Useless

I saw this latest fun blog post by Marxy:

https://blog.marxy.org/2025/09/arduino-controlled-useless-box.html 

Of course he would add an Arduino to the concept, he's a ham ;)

Here's the wiki on the useless machine:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useless_machine 

These wooden useless boxes are on Ebay but I think I can resist the temptation to get one.  I do remember something similar from the Johnson-Smith catalog (mentioned previously):

https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-johnson-smith-catalog.html 

But I looked in the available Johnson-Smith catalogs on Archive.org => didn't find it.  I did find this:

a bank that kind of does the same thing, the coin must act as a switch, the hand comes out and takes the coin - it's similar.

I also saw this:

I have one of these around here somewhere - I used to use it on my mailbox alarm, the onboard SCR was in effect a latched switch, once the mailbox was opened the alarm kept on until I came out and reset it.  Some might consider that useless :)

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm