• scytale@lemmy.zip
    14·
    9 days ago

    I cleaned up when I moved, so the oldest gadget I have right now is a 15 year old MSI laptop, still happily running with linux.

  • SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world
    10·
    9 days ago

    i have an old magnavox TV from the early 70s, with the wooden slat curtain thing you pull in front of it.

    Old 8 track players,

    my great grandfather was an electrical engineer and made some custom lighting controls in wooden boxes, with dials and meters and switches, he did made it all for his church!

    from that same grandfather, he had some portable reel to reel tape recording stuff, an old portable projector that comes in a cast iron cowl.

    tons of stuff that everyone makes fun of me for holding on to.

    • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      8 days ago

      i have an old magnavox TV from the early 70s, with the wooden slat curtain thing you pull in front of it.

      i grew up on old floor wooden console tv’s and had one up until 2014 when it died and discovered that neither replacement parts nor repairmen existed anymore despite the tv being manufactured not very long ago in 1992.

      i haven’t bought a tv ever since then and my plasma died after only 8 years, so i don’t have a tv anymore; but would instantly buy one they made another console tv.

      • SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world
        3·
        8 days ago

        i keep wanting to rip the guts out and install a 40 inch tv with some self hosted stuff in the cabinet, amplifier etc.

        it would be cool! but also that thing is cool as it is

        • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
          3·
          8 days ago

          i thought about doing this multiple times, but each time i remember that i’m considerably less handy than i like to think i am and that my hubris lead me to almost killing myself when i changed the breaks on my car myself. lol

  • ptc075@lemmy.zipEnglish
    9·
    8 days ago

    I own a model electric train that was built in 1937. So, 88 years young?

    Runs well, it’s kinda weird to think that this was a toy and this level of build quality was normal. To be fair, it wasn’t exactly. This was a high end toy aimed at affluent teens and young adults. It would have been equivalent to buying a new PlayStation. But still, I have trouble imagining any toy you could buy today that would hold up like this.

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      13·
      8 days ago

      Hah, you stumbled upon one of Lemmy’s weird UI quirks. If you start a line with a number and period, it assumes you’re making a numbered list. But that period is placed at a specific indent, so long numbers spill off the left side of the screen.

      1. Here’s what it is supposed to look like.

      (Adding a line break here)

      1. And here is what happens when the number is too long.

      It only works with 8 numbers or less though, because 99999999 is the highest value that the numbered list supports.

  • Lorindól@sopuli.xyz
    8·
    8 days ago

    I have a battery operated tube radio from mid to late 1940’s. It even works, but the battery it uses is getting rare and quite expensive. And my country doesn’t really use AM radio broadcasts anymore, so it’s more of a curiosity nowadays.

    I also have a lot of working stuff from the 1950’s, mostly radios and amplifiers. Great gear, and much easier to service than their modern counterparts.

  • ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠@slrpnk.net
    7·
    9 days ago

    I have the Commodore64 my family got used when I was 8.

    I’ve had it less long, but the sewing machiney mother bought after she left college is older than that.

    And I inherited it even more recently, but also have my maternal grandfather’s electric hair clippers from when he was a teenager, around 1960.

    And I bought my house most recently of all, but some of the wiring dates back to 1926 (the house itself was built without electricity in 1880).

  • UNY0N@linux.communityEnglish
    7·
    8 days ago

    An originally original gameboy. Still worked until about 2 years ago. I assume there’s just a little battery or a capacitor that needs replacing, but I haven’t had the time to look into it.

  • Bunbury@feddit.nlEnglish
    6·
    8 days ago

    I have an electric singer sewing machine from 1964 and another one from around 1950. Amazing how well they work.

  • vaionko@sopuli.xyz
    6·
    8 days ago

    I have a radio from the late 30s, though not in working condition. And a radio from 1961 that I use regularly

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
    5·
    9 days ago

    Our old pong console. I don’t know if it still works because it’s been boxed up for over a decade at this point.

    Oldest in use? Probably my old texas instruments graphing calculator, but it’s dying. I got it back in the early nineties for college, and my kid was using it last year with homework, but the screen is failing and it sometimes just freezes until you pull and replace the batteries. So only kinds in use, and barely hanging on.

    My VCR is newer and still sees use rarely, but was used daily for a few years in the early naughties.

    Wait! The phonograph! It’s still functional and my dad got it in the early eighties, so it’s older than the pong console, but I think calling it electronics is dubious, so I dunno if it counts. But it’s the oldest functional electric powered thing we have that I know of.