Whither Mike Quinn's electronics/surplus?
Philip J. Koenig
I tried to go to the old location a few months back and was
unsuccessful finding it, then I called information and they
could find no phone listing in either Oakland or San Leandro.
So I had sorta accepted the fact that they had gone under, but
I just ran across a craigslist posting I had printed out in
8/2001 where a guy claimed to have just been there.
Can anyone confirm whether they are indeed dead or alive?
Thx,
Phil
--
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mag...@rahul.net
<See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid> said:
>I tried to go to the old location a few months back and was
>unsuccessful finding it, then I called information and they
>could find no phone listing in either Oakland or San Leandro.
>
>So I had sorta accepted the fact that they had gone under, but
>I just ran across a craigslist posting I had printed out in
>8/2001 where a guy claimed to have just been there.
>
>Can anyone confirm whether they are indeed dead or alive?
I pointed my browser at <yp.gte.net> (aka superpages.com). and
clicked on "search by distance" and entered the city around which
to search. For your search I used Oakland. For business name I
used Quinn, and I searched within 25 miles. On the resulting
page I scrolled down the classifications until I found Surplus &
Salvage Merchandise (1) and clicked to find:
Mike Quinn Electronics
401 McCormick Street, San Leandro, CA 94577
(510) 569-1539
It took me longer to write this post than to find the answer.
HTH
jc
Philip J. Koenig
(mag...@rahul.net) writes...
Yep, and I've tried calling them twice and the phone number
rings forever with no answer.
John R Pierce
<See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid> wrote:
>
>Yep, and I've tried calling them twice and the phone number
>rings forever with no answer.
per a web page I found via google, the office hours were given as tuesday
thru saturday 9:30 to 5.
Ken Ashe
See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid says...
>
>
>I tried to go to the old location a few months back and was
>unsuccessful finding it, then I called information and they
>could find no phone listing in either Oakland or San Leandro.
>
>So I had sorta accepted the fact that they had gone under, but
>I just ran across a craigslist posting I had printed out in
>8/2001 where a guy claimed to have just been there.
>
>Can anyone confirm whether they are indeed dead or alive?
Buncha addresses in Google that look like:
Mike Quinn Electronics
Address 401 McCormick St, San Leandro, CA 94577
Phone (510)569-1539
Hours Tue-Sat 9:30-5:30
Is that the old place? Prolly, since it appears a number of times,
including some confusion about whether it's in Oakland or San Leandro.
The phone just rings a long time at 10:00 at night -- no message.
According to a couple of articles, the guy had enough stuff to build a UFO, so
an answering machine might not seem out of the question.
Philip J. Koenig
(John R Pierce) writes...
OK, I missed the part about not being open on Monday. I'll
try again later.
BTW, which webpage are you referring to? I couldn't find a
homepage for Mike Quinn's themselves.. just "yellow pages"
types of listings.
John R Pierce
<See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid> wrote:
>BTW, which webpage are you referring to? I couldn't find a
>homepage for Mike Quinn's themselves.. just "yellow pages"
>types of listings.
yeah, the Tu-Sa thing was mentioned on several 'bay area surplus store'
summary sites...
man, I thought Quinns rang a bell.... I remember visiting Godbout
Electronics a few times circa 1978 at Oakland Airport, something I saw
during my search mentioned that both Bill Godbout and George Morrow had
worked at Quinns... heh.
ah, here... original page is history, but lives on in google's cache...
<http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:I0S5epbxx-oC:www.imsai.net/Memories/surplus_conn.htm+bill+godbout&hl=en>
phew. reminders of my days of S100 bus 8 bit systems and CP/M :)
Ken Ashe
See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid says...
>
>BTW, which webpage are you referring to? I couldn't find a
>homepage for Mike Quinn's themselves.. just "yellow pages"
>types of listings.
Nor could I. However
<http://www.bluefeathertech.com/technoid/calswap.html#Mike Quinn> has a number
of other local places which might help while you're looking for Quinn's. Some
time back, I mentioned All Electric (or All Electronics) on 4th in San Rafael.
The place used to be on Market St. in SF in the 50s and I'd swear they have
some of the original stock from back then.
Philip J. Koenig
(John R Pierce) writes...
> ah, here... original page is history, but lives on in google's cache...
> <http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:I0S5epbxx-oC:www.imsai.net/Memories/surplus_conn.htm+bill+godbout&hl=en>
>
> phew. reminders of my days of S100 bus 8 bit systems and CP/M :)
Nice overview, thanks. It just sounds a little ominously written
in "past tense"..
Good news is, called 'em today and someone answered on the 2nd
ring. Can't wait to go down there and check out the goodies. :-)
John R Pierce
><http://www.bluefeathertech.com/technoid/calswap.html#Mike Quinn> has a number
>of other local places which might help while you're looking for Quinn's. Some
>time back, I mentioned All Electric (or All Electronics) on 4th in San Rafael.
>The place used to be on Market St. in SF in the 50s and I'd swear they have
>some of the original stock from back then.
did that used to be Zack-its? heh. I remember them and Standard Surplus
in SF from the 60s.
Philip J. Koenig
You're thinking of Zack Electronics, which is a different
company. They closed the SF store something like 8-10 yrs
go, but they had a location in Fremont, don't know if it
still exists.
Another place that is apparently kaput was a little surplus
place in Berkeley a block or two off of San Pablo.. the
owner of Winner's Circle (who I ran into at the computer
swap recently) thought I was referring to "Electronics Etc",
but I honestly don't remember the name.
It seems like the era of puttering with component-level
electronics at home has come and gone..
Bob Vaughan
Philip J. Koenig <See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid> wrote:
>
>
>company. They closed the SF store something like 8-10 yrs
>go, but they had a location in Fremont, don't know if it
>still exists.
>
Actually the location was in Milpitas. They used to have locations in
SF, Sacramento, Milpitas (previously Palo Alto).
All of these are now closed.. I tried to run down to the Milpitas location
a few weeks ago, couldn't find it, and called them. They are now based out
of SoCal somewhere, and have no NorCal locations anymore..
I have fond memories of the old Palo Alto location, where I used to go as a
kid. They used to ask Me for Switchcraft part numbers :-)
I think they had the last publicly accessable tube tester in Palo Alto :-)
I have a ~1982 vintage Belden catalog here, listing two Zacks locations:
(actually, I have a ~1976 vintage one as well :-))
Palo Alto - 654 High St 326-5432 TWX 910-373-1185
San Francisco - 1444 Market St 626-1444 TWX 910-372-6152
~
--
-- Welcome My Son, Welcome To The Machine --
Bob Vaughan | techie@{w6yx|tantivy}.stanford.edu | kc6...@w6yx.ampr.org
| P.O. Box 19792, Stanford, Ca 94309
-- I am Me, I am only Me, And no one else is Me, What could be simpler? --
John R Pierce
<See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid> wrote:
>
>It seems like the era of puttering with component-level
>electronics at home has come and gone..
sadly, yes. in this day and age of million transistor chips with half
million $ NRE's, you just can't get there. I can barely remember how to
solder, I quit doing digital hardware when they went to surface mount.
I'm having a very hard time interesting my 11 year old in electronics or
aerospace or astronomy... I guess I'm gonna have to try to get him
started on computer programming or something, he loves computer games such
as Starcraft, The Sims, Ages of Empires.
John Navas
In <MPG.177076da3...@corp.supernews.com> on Tue, 11 Jun 2002
22:07:15 -0700, Philip J. Koenig
<See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid> wrote:
>You're thinking of Zack Electronics, which is a different
>company. They closed the SF store something like 8-10 yrs
>go, but they had a location in Fremont, don't know if it
>still exists.
Milpitas I think.
My own favorite was Quement Electronics in San Jose.
--
Best regards,
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/>
CABLE MODEM/DSL GUIDE: <http://Cable-DSL.home.att.net/>
Ken Ashe
See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid says...
>
>In article <ae5q5f$mig$2...@samba.rahul.net>, ka...@rahul.net (Ken Ashe)
writes...
>> In article <MPG.176f8130e...@corp.supernews.com>,
>> See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid says...
>> >
>> >BTW, which webpage are you referring to? I couldn't find a
>> >homepage for Mike Quinn's themselves.. just "yellow pages"
>> >types of listings.
>>
>> Nor could I. However
>> <http://www.bluefeathertech.com/technoid/calswap.html#Mike Quinn> has a
number
>> of other local places which might help while you're looking for Quinn's.
Some
>> time back, I mentioned All Electric (or All Electronics) on 4th in San
Rafael.
>> The place used to be on Market St. in SF in the 50s and I'd swear they have
>> some of the original stock from back then.
>
>
>You're thinking of Zack Electronics, which is a different
>company. They closed the SF store something like 8-10 yrs
>go, but they had a location in Fremont, don't know if it
>still exists.
Nope, definitely not Zack's. Nor Radio City.
<http://www.electronicplus.com/> The guy in the San Rafael store remembered
Zack's though. Somehow the name Martin's rings a small bell.
>Another place that is apparently kaput was a little surplus
>place in Berkeley a block or two off of San Pablo.. the
>owner of Winner's Circle (who I ran into at the computer
>swap recently) thought I was referring to "Electronics Etc",
>but I honestly don't remember the name.
>
>It seems like the era of puttering with component-level
>electronics at home has come and gone..
It pretty much went with the advent of stuff which wasn't worth a
tech's time to fix. By the time it's opened and has test leads on it, you've
blown half the cost of a replacement. The guy can't live that way. So his parts
supply pretty much dried up too, I guess.
I remember hearing someone at a party (probably early 60s) who worked
for some large outfit (Magnavox, maybe) saying they were waiting for the coming
of all solid state systems so the home hobbyist who went to the nearby shop
with a handful of tubes to test would be out of business.
Some years back, I was looking for some (forgot the name -- active
ingredient in surge suppressors) and found them at Hauer on either Mission or
Howard in SF. The guy had bins with the individual parts, just like ages ago. I
haven't been in the neighborhood in years, so they may be gone, too.
Jeff Liebermann
<See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid> wrote:
>It seems like the era of puttering with component-level
>electronics at home has come and gone..
Puttering? Speak for thyself.
http://www.cruzio.com/~jeffl/pics/BL-shop3.jpg
The era may be gone but there are a few die hards that still remember
which end of the soldering iron to grab and how to fix things.
Mostly, it seems to be limited to repair. It's not economical or
profitable. The limiting factors are exotic parts and lack of
schematics. Even if the parts were free, my hourly labour content
could exceed the effective replacement cost of the hardware.
Schematics are difficult to obtain on many devices. There are
companies that reverse engineer schematics for many consumer products,
but that costs real money.
I still build things from scratch. Most are fairly large. Lots of
antenna experimentation. I do build prototypes using surface mount
components, but those are for consulting projects, not "puttering".
The real reason is that the "magic" of electronics, computers, and
radio. It used to be really amazing to build something at actually
worked, to throw together a better clone than the manufacturers could
supply, and to built a radio that talked around the world. It really
was magic. Now daze, ones ability to build a surface mount
contraption is limited, the commerical computers are much improved,
and anyone can talk to anyone else on the internet. No magic
required.
I still derive some entertainment value in repairing and resurrecting
old electronic contraptions. However, that's a personal thing, not a
business plan. There's no money in it. Stores that sell components
could not stock enough different parts to keep me happy, and would not
have enough business from tinkerers to stay in business. There are
lots of component distributors on the web (Digikey, Mouser) that cater
to the small buyers, but their mainstay are large orders from
manufactories.
The two SCZ area surplus computer stores, Computer Pics and Computer
Jones, have been out of business for about 6 months.
Sigh. Welcome to the throw away (electronics) economy.
--
Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
(831)421-6491 pgr (831)426-1240 fax (831)336-2558 home
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com WB6SSY
je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us je...@cruzio.com
John Navas
In <86ofefg...@cartero.kjsl.com> on 13 Jun 2002 08:48:57 -0700,
Javier Henderson <jav...@kjsl.com> wrote:
>Jeff Liebermann <je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> writes:
>
>> Schematics are difficult to obtain on many devices. There are
>> companies that reverse engineer schematics for many consumer products,
>> but that costs real money.
>
>What ever happened to Sam's Photofacts? Do they still exist?
Google is your friend.
<http://www.google.com/search?q=Sam's+Photofacts&btnG=Google+Search>
Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
>Jeff Liebermann <je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> writes:
>
>> Schematics are difficult to obtain on many devices. There are
>> companies that reverse engineer schematics for many consumer products,
>> but that costs real money.
>
>What ever happened to Sam's Photofacts? Do they still exist?
>-jav
Still around and kicking. They even have an online version. See:
http://www.samswebsite.com/photofacts.html
The eFact flavour (pdf) is $18 per schematic. There are also
collections at $150/ea.
http://www.samswebsite.com/photofact/branded.html
However, Sam's does mostly consumer electronics. There's little in
the index for radios, computers, major sub-assemblies (switching power
supplies), and test equipment. Other information vendors have taken
up the slack in specialty areas along with the usual copyright
violation entrepreneurs. They can be found in:
news:sci.electronics.repair
If I expect to see a particular model many times (from different
customers, not from the same one), I'll purchase the repair manual or
schematics. I have these for the older HP LaserJet printers that I
often fix. Parts are also readily available so the $150 per set of
manuals are justifiable. However, the same is not true of HP inkjet
products, where there is a huge assortement of models (from multiple
suppliers), and parts tend to cost more than the printer is worth.
In any case, schematics are often expensive and often difficult to
obtain. In many cases, they are also incomplete, insufficient, and
lacking in waveforms and voltages. Currently under repair, for
example, I have a huge printed manual for my Cushman CE-6a service
monitor, that has schematics, 2 pargraphs of useless troubleshooting
information, and absolutely zero voltages and waveforms. I have
several VCR's with tuner and power supply problems, where the
overpriced schematic just drew a box labeled "tuner" and "power
supply". Not very useful. I don't mind wasteing time traceing out
the schematic on something simple, but these highly complex
sub-assemblies are far too much work to justify the effort.
An extreme example is the owners and service manual for an IFR-1200
service monitor. Only $250 and $500/ea respectively, direct from the
factory. Perhaps less from an authorized dealer. I may borrow the
manuals from a friend which will then cost me about $100 to copy.
Specialty manuals are NOT cheap.
Richard Steinfeld
The native was friendly and accomodating. You are all invited.
This information is correct:
Address 401 McCormick St, San Leandro, CA 94577
Phone (510)569-1539
Hours Tue-Sat 9:30-5:30
Print yourself a map. It's very close to the Oakland Airport.
Take the 98th Ave. Exit off 880. Zip! Don't blink: it is really on the
corner.
Regarding the late unlamented Electronics Etc. in Berkeley mentioned
elsewhere in this thread:
The owner just got tired of running the business and retired. He had an
excellent stock of parts, connectors, and switches; quality was good and so
were his prices. Unfortunately, he was the most ornery, foul-tempered,
grumpy, manipulative SOB I've ever met in this business. But you simply had
to deal with him: he had no competition in the area. The parts places that
are left leave much to be desired. A lot of people miss his merchandise; I
can't think of anyone who miss the man himself.
The loss of his business left a vacuum in the East Bay. Fortunately, he
stepped into it with his merchandise, and was never seen again.
Richard
John R Pierce
<je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote:
>In any case, schematics are often expensive and often difficult to
>obtain. In many cases, they are also incomplete, insufficient, and
>lacking in waveforms and voltages. Currently under repair, for
>example, I have a huge printed manual for my Cushman CE-6a service
>monitor, that has schematics, 2 pargraphs of useless troubleshooting
>information, and absolutely zero voltages and waveforms. I have
>several VCR's with tuner and power supply problems, where the
>overpriced schematic just drew a box labeled "tuner" and "power
>supply". Not very useful. I don't mind wasteing time traceing out
>the schematic on something simple, but these highly complex
>sub-assemblies are far too much work to justify the effort.
OTOH, I recently repaired a 1991 vintage Sony PVM3230 TV monitor using
Sony's service documentation. the manual cost me like $75 from Sony, but
it was quite accurate and thorough... I'd scanned the page with the
suspected problem to talk it over with a friend who helped me diagnose
it...
http://hogranch.com/files/Bitmaps/PVM3230/vdrive-combined.gif
the bad part turned out to be C1506 (near the test point (9))... you'll
note that on the lower right corner of the schematics was a set of
waveforms (somewhat cropped in my .GIF)... the various airbrushed colors
represented voltages, except the yellow, which was my highlighting of the
vertical sweep amp (red was +16V, blue was -16V and violet was +135V)
Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
>OTOH, I recently repaired a 1991 vintage Sony PVM3230 TV monitor using
>Sony's service documentation. the manual cost me like $75 from Sony, but
>it was quite accurate and thorough... I'd scanned the page with the
>suspected problem to talk it over with a friend who helped me diagnose
>it...
>http://hogranch.com/files/Bitmaps/PVM3230/vdrive-combined.gif
>the bad part turned out to be C1506 (near the test point (9))... you'll
>note that on the lower right corner of the schematics was a set of
>waveforms (somewhat cropped in my .GIF)... the various airbrushed colors
>represented voltages, except the yellow, which was my highlighting of the
>vertical sweep amp (red was +16V, blue was -16V and violet was +135V)
I was wondering what happened to that monitor. Congrats on that
repair job. Nicely done. A monitor that big (and expensive) is
worthy of the time and expense of a proper service manual.
Sony drives me nuts. Sony has wonderful service manuals that make
repair quite easy. Their parts department carries parts from some
really ancient products. However, the products have their problems.
I have 2ea Sony 19" monitors (forgot model numbers) that will require
the replacement of about 10ea assorted chip caps. All of these caps
are heat sensitive and eventually open. They're scattered all over
the unit on boards apparently assembled by a contortionist. I also
have another Sony built monitor for Gateway, with no blue gun, that
has the same capacitor problem. I'll eventually fixe them (when I'm
strong enough to lift them). Need another project?
Speaking of garbage capacitors, I have 7ea assorted MSI (MicroStar
International) ATX Slot 1 motheboards in my office that died
approximately 2 years after installation. All have obvious bulges on
the top of the electrolytic filter caps in the power supply section.
Some also have obviously overheated low voltage regulators. The caps
go open after a while, which causes the regulator to oscillate, which
blows up all kinds of parts on the motherboard. I tried replaceing
some of the caps on one motherboard, but the damage was too extensive.
Philip J. Koenig
cruz.ca.us (Jeff Liebermann) writes...
> Speaking of garbage capacitors, I have 7ea assorted MSI (MicroStar
> International) ATX Slot 1 motheboards in my office that died
> approximately 2 years after installation. All have obvious bulges on
> the top of the electrolytic filter caps in the power supply section.
> Some also have obviously overheated low voltage regulators. The caps
> go open after a while, which causes the regulator to oscillate, which
> blows up all kinds of parts on the motherboard. I tried replaceing
> some of the caps on one motherboard, but the damage was too extensive.
Now IMHO that's an example of something not repairing. MSI
motherboards are usually some of the cheapest when new, and not
known for their stability either. You can get new or nearly
new ASUS P2L97 boards (often even the SCSI model w/ built-in
Adaptec UW controller) for ~$40 on ebay, and they are wonderful
reliable boards that run stable with anything (I have 3 servers
w/ em here) as long as you don't mind that the fastest CPU you
can use is a Celeron 533. (in a Slocket)
OTOH I have a great condition Sony 220GS 17" monitor, which
apparently suffers from a known problem with a component in the
video amp circuit - problem is the IC in question is under one of
those shields soldered in 10 places to a board that sits on the
neck of the CRT, and I get nervous messing around with stuff
near HV circuits in monitors, so it sits here..
John R Pierce
>International) ATX Slot 1 motheboards in my office that died
>approximately 2 years after installation. All have obvious bulges on
>the top of the electrolytic filter caps in the power supply section.
>Some also have obviously overheated low voltage regulators. The caps
>go open after a while, which causes the regulator to oscillate, which
>blows up all kinds of parts on the motherboard. I tried replaceing
>some of the caps on one motherboard, but the damage was too extensive.
My friend Dave and I have now repaired TWO different Sony PVM
(pro/industrial) TV monitors with virtually the same problem, vertical
retrace not quite making it to the top of the screen, and coming out of
blanking while its still trying to find where its supposed to go....
Each time, it was a similar circuit to the one I pasted, a leaky 200-300V
coupla-uF capacitor in a 135 odd-volts 'booster' circuit thats used to
kick the V deflection coil during retrace. Sony's PVM stuff seems to
have a 10 year half-life on its electrolytic caps.
Philip J. Koenig
(John R Pierce) writes...
Wow now that's very interesting. I have a PVM-2530, and ever
since I got it (not new) I noticed it has this very slight
"overscan" problem where I can sometimes see the beginnings
of the retrace at the bottom of the screen.