Another "found in buried box....."

[Kerry Borgne]

So, you might ask, WHY is he posting a picture of an old, dusty adding machine?

Good question. This 1967-1970 Sony SOBAX 600, 14 digit Nixie based calculator has what appears to be a property tag from G..M.C. Styling on its back so it was there for a least a part of the time GM was making Corvairs. (For those who don't know, I own a 1963 Corvair Spyder) Unfortunately the model and serial number tag have been removed so I can't get an accurate dating. Maybe someone remembers actually using one of these?

Incidentally the name "SOBAX" supposedly meant "Solid State Abacus". The product model number was ICC-600, which stood for "Integrated Circuit Calculator "

I bought this several years ago at a garage sale, intending to salvage the Nixie display tubes and scrap the rest. I didn't even notice the property tag on the back! Time went by and over the years it got buried in a box and forgotten. Now, given it's history  (provenance??), I'm not so sure it's going to be parted out...Still, those 14 Nxies sure are tempting......

Oh, in case you are wondering, it powered right up and works fine!

When purchased new, this calculator cost around $1250.00!

Kerry

[Kiran Otter]

I'd be curious what the insides look like.

I had an Olivetti Programma 101 that used delay line memory.  It was frightening the amount of electronics that were in that thing.. before any kind of ICs existed.

http://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/c-programma101.html  It didn't even have a display; it used paper tape.. and just had a blue and red light to indicate if it was working or had reached an error.

Kiran

[Charles MacDonald]

My High School math department had a mechanical calculator. Punch in
the numbers and it worked them out on a carriage that went back and
forth like a typewriter.

Natuaraly after school, I told it to diviade by Zero.... Ran for quite
a while before I figured out the way to stop it was to power off, punch
some keys to jam it, power on and press clear.

I used to do my taxes on an Toshiba 14 digit printing calculator that I
got at a government surplus sale. It had been used for a promotional
coin program for the 76 Montreal Olympics judging by the stickers on the
back. two large circuit boards filled with (Toshiba Naturally) TO-5 ICs
no display just a small drum printer. Has a nice keyboard, magnets in
the keys work magnetic reed switches.

--
Charles MacDonald Stittsville Ontario
cm...@zeusprune.ca Just Beyond the Fringe
http://Charles.MacDonald.org/tubes
No Microsoft Products were used in sending this e-mail.

[Kerry Borgne]

So...

 I WAS going to post some pictures of the insides but... This thing is built like a Sherman Tank! I got the cover and one shield off, then decided to leave well enough alone. It works and messing with wiring that is nearing 50 years old, might be asking for trouble...


Here is the one picture I took...

[gregebert]

Is this a picture of the underside of the keypad ? Still wondering if this was built with ICs or individual transistors. It looks big enough for the latter.

[Kerry Borgne]

  Yes, that's the underside of the keyboard. That's as far as I got...Given all the 'shielding' that this thing has one might think it was powered by an early nuclear reactor... 

[Kerry Borgne]

I found this on the web. It's an ICC-500W whereas mine is an ICC-600W  but I think they're very close.

http://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/sony-sobax.html

[Kiran Otter]

I wonder what a schematic of the thing would look like!  And imagine it all being done by hand.

Kiran

[Kerry Borgne]

 Unfortunately, I've not been able to locate a schematic or service manual for these units...