Electronics in pop culture

[cubemike99]

One of my teachers once told me that whenever a movie showed an evil scientist's laboratory or lair, there would be an oscilloscope displaying a Lissajous figure on a 'scope in the background; I had no idea that they still do this. Today I was rewatching the original Iron Man when I spotted a scope

in Tony's workshop. Apparently even in the [near] future, transparent glass displays, holograms, biomech suits, and  the AI that is Jarvis aren't enough to make a CRO obsolete Brownie points if you can do some forensics on this picture and find the exact model.

What electronics equipment have you guys found in movies, comic books, commercials, etc?

[David_AVD]

Sometimes you see a piece of equipment being used completely out of context.  I guess 99.9% of people don't know.  The rest of us either; 1) yell at the TV, 2) tell our other half "that's not right", or 3) smile to ourselves as we've given up with options 1 and 2.   

[duskglow]

I've been souring on "Big Bang Theory", but one thing I liked about them was that they were always very, very careful to use all of the tools and equipment completely correctly.  There's no "Urkel time machine" or what-not there.  Now, they may have been using them for unorthodox *uses*, but that's what geeks do anyway.

Except for Howard's robot hand.  Ew.

I don't like BBT that much anymore.  They used to be funny, but now they're starting to actually accurately depict certain mental illnesses and playing them for laughs, and maybe it's just my berserk button, but I don't think it's that funny.

[notsob]

And you just must have someone using a grinder and throwing sparks all over the place, or it's not real.
(and no safety glasses anywhere)

[GK]

I like the futuristic spaceship consoles in Sci Fi in which all the monitors and display units are CRT types.

[Rick Law]

.....

What electronics equipment have you guys found in movies, comic books, commercials, etc?

I am not sure you can call it electronics.  One "scientific" I've seen is plasma-arc lamp.   (The kind that is a glass-ball with current arc to inside the ball.  The arc follows your hand if you hand is close by.

I've have seen it in startrek and other scifi movies.

My daughter got one at a near by science museum when she was little.  She was very amused when she saw it in an episode of StarTrek I was watching.

[David_AVD]

Even in things like "The Jetsons", the TVs were giant CRT units.  I guess nobody back then (1960's) had any inkling of the flat panel monitors to come.

[duskglow]

Oh, was that the episode of Star Trek: Voyager with the slipstream drive?

That ruined it for me, to be honest.  I saw that and my disbelief was entirely unsuspended.

[duskglow]

David_AVD, that's why I don't ever try to predict the future.  I've noticed that every time someone tries to predict the future they do it linearly, when technological developments are chaotic and disruptions are entirely unpredictable.

I will never forget the "Bynar" episode of Star Trek: TNG.  I was 13, and even then I knew that one byte was not a very good password, especially for a race whose very survival was dependent on their computers.  That was embarrassing.

[GK]

Even in things like "The Jetsons", the TVs were giant CRT units.  I guess nobody back then (1960's) had any inkling of the flat panel monitors to come.

Yeah, unlike the guys responsible for physical props, the cartoonists hardly had an excuse!
 

[lemmegraphdat]

I've been souring on "Big Bang Theory", but one thing I liked about them was that they were always very, very careful to use all of the tools and equipment completely correctly.  There's no "Urkel time machine" or what-not there.  Now, they may have been using them for unorthodox *uses*, but that's what geeks do anyway.

Except for Howard's robot hand.  Ew.

I don't like BBT that much anymore.  They used to be funny, but now they're starting to actually accurately depict certain mental illnesses and playing them for laughs, and maybe it's just my berserk button, but I don't think it's that funny.

I don't have a tv so I bought the first season on DVD. I liked it but that was enough for me.

[vk6zgo]

Even in things like "The Jetsons", the TVs were giant CRT units.  I guess nobody back then (1960's) had any inkling of the flat panel monitors to come.

Actually,there were several flat panel technologies mooted during the 1950s & '60s.

Some of the concepts were a bit extreme,like the thin CRT where the beam made two 90 degree bends,prior to scanning (I'm not sure how) the screen.

Another one in the '60s had thousands of tiny cold cathode electron guns mounted extremely close to a phosphor coated screen.
They were meant to be turned on & off digitally,but their beam intensity would be controlled by the analog signal.

The very first experimental plasma screens were made in the late 1960s,too.

What nobody predicted was the change from 3:4 to 16:9 aspect ratio.

Remember,the people drawing "The Jetsons" were not technical folk,they were cartoonists!

One thing I found delightful in one supposedly "more realistic" cartoon series was where a "NASA -style" control room was shown,complete with lovingly animated vertical blanking bars drifting up the monitor screens.
This of course happens with real movie film,or TV shots of these places due to the fact that the blanking is not in sync between the display & the camera.

[David_AVD]

90 degree CRTs were in video intercoms in the ummm.. early 90's I think.  I still have one somewhere.

[vk6zgo]

"90 degree CRT" in normal jargon means a conventional CRT where the beam is deflected over an angle of 90 degrees when scanning (like early TVs)
Black & white CRTs of the late '60s deflected the beam over 110 degrees when scanning,& were referred to as "110 degree tubes".(colour tubes were a bit less)

Perhaps this is what they were referring to?

[David_AVD]

Here's what the CRT looks like:



The gun is still 90° to the screen face, but just not the exact way i remembered.

[duskglow]

One thing I found delightful in one supposedly "more realistic" cartoon series was where a "NASA -style" control room was shown,complete with lovingly animated vertical blanking bars drifting up the monitor screens.
This of course happens with real movie film,or TV shots of these places due to the fact that the blanking is not in sync between the display & the camera.

I've noticed that modern cameras and flat panel screens do not have this artifact, which is pretty cool in its own right.

[vk6zgo]

Here's what the CRT looks like:



The gun is still 90° to the screen face, but just not the exact way i remembered.

Sorry I doubted you!
Now I see the pix I do remember them.

The '50s idea was similar,but huge,hence the double bend.

[amyk]

I don't think I've seen a DSO in any movies... it's always CROs. Probably the cheapest one they could find that "looks science-y".

[deephaven]

Here are a couple of things the movie makers get wrong:

When anyone is on the phone and the other end put the phone down, the person still holding the handset hears a dialing tone whereas in real life, the line will just go dead.

Just last night I was watching a movie and they were playing a CD. The CD got stuck and kept repeating the last bit of audio - but it was done as though it was a vinyl record that got stuck, not the faster repeat you get from a CD.

[EEVblog]

I've been souring on "Big Bang Theory", but one thing I liked about them was that they were always very, very careful to use all of the tools and equipment completely correctly.  There's no "Urkel time machine" or what-not there.  Now, they may have been using them for unorthodox *uses*, but that's what geeks do anyway.

There is one episode that had some electronics on Sheldons white board in this office (I think it was an opamp integrator) right next to some of the usual physics stuff.
Like a theoretical physicist had need to draw that 
Yeah, accurate, but completely out of context.

I don't like BBT that much anymore.  They used to be funny, but now they're starting to actually accurately depict certain mental illnesses and playing them for laughs, and maybe it's just my berserk button, but I don't think it's that funny.

It's a comedy, and partly an observational/stereotype one at that, that's what they do.
You either find it funny or you don't. Finding it funny, but thinking it's inappropriate because it might involve some aspect of the psychological human condition, is jumping into the camp of taking things too seriously IME.
Almost every aspect of human behavior can be ultimately classed under some camp of mental illness, or I think more correctly psychological disorder etc.
Make one taboo, and you might as well throw out the entire art form of comedy.

[EEVblog]

IIRC this was covered in an old thread, with people pointing our various things and finding the models etc.
Also, IIRC, in the Avengers there was a cheap arse multimeter in Tony's lab.