No, they were done with Nixie tubes by the end of the 70’s… well, most of them.
Jr. Highschool history teacher visited, said they employ old ladies in the Moscow subway to watch the escalators just because everyone needed a job.
That was one of the main problems with communism and socialism. Not enough incentive for education, so just make up jobs, no matter how stupid they are. We called those jobs “doorknob operators” in ex Yugoslavia. It was a shitty deal, but there was no incentive for a large portion of the population to actually learn something useful because even if you don’t have anything other than a 4th grade education, you still had to be part of the workforce, and instead of forcing people to actually get a degree (mind you the state was the only employer at that time, even though, at least in ex Yugoslavia, there was an option for venture capital and self-employment in the 80’s, but no one actually did it… or very few, and on a very small scale), they just went “the hell with it 🤦… just… do something”… which could have panned out in the long term, but no one could know.
So uh… what Soviet electronics forums should we be visiting OP?
remont-aud.com and electrotanya.com. The second one is free from registrations, but the first one, no… and they hold most of the goodies when it comes to device schematics.
There are others, some are hidden from search bots, some hidden completely… of course, invite only. It’s not always the schematics that are shared, but the knowledge and knowhow that is worth the effort. Most stuff does eventually get leaked though.
Really? It just seems like the NOS stockpile is endless… though I had read somewhere that there was still a factory operating in the early 90’s… guess you did say most.
Doorknob operators, love it! 😊 And thanks for the explanation, Mr. Ellness (which I’m almost certainly misspelling) really couldn’t articulate the reason behind it, nor did his “minder” offer any explanation.
Hopefully I didn’t come off as glorifying the system, it certainly wasn’t my intention to do so.
Thanks for the recommendations! I vaguely remember Louis Rossman video (back when you made repair videos) where he sort of flashed the watermark on the screen for a second. Always thought I would go back and find that video, never did :-)
Yeah, as I said, most factories closed by the end of the 70s, but some operated till the USSR dissolved.
The system wasn’t that bad to be honest… at least not in Yugoslavia. USSR was a different story. We had all the perks of the west with none of the obligations. Of course, you can’t compete with the western tech markets (yes, we did try that, look up Zastava, Yugo, Iskra, Gorenje) with a system like that, it’s just not designed to compete with capitalism, so it was doomed to fail when everyone around you is capitalist. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.
There are other open forums, free for registration. I could look up the URLs if you want, I have them in a plain text file on my PC (I’m on my phone right now), some are also good, like vinafix for example (not ex USSR, but still good, it’s Vietnamese). I haven’t visited them in years though, things might have changed. I started working in IT and just lost interest in that… no money, no point in doing it. Hardware is dirt cheap nowadays.
Yeah, as I said, most factories closed by the end of the 70s, but some operated till the USSR dissolved.
My mind is suitably blown :-) I remember seeing some of the “newer” segmented style tubes in a train ticket machine (probably late 70’s erra manufacture) here in Oakland, California, USA back in the late 90s or very early 00s. Probably not of Russian manufacture, though ;-)
The system wasn’t that bad to be honest… at least not in Yugoslavia. USSR was a different story. We had all the perks of the west with none of the obligations. Of course, you can’t compete with the western tech markets (yes, we did try that, look up Zastava, Yugo, Iskra, Gorenje)
Don’t sell yourselves short, Yogo’s were very well known here! ;-) … yeah, it’s still rigged pretty well.
There are other open forums, free for registration. I could look up the URLs if you want, I have them in a plain text file on my PC (I’m on my phone right now), some are also good, like vinafix for example (not ex USSR, but still good, it’s Vietnamese). I haven’t visited them in years though, things might have changed. I started working in IT and just lost interest in that… no money, no point in doing it. Hardware is dirt cheap nowadays.
Yes please, but feel free to do it at your convenience. I have yet to check out the first few you offered — although I will by weeks end. To many projects, as always :-) I’m going to look up the other big companies you mentioned as well. I was born in ‘77 so I missed the coldest days of the Cold War… but I have an irresistible fascination with the evolution of technology… especially these parallel worlds that developed in countries on both sides. Objects that are both instantly familiar but also “alien” in design, not the greatest example but phones are probably the most familiar examples.
Anyway… it’s been delightful chatting the last few days. I hope we can keep the conversation going, but for now I have one or more work tables to excavate ;-)
No, they were done with Nixie tubes by the end of the 70’s… well, most of them.
That was one of the main problems with communism and socialism. Not enough incentive for education, so just make up jobs, no matter how stupid they are. We called those jobs “doorknob operators” in ex Yugoslavia. It was a shitty deal, but there was no incentive for a large portion of the population to actually learn something useful because even if you don’t have anything other than a 4th grade education, you still had to be part of the workforce, and instead of forcing people to actually get a degree (mind you the state was the only employer at that time, even though, at least in ex Yugoslavia, there was an option for venture capital and self-employment in the 80’s, but no one actually did it… or very few, and on a very small scale), they just went “the hell with it 🤦… just… do something”… which could have panned out in the long term, but no one could know.
remont-aud.com and electrotanya.com. The second one is free from registrations, but the first one, no… and they hold most of the goodies when it comes to device schematics.
There are others, some are hidden from search bots, some hidden completely… of course, invite only. It’s not always the schematics that are shared, but the knowledge and knowhow that is worth the effort. Most stuff does eventually get leaked though.
Really? It just seems like the NOS stockpile is endless… though I had read somewhere that there was still a factory operating in the early 90’s… guess you did say most.
Doorknob operators, love it! 😊 And thanks for the explanation, Mr. Ellness (which I’m almost certainly misspelling) really couldn’t articulate the reason behind it, nor did his “minder” offer any explanation.
Hopefully I didn’t come off as glorifying the system, it certainly wasn’t my intention to do so.
Thanks for the recommendations! I vaguely remember Louis Rossman video (back when you made repair videos) where he sort of flashed the watermark on the screen for a second. Always thought I would go back and find that video, never did :-)
Yeah, as I said, most factories closed by the end of the 70s, but some operated till the USSR dissolved.
The system wasn’t that bad to be honest… at least not in Yugoslavia. USSR was a different story. We had all the perks of the west with none of the obligations. Of course, you can’t compete with the western tech markets (yes, we did try that, look up Zastava, Yugo, Iskra, Gorenje) with a system like that, it’s just not designed to compete with capitalism, so it was doomed to fail when everyone around you is capitalist. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.
There are other open forums, free for registration. I could look up the URLs if you want, I have them in a plain text file on my PC (I’m on my phone right now), some are also good, like vinafix for example (not ex USSR, but still good, it’s Vietnamese). I haven’t visited them in years though, things might have changed. I started working in IT and just lost interest in that… no money, no point in doing it. Hardware is dirt cheap nowadays.
Oh, and the URL is remont-aud.net, not remont-aud.com, sorry my mistake 😁.
My mind is suitably blown :-) I remember seeing some of the “newer” segmented style tubes in a train ticket machine (probably late 70’s erra manufacture) here in Oakland, California, USA back in the late 90s or very early 00s. Probably not of Russian manufacture, though ;-)
Don’t sell yourselves short, Yogo’s were very well known here! ;-) … yeah, it’s still rigged pretty well.
Yes please, but feel free to do it at your convenience. I have yet to check out the first few you offered — although I will by weeks end. To many projects, as always :-) I’m going to look up the other big companies you mentioned as well. I was born in ‘77 so I missed the coldest days of the Cold War… but I have an irresistible fascination with the evolution of technology… especially these parallel worlds that developed in countries on both sides. Objects that are both instantly familiar but also “alien” in design, not the greatest example but phones are probably the most familiar examples.
Anyway… it’s been delightful chatting the last few days. I hope we can keep the conversation going, but for now I have one or more work tables to excavate ;-)