I like all his videos, but I particularly like this one because it kind of feels like the “missing link” between clockwork machines and electronic machines that I didn’t realize I was missing a ton of stuff about.
Seriously, this guy makes great videos. I’ve enjoyed his videos on heat exchangers, VHS vs Beta, liquid dish detergent vs pods, or humidifiers way more than is reasonable.
his debunking of the Bulb planned obsolescence is also very good.
he changed how I use my dishwasher too, lol
Yep, me too! Liquid detergent, made a noticeable difference!
Also in the process of changing all my bulbs from basic LED to filament LED, haha.
The jukebox video was really good for that too
Many pipe organs from the mid to late 1900’s use similar electro mechanical technology to take the key presses and actuate valves in the organ closet to activate the correct pipe. I’d love to see him do a video on pipe organs, they’re amazingly complex!
God I love Technology Connections. He’s such a refreshingly passionate yet chill person, has absolutely no air of condescension, soft-spoken, excitable but not too much, thorough, and just generally pleasant. Very high quality while keeping it very low-key. Not the typical YouTube personality at all, and I love it.
For real, and his humor is brilliant. Just some knowledgeable dude, who has nice personality and is pleasing to watch. Additionally has interesting content which I do very like.
Ah there in is the trick. The content is actually pretty meh. But he presents it in a really interesting way.
I love his nerdy awkwardness. The deadpan humor is top-notch too, though.
Steve Mould likewise.
What a masterpiece of a walkthrough. 60 minutes of pure electromechanical bliss
I think I’m going to have nightmares about having to repair these things after watching this.
I felt the opposite. Imagine being familiar enough with one of these that you can be the wizard that walks up and makes the magic work again.
All it would take is time working on a rotation of maintenance of these things.
Wow, that’s so cool! I have Little Chief by Williams which is a LOT like Aztec. I haven’t even begun to restore that one. I also have El Toro, by Bally. It took me a week to get all the contacts clean…
Hey, since you’re familiar with pinball machines, I have a question…in his video above, some of the solenoids seemed to have a motorola logo on them.
But I don’t know enough about electronic parts (or replacement parts–or hell, blue tape with a motorola-like logo on them) to know how to interpret it. I was mostly like, “Wait, motorola did solenoids in the 70s? Or are those replacements? Or just branded electrical tape?”
What are your thoughts?
He posted a picture on Mastodon, that’s actually the logo of Williams upside-down.
Ah-ha! Knew there was a reason I was scratching my head over it. Thank you!
Yes. Yes they are. I worked at an arcade in the 1990s. Fixing pinball machines is a nightmare.
Amazing video by @[email protected] as usual, pinball machines are quite the curiousity.
The mechanisms that move the ball itself (bumpers and kickers) are probably much the same as in a modern computerized unit, but the electro-mechanic logic (like the spinning motor that counts to five) is very fascinating.
I’m looking forward to the next part. I might think triggering the 10k solenoid twice and the 1k solenoid 5 times would be more succinct, but maybe it has to do with activating one score coil at a time: that could be why instead it opts to count to 5, 5 times.
Got a friend who fixes pinball machines as his main income and sitting as he explains to me the way old Electromechanicals work is a LOT to take in.
I love pinball. Kinda want to make one myself IRL; they’re one of my favorite things to build in creative games like Space Engineers.
Is there even any kind of mechanical game that is more complex than pinball?
Just to be clear, you use a game about building intergalactic spaceships to make pinball machines?
Radical.
He had one on jukeboxes a long time ago, I think. Not quite a game but still coin-op.
Maybe a bowling alley?
