Commodore 208 - 1960s Adding Machine

[@WilliamHostman]

if you're willing to reink the original ribbon, wash it with dish soap, then rinse thoroughly, hang to dry (I'd use two wire hangers - 1 up, onbe down, with the second beneath to keep the weight even, and the spools taped to one end or the other, with the ribon itself wrapped between them to expose it all), then carefully reink...

[@bblblp]

As a math nerd, I appreciate your correct use of the non-interchangeable words "negative" and "minus". Thanks for the video!

[@markvanmaanen5152]

Just being pedantic here: I suspect the S stands for Subtotal, which is basically the same as Total but doesn't clear the registers. Very cool machine with the two colour ribbon and the negative numbers. Most just underflow to 9999999

[@cemmy410]

10:00 adding machines usually have a lockout so you can get up from your machine mid-calculation (for a bathroom or coffee break or whatever) without anyone being able to accidentally use or clear the machine. Useful in situations like an auto shop where the service manager might have to share the single machine with the other front desk staff. Since this is based on a Japanese machine, maybe the original shell had a cutout for accessing the lever from the side and Commodore figured they could make the shells cheaper by omitting it?

[@sarowie]

"cheaper" sounds strange as the leaver is still there and fucntional, but looking at it, this leaver looks a bit fragile. So, I think not making the leaver accessible makes the product more robust as you can not break a leaver you can not access and you can not have a leaver in a wrong position when you can not acces it.

[@cemmy410]

@@sarowie it's expensive to redesign an entire mechanism (to remove the lever itself), not to mention that they were probably buying the mechanism pre-built from Ricoh. On the other hand, removing the slot for the lever lets you use a two-piece injection mold rather than a three piece one. Since they would have had to design and produce a new mold regardless (to add the commodore logo to the machine), it's easy to imagine them cutting costs there.

[@DanOConnorTech]

Commodore also released an AM radio in 1967 that looked exactly like the 202/208 as a promotional item for $160. The small paper advance wheel on top was the radio's on/off dial and its tuning wheel is where the 208 badge is on the adding machine.

[@jaut-76]

With your ribbon problem I bet you could just respool the original spools like what I had to do with my 1920s Remington portable fanfold.

[@kaitlyn__L]

I finally understand where “bigass enter” came from

[@robinbrowne5419]

As a student back in the 70s I had a Commodore calculator with many functions such as sin, cos, tan. All I really remember is that it had red LED digits and red, white and blue keys. Very stylish :-)

[@poppasteve2976]

Previous owner may have oiled the ribbon because it was dried out. I've seen it done before.

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Very cool! I have one of these Commodore 208 (1960s) adding machines that I'm currently restoring. Such a heavy beast of vintage Commodore technology!

[@RisingRevengeance]

I've never cared too much about calculators but I'm always amazed with the mechanics in these

[@jonasga]

The lock is there so you can move it around with less risk of interrupting an operation. These were hard working rough and tumble machines, they were built to be abused and used.

[@MLX1401]

You could sometimes save dried-out typewriter ribbons with some light lubricant, guess it just didn't work out with this two-tone ribbon...maybe they used too heavy oil 🫤

[@Ale.K7]

The Commodore looks cool, but that Olympia is stunning.

[@pinrod1]

Keeping up with Commodore

[@JenniferinIllinois]

"Something very unusual: a Commodore that worked when I first got it". OMG, I'm dying!!!! Funny story (not at the time though). My first computer was a Vic-20 (well, it would have been). My parents got it on Black Friday and wrapped it up for Christmas. When I opened it, only like 4 of the keys worked. Talk about being super disappointed and my parents being so upset. Next day, we're at K-Mart to get a working Vic-20 and there are none! Since my parents felt so bad, I was able to talk them into getting a C64 instead. YAY FOR ME!!!!! :) BTW, so you on This Week in Retro and came on over to check ya out.

[@Ice_Karma]

8:35 I am reminded of the "Finger Pinkies Secretary's Hand Cleaner" wipes I used to have, waaay back in the 1980s, which were excellent for removing typewriter ribbon ink.

[@HrLBolle]

always good to have some theme of more personal interest to give your head a pause

[@atkelar]

The ribbon "feelers" usually reverse the ribbon direction in a mechanical typewriter. i.e. they spool the ribbon left to right until the takeup spook is full and then they revierse it again. The soaked ink ribbons can be used multiple times after all. I suspect it's the same with this one. Also, I just finished a mechanical calculator recently and have an electromechanical cash register in my queue... since over a year. Might take a while.

[@chubbyadler3276]

Mechanical computation can be pretty interesting. Also oiling the ribbon is often a way that typewriter geeks get more life out of old ribbons that have dried up. It may be worth soaking the inner parts of the ribbon with oil as well to get the oil flowing. Failing that, you can always strip the old ribbon off and roll a new ribbon on those spools, or else reink that ribbon. Again, your mechanical typewriter geeks would be the ones to mine for lore.

[@sirfirewolfe5647]

Definitely agree on the beauty of the Olympia, I've got one of their electric typewriters from a similar era, those things are niiice

[@bocarlsson3rd]

A lot of commenter have already mentioned it but I'll chime in as well. I've collected a bit too many vintage typewriters in my youth and some of them have proprietary ink ribbon spools. In many cases its the same ribbon with the spools acting as "DRM". In a lot of cases you can respool them as long as the width is similar. A bit narrower is better due to wider ribbons bunches up on the sides of the spool. Im not shure about the width on these but there should be other brands with the same width. Thickness and material of the ribbons are in my experience not critical. There are still heroes who can restore the ribbons if you want to go that route but I don't know the cost. Love the videos /Bo

[@BubbafromSapperton]

When I first started working the store calculator and cash register had hand-cranks, no electricity! 😆

[@fritz46]

The Olympia machine is an interesting one for me. I'm living in Germany, Olympia's home country, and I have a lot of Olympia machines in my collection, mechanic and electronic. But I've never seen your model on eBay or anywhere else on the Internet! The insides look very similar to two of my Japanese-made machines for cheap German "department store" brands, so it's almost certainly made by Eiko/Unitrex, although Olympia built their own mechanical calculators well into the 1970s. It seems like Olympia couldn't compete with their expensive high-quality machines on some markets.

[@poolplayerbrian]

Tech Tangents LIKE A MUGG!!!! ..... Packard Bell 486DX250 with 2x CDROM drive...LIKE A MUGG!!!! Takin it back to 1994!!!

[@tmunk]

suggestion: unspool the good ribbon off the wrong spools and re-spool it onto the proper spools. (:

[@AlejoMX5]

This is way to obvious. There must be a reason why he didn’t do this. Perhaps his only spool for the Olympia?

[@Varangian_af_Scaniae]

I thought it looked like the wrong ribbon was a bit wider than the original.

[@miladirani4313]

Great video, I love this old machine has some genius engineering

[@VidweII]

The engineers who design electro-mechanical stuff, especially as relatively complex as this is, are friggin' geniuses.

[@datassetteuser356]

Love the aesthetics of the Commodore 208. Have one myself, bought it years ago, but just use it for display to show what Commodore was about before computers. Might want to fire this thing up and actually do something with it.

[@alexandermirdzveli3200]

This video has the good old akbkuku vibe all over it

[@jimjab3631]

Those things are awesome, you can even spell hello on them

[@WooShell]

The latch mechanism that presses into the ribbon spool is supposed to sense when the ribbon runs out and actuates a lever which reverses the stepper hook, so the ribbon keeps auto-reversing itself.

[@thingsiplay]

I don't think that I will ever need what I learned today. But it is interested nonetheless.

[@highpath4776]

I have always taken the S to be Subtotal. Unless a number is pressed then it flips to number - subtract. T is total/ clear or number Add. The Non Add its useful for Department Numbers

[@nickolaswilcox425]

ive got calculator of this persuasion although off the top of my head i couldnt tell you if it uses a ribbon or not, getting power into it is all kinds of fun since it uses a custom power plug or at least a very obsolete one ive never seen on anything else

[@Mordecrox]

Finally, Commodore (19)64

[@josephconway5943]

Happy to be here with another awesome Tech Tangents video! Cheers!

[@mortarmopp3919]

I like the calc vids, probably 'cause I used them back in the day.

[@arbutuswatcher]

Striking resembalance in operation to DEC & TI Teletypes of that same era.

[@thegeek3295]

I cant believe the Commodore "Chicken Lips" logo hasn't changed in 50+ years

[@IDPhotoMan]

I have a couple of these, and i have to say they're pretty cool. And super cheap on ebay as well.

[@zaprodk]

What a pretty machine! - Personally i would get a seperate ribbon (so you don't have to rob it off the Olympia) and just spool it onto the original bobbins.

[@kevinbroderick3779]

14:00 Those levers alternate the direction the ribbon is fed through so when the Raven gets to the end on the one spool it actuate's and reverses the direction of the ribbon.

[@mattelder1971]

Why don't you respool the new ribbon onto the original spools? There should be a way to disconnect the ribbon from the spool.

[@chbuschmann]

i would love being in the room when this was designed. how did they problemsolve their way through that thing?!

[@VorpalGun]

Maybe you could transplant a working ribbon to the weird spool? As long as they are the same width.

[@deaxes]

I would re-ribbon the spools. Get some new inked ribbons and re-wrap the spools.

[@Theorica]

I would imagine the red tab for locking the keys is simply for maintenance reasons when working on repairs and what not. Could prove to be quite a handy feature for you in the future?

[@melancholicwaffle]

assuming it’s standard width, you should be able to re spool a new ribbon onto the original spools. typewriter ribbons are still in production today, and relatively cheap. source: typewriter nerd

[@hicknopunk]

Don't throw the oiled ribbon away

[@MrJgsmith]

Thanks fore creating this video. Loved it.❤

[@AerFixus]

You read my mind! I was considering getting one of these! Well, maybe I'll wait... Spent my money on Altair 8800 replica stuff instead...

[@pfzt]

Beautiful device!

[@msylvain59]

Damn it reminds me I had one like that... no idea what I did with it, probably found it in a fleamarket and sold it on ebay.

[@donwald3436]

I had a typewriter with one of those red black ribbons.... kids these days don't even know what "dial" a number means to make a call lol.

[@freednighthawk]

I would order the correct width ribbon and wind it onto the Commodor spools.

[@gianlusc]

Pretty cool actually 👏🏻

[@friedtomatoes4946]

This design is actually very similar to how I implemented a Minecraft calculator

[@MrBrianms]

I remember long division. It was miraculous.

[@segfault-berlin]

awesome calculator. Can I use some of the sounds of the mechanism from this video as samples for use in a song? AKA what is the licence on this video?

[@pklausspk]

I got one in my office sitting beside a PET 2001

[@hFloyda]

i have one of these! got it for five bucks at a flea market like 10 years ago. actually mine is a model 202 but it seems to be identical. (just checked i think the 202 can handle a 10 digit number where it looks like the 208 can only handle 8?)

[@Numfuddle]

The calculator business for companies like Commodore basically died when Ti started to undercut their customers by manufacturing their own calculators in house, because before that Ti was a major supplier of chips and components.

[@SuperSmashDolls]

4:40 "Negative zero"? Did this calculator inspire the Intel 8087?

[@FFGANDALF]

Except digital adding machines typically still use red for negative.

[@relo999]

Cool, got one of those from a thrift shop a few months back. Had to make my own power lead though (which is apperently a "japanese style plug"). Still need to find a lint for it though, dont know what kind it takes or figure out how to refresh the ribbon.

[@versacebroccoli7238]

Do you have other mechanical calc videos? This is amazing!

[@woldemunster9244]

Many more to watch, yes.

[@andlabs]

A bit late, but: how exactly are you triggering the shifted functions? I don't see a shift key on many of these old adding machines so I've always wondered. Also wow that beige version not only looks worse but is also missing the Clear button lol

[@BobofWOGGLE]

Hey wait, this isn't my regularly scheduled adding machine content, where's Chris Staecker?

[@cemmy410]

I thought the same thing lol

[@mortwin6054]

i like , a mechanical wonder :)

[@AudioVideo96]

Коммодор, который мы заслужили!

[@jenselstner5527]

More HP pocket calculators please. ;o)

[@scottjohnson921]

I found one of these at a garage sale for $4.

[@yessirmiller5430]

Can you divide 10 by 3 to see what it'll do with the decimals? If you already know, I would like to know as I'm curious to know how it deals with that kind of result

[@yessirmiller5430]

I just got to the division part so i retract my question lol

[@UltraMaXAtAXX]

Oh boy, where's Chris Staecker?

[@rnb250]

Could you swap the ribbon between the wheels?

[@CrazyMan_Engineer]

Why not take the old ribbon off the spools and put the new ribbon on the old spools?

[@hicknopunk]

NA clearly formats the numbers in American measurements

[@hangonsnoop]

I'm confused. Where do I plug in a TV?

[@12...]

by my calculations this machine is equal to 3.25 commodore 64's

[@kaczan3]

Someone probably coded Doom on it.

[@messyfool]

Calculator OG

[@kristymcgoldrick8811]

My man ain't getting enough views.

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

If this was retro recipes there be soooo many bad math puns lol

[@DavenHiskey]

I want tacos

[@greenaum]

How could it not support negative numbers? Adding rolls the wheels round one way, subtraction the other. If it goes past zero, so what? Zero is just another number. If you wanted it NOT to support negative numbers, you'd have to put some sort of ratchet in by the zero digit that stopped it slipping back to 9 again. And that'd be weird, and almost pointless. Maybe there's some special case that might need that but I can't think of one. If that were the case you'd probably just devise a different order of operations, what order you type your sums into the calculator to get the final result you're aiming for. These things didn't replace "calculators" who were human beings, it just meant they had more time to do the parts of equations that humans were better at, while the lowest-level grunt-work was done by the machine.

[@jameslaidler2152]

1337? Leet? Seriously mate?

[@InconsistentManner]

1337

[@lucasRem-ku6eb]

I have a Typewriter, that can calculate, almost the same tech.

[@szekam4221]

how to contact you