[sdiy] Paul's Stories

[Terry Bowman]

This would be a good time for a trip down memory lane...

> On Apr 24, 1999, at 11:20 PM, Paul Schreiber <synth1 at airmail.net> wrote:
> 
>> Paul S.  designed the Radio Shack Moog!  I'll be damned.
> 
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 
> 
> Since this pops up every now and then, and I'm taking a break bagging up
> 7,620 resistors, here is the "story".
> 
> Radio Shack has no engineering. Rather, that falls (er...'fell') under TSD
> (Tandy Systems Design).
> Also, twice a year Radio Shack holds a private version of COMDEX/CES, just
> for them! Vendors
> line up 50 deep and present their wares. Back then (early '80s) about 40% of
> gear in a Radio Shack
> was bought 'outside'. Most electronics was made in a Korean factory that
> Tandy owned a majority share
> called EnCal (EnCal made all of Pioneer's and Alpine's car stereos there).
> 
> So, during one of these mini-trade shows who is on the presentation list
> (which TSD got in advance) but
> a one 'Dr. D. Luce'. Well, when I saw Mr. PolyMoog on the list I had to see
> this.
> So sure enough here he wanders in with a hand-made small synth. He demos it.
> Bernie Appel, the
> #1 decision maker (er...the *ONLY* decision maker of what went in the store
> or not) had this type
> of conversation (I am giving not exact, but the general idea. It was 16-17
> years ago!)
> 
> BA: What the fuck is that piece of shit? (BA enjoyed treating all new
> vendors this way. This was his equivalent of "Hello.")
> DDL: It's a music synthesizer prototype. [Proceeds on a 3 minute demo. You
> had 5 minutes to present. Period!!]
> BA: (interested, but certainly not going to show it to the Yankee geek) How
> the hell do you plug it in?
> DDL points out the 1/4" jack.
> BA: Where in the holy hell, in my store (they were always referred to as "my
> stores") does that thing go? Up my ass?
> 
> See, RS had not a single piece of gear that had 1/4" jacks! All RCA. BA knew
> this.
> 
> DDL at this point looks like he's gonna puke. He's quivering & sweating like
> a whore in church (sorry, that's another BA expression!)
> 
> BA: Play me a tune.
> DDL one-fingers a classical thingy.
> 
> BA: That damn thing busted? What's with this 1 finger shit?
> DDL explains about monophonic blah blah blah.
> 
> BA turns to me.
> 
> BA: You know what the hell he's talking about?
> Me: (thinking this is a trick question) Err...yeah.
> BA to DDL: We'll look at it. NEXT!!!!
> 
> So began the Luce/Schreiber effort. What he had was the boards out of a
> Minimoog, no A440 osc, no noise, in a box. So, I got handed that,
> designed the MG-1 version (added the organ stuff BECAUSE BA was convinced
> that typical RS customers wanted more than
> 1 note). Added RCA jacks, ring mod do-dad. Then, had to specify parts that
> Moog never had to use: cheapo pots. I'll admit it: CHEAPO.
> They were ALPS and I think we paid (back then) about 23 cents apiece.
> 
> That is because the RS gross profit margin was an unheard of 63% (the
> average of ALL the Forture 500 is like 8%) and lastly,
> I spent about 3 weeks on just the panel layout and color scheme & wrote the
> Owner's Manual along with, oddly enough, Steve
> Leininger who designed the TRS-80. He played a Vox in a jazz band and BA
> wanted his opinion as well.
> 
> Luce and I went back & forth about 5 months until they delivered the
> "pre-production" units. Moog made them, Tandy supplied
> most of the parts (we had a company in Japan that bought parts and resold
> them to Tandy. One day I'll tell my funny modem capacitor
> story.)
> 
> So, the story was:
> 
> a) Moog presented the original idea to RS
> b) They dumped it on me. I had to make it "Radio Shack compliant". Which
> meant a re-design. Used the 3046 + Tel Labs tempco
> for the VCO. More Electronotes than Moog! Moog ladder filter, 3080 VCA.
> Prototype had mod wheel; *PUNT!*. Cost like $3. Get real.
> c) Moog built it.
> d) Tandy had 18 months exclusive. Moog then made the Rogue which is my
> design without the organ/ring mod, wheels back on.
> e) No, I didn't get a free MG-1 or a Rogue.
> f) No, I didn't get alot of money. At that time I was making about
> $21,500/yr.
> 
> Final note: NO!!! I DID NOT pick that stupid black felt that lays over the
> sliders, then turns to tar. That was Luce's deal.
> But, I DID get Luce to send me *every* piece of Moog literature at the time:
> still have it!
> 
> Paul Schreiber
> Synthesis Technology


And:

> From: "Paul Schreiber" <synth1 at airmail.net <mailto:synth1 at airmail.net>>
> Subject: [sdiy] Tandy modem cap tale (longish)
> 
> Speaking about modems, did you ever tell your "funny modem capacitor story" as
>> mentioned in the old concertmate post?
> 
> If not.....
> 
> My first real design job at Tandy was to design a "direct connect" 300 baud 
> modem. 95% of modems used acoustic couplers, where you crammed the handpiece 
> into 2 rubber "cups". The only real consumer (not AT&T) direct connect modem at 
> the time was a S-100 buss version from Hayes (old farts nod head in 
> remembrance), but it was $399 (gulp!). Mine was to be $99 retail at RadioShack.
> 
> Once I designed the DAA (transformer-based circuitry that couples to the 
> telephone line) I wrote a BASIC program in a TRS-80 Model I that was a filter 
> optimization for the receive & transmit filters (modem tones are in the 1000 to 
> 2000H range). I wanted to use all the same cap values (there were 6 in the 
> receive and 4 in the transmit) so the program stepped through standard cap 
> values and calculated the resistors. I then manually looked for the "best fit" 
> that didn't give too wacky resistors (like 5 ohms or 800K). The best fit was 
> 4700pf.
> 
> At my previous job at Data General I was working on CRT circuits. The vertical 
> deflection amplifier had a clever, patented circuit that used a ringing bandpass 
> filter to "warp" the sweep to compensate for the curvature of the CRT glass. It 
> used 2 polypropylene film caps from a company called ElectroCube. They were 
> about 1" long and big around as a pencil. We used 2% @250V and paid around $1ea 
> at 25,000.
> 
> So they were the first company I called. I asked for a quote for 250,000 4700pf 
> 1% 50V "in your smallest case size". They were VERY skeptical because of the 
> large quantity but after a week or so quoted 89 cents. Well, that meant $8.90 of 
> caps and my entire budget was $25. Not good.
> 
> I then got out the EDN Gold Book directory (more old fart nodding) which was 
> like a "Yellow Pages" for the electronics component industry. There were about 
> 15 vendors listed for Capacitors - Film - Precision so I called every one. Over 
> *half* of them did not even BELIEVE ME because their *annual production* was < 
> 50K. Not one person was able to beat $1, much less 89 cents.
> 
> I started to panic a bit. I then pulled out the Japanese equivalent book, a 
> massive *28 pound* hard-bound book (over 4,000 pages) called the EIAJ Sourcing 
> Guide. In there I saw an ad from Panasonic about their "new, lower cost film 
> caps". So I sent them a Telex (Google that you young turks).
> 
> A few days later I got a Telex back. The quote was for 18 *cents*.
> 
> Well, I figured THAT was wrong, they probably quoted +-10% not +-1%. So I sent 
> the quote again, spelling out these were *ONE PER CENT* tolerance. The next day, 
> here comes another Telex:
> 
> "Please accept utmost humble apology for incorrect previous quote. Corrected 
> price is $0.16".
> 
> Well, I laughed and more as a "get lost you idiots" gesture asked for 100 
> samples, sent Fed-Ex with FULL test data on EVERY CAP in the sample lot.
> 
> 1 week later, here came the package: a 120 page *hand typed* report (1 cap per 
> page!), 100 samples, each with a *tiny* serial number. And the caps were about 
> 1/4th the size of the ElectroCube. So I bought 1.7 million of them over 4 years.
> 
> Epilogue: When the ElectroCube sales guy called looking for the order, I told 
> him I found another source "under 25 cents each". HE didn't believe me, he had 
> the president and chief engineer of ElectroCube call me. THEY didn't believe me, 
> either. After the design was in the stores, they went and bought one. They 
> called me up asking if Tandy would consider *reselling* them the caps!!! I 
> LOL'd.
> 
> Paul S.

There are more in the archive.


Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

https://www.astarcloseup.com

"I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near Tannhäuser Gate. 

"All those moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain."— Roy Batty, Blade Runner
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