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The RCA 885 Thyratron is an Argon filled three-element tube used in pulse and switching circuits. Roughly equivalent to a modern SCR, this device will momentarily short when triggered, allowing charge to dump for a high-energy pulse or to help restart the next cycle in a sweep circuit.

This tube was designed for oscilloscope use and was purchased as a spare for my 1936 RCA 151. It was produced as part of the war effort. It's new old stock.

Interesting thing about tubes is there's so many of them still available in the USA because we just made shitloads of them up until the 80s. This is in contract to most other countries where stock has become depleted.

The RCA 885 Thyratron is an Argon filled three-element tube used in pulse and switching circuits. Roughly equivalent to a modern SCR, this device will momentarily short when triggered, allowing charge to dump for a high-energy pulse or to help restart the next cycle in a sweep circuit. This tube was designed for oscilloscope use and was purchased as a spare for my 1936 RCA 151. It was produced as part of the war effort. It's new old stock. Interesting thing about tubes is there's so many of them still available in the USA because we just made shitloads of them up until the 80s. This is in contract to most other countries where stock has become depleted.

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[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

I also love vintage electronics, though my main fascination is with the 8 bit microcomputers made from 1976-1986. I especially like Radio Shack computers, but really all the 8 bit systems are pretty awesome to me. I even still do some programming once in a while on one of them.

[–] • 0 pt

I still have a CoCo III hanging out, although it's easier to emulate them these days.

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt (edited )

Hang onto that, they're going for up to $600 these days, and climbing. A very hot item.

You ever look into Drivewire or the CocoSDC?

Drivewire: If you have the resources to make your own Program Paks like I do, you can make an HDBDOS cartridge and can use any PC with Java8 on it as a disk system by using a serial cable.
There is a way to get three of the PC boards needed for $20: https://www.nf6x.net/2013/10/cocoeprompak/ and if you have access to a 3D printer there are various shells available for the board.
Cloud9 will ship you the HDBDOS EPROM for $15 plus shipping if you don't have an EPROM burner:https://www.frontiernet.net/~mmarlette/Cloud-9/Services/index.html Here is how to build your own serial cable, though you can also buy one if you look around online for a drivewire cable: https://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_build_a_DriveWire_serial_cable Here's where you can get the connector to turn any d-sub9 serial cable into a Drivewire cable: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/cui-devices/SD-40/96995?s=N4IgTCBcDaIMYAcC0BGADAFjUgdgExAF0BfIA

CocoSDC: The most elegant solution to getting your Coco3 fully realized as a complete standalone system including enough disk space to contain all Coco software ever written. Here's where you can get one: https://thezippsterzone.com/2020/06/25/the-coco-sdc/

The Coco Software Archive: https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/

[–] • 0 pt

Yeah, I'm familiar with drivewire, I just never really had an interest in doing it because anything I want to run, I just emulate. I probably should try to pick up a replacement keyboard for it, if they still exist - I wore out a 16K and a 64K CoCo II because of the cheap inner membrane RS used on the keyboards.