white exec wrote:It still annoys me, years on, when playing with our Mexican Train Dominoes that they couldn't have got the colour order right. Black...brown...red...orange etc etc. would have been so much nicer.
Exactly. That code is so heavily imprinted on me it comes totally naturally to relate those colours to their numbers....
I'm having trouble getting used to the new resistor colour code and often have to put an AVO on a resistor to be sure. I guess you did that regularly Peter... Must have been tricky for you setting up the old-school colour tellies or did you use a reference card?
Jim
Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
I didn't know they had a new resistance code, mind you I have been retired for 12 years. There are ways and means of getting round the problem.
Initially I had trouble with rubber flex because the red and green looked exactly the same to me, OK if you were changing something with one end still connected but when fitting a new flex as we often did, I had to go into the shop and ask someone what colour wire I was holding then grasp it tightly until I got back into the workshop.
Resistors weren't to bad except things like 1 meg and 1k or 100 ohms, last band looked the same colour. I have a rack of drawers in my workshop with two divisions in each and a dymo tape label on the front, which worked fine providing I put them in the right drawer.
Colour TV did initially cause a problem, I could set the grey OK with blue and green but the red was a problem, I would deliver a set and shortly thereafter receive a phone call saying that everyone's faces were green, so I would adjust the red in front of the customer until they were happy, but I found an answer to that.
If when setting them up on the bench I turned the red up until I could see it, then turned it down until I just couldn't, that was fine, never had another problem.
I don't even have a problem with traffic lights now because although the red and amber look the same, with the modern LED lights the green looks blue, very bright blue sometimes, its only the old ones with bulbs in that look a bit green - when I am close enough.
white exec wrote:It still annoys me, years on, when playing with our Mexican Train Dominoes that they couldn't have got the colour order right. Black...brown...red...orange etc etc. would have been so much nicer.
Never played Mexican Train Dominoes but according to the box its the World's most Famous Domino Game.
Regards Neil
They do look colourful but I wonder if they could be just a little bit too exciting for regular PE Domino crowd.
Regards
Last edited by NewcastleFalcon on 10 Dec 2016, 18:25, edited 1 time in total.
The 'new' code uses the same basic colours for the figures Peter but the way the bands are read to determine the multiplier is now different... It now has four bands plus tolerance rather than the three plus tolerance we both grew up with...
So, when the new mains wiring colour codes came in that was a blessing for you then!
I always used to set up colour TVs using sight alone and I love your technique! I found my own technique of adjusting it until it looked right was as good as any other... As you say, if the customer didn't like it you could tweak it for their taste! Back in the day it was so critical to get the greyscale right as so much programming was still in black and white. Remember the old 'Colour Killer' circuit to switch off the decoder when the programme was in black and white to avoid coloured artefacts appearing on screen?
I know what you mean about modern traffic lights... I wear special glasses when cycling and those can make some green traffic lights distinctly blue!
Jim
Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
NewcastleFalcon wrote:
They do look colourful but I wonder if they could be just a little bit too exciting for regular PE Domino crowd.
I could never imagine them getting rowdy and disturbing my reading Neil!!!
Do you know, I've never played dominoes in my life and don't understand how to bar you have to match them somehow...
I'm not a gamesy sort me. Not active enough.. I tried to learn to play chess once and then bridge.. I failed miserably at both as I just can't sit still long enough. Maybe running chess and cycling bridge might work for me...
Sitting immobile at a table staring at cards or game pieces definitely does not
Jim
Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
white exec wrote:It still annoys me, years on, when playing with our Mexican Train Dominoes that they couldn't have got the colour order right. Black...brown...red...orange etc etc. would have been so much nicer.
Exactly. That code is so heavily imprinted on me it comes totally naturally to relate those colours to their numbers....
I'm having trouble getting used to the new resistor colour code and often have to put an AVO on a resistor to be sure. I guess you did that regularly Peter... Must have been tricky for you setting up the old-school colour tellies or did you use a reference card?
I can't see the little buggers to identify the resistance - every one has to go on the AVO meter
Used to be that just a glance would do - those were the days.
Of course as you may have suspected The Pickled Egg does have a selection of Patent submissions/approvals from around the Globe. This illustration from one submitted by Donald MacAdie in the 1920's was lying on the dominoes table and may be of interest to the current discussion
I have an AVO exactly like that one Neil, if it's an AVO MKIII that this... It's a quite scruffy one I use in the workshop...
Sadly I don't have the leather case
I also have an AVO 8 MK VI (a relatively late one) I use for my electronics/wireless activities...
An AVO is an essential tool and any engineers of my generation and earlier will have grown up with them and formed a very close attachment to them. I know I have...
'AVO' is a term used to refer to any multimeter much as a 'Hoover' is any vacuum cleaner.. There a word for that but it escapes me at the moment...
Jim
Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
elma wrote:So is the Black,Brown and Grey indistinguishable? That had never crossed my mind, what a shame.
It depends on the shade, things of a different colour and very different shades I can see, but I have never seen for instance a field of poppies, pick one and hold it in front of me and I can see its red, drop it in the grass and it disappears .
Peter.N. wrote:
It depends on the shade, things of a different colour and very different shades I can see, but I have never seen for instance a field of poppies, pick one and hold it in front of me and I can see its red, drop it in the grass and it disappears .
That's amazing Peter, I just can't imagine that and feel so sad for you as you have missed out on so much beauty in this world
I found the word I was was looking for.. Using the word AVO to refer to any multimeter is known as a proprietary eponym...
Jim
Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
The strange thing is Jim that I don't realise I have, I can see yellows and blues OK and red and green if there is enough of it and its bright enough but I still see enough colour to enjoy it. The rainbow is a typical example, all I can see are shades of yellow and blue but it still looks beautiful.
