At-a-glance information:

Items	Cassette Trucks and Computer Truck
Manufacturer	Eldon Industries
Location	Hawthorne, CA
Manufactured	1970

Here are some very interesting trucks put out by Eldon in about 1970. They are both "programmable".

The first is known simply as a Computer Truck. These only came in grey/silver, and are futuristic in an Eldon sort of way. These look like futuristic El Caminos.

In what would be the pickup bed, there is a large dial filled with colored, removable "pie slices". Each color denotes a left turn, right, straight, or backwards. You program the vehicle by arranging the pieces for what path you want the truck to go.

These only go a few feet in one direction, and will run great on floors and slow on very short carpeting.

The second style of programmable truck is the Command Cassette System.

Eldon made a small fleet of these vehicles which shared this removable cassette, which you programmed turns and such by setting the depth of screws.

More information below:

Here is the computer truck. Plactic, rubber wheels, very clean design. This unit looks as if it was run little, if at all.	Here is the programming dial. You can arrange these tiles in any way to program the path the truck will follow. Oddly, Eldon did not include any extra pieces, so you could, for example, just go around and around, or straight for a while.
This picture illustrates the removal of one of the pieces that can be rearranged to protram the unit. The center ring unlocks and allows you to remove the pieces.	Here you can see the directional wheel, and the brass bar that controls it. Steering is smooth and relatively precise, and you cannot hear the mechanism.
Box art. I placed the road signs, included, ontop of the box for viewing.	Here is the inside of the instruction sheet.
Here is the Cement Mixer version of the Command Cassette Line. These came out after the Computer Truck, and featured removable, "programmable cassettes. These were powered by two C batteries, versus the two D batteries of the Computer Truck..
Here is the bottom of the Cassette. These simple screws can be rotated to program the direction of the car. The gear shown meshes with a gear on the car, driving the assembly around. The top of the screws come into contact with a cam that is attached to the steering.	As this picture shows, the front side of the Cassette has markings to align with the top of the screw head, seen through the plastic and the letters R F L. You position the screw in or out to hit the Right, Forward, Left marks. You adjust all six screws to the height you want, and that will program the car. Upon setting these, you just snap the whole Cassette back into the car.
Here is the Cement Mixer with its wheels pushed to turn left. Note the position of the cam, at the back of the compartment, which will ride along the top of the screws once the cassette is plugged in.	Now notice the position of the cam to make a right hand turn.
The cement mixer part free wheels and rotates. The decals and overall condition of this example is near perfect.	Here is the outside of the box. Notice the label showing other models.
This shot features a close up of that panel mentioned above.

Other Information

These are fun trucks to play with, and can often be found for reasonable prices on EBAY.

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