16 Cool Old Medical Devices (Donated to my Hackerspace)

 

 

Some kindly soul donated a bunch of medical machines that otherwise would have ended up in a landfill.

 

If nothing else, cool enclosures and cool pot knobs are a shoo-in.

 

Love that light-up rocker switch.

 

Most of the devices we got were meant to scribble sparklines on this old school paper.

 

Did I mention the fantastic potentiometer knobs?

 

Vacuum tubes!

 

This is crying out to be made into a project box.

 

I could use some bio amplification some days.

 

Love the awesome old toggles and other hardware.

 

There are even instructions on interpreting the data.

 

As an unexpected bonus, some of the boxes have full schematics on the back.

 

Love how detailed this schematic is.

 

Here are the pens that draw on the scroll of paper.

 

The pens from another angle.

 

More knobs, more paper.

 

Dieselpunk control panel, anyone?

Some kind soul donated a bunch of old medical devices to my hackerspace, the Hack Factory — equipment so ancient that there was no way it would ever again be used in a medical setting. What better place to donate a bunch of sweet junk than a hackerspace?

I’m doing a lot of potentiometer projects recently, so the old-school knobs really caught by eye — but there are also lots of other cool things to be found like steppers (which wobble the pens that record heart rate and so on), toggle switches, and awesome steel enclosures.

I welcome your ideas on how we might use this stuff.