Extracting Sansui Serial Number Date Codes

[LBPete]

As most of you know, Sansui Serial Numbers have a production date coded into them. The third digit is the year and the 4th and 5th digits represent the month. To convert that into a calendar month and year is simple if you know the decade when the unit was made and you are only doing one or two serial numbers.

Up until now, I've been doing those conversions manually when adding new serial numbers to the database. That got old fast so I reached out to the folks on AccessForums.net for help in writing code that would extract the production date in a calendar month/year format.

I want to formally thank Micron from AccessForums.net for substantial work he did to develop this code.

Now that it's automated, I'll be able to clean up the production dates for many models where it's incorrect as well as more quickly upload new serial numbers.

Hat's off to Micron.

- Pete

 

[Hyperion]

Well done Pete - you are really making a first class job of getting this sorted out.

Hats off to Micron too.

 

[Robisme]

Who'd a thunk it. Nice.

We appreciate the work you have put into the database.

Rob

 

[LBPete]

I think you are missing the point here. I started this thread to thank Micron and the other folks over at the AccessFourms.net. Micron put considerable time and effort into this project. Here's a link to the three page thread. That's just what was posted publicly. Micron and I corresponded back and forth by PM for a couple of weeks. He put in a tremendous amount of time and effort to improve the Sansui Database. If anyone wants a copy of the coding, it's posted in that thread.

- Pete

 

[Hyperion]

I was unaware of just how much input 'Micron' had, but what I was thanking you for was that you got him (her?) engaged with the problem on our behalf - with a very satisfactory outcome.

Thank you 'Micron' and 'Accessforums.net' for assisting Pete and therefore all Sansui enthusiasts on AK.

 

[JOMARK911]

Many thanks from me too. To both of you.

 

[Richard1079]

Not sure in my case how to determine year as it’s a 0 and the codes in his long research indicate 81007 would be 1970 but model 8700db to my knowledge didn’t exist until 1978? Logic would indicate then that this unit should be July of1980 ?
810070841?

 

[Sansuiman]

That is correct. One has to be able to infer the decade from the year digit. Generally that is pretty easy to do as there is an obvious difference between the electronics of 1970 and 1980, and similarly between 1980 and 1990.

 

[Richard1079]

I just wanted to make sure I just picked up this unit yesterday from a guy that was apparently bought it in while he was in the service is in the original box with original manuals etc. I think he has the original bill of sale but I didn’t find it but I picked it up hooked it up today and while the tuner is definitely better than my pioneer 1250s it’s built A lot lighter and has a lot less inside of it and on the 1812 overture‘s when the cannons go off it’s certainly just empties the caps out and peaks at 160 W per channel but in a modern volume it doesn’t clip the speakers that being said I’m not sure the sound is quite at least what I was used to with the 1250 pioneers and I have three of them but it’s a nice comparison maybe this compares more toPioneer 80 series not sure build quality seems to have really gone down between previous sansui and this one but I’m not a Sansui expert that’s for sure

 

[LBPete]

Yup, the serial numbers reset every ten years. With the expansion of the database over this past year, we are starting to see more "decade duplicates." I still haven't figured out a good way to deal with them and still maintain the search-ability of the data. Sansui certainly never considered that 50 years later their products would still be in service.

That is correct. One has to be able to infer the decade from the year digit. Generally that is pretty easy to do as there is an obvious difference between the electronics of 1970 and 1980, and similarly between 1980 and 1990.

It's not always so obvious, especially with the later stuff, especially the more esoteric stuff with the last Sansui logo. When you see an 8 in the third digit is it 1988 or 1998?

- Pete

 

[Sansuiman]

I guess to the untrained eye, it may be difficult to distinguish between 1988 and 1998 electronics, as most of the major advancement and change in consumer electronics took place after 1975 with the emergence of wide use of IC's, and another big change to surface mount versus through hole components starting in about 1985, but that didn't really fully take hold until about 1990. Even then, Sansui continued to use primarily through hole devices.

But I'm speaking of looking at the construction of the actual circuit boards within a unit to note these differences, and admittedly one needs some familiarity with electronics to pick out these details, some of which can be subtle.

 

[LBPete]

With the expansion of the database I've had to add a lot of previously unknown models. Before adding a new model to the master model list, I always do an internet search to see what information is available on that model. In most cases all that comes up are photos of the exterior of the unit. Rarely do the available photos show the interior an if there are interior shots they never have enough clarity to see the board numbers. Often I just have to guess at the decade.

- Pete