Elektronika MK-61 - today I ordered one NIB

[jebem]

Today I have ordered one more RPN calculator to join my modest collection, the ex-USSR made in Ukraine MK-61, NIB (before someone ask, I mean New In the Box ).

I was looking forward to get one of these, as it has its own unique features, like using VFD displays in the 90's - I like it and reminds me of the 70's calculators I used at school - it were easy to read!
(I find all LCD displays hard to read with exception of the more recent backlight and color ones - enter the HP-Prime...).

Now, I have checked our MoHPC site and found little information as expected - this site is oriented to HP machines, RPN or not.

So far, I have downloaded the user guide in Russian an the schematics, and found some reference pages in English translating each key legend to a more readable language for me.
I can read some Russian of course, I don't consider myself a total analphabet in this regard, but it is hard, very hard to follow Russian .

So I wonder where you fellows having extra details and information on this calculator series are willing to share it with me (and all the others here of course!).

Thanks in advance.

[walter b]

I've got one here for some years. I acquired it for similar reasons but have to admit I never really started using it. Just too strange a surface.

d:-/

[Massimo Gnerucci]

Once there was Andrew Davie's M.O.S.C.O.W site but it seems it is just a board nowadays.
You can still follow some links from there, though.
I bought some HPs from Andrew many years ago, and I too own an MK-61.

[jebem]

(08-23-2014 09:38 PM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  Once there was Andrew Davie's M.O.S.C.O.W site but it seems it is just a board nowadays.
You can still follow some links from there, though.
I bought some HPs from Andrew many years ago, and I too own an MK-61.

Thanks for the link, Massimo!
I found it this morning, but now that you referred it, I am reading it with more attention and Sergei Frolov there is sharing a lot of good information on how to operate these Russian RPN calculators, including some undocumented functions. Nice!

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(08-23-2014 10:11 PM)jebem Wrote:  Thanks for the link, Massimo!
I found it this morning, but now that you referred it, I am reading it with more attention and Sergei Frolov there is sharing a lot of good information on how to operate these Russian RPN calculators, including some undocumented functions. Nice!

This is how it looked 4 years ago
And here is your MK-61 page.

[jebem]

(08-23-2014 09:31 PM)walter b Wrote:  I've got one here for some years. I acquired it for similar reasons but have to admit I never really started using it. Just too strange a surface.

d

Hi Walter!
It surely looks a bit different with all those Cyrillic characters...

My first contact with Russian language was in Africa in 1975, after Mozambique independence, where most of the Portuguese left the country and USSR kicked in by offering cooperation to help developing the new country.

At the time I was starting my professional life working for the military, doing maintenance on western telecommunication equipments, but after the Soviets I had to maintain their equipments too.
So, as a Portuguese that could only understand English and a few words of Afrikaans (friends and schoolmates from South Africa), I faced this new challenge:
How to decode the Russian technical service guides?
There was no Internet in those times...

Once I was in Niassa lake (located in the remote North of the country) repairing a RF long distance transmitter, and the Russians asked me to fix the RADAR of one of their military speedboats. Sure! No problem. I'm the expert on ppi radars.

After a brief diagnostic, I isolated the problem on the receiver oscillator - The Klystron was dead and I had to replaced it. So far so easy.
But then I needed to calibrated it, and for that I would need to understand the Russian written procedures - and that I failed to do.

So I asked a comrade to translate it for me (they could speak un peu de Portuguese): "well...you put your thing at here... then raise that thing up to 60 amperes... wait...maybe not..."

And I thought, what the heck, I'm young and can't think of the consequences of my acts, so I connected the current meter and started the procedures as I found appropriate for the situation, ignoring the Russian papers - well, it worked for brief moments before killing yet another Klystron, and we run out of spare parts.

Because in those revolution times the spare parts were rare and extremely hard to be delivered to remote regions, I was sentenced to stay at the military base for another 4 weeks waiting for the next logistic delivery.

Well, it was not that bad... this military base (search for "Metangula" in Google maps) was located at the lakefront, kind of a paradise (the war was over there), fantastic weather and warm waters.
Hopefully I did brought my shorts and swimming suit, so the time passed just fine!

[jebem]

(08-23-2014 10:53 PM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  This is how it looked 4 years ago
And here is your MK-61 page.

The time machine. Thanks!
Meanwhile I'm checking the Russian Wikipedia.
Can you believe some folks actually did the reverse engineering by reading the calculator ROM contents using microscope tools! (the images are huge but very readable if one can understand the contents, that is).

[d b]

Massimo; Good find. Thanks.

jebem; Now you'll "need" the 61's little brother, the 54. That will lead you to the unique 52 and it's eprom. Then of course you'll want an example of the b3-19m and the b3-21. Since you've come that far there'll be no choice but to acquire a 34 and hell, why not? A Koncret 600 would dress up the cabinet real nice. After that you'll realize that some Ruskie RPN desktops would look good on the bottom shelf.

Somewhere in there the divorce papers will arrive...... It's a great calculator though.

[jebem]

(08-24-2014 12:37 AM)Den Belillo (Martinez Ca.) Wrote:  Massimo; Good find. Thanks.

jebem; Now you'll "need" the 61's little brother, the 54. That will lead you to the unique 52 and it's eprom. Then of course you'll want an example of the b3-19m and the b3-21. Since you've come that far there'll be no choice but to acquire a 34 and hell, why not? A Koncret 600 would dress up the cabinet real nice. After that you'll realize that some Ruskie RPN desktops would look good on the bottom shelf.

Somewhere in there the divorce papers will arrive...... It's a great calculator though.

Hi, Den,
Thanks for the additional information. That 52 is really special and unique, so I guess I'm doomed.
Right now I keep my latest acquisitions hidden in a drawer in my office desk, before deciding what story will be appropriate to tell her... oops, today I'm collecting yet another niiiice hp-28s almost new in the box from a guy in Oporto city (the secondary reason to travel is a job to do at a customer site there. . )

[aurelio]

(08-23-2014 09:05 PM)jebem Wrote:  Today I have ordered one more RPN calculator to join my modest collection, the ex-USSR made in Ukraine MK-61, NIB (before someone ask, I mean New In the Box ).

Hi jebem, just for information, where have you found (ordered) it, NIB?
I see any of those calculators on TAS (), but never NIB, as I can remember


EDIT: lotsa on TAS , suddendly, like mushrooms

[jebem]

(08-24-2014 09:23 AM)aurelio Wrote:  Hi jebem, just for information, where have you found (ordered) it, NIB?
I see any of those calculators on TAS (), but never NIB, as I can remember
EDIT: LOTSA on TAS , suddendly, like mushrooms

Hi Aurelio,
I ordered mine from eBay.com at Best in Ukraine shop.
Searching for "mk-61" you should find item# 251294882042, there are 7 available at this moment

EDIT: Not sure how "NIB" they are, but at east the package looks comprehensive.

EDIT2: Oops, I just used some kind of "banned" words here, but just for the record, I have NO affiliation with TAS (besides having an account there) and my only relationship with the above virtual shop is a a customer.

EDIT3: This is my final EDIT in this post, I promise!
It is just to tell that the above virtual shop has a impressive 100% positive feedback record from their customers - that was another reason why I have chosen it among the other "mushrooms".
Also, I have ordered it yesterday and they marked it as Shipped a few hours after (!), so I already have the tracking number to be used when they actually ship it at the Post Office on Monday (I hope).

[aurelio]

(08-24-2014 09:55 AM)jebem Wrote:  

(08-24-2014 09:23 AM)aurelio Wrote:  Hi jebem, just for information, where have you found (ordered) it, NIB?
I see any of those calculators on TAS (), but never NIB, as I can remember
EDIT: LOTSA on TAS , suddendly, like mushrooms

Hi Aurelio,
I ordered mine from eBay.com at Best in Ukraine shop.
Searching for "mk-61" you should find item# 251294882042, there are 7 available at this moment

EDIT: Not sure how "NIB" they are, but at east the package looks comprehensive.

EDIT2: Oops, I just used some kind of "banned" words here, but just for the record, I have NO affiliation with TAS (besides having an account there) and my only relationship with the above virtual shop is a a customer.

EDIT3: This is my final EDIT in this post, I promise!
It is just to tell that the above virtual shop has a impressive 100% positive feedback record from their customers - that was another reason why I have chosen it among the other "mushrooms".
Also, I have ordered it yesterday and they marked it as Shipped a few hours after (!), so I already have the tracking number to be used when they actually ship it at the Post Office on Monday (I hope).

Thank-you, Jose, for all your precious advices

[Thomas Radtke]

(08-24-2014 08:22 AM)jebem Wrote:  That 52 is really special and unique, so I guess I'm doomed.

Had one, but the keys were a pain to use. It's as if there's no key travel. Not that they wouldn't register but some hacking can hurt your fingertips. Sold(*) it eventually but it was nice to toy with it :-).

Try to get one with box and both manuals. They came with complete schematics!

For use in a lab, I was about getting a MK-152 but couldn't secure the funds. Today they are as hard to find as the MK-52 apparently :-(.

Edit: (*) No, even more silly as I remember now: Giftet it to someone! ;-)

[walter b]

Looking for a picture of the MK-152, I came across this older thread. See message #9. May be interesting for others, too.

d:-)

[jebem]

(08-24-2014 12:18 PM)Thomas Radtke Wrote:  Had one, but the keys were a pain to use. It's as if there's no key travel. Not that they wouldn't register but some hacking can hurt your fingertips. Sold(*) it eventually but it was nice to toy with it :-).

Try to get one with box and both manuals. They came with complete schematics!

For use in a lab, I was about getting a MK-152 but couldn't secure the funds. Today they are as hard to find as the MK-52 apparently :-(.

Edit: (*) No, even more silly as I remember now: Giftet it to someone! ;-)

Hi Thomas,
Thank you for your additional information!
Somehow I was not expecting top keyboard quality, looking into some pictures posted in the net, and your experience confirms it.

[jebem]

(08-24-2014 01:13 PM)walter b Wrote:  Looking for a picture of the MK-152, I came across this older thread. See message #9. May be interesting for others, too.

d:-)

Thank you, Walter!
Nice find on the Russian mk-1xx series, I was not aware of them.
So much variety to look for and so little time and money to acquire those objects of desire.

[jebem]

Interesting and useful work of Cyrillic to Latin key caps translation:



http://www.silicium.org/forum/viewtopic....22&t=34113

[aurelio]

(09-14-2014 07:59 PM)jebem Wrote:  Interesting and useful work of Cyrillic to Latin key caps translation:

Jose', on the next month I'll be in Moscow for just more than a week, sure I'll ask somebody if are available or where may i find this kind of vintage calculators; sure not in the vintage and souvenirs touristic markets...

I know, should be easier a check on TAS, but you agree that walking for local shops it's more exciting

[jebem]

(09-18-2014 07:04 PM)aurelio Wrote:  Jose', on the next month I'll be in Moscow for just more than a week, sure I'll ask somebody if are available or where may i find this kind of vintage calculators; sure not in the vintage and souvenirs touristic markets...

Good luck with your trip and good "hunting"!

Once I tried to acquire a rare Russian soviet era portable "Turist" 5-valve radio from family I have in Moskva, so I asked them where we could go for local flea market or shops, and no luck.
Apparently this kind of flea market and hobby is not so popular there as it is in London, for instance.

If you succeed in finding a good place for this kind of shopping, please let me know.
And one last issue is related to travel in the city area: the traffic jams are everywhere and anytime, so people loose hours inside a car to cross the city.
Probably the Metro is a better choice.

[Francois Lanciault]

I bought a MK-52 a few month ago. It works for about 2 days then died.

I am now a bit reluctant to order an other one...

François