What Is The OLDEST Piece of Working Electronic Equipment . . .

A customer(old guy) came in to the store a month ago with an original playstation and he wanted to know if it worked or didn't so he could claim it on his insurance.

A Playstation is worth $0 to any insurance company if it is used as a game console.
If it is used as a collectors item that is something else.
 
Grayfox
A customer(old guy) came in to the store a month ago with an original playstation and he wanted to know if it worked or didn't so he could claim it on his insurance.

A Playstation is worth $0 to any insurance company if it is used as a game console.
If it is used as a collectors item that is something else.
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That's not what I'm getting at.. Serial number 30.. Sound's like a ludicrous claim.
 
Show us a picture of the backside of your PS, tlowr4. With a note with the date and GTP on it.

I had an first edition PS. I know how it looks exactly, and how many different ports are on it. And I have the age to have bought it myself. :D

GT1 & 2't it to death. :lol:
 
My dad Deejayed in the Eighties, he's sold a lot of his stuff, his mix boards, speakers and such. He though still has the turntable and the massive 1200 watt stereo and its speakers. Probably the oldest I know of, I'm pretty sure he has more I don't know about.
 
nick09
It would have to be a GE surge protector. I'd say it's around 24 years old(The surge protector came with the house so I don't know the actual exact age). If I remember correctly the model was made during 1987-1988 from what I read a year ago. The usefulness is limited by the six power outlets on the device but it's something I can work around.
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Same thing for me (although not by GE). The surge protector my parents bought 20 years ago when they first got married is still in use at my house. Other than that it's probably the 15+ year old CRT panasonic TV.

It still works well, and we'd still be using it but there's no reason to anymore. We have an HDTV in the family room, and I recently bought an HDTV for my room too.

Edit: Mom has an old sewing machine kicking around somewhere too. Probably from the early 70's.

Dad also has a clock radio from the 80's which he still uses every morning.
 
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Sony STR-GX311 from 1980's and it still works perfectly, a pair of OR 200Hi speakers from 1980's and AKAI ASE-24 headphones from 1970's or early 1980's, I haven't found any information about them.

I also have a Yamaha PSR-77 retro keyboard from 1994. :sly:
 
My original Gameboy, that I received as a christmas present from my parents back in 1991.
 
tlowr4
Just remembered, I've got a Play Station. Yes, not the PS1 or other sorts, the Original Play Station from the mid 90's. Serial number 30, I believe.
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ive got one as well, sat ontop of my wardrobe right now...in its orignal box and packaging and everything

i can see on the box it says "SCPH-9002 B"
 
I have a Sega Mega Drive II (or Genesis) which I believe is now 15 years old, probably even older. It's still plugged in to my TV, problem is my brother lost a carrier bag full of games so there's not a lot to play on it... Just the 6-in-1 cart that came with a second MDII bought to replace this one that we thought we'd lost (how do you lose a home console?) and Micro Machines 2. To be fair, though, apart from the Sonic games and Zero Tolerance, there's not a lot else I'd want to play as the 6-in-1 has Super Hang-On on it.
 
lbsf1
Slightly worrying that, can we ever come to an ultimate of technology? Anyway that's for another thread.

The acorn Electron is fascinating though its just so simple compared to computers today.
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cjmpe
I remember doing my first coding on an Acorn Atom - purchased around 1980 or so - no idea how the specs compare to your computer. I don't think my father has it any more though.
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I remember working on those BBC 'Owls', too - looking back now at that image - black screen with the bright green digits - C+ and Basic (my toffee-nosed science-bod friends scoffed and touted COBOL and FORTRAN - huh?)

Before that, having grown up when ENIAC and Alan Turing was what interested us, I was introduced by a friend to something that looked like a portable tape-deck - an 'Atari' he called it. I thought of John Wayne, but that was probably something else. Later on I dabbled with a Wang C64, then a 'Pet. I remember being frustrated with what it couldn't do, because I realised the tremendous potential these new machines had.

But then technology kept leaping forward, (unlike today when it just trickles forward, one upgrade at a time) and the huge jumps that some of us have gone through are still amazing.
The jump in the (marketing) time taken from iPod to iPhone 5 Prolouge is nothing when compared to the jumps taken from the first Motorola chips to todays PCMs. Huge moves that were relatively swift enough for a single generation to see cabled phone communication turn into com-sat imagary.

When I bought a Packard-Bell 256 running MS-DOS, I couldn't believe the new 'Windows" - the 'jump' was amazing.
And then an Apple fell into my life and gave me GUI.
!!!
The were many computers in my life that came and went . . . but the whole point of this discussion is - what stayed? What still is used? What still is workable?
After all - it doesn't take much to run a functional word-processor - whether one is running a Commodore 64 or the WiFi enabled iPhone 4GS.

The only difference being that you can edit, while in Timbuktu, a document in Shanghai.

One of our family computers that everyone has used over the course of almost twenty years, is this one - An Apple Macintosh Performa 580 CD - runs both mini-floppies and CDs and prints out a beautiful document on a Stylewriter. It still works; zoom into the screen for the latest document.

100_8007.jpg
 
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I just trashed the vacuum tube intercom system in my house, which was still working when I killed it. That was installed when the house was built in 1964, 48 years ago - I considered it a fire hazard. I also still have the original thermostat and still use the original sprinkler timer. Also the doorbell is original. The furnace may be original too (I question how would might even go about putting a new one in since it seems as though the house was built around it), but one might not consider a furnace "electronic equipment".

Old film cameras are NOT electronic equipment. That's an entirely mechanical device. The only way to argue around it is if it takes batteries to advance the film, that's still weak given that it's not really the point of the device.

Ok, so here's what I've got:

Thermostat - 48 years old (probably not electronics)
Furnace - 48 years old (probably not electronics, but at least electrical)
Doorbell (button and speaker) - 48 years old (I think that counts)
Vacuum Tube Intercom (deceased 2 weeks ago) - 48 years old
Sprinkler Timer - 48 years old? Not sure how to verify that.


Edit: More along the lines of the point of the thread is my desktop keyboard. I've use it daily for 15 years across like 10 computers. No repairs.
 
Danoff
Old film cameras are NOT electronic equipment. That's an entirely mechanical device. The only way to argue around it is if it takes batteries to advance the film, that's still weak given that it's not really the point of the device.
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Depends on if it had an automatic exposure and/or light meter. Some cameras had a tiny microchip handle those functions. The Canon AE-1 had a chip for the light meter, which makes it piece of electronic equipment, although it's far from a fully-automated device.

http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/film/data/1976-1985/1976_ae1.html

There were probably other brands, too.
 
You're right, Pupik, my Canons can shift from AE to Manual and there is a built-in light meter - very handy while in Manual.

Danoff - very, very, interesting. In fact the internet providers in our area are having a time of it replacing old cabling with fiber-optic technology - and older buildings in the area have to be completely rewired.
I wonder what your doorbell sounds like! No danger in keeping that going, I'll hazard.
We are so heavily dependent on electrical items - whatever the source - and if it functions - like your furnace - without discomfort, then it just goes on and on and on.. . . .
I know a guy with a Frigidaire refrigerator that's probably 30 years old - but he won't change it. Been repaired a couple of times - but still cool enough for him.
But - electronic items - these are almost imperishable. As has been mentioned in the thread - calculators work for decades. (Makes sense to buy the best one - after all calculating sine cos and tan will remain the same).
And, of course, having asked this question in a predominantly gaming community (at a farming forum guess what comes up LOL) there are many who answered with very old (and still workable) consoles.
The SNES I have at home is occasionally booted up for visiting toddlers - and present generation toddlers have no problem handling Yoshi's Island.
The toddlers of the future - direct touch of course - with capacitive fingers.
So here is where 'electronics' is taking a turn. What differentiates the older generation of electronics from the newer is that we are more intimate with our machines.
Yet - we combine this with disposability.
 
I have an Apple Powerbook 180. It used to be my father's when he got it from the University of Tokyo for work. Then, he's kept it until a few years ago, when he gave it to me.
 
Danoff
Old film cameras are NOT electronic equipment. That's an entirely mechanical device. The only way to argue around it is if it takes batteries to advance the film, that's still weak given that it's not really the point of the device.
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My F3 has an electronically controlled shutter and a LCD readout to show the shutter speed in the viewfinder. If a camera doesn't operate as it should without batteries then I'd call it electronic. My F3 would just be a brick with a single shutter speed if its batteries went flat.
 
The oldest piece of electronic equipment in my house is probably either our mid 90's stereo or our (possibly older) vinyl record player...
 
A few years ago, I was paid to clean out a printworks ($50 for a day, plus I keep whatever I want). In addition to three whole booklets of unused parking ticket pamphlets, a set of really nice speakers, and a crapload of scrap steel; I found one of these:

pc-xt.jpg


All with the original boxes for the computer, keyboard and monitor. Brought it home and have fiddled with it off and on ever since.
 
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Me and my brother have retro days, we dig out a computer or console which we play for a few hours. Last month it was the Commodore C64 and this month it'll be the thing pictured.
20120405123728.jpg

According to the box it runs on all 625 line UHF TVs! The round thing is a speaker and it's powered by 6 AA batteries.
 
Moglet
When we moved into our house we got mostly new electronic items so the oldest thing we have here is a HD DVD player! :lol:
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Actually, I just realised I've got my original Playstation upstairs. It's probably the oldest thing in the house, except for me and my girlfriend. Hell, the house itself is less than a year old so most of it's contents are older than the building.
 

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