Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Brumby]

You should have mentioned SHMBO was Coffee addicted I could have included a baggy of SHMBO sweetner inside the parcel 

That did occur to me ... about 3 minutes before you sent me the PM saying it had been shipped.   

[beanflying]

The words: "Be afraid.  Be very afraid." seem to be occupying my thoughts.....

Definitely!!!      Those catalogs are evil, I tell ya!!!

-Pat

Interesting names on the spine of one of the left hand ones. Boonton and Harrison 

[Cubdriver]

The words: "Be afraid.  Be very afraid." seem to be occupying my thoughts.....

Definitely!!!      Those catalogs are evil, I tell ya!!!

-Pat

Interesting names on the spine of one of the left hand ones. Boonton and Harrison 

That's the 1965 catalog - the first of the hardbound ones.  HP had started buying other companies in the late fifties/early sixties to augment their product lines; Harrison Labs, Boonton and Dymec were among them.  (The Dymec logo was actually a slightly modified HP one, but inverted and in an oval rather than a circle, changing from hp to dy as a result).  It seems that as the sixties wore on, the new companies became integrated into HP and lost their original identities.



-Pat

[bd139]

If anyone is looking for a radio, I wouldn’t overlook the Yaesu FT450D. It’s cheap as chips, full DSP, ATU built in, 100W out, does up to 6m. Missing fancy waterfall and that’s about it.

[Wolfgang]

This bit of kit also marks a milestone - and a confession: it's the first bit of HP test gear I have ever owned.  I've had HP calculators, but they don't count.  As a result, I really want to get this up and running properly - and I don't want to rush it.

My TEA has entered a new era .... or is it a new rabbit hole?

Oh, it has entered a new, very spacious rabbit hole, filled with almost endless options and possibilities...



-Pat

 

1974 is missing ! 

[Specmaster]

If anyone is looking for a radio, I wouldn’t overlook the Yaesu FT450D. It’s cheap as chips, full DSP, ATU built in, 100W out, does up to 6m. Missing fancy waterfall and that’s about it.

This bit of kit also marks a milestone - and a confession: it's the first bit of HP test gear I have ever owned.  I've had HP calculators, but they don't count.  As a result, I really want to get this up and running properly - and I don't want to rush it.

My TEA has entered a new era .... or is it a new rabbit hole?

Oh, it has entered a new, very spacious rabbit hole, filled with almost endless options and possibilities...



-Pat

 

1974 is missing ! 

Well, what happened in 1971 then, did they go on strike for best part of the year? 

[tggzzz]

You know, my second thought was nuvistors too but what threw me was the large strap attached to the top plate implying high current and nuvistors are not high current devices. So it's a tuned circuit?

   It is tuned.

Looking at the circuit it multiplies the 100MHz to 500MHz so X5. Needs some black magic to get to 500MHZ which is why it is how it is

Looks like tuned push-pull with 500MHz tank. The tank inductor is the bent bit of metal (L61/62) tuned with the butterfly cap. Input signal is coupled to it via the wire loop generating two 180 degree out of phase signals so it can shift a lot of current very quickly (required for high delta-V at 500MHz)

   So the reason that inductor looks like a tuning fork is because it's all a resonant assembly; the same way the cycloid cavity is tuned in an old RADAR magnetron?

That is fucking AWRESOME! Black Magic indeed; right up there with the Flux Capacitor! 

It is even better. Here's a pic I didn't post, because it gave too much of a hint about the components, not that that impeded bd139

Pay careful attention to the single turn L69 (or is it L70?) in/under the main stirrup. I don't even want to touch that! Manufacturing and QA must have been fun, possibly little more than "copy this gold example".

[neo]

The first tear-down from this lot. A HP 3480B, made in 1970 last calibrated by HP themselves in 1972. I got some pictures before taking the caps out but they are all terrible.

[bd139]

It is even better. Here's a pic I didn't post, because it gave too much of a hint about the components, not that that impeded bd139

Pay careful attention to the single turn L69 (or is it L70?) in/under the main stirrup. I don't even want to touch that! Manufacturing and QA must have been fun, possibly little more than "copy this gold example".

I reckon it probably worked quite reliably once the design was established.

Literally every time I've gone "this is black magic", the circuit turned out to be way more reliable than I expected. It's the simple looking ones that punch you in the face! Took me literally two days to get a simple three transistor ramp generator working at 200Hz yet a 8MHz to 144MHz multiplier (3x 3x 2x) worked right off the bat. Very irritating.

[BravoV]

A HP 5347A with lots of dead and stuck LCD segments, and a dead Tektronix 2465 as it doesn't power on, both still sealed by cal sticker and never opened, dirt cheap. 

[tautech]

A HP 5347A with lots of dead and stuck LCD segments, and a dead Tektronix 2465 as it doesn't power on, both still sealed by cal sticker and never opened, dirt cheap. 

Any chance you know just a little about them BravoV ? 

[BravoV]

A HP 5347A with lots of dead and stuck LCD segments, and a dead Tektronix 2465 as it doesn't power on, both still sealed by cal sticker and never opened, dirt cheap. 

Any chance you know just a little about them BravoV ? 

LOL , c'mon Rob, stop teasing me. 

[med6753]

A HP 5347A with lots of dead and stuck LCD segments, and a dead Tektronix 2465 as it doesn't power on, both still sealed by cal sticker and never opened, dirt cheap. 

Curious as to what you find is wrong with the 2465. 

[mnementh]

My TEA has entered a new era .... or is it a new rabbit hole?

   Welcome! 

Not sure a new rabbit hole... more like the other end of the same one, methinks. 

mnem

[mnementh]

   So this guy works. Listening to music now. I can also hear the local truckers rolling by and some other craziness. Pretty cool. Like a bomb-shelter radio.

   

Heh... "Pretty cool..." he says. Next thing you know, he's gonna be hand-winding a 3.1KV transformer "because microwave exefs saturate too easily" and driving THIS.   

mnem
*Porcupine love*

[mnementh]

This bit of kit also marks a milestone - and a confession: it's the first bit of HP test gear I have ever owned.  I've had HP calculators, but they don't count.  As a result, I really want to get this up and running properly - and I don't want to rush it.

My TEA has entered a new era .... or is it a new rabbit hole?

   Oh, it has entered a new, very spacious rabbit hole, filled with almost endless options and possibilities...

-Pat

Fuck man... That shelf is like the Necronomicon Britannica...   

mnem
 

[mnementh]

You know, my second thought was nuvistors too but what threw me was the large strap attached to the top plate implying high current and nuvistors are not high current devices. So it's a tuned circuit?

   It is tuned.

Looking at the circuit it multiplies the 100MHz to 500MHz so X5. Needs some black magic to get to 500MHZ which is why it is how it is

Looks like tuned push-pull with 500MHz tank. The tank inductor is the bent bit of metal (L61/62) tuned with the butterfly cap. Input signal is coupled to it via the wire loop generating two 180 degree out of phase signals so it can shift a lot of current very quickly (required for high delta-V at 500MHz)

   So the reason that inductor looks like a tuning fork is because it's all a resonant assembly; the same way the cycloid cavity is tuned in an old RADAR magnetron?

That is fucking AWRESOME! Black Magic indeed; right up there with the Flux Capacitor! 

   It is even better. Here's a pic I didn't post, because it gave too much of a hint about the components, not that that impeded bd139

Pay careful attention to the single turn L69 (or is it L70?) in/under the main stirrup. I don't even want to touch that! Manufacturing and QA must have been fun, possibly little more than "copy this gold example".

I noticed that in the pic I copied above; but I figured it was the "secondary" in our little near-u-wave transformer. Of course, as you say... every aspect of its shape and proximity has to have drastic effect on the oscillation of the assembly as a whole.

Maybe that's where the real "black magic" comes in, eh? Designing an assembly with such complex interdependence so that the operational envelope is broad enough that people not named "Tesla" could reproduce it for mass production?

In all honesty... I'm not even sure it's still entirely "transformer" at this stage of evolution... more a "missing link" between "XF" and "Feedhorn/Waveguide".

Still... amazing tech. Those people really were operating on an entirely different level... "Searching for the resonant frequency of the Planck Constant" kindof shit.     (Yes, I know exactly what I just said. That's why it is a joke.) 

mnem
I don't know.

[mnementh]

A HP 5347A with lots of dead and stuck LCD segments, and a dead Tektronix 2465 as it doesn't power on, both still sealed by cal sticker and never opened, dirt cheap. 

Curious as to what you find is wrong with the 2465. 

   That should be the full list, unless it was operated by a grad student sometime in its life. 

mnem
*Currently doing a teardown on a $40 1000W computer PSU*

[Cubdriver]

1974 is missing ! 

Well, what happened in 1971 then, did they go on strike for best part of the year? 

For some reason they didn't publish one in 1974, and the 1971 one was a supplement to the 1970, and is the very thin magazine-sized one next to it.  (I wound up with two copies of the '72 one because the guy I bought it from on the bay accidentally sent me one with a bunch of pictures cut out - it came from a used TE dealer who apparently used to make their own catalog, scrap-book style.  He then sent a replacement, but I couldn't bear to toss the old one as its /mostly/ there.)

-Pat

[neo]

The first tear-down from this lot. A HP 3480B, made in 1970 last calibrated by HP themselves in 1972.

The unit itself was at least calibrated in 1972, no definitive data on this part. Not the same plug in necessarily. Sorry for the delay on part two, sick as a dog and had to get a different plug in out, not going to dissect the best one.

I'm sure this part will interest at least some of your more, this is where the magical pixies live after all.
Bottom rear.

Bottom front.

Top front with covers in place.

Top rear with covers in place.

Top front with covers off.

Top rear with covers off.


Nice as it all looks this is all so sensitive that even touching it could affect accuracy, so they say anyway. Fingerprints, other dirt and contaminates are evil as the outer cover says.

[med6753]

What are those white barrel shaped objects with the wires coming out of the top? 

[neo]

What are those white barrel shaped objects with the wires coming out of the top? 

Good question, really amazing, terrific question for which i have no concrete answer. My guess would be HP custom wound inductors with multiple taps, but if i'm being truthful thats just a shot in the dark guess.

[bd139]

Reed Relays?

[neo]

Reed Relays?

7 ranges and 8 mysterious devices. Whatever they are their only visible marking is the HP logo.

[factory]

What are those white barrel shaped objects with the wires coming out of the top? 

Good question, really amazing, terrific question for which i have no concrete answer. My guess would be HP custom wound inductors with multiple taps, but if i'm being truthful thats just a shot in the dark guess.

Definitely reed relays, used for the range switching, not sure I've seen any with three wires for the coil before though, are they latching types?

David