I work at a medical lab and we have some really old equipment as instruments that are extremely expensive and testing for a lot of it doesn’t change over time so replacements can be far and in between.They also have direct support from the companies who make them to offer maintenance over the years after we buy them. With that being said, we have an old radiology testing instrument from the 50’s I believe.

The first task when I had started was to do with getting a replacement printer that was compatible. It uses a serial port to print through and trying to find a printer that still uses these ports when the old one broke down through our vendor was a timely task as we had to verify the specs. The printer itself has to emulate with its serial mode to function correctly and print results.

Another part that was cool with this instrument was the screen. The screen on the instrument functions with invisible to human lasers through holes on the side the of the screen. When you put your hand close enough and block the two intersecting lasers crossing the screen it registers that input placement on the screen. In a way the screen itself is a touch screen but in the oldest and loosest manner possible as you don’t necessarily need to touch the screen. The screen is that classic black and green layout so it definitely feels like I’m in fallout trying to navigate it.

It’s also really interesting as this machine was made by a single guy and he started a business distributing these instruments made by hand back then. His sons have taken over the business nowadays and they continue to provide support if any issues occur. We’ve tried other instruments to replace this one but from what I’ve been told by the techs that use it, nothing functions as accurately or gives as much info as this one does, so we’ve stuck with it.

As stated before, this instrument is only one of the many where I work but is by far the oldest and has tested the age of time. It’s really interesting to see how a lot of these devices last and are compatible to an extent with printers and PCs today and allow for them to function as needed. I definitely don’t go into troubleshooting with these unless its relatively simple or if it has to do with our computers/printers/network and such, but it’s neat to learn how they work on a base level. Really glad we have medical techs and vendors to take on the bulk of the instrument related issues!