User avatar
By AJ Quick
#4924274
I agree that the perceived blue is not actually blue, but rather a camera trick.

Remember that we know what the full label looks like as it is used on the containment unit.

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Another thing to keep in mind is what would have been in vast supply at the time. It is no secret that the parts were sourced from Apex Surplus long long ago. While I'm sure they did have some computer / data / tape drives... I wouldn't be surprised if they also had all manner of other reel to reel and audio tape recorders around that time as well.
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User avatar
By 910dohead
#4924279
Alright everyone, mystery solved! The label is actually not on a capstan motor at all. It's on a containment device located all through out the galaxy.

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Yes, it's used to store baby Sarlaccs on various planets in various galaxies. So far, this is the only version I have found. Apparently, there is an English version out there somewhere. Here is a closer look.

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Come to find out, most of our beloved labels come from this very device.

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Just kidding, but this is a pretty cool egg in a very cool place. Take a wild guess where? A friend of ours had a hand in this and told us this was a nod to the movie and our ECU build. Amazing!

Anyways, here is what we came up with for our ECU build. It's temporary until we ever find what the real label says.

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I am still working on that update but here is another fun little glance of what these workstations hold.

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User avatar
By Kingpin
#4924280
I wouldn't even be surprised if the GB1 ribbon cable was also sourced from the same potential source as the bumper label, and potentially the hat lights and bellows. Makes you wonder if the HGA was part of the motor assembly.

That "galaxy far far away" Containment Unit is beyond awesome. :)
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4924281
Kingpin wrote: September 18th, 2019, 1:26 am I wouldn't even be surprised if the GB1 ribbon cable was also sourced from the same potential source as the bumper label, and potentially the hat lights and bellows. Makes you wonder if the HGA was part of the motor assembly.

That "galaxy far far away" Containment Unit is beyond awesome. :)
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Recognize those cables? Those are also the arco electric lamps too. Ooh, I didn't even think of the HGA. That's a possibility!
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User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4924288
That's incredible.
Thanks for sharing, 910dohead.

Good shout on the hga.
I could easily see a small motor housing being used, or at least being the inspiration for it looking at this part.
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User avatar
By 910dohead
#4924403
Well, while the workstations were technically computers, these weren't used the same way we use them today. Think of them as just giant calculators. Funny though!

So...

I haven't gone down the rabbit hole in a while. Today I decided to and took what they call a lucky wrong turn. I am just going to post a few pictures of what I have found. It's completely unrelated to what we've been talking about with Burroughs, but I found something which led to this.

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I believe it says "5/32 Pat. in USA" stamped along the base.

At this point, I think everything on the packs are a found part. Also, this comes from a synchronous motor.

What do you guys think?
Coover5, Kingpin, Glenn Frederick and 1 others liked this
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4924406
Coover5 wrote: September 19th, 2019, 4:21 pm What do I think? I think you just made building a pack with the genuine found parts much more expensive lol Awesome find
Ha! One would be loony to buy that motor unless for the actual application. It's right up there in price with the Wamco bargraphs.
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4924409
Kingpin wrote: September 19th, 2019, 4:29 pm Excellent discovery. :)

Any joy with the update you were hoping to post a few days back?
I will try and get it done in the next few hours. I got caught up the last few days with work stuff. Also, tonight the new Zelda game comes out so I better get it done now or I won't get it done anytime soon. lol
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By AJ Quick
#4924473
CPU64 wrote: September 20th, 2019, 12:11 pm I don't think the hga is a found part, the welds match everything else fabricated for the pack.
I tend to agree, but also I wonder if the HGA is the part sitting on this (believed to be related to) bumper:

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CPU64 liked this
By Coover5
#4924475
What on earth is that??? I must have been gone from this forum longer than I thought. Last thing I remember was people thinking the bumper was from a stage light or spotlight.
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4924480
Its vintage military radar equipment.
At the time it was first posted everyones minds were blown with the similarities .

Theres no doubt it must have been a major inspiration for parts of the pack.

Here are some more images.

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User avatar
By CPU64
#4924482
I have one of those, just a different model. It's a neat gyro and would look really cool if the arm motors were hooked up to a power source.
User avatar
By westies14
#4925197
I own that unit - the cap on the “bumper” is too small to be the HGA, but the main shape is slightly small to be the cyclotron/bumper, too.

Overall, it’s way too similar to not be related. The bumper’s odd shape, including the back side, is represented. The texture and the thin bumpy line around the cyclotron which we always thought suggested foam lamination (pre-carving) is present. I would not be surprised if the pack master incorporated an earlier mode of the same device.
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By Mat
#4925234
The blue line on the label looks like a remnant of a pen line that was drawn as a guide to cut the lable to shape.

Unfortunately I can't add anything else to the discussion but this thread is awesome!
By Volguus
#4930503
Image
I had another go at this thanks to the 4K release. Same techniques of image stacking as the first time, except this time I aligned every single image of the ECU sticker in evry frame in which it appeared:

- Ray showing Winston how to clean traps (129 frames)
- What about the Twinkie? (72 frames)
- I'm not interested in your opinion, just shut it off (73 frames)
- Peck reacts to shutoff (46 frames)

So, you're looking at 320 frames stretched to align, stacked and averaged according to Mean and with conservative sharpening in Photoshop. Unless someone out there has access to forensic software, this is about the best you can get from the original film before running into the limits of the film grain itself (which the 4K release does almost the whole time).

What emerged to my eyes is the following:

- There is indeed a vertical feature to the logo: in fact it almost looks like a Greek "sigma" going all the way top to bottom.
- The top line of the mystery portion of the label is 3 words. The first word looks to be 5-6 letters and ends in "A". The second word looks like 4 letters and the final word is likely "CORPORATION".
- The bottom line looks like 2 or 3 words, but it doesn't look like they begin with "MADE IN".

That's all I got. Have at it! BTW, I'll be using the same techniques to make clear(er) copies of the publications shown during the GB1 montage.
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User avatar
By 910dohead
#4930505
Joking aside, I sharpened this and shrank it in photoshop and the last word in the bottom line looks like it might say "California". Also, top line might say "NATIONAL ---- CORPORATION".
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4930508
Coover5 wrote: January 27th, 2020, 12:56 pm Perhaps https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Semiconductor
I will look into that but at a quick glance, their old logos don't match up. Also, I think they only made capacitors, rectifiers, diodes, semiconductors and microchips. Not sure if they made their own synchronous motors?

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The logo that we're looking for looks very similar to this.

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Coover5 liked this
By Coover5
#4930509
I figured it wouldn't be it based on the logo but I'm not too tech savvy so I wasn't sure if things were being distorted as the label has been enhanced.
User avatar
By AJ Quick
#4930524
Volguus wrote: January 27th, 2020, 12:08 pm - There is indeed a vertical feature to the logo: in fact it almost looks like a Greek "sigma" going all the way top to bottom.
Well. There was a Sigma Instrument Inc.

They have a patent filed in the late 70's regarding a synchronous motor.

Heck the logo on some of their motors even kind of looks like it could work:

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That being said, I think its a dead end. They didn't use blue labels or labels that even come remotely close.
User avatar
By AJ Quick
#4930525
Maybe this will lead somewhere.

About 3 weeks ago I purchased a vintage Toaster from a Japanese company called "Panasonic". I think most of us are familiar with Panasonic. However on the toaster itself it said Panasonic and then had a square logo on it. I remember at the time I took a quick look at it and said, that logo looks familiar.

The logo on the toaster is actually the brand "NATIONAL". I guess National was a well known brand in Japan and elsewhere. It was basically the appliance division for Panasonic. Some common names for the business group would be National / Panasonic or Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. or Matsushita Electric Works.

Take a look at that logo:

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And then some examples of it in use:

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I haven't found anything to link Panasonic or National to the bumper label. But keep in mind that in the 60's-70's they did make reel to reel machines, tape machines, record players.. etc. And then later cassette players, VCR's etc.

Literally all of those are good candidates for a motor of this size.
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4930565
Cool, I will look into that. In the meantime, while I was going down the rabbit hole, for some reason I came upon old film cameras. Apparently they used synchronous motors to spin the reels, plus I am thinking (and this is a huge shot-in-the-dark hunch) that maybe the undiscovered Ecto Goggle lens comes off of one of these old cameras?

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I mean it would make a lot of sense for a studio to cannibalize old cameras and reuse them as props?

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