Dr Who

I did a bit of work on fruit machines Gandalph. It was when a change in the gaming act was enacted and the odds had to be altered. Our small team, working part-time in a garage, would get just the back doors with all the relays mounted on them.

Lots of wiring needed changing and the relays were cleaned up and re-labelled. When all had been done, I'd suppose the door would have been married up with the rest of the machine. We weren't involved with that bit though.

I think the year would have been 1972. The money made went towards buying our first house. Work started around 7.00 p.m. and would often go on until 4.00 a.m. A few hours sleep and then on to the day job of repairing televisions. :)

sounds like  you were working in an Indian sweat shop?

Mart wrote:

I did a bit of work on fruit machines Gandalph. It was when a change in the gaming act was enacted and the odds had to be altered. Our small team, working part-time in a garage, would get just the back doors with all the relays mounted on them.

Lots of wiring needed changing and the relays were cleaned up and re-labelled. When all had been done, I'd suppose the door would have been married up with the rest of the machine. We weren't involved with that bit though.

I think the year would have been 1972. The money made went towards buying our first house. Work started around 7.00 p.m. and would often go on until 4.00 a.m. A few hours sleep and then on to the day job of repairing televisions. :)

Do you remember that 20/30 Trip Thyratron Valve that was stuck in the middle of all those relays on the back door. It was about the size of a Small coke bottle and glowed purple.  That's what I called getting hold of a componant.

well all this talk and description sounds like we are still right in the middle of a Dr Who drama!! :cheers:

Knock knock,
Who's there?
Doctor,
Doctor Who,
Correct first time.

knock knock
who's there
Yogi
Yogi who
No Yogi bare!!

Gandalph wrote:

Do you remember that 20/30 Trip Thyratron Valve that was stuck in the middle of all those relays on the back door. It was about the size of a Small coke bottle and glowed purple.  That's what I called getting hold of a componant.

I didn't see those Gandalph, probably because the back doors with the relays on were delivered a number at a time and the device was removed for transport. I never got to see the assembled/working machine but presumably what we did was OK because none of the doors were rejected ..but yes, components that could be got hold of (the same as in televisions). At the time, we thought this would never change. :)

Yes, everything changed when some clever dick invented the transistor. It managed to miniaturise everything from there on in. Components now need a magnifying glass. On top of that you can't get hold of them to swap them out. Not even tweezers are any good with some of them as the soldering is too close together.

why is everything getting smaller??

davo wrote:

why is everything getting smaller??

Have you been peeking!  

no  I can do the "blind hold" now!!

The mind boggles.

davo wrote:

sounds like  you were working in an Indian sweat shop?

It was OK. I was in my mid-twenties, had the stamina for it and was glad of the opportunity to earn some extra money. Owning a house was about the biggest goal at the time and working those long hours enabled me to do that. Would the young generation of today be willing to work so hard if they got the chance? Maybe some would.

Dr Who works 24 hrs a day??

The best thing about Dr Who in the early sixties was the theme music played on a 'Theramin' and created by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop