EEVblog #287 - Handifax 1000 Teardown

Teardown Tuesday
A rather obscure consumer device from 1995, a pocket organiser / fax machine. The Handifax 1000. Also known as the Smith Corona Handifax 1000
It's bodge time!

[mumapadurii]

Vintage pieces like this fill me a sense of wonder and excitement. Thanks for digging it up.

[steveger]

A great thing about faxes was the possibility to send something back with hand written comments. I remember my dad and his brother doing this, who were partners in business, but argued a lot. The same fax would go to and fro multiple times, and the handwritten additions would look more and more agitated with each pass, until finally a big "NO" or something to that effect would be scrawled over the whole page using a marker. Those were the days.

[Polite_Cat]

I love these teardowns especially of this type of vintage electronics. Taking stuff apart and just looking inside is all apart of loving electronics! I also appreciate when you explain exactly what we are looking at and what parts do what on the board, and what their purpose is.

[smadge]

Hi Dave, I had one of these back in 1997. I remember buying it for $50 from a white-van man. It was a great (but huge) PDA. I never got around to testing the fax facilities, i didn't know anyone with a fax machine. And yes, it was sticky when it was new.

[SarahC]

Maybe it would have turned on with the battery cover closed...

[michaelturner]

The Yamaha YTM401-F is a fax modem chip.

[oddballlw]

Brilliant! I can hardly believe how many corners were cut there! Great vid!

[TheInternetwatcher]

Great video once again. I always look forward to Tuesdays! Thank you!

[SarahC]

I like the on-edge surface mount resistor just by the Yamaha chip!

[TananBaboo]

You didn't have the battery cover on when you tried to turn on the unit.  If you had, it might had turned on.  Post a follow-up!

[phattieg]

Dave, you asked "where are PDA's these days anyway?".  Well, most people have smart phones, which have most of the same features as the PDA's of the past, and then some.  So look to your cell phone as today's version of the PDA.  My old Windows Mobile version 6 was able to send faxes, and create faxes.  Pretty cool stuff!  I love your videos, keep up the great work!

[martinda]

The Yamaha chip was probably a polyphonic synthesiser.

[CallumPRobertson]

Auch - that's cheered me up so much! Seeing the inside of that.... thing... has made my day xD

[Damien.D]

Budging of the year awards of 94.
Hilarious. As if the dip package bent to surface mount was not enough, there is the side mounted resistor. Outstanding.

[EEVblog]

Maybe they were the subcontractor hired to do the actual design and layout. Or maybe some shelf company or affiliated company etc.

[AIMA]

Great video. I think the product being so bodged is a good lesson for some of the younger EE people. How do you manage as an engineer a reasonable development cycle with unrealistic marketing or business goals.

[aninstinctkiller]

haha hey! whatever happened to "dont turn it on, take it apart" :D Love your shows man.. inspiration to work on my electronics projects again!

[flubba]

When you first tried to turn it on, I was surprised that it didnt work. After watching the teardown, I am surprised it ever worked at all.

[Systemrat]

Around the time that thing was made I had the job of checking out production of gear in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan for consumer and IT stuff for a company I worked for. A big aspect for phone line connected gear was Austel testing. The bodge board looks like an attempt at line isolation and presenting the right capacitance to the line too. Austel would take a bit of gear and test it for a fee and once lost a very expensive phone we submitted with the response sorry bad luck. 1kv finger test :)

[BigManko]

Dave, I've seen worse. I used to have a speaker. The board was broken in the middle, which was repaired with Hotglue. The contacts were restored with aluminum foil ...