little project. Oh, Paul, I just noticed that, a few weeks ago, you added electrical arcing to your closing graphic, essentially making the letters look like little Tesla coils. Nice addition!
Your knowledge is admirable sir.
I have an electronics education, but it was never used, I got a job with IT instead, 22 year now, but very interesting to follow you
Same story for me. 2 year electronics degree, have been working in IT over 20 years. Still like to tinker when the mood hits me though.
@1:33 Looking at the circuit board I was thinking possibly a "Color Organ" type device, but I did not see any input jack(s). Now I'm thinking it is a light sequencer for marquee type effects, or a 4 channel flasher at different intervals.
@2:20 The top half of the circuit board look like it contains 4 sets of transistor flip-flops, possibly a 4 bit binary counter.
@11:30 Push button is a mode switch, 1 output on 3 off, 3 outputs on 1 off, all outputs on.
Yes! Colour organ or light organ. I built one of those. Neon bulbs at each of the three outlets. Pots for sensitivity. Some haphazard capacitors and such - so not really a proper frequency band thing... just blinked and flickered differently for each channel.
I was immediately thinking 4 flip flop circuits due to the 4 symmetrical transistor circuits on the board. Love the home brew reed relay idea. Necessity is the mother of invention. I have used factory made electromagnetic reed relays but never thought to wind my own.
That was fun to watch. Great work!
Thank you!
2:45 in, I’m thinking ‘sound to light’ unit for a disco. Triacs & 4 channel o/p. Interesting video! Back to it.
4:40.. Christmas tree light driver?
That was fun Paul. Simple and easy.
Glad you liked it!
I was thinking of a 4 channel light controller. I remember one from popular mechanics with a motor, cams and microswitches. I like this circuit better
I’ve never thought using reed relays that way. That pretty ingenious
They are available built that way, in a small plastic case encapsulated in resin, also screened metal case versions used in audio and telecoms.
It probably has the radio dial to get it through customs inspection as a radio while it was used as an explosion sequencer for taking down structures. Pure sinister conjecture. :)
ROFL!!!
Uhh dont give anybody ideas haaaahaaa
It does look that way. That's why you would use an old radio dial too! The customs folks wouldn't know the difference. Now if it was used to take down buildings I can't say.
I would hate to be using that as an explosion seq. and accidently get it near anything with a magnet. Those reeds also triggered on being bumped, banged, or even loud low freq. sound. Come to think of it, they're the perfect tamper detector for IEDs.
I knew what that was as soon as I seen the triacs on the receptacles. Fun video! Thanks Paul!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I remember that case when it was a radio ! .. those press studs ! Wow
The most professional way to attach resistors in parallel! :D
Paused at 1:17 and I am guessing this is some kind of homebrew light chaser. 7:00 Yep! Johnson counters can be used in light chasers, so one step closer! 7:12 Christmas Light sequencer! Okay, I believe that is close enough to light chaser. We have a Bingo! I am surprised the guy that built it went through the trouble of making reed relay drivers for a triac output. It would have been simpler to go full on relays and have the transistors drive that directly and the output could be directly connected to the outlets.
It is a early model light chaser useing Germanium transistors for Christmas tree light Decorations or light display . He used an old. transistor radio body to conseal its true operation .very nice pice of equipment.
Hi... Thanks for the interesting video ! I wonder if this perhaps was a project out of a 60's (or 50's ?) electronic hobby magazine... Further, I might wonder if it did work at 120 VAC and perhaps the neon tubes are just not lighting up after all these years as easily at 120 VAC as they did when you fed the circuit with 200 VAC...
My first thought was some kind of "light organ controller". Then a few minutes later thought "thought it was some kind of light sequencer." My second thought was correct!!
At 6:52 Mr Carlson is pointing to a "... transistor ... here as well..." which are the two small black cans near the two large white capacitors on the right half of the board. I think that these are diodes making a full/half wave bridge to turn the 9VAC into DC. If you look next to the two large blue capacitors on the left side you will see a black round device which, from the symbols on top of the can, is definitely a full wave bridge. So each half of the circuitry has its own rather simple linear power supply. My best guess and $0.02.
Looks like a Popular Electronics Project.
I made something very similar to that in the late seventies or early eighties. Wound my own isolation transformers to run coloured mains lights or mains lights with coloured cellophane in front of them Mine was a disco light controller and one of the positions was sound to light setting. There was 4 lights in a 2 x 2 array., common arrangement in the seventies. The Circuit I used may have been Electronics Today magazine or Everyday Electronics In the UK
Addition: I remember the triacs had to be switched on the Zero crossing point of the AC voltage.
Ahh those were the days and I loved those electronics magazines. I built many a project from Electronics Today. That was when Maplins Electronics was a real mail order electronics company.
No need to use reed relays or opto isolators in a closed system like this. As long as there is no external input to the count circuit, you can trigger a triac directly from the low voltage logic. But you must then reference the DC supply voltage to the AC line so it becomes a "hot chassis" device. I built a few of these just like that in the mid 70s - you know, the disco age. My logic array was all TTL gates with an open transistor drive to the triac gate. The +5 volt supply was tied to one the hot side of the AC line. Perfectly safe as a closed box but I blew several up in the troubleshooting stage by accidentally grounding the DC power supply common, which then put 120vac line directly across the 5volt supply! I too eventually went to opto isolators but they didn't have the fancy triac based isolators yet, at least not available at Radio Shack. So in using standard NPN isolators, I needed a second DC supply tied to the AC line. But at least the TTL logic was now safely isolated. My master clock was also a tad more advanced. I used a 555 timer which also allowed a variable speed control!
Love it another mystery solved! Now we know what electronic Xperts do for fun...
Looking inside of the box, I remembered the 1970s when I was making a toy like a walkie-talkie with one or two-transistors radio and a wireless microphone. I also used Noble brand boards.
Thank you for the interesting video.
I built one when I was in college. Mine was digital. I had chaser lights for Christmas when those weren't a thing yet.
Surplus electronic place down the road had a customer of Asian origin used to come in all the time. When the customer passed, his wife called the store and begged the owner to come get all the stuff the old fellow had hoarded over the years. Test equipment, signal generators, digi voltmeters &c. In multiples. Some of it inexplainable or inexplainably modified & cobbled together. I ended up with some of it in my shop. This looks like a similar project from the old guy’s hoard. 73 de W8IJN
Fearless! I have worked in the field and yet you teach me something with every new vid. I was so proud of myself for recognizing the hand wound reed relays before you explained them. I think Forrest M. Mims III explains them somewhere. Cute easy to follow circuit if you understand the hand fabrication.
Apparently I _have_ been watching enough of your videos, Mr. C! After seeing the back off, my first guess was a light sequencer, probably for (indoor!) Christmas lights. First time I guessed correctly on one of your mystery videos! 😁👍️
always enjoy your explorations ( Reed sw with a wound coil is a wow), ( we tend to forget the wonderland past as we move ahead)
Glad you enjoyed!
Somehow somewhere I wish that the person who built this is watching this right now
Nicely sharp videos white balance great 👍🏻
The band Rainbow in the mid 70s had a massive, well, rainbow that spanned their stage. Stories say the control box was stupidly simple, and I like to think something like this might have powered it. It used to interfere with the amps, and was massive and hard to lug around. Apparently they were travelling by ship at some point and decided to just turf the dang thing into the sea, and were pretty happy to get rid of it.
I remember seeing that at Leicester De Montfort Hall in 1976
@@noelwalterso2 That's awesome, I only have a DVD of the '77 performance, as I did not exist at the time :)
I suspect a lot of stage lighting for music was extremely crude stuff like this box as its driver back in that era, just because it was still an early time in electronic light sequencing. After all the computer controlled multiple kilowatts of lighting we have today had to start somewhere. I wouldnt be shocked if a of the firms that build lighting shows now started as a few people with some boxes, parts and a soldering iron.
My dad made a light organ in his electronics class used a book shelf speaker box and some c6 colored lights and a plastic dimpled cover. It randomly changed to music and control on back adjusted the speed
Thank you for filming this unique device, if you ever work on this further, I would be interested to see if one could translate the writing on that piece of paper wired to the board (less it might damage something). Love your videos!
Awesome. Thank you for posting
My pleasure!
@@MrCarlsonsLab you really are one of TH-cam’s finest. I have a friend who was inspired by you and has become quite skilled. He knew nothing. Saw your work. Now he has a large, organized, and well equipped shop. His restoration work is great. You are making a positive difference to people and to the cause of retaining older equipment and past skills.
@@P61guy61 Thank You for your kind feedback William!
Neat. No telling what stories it could tell.
I was instantly reminded of a three-channel color organ box that I bought from Edmund scientific in the 70s
The sound will be divided into frequencies and then channel to separate colored lights...
Thanks for the flux recommendation! Would have saved me some trouble with a Sony SQD 2020 with the dang double sided PCB with pins. I sucked all of the solder then re soldered, I tried the flux I have to no good effect. The recommended might have helped.
The case looks like it was an AM radio. I can remember buying a radio very similar and also remember the two snaps on back to get at the batteries, probably used 4 D-Cells. The dial would have gone side to side across the shorter width towards the top. I had one like that in the 70's. I had electronics in high school in the 70's and remember kids recycling cases for their projects. The perf board really looks like it was a high school project of some sort.
@@Runco990 I agree that shop classes were important. In my senior year I also took metal shop along with electronics. I learned how to gas weld, and still know 40+ years later. The ironic thing was that for my senior year of electronics the instructor had to "dust" off the class for tubes! He normally only taught Electronics every other year, and it was solid state based. We got enough students together to sign up for 12th grade, needed 7 students to keep the class but 12 to get it scheduled. We got 5 "burnouts" as they and everyone else called them (think pot heads) to come and sign up for the class so we could get it scheduled. First day of class the 5 burnouts came in, got a pass to the front office, so they could drop the class and get a study hall the last period of the day. All 12 of us students were happy and I got to learn tube technology. I only used it once. I bought a 1957 Thunderbird with AM tube radio that didn't work. I dusted off my knowledge and sorted it out and got it working again. I did need a huge DC power supply because of all those heaters. So watching this channel brings back memories of that and that tubes are not quite dead and there is at least Mr Carlson out there bringing one tube device back to life.
20:00 I've found that a drop or two of liquid rosin helps immensely when soldering old leads. :-)
That’s was a interesting vintage project, looks like they could have been using such devices in the old sci-fi movie’s for controlling the old computer panels.
That thing hooked up to four lamps, would be the stuff of nightmares
Good detective work Mr Carlson. The radio dial really threw me at the start.
it is a marquee sign motor . We had analog ones in High school in the 1980s
I really enjoyed this one. Cute. Interesting.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hello Paul
I like to experiment with building my own circuits. I converted a small three inch reel to reel tape recorder from DC bias to AC bias because they look better than they sound hahahaha 😆. The oscillator is a single transistor design using a small standby switch mode transformer taken from a scrapped TV power supply board. It works really good it has a frequency of 38khz at 45volt peak to peak clean sine wave and powered by a nine volt battery and very good sound with no noticable distortion. I wish I could show you the circuit. I've been working on it for awhile on and off getting it perfected. It taught me a lot about proper tape bias and equalization
I was hoping it would be one of the 'light organ' circuits that were in all the DIY magazines in the late 60s... Light sequencer is cool though..
When I picked that out of the box, my first thought was a light organ as well.
I THINK I HAVE IT!
I would bet that was a home made controller for a completely different type of "Christmas Tree" - the king at a racetrack. Hit the button and it sequenced the lights for the starter.
I ordered the flux from England, with shipping to Norway it cost me a small fortune but it was worth it, it's really good.
Smiling!
Christmas lights was my first guess, about 30 seconds before you said it.
paused at 8:42
Now lets see what it is.
I enjoyed this one a lot. Not sure why this one more than the others. Maybe because of the home brew nature. It would've been ten times more interesting if a circuit doing the same thing was engineered using the Mr. Carlson's approach. Maybe with a key fob 😆.
What an interesting find
Don't you just love old home made electronic devices? Probably saw an article in an electronics magazine and said to themselves I can make that. Now lets party!
i’m honestly curious to know approximately how many of your classes i’d have to watch before i was familiar with what you’re actually talking about in this or almost any other video of this sort. lots of jargon that i feel like my last two generations wouldn’t even know without an extensive education. stumbled upon your channel tryin to refurbish an old hifi unit before that came to a grinding halt from a broken needle holder (terms likely wrong). but definitely still watch your stuff and get lost pretty easily haha. curious for more tho. cheers from chicagoland