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Mystery Items No. 5

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416698

Postby AleisterCrowley » June 1st, 2021, 10:01 pm

Alarm clock, teasmaid, electric curtains....

doug2500
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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416700

Postby doug2500 » June 1st, 2021, 10:04 pm

No 5 isn't some sort of corner tape is it? Or even just corner tape which seems too simple?

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416716

Postby jfgw » June 1st, 2021, 10:46 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:Alarm clock, teasmaid, electric curtains....

You are just making wild guesses now, aren't you ;) None of those is correct.

doug2500 wrote:No 5 isn't some sort of corner tape is it? Or even just corner tape which seems too simple?


Corner tape it is! The metal strips are galvanised steel and quite springy. The tape can be used on both inside and outside corners when dry lining.


Julian F. G. W.

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416730

Postby jfgw » June 2nd, 2021, 12:29 am

UncleEbenezer wrote:
jfgw wrote:You may not know that it exists. If you keep guessing, I will leave more clues.

Most households had one.

Past tense indicates obsolete technology. Households would seem to contrast with individuals. Something like video recorders or 'phone answering machines that's been superseded - if indeed "most" applies to either of those.

Sorry, I missed this post earlier.

It has something to do with one of those.

Julian F. G. W.

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416739

Postby UncleEbenezer » June 2nd, 2021, 7:20 am

jfgw wrote:
UncleEbenezer wrote:
jfgw wrote:You may not know that it exists. If you keep guessing, I will leave more clues.

Most households had one.

Past tense indicates obsolete technology. Households would seem to contrast with individuals. Something like video recorders or 'phone answering machines that's been superseded - if indeed "most" applies to either of those.

Sorry, I missed this post earlier.

It has something to do with one of those.

Julian F. G. W.

Then perhaps it's something easily misplaced, like a remote control. A bi-directional LED would help with finding it. Or might serve as placebo to an owner doubtful of it working!

If so, it would arguably make your past tense a little deceptive. Unless modern successors have dispensed with remote controls. Have phone apps and/or siri/alexa consigned them to history?

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416748

Postby Gengulphus » June 2nd, 2021, 8:53 am

To various contributors: please make certain your post mentions the number of the object you're talking about! It has become distinctly hard to follow some strands of this thread, due to people failing either to mention it themselves or to ensure it's mentioned in the quotes they're replying to. (And remember that the posting software will eliminate too-deeply-nested quotes, taking any mentions they contain of the object number with them...)

Gengulphus

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416752

Postby jfgw » June 2nd, 2021, 9:18 am

UncleEbenezer wrote:Then perhaps it's something easily misplaced, like a remote control. A bi-directional LED would help with finding it. Or might serve as placebo to an owner doubtful of it working!

No. 4 is not for a remote control. It has a specific function which is obviously needed if you think about it.

Julian F. G. W.

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416774

Postby jfgw » June 2nd, 2021, 10:54 am

No. 4: The LED,
UncleEbenezer mentioned a video recorder. It was only used on VHS. Can you suggest what it was for?

No. 6: The USB device,
Not many guesses so far. The oval part part-way along the cable is a weight.

No. 9,
Suggestions have been for a roller blind, venetian blind and vertical blind. These are all very close.

No. 10,
A frame fixing has been mentioned. If you look at the photo in the OP, you will see that each end of the grey part is shaped like a wall plug and there is a helical groove in the middle.


Julian F. G. W.

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416778

Postby servodude » June 2nd, 2021, 11:01 am

jfgw wrote:No. 4: The LED,
UncleEbenezer mentioned a video recorder. It was only used on VHS. Can you suggest what it was for?

No. 6: The USB device,
Not many guesses so far. The oval part part-way along the cable is a weight.

No. 9,
Suggestions have been for a roller blind, venetian blind and vertical blind. These are all very close.

No. 10,
A frame fixing has been mentioned. If you look at the photo in the OP, you will see that each end of the grey part is shaped like a wall plug and there is a helical groove in the middle.


Julian F. G. W.


4: With the need for a pair of photodiodes it's not going to be illuminating the clock so...
- proximity/position sensor for the loading mech
- or strobe for spin rate sensing
- or dunno... som'ing else!?

-sd

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416779

Postby pje16 » June 2nd, 2021, 11:05 am

AleisterCrowley wrote:Alarm clock, teasmaid, electric curtains....

Cuddly Toy (nice to suggest... to suggest...) :lol:

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416780

Postby AleisterCrowley » June 2nd, 2021, 11:05 am

end of tape detector???

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416786

Postby jfgw » June 2nd, 2021, 11:26 am

AleisterCrowley wrote:end of tape detector???

Correct answer!

VHS tapes have clear sections at each end. The LED poked into a hole in the cassette and would shine through one of the holes in the sides (visible with the flap open) when the tape was near one end.

Betamax used a section of metallic foil that was detected inductively, and V2000 used a reflective foil.


Julian F. G. W.

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416790

Postby AleisterCrowley » June 2nd, 2021, 11:33 am

..got there eventually!
(I'm still having trouble picturing why it needs to be bi directional - I thought it would sit near the read/write head)

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416795

Postby mc2fool » June 2nd, 2021, 11:38 am

jfgw wrote:
AleisterCrowley wrote:end of tape detector???

Correct answer!

VHS tapes have clear sections at each end. The LED poked into a hole in the cassette and would shine through one of the holes in the sides (visible with the flap open) when the tape was near one end.

I thought of that answer a while back but dismissed it 'cos I couldn't see why it's double sided and two photodiodes accompanied it ... and still can't. :? It's not like you can turn a VHS tape over to play the other side ...

Edit: ditto!

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416796

Postby servodude » June 2nd, 2021, 11:39 am

AleisterCrowley wrote:..got there eventually!
(I'm still having trouble picturing why it needs to be bi directional - I thought it would sit near the read/write head)


Yeah!

Pics or it didn't happen!.

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416799

Postby jfgw » June 2nd, 2021, 11:49 am

AleisterCrowley wrote:..got there eventually!
(I'm still having trouble picturing why it needs to be bi directional - I thought it would sit near the read/write head)

If you insert a tape, the machine can immediately tell if the tape is at the beginning or at the end, and can discriminate between the two. It will not, for example, try to load a tape which is at the end or allow you to rewind a tape that is at the beginning.

Julian F. G. W.

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416817

Postby AleisterCrowley » June 2nd, 2021, 12:54 pm

Nope.....need a picture :)

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416831

Postby mc2fool » June 2nd, 2021, 1:48 pm

Aha!

Image
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/392819-How-can-i-play-a-VHS-tape-with-the-lid-off

https://goughlui.com/the-vhs-corner/intro-inside-the-vhs-cassette-vcr helped too (search in the page for "tape sense"). It helps if you have a VHS tape in front of you with the flap open ... :D

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416839

Postby AleisterCrowley » June 2nd, 2021, 2:29 pm

Looks like a right cockamamie scheme!

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Re: Mystery Items No. 5

#416848

Postby jfgw » June 2nd, 2021, 3:28 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:Looks like a right cockamamie scheme!

How would you do it?

Linear recording has been tried:
In 1955 BCE demonstrated a broadcast-quality color recorder that operated at 100 inches per second and CBS ordered three of them. Many other fixed-head recording systems were tried but all required an impractically high tape speed. It became clear that practical video recording technology depended on finding some way of recording the wide-bandwidth video signal without the high tape speed required by linear-scan machines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_tape_recorder

A PAL VHS recorder runs the tape at less than 1" per second in standard play.

Another reason that I can think of for having separate sensors for the start and end of the tape is that, without these, the clear leader would end up being passed over the head drum. I can imagine that this would cause increased wear or even potentially cause damage.


Julian F. G. W.


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