Just scored a HP 4140B in pristine, working condition. Now what...

[URI]

Holy freakin' fanblades!!!!

I'll have to bookmark these to show SWMBO that I'm not really that bad!

Yes, indeed. My wife and also parts of my family think I'm mad but I only have a fraction of that amount of gear.   

I don't have any problem, I don't have any problem, I don't have any pro... just mild TEA   

[Kean]

Just WOW!

Australia is a lovely country, but living here pretty much precudes a collection like that... 

[Cubdriver]

Holy shite, I thought I was bad....   

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

More...

Do I see the poor beaten down 5105A Synthesizer that was on the bay of evil a few months ago there on the bottom shelf?  If so, I'm glad to see it went to a good home.  I was watching it, but managed to resist as I haven't touched the one I currently have yet.

-Pat

[TERRA Operative]

Geez, I'll save these pics to show my wife when she complains about yet another delivery to my place.

At least being in Japan, I get first pick of the goodies over here, I don't have to bid against any of you fellow addicts. I just wish the selections wasn't quite as limited (Ya'll got any of them's Tek 2467 scopes???)

[bd139]

All those Schaffners and RIFAs   

[HalFoster]

Cubdiver:  Yes. Yes, you do.    And because at the time there appeared to only be two left in the whole world, a couple of 5110B's to make it hopefully do something one day.  They will both be targets of a, hopefully, like-new restoration project.  Once the pile is reduced some, of course... it's the result of some unexpected $$, coupled with the glut of cheaper finds early this year and wrapped in a very healthy dose of TEA - that's Test Equipment Addiction, don't ya know?  Most of it I will repair, refurbish, cal and sell - and hopefully it will at least pay for the things that I will keep.  But the 5105A/5110B combo is just... massively, heavily, awesomely and - did I mention heavily? - excessive. 

Hal

[HalFoster]

And, regarding TEA, at least one a week (well, any time after she looks in the garage, really) I feel the need to drag the Grumpy Wife over to the computer, point out the current TEA thread message count, and say, "See! It's not just me!"

Hal

[Cubdriver]

Cubdiver:  Yes. Yes, you do.    And because at the time there appeared to only be two left in the whole world, a couple of 5110B's to make it hopefully do something one day.  They will both be targets of a, hopefully, like-new restoration project.  Once the pile is reduced some, of course... it's the result of some unexpected $$, coupled with the glut of cheaper finds early this year and wrapped in a very healthy dose of TEA - that's Test Equipment Addiction, don't ya know?  Most of it I will repair, refurbish, cal and sell - and hopefully it will at least pay for the things that I will keep.  But the 5105A/5110B combo is just... massively, heavily, awesomely and - did I mention heavily? - excessive. 

Hal

Nice.  If/when both of us get through our repair queues, there will be a couple of working ones, then.  I need to do chassis repair on mine - it was poorly packed and one of the handles broken off.  Also need to cobble together the 57 cable RF interconnect harness to tie it to the 5110B, too.  Then start to determine what else might ail it.  In my 'spare' time - so called because I have so little of it...

-Pat

[HalFoster]

As far as i can tell, mine is just dirty... I know if I actually open it up I'll never come back up for air.  In the mean time, I just bought enough of these to connect them together:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/4Pcs-RG316-BNC-Male-Plug-to-BNC-Male-Plug-RF-Pigtail-Jumper-Cable-Adapter-SS/333092829453?

They seem to be good quality and should certainly do the job.  On into the project, if everything seems to work well, I'll make up some custom ones and do a fitted bundle.  As you said, though, finding the time is the problem...  At the end of the day, it *is* a hobby for me and by need has to be down on the priority list.  But... pretty sure that there is only (!!!) 22 or so cables... from memory anyway.

Hal

[HalFoster]

Well, 22 or so needed per 5105A anyway... I know the 5110B can have options to drive up to three 5105's but I don't know if that is additional outputs or just increased drive capacity.

Hal

[HalFoster]

And while I'm thinking of it, you don't happen to need a 8566A do you?  Or, have an extra 85662A and cables to get rid of?  Needless to say, I wasn't paying attention a while back, had an oops moment, and now have a true boat anchor.  Seems to work as far as it goes, though.  For what the cables go for, you could just by a complete working unit - could make them, but I would still have to buy the top half and there goes more $$ than it is really worth.

Hal

[Cubdriver]

22 cables per sounds about right.  The 5110Bs set up to drive multiple 5105s have additional outputs added to them, so it appears that they're capable of providing the drive from the get-go.  BNC jacks are added and the internal 49.9 ohm load resistors they are placed in 'parallel' with are removed.  They can support up to four 5105s.  Of course, if the additional output jacks are present on the 5110B but not used, they must be capped with 50 ohm terminators.

At around 85 lbs for the 5105A and 54 lbs for the 5110B, it certainly qualifies as a boat anchor signal source!!

-Pat

[Specmaster]

and...

Wow, you really should become a TEA member along with the rest of us, pray show us your working / fixed equipment stacks if this little lot is your waiting list for triage. 

[KaneTW]

Oh, nice, I have one of those too. Has been sitting around until I buy some cables for it.

[HalFoster]

Specmaster, if it was all in one place I would... not that there is that much at the moment that I actually consider done.  About the time all this had come in, a *lot* started happening both good: kid graduations, work & other family stuff, and bad: pretending that I was still in my 20's and lifting 4x8 sheets of PT plywood up to the roof of a large shed I was building, the result of which was finding out the joys of rotator cuff surgery.  So, not as much progress as I would like.  Currently working on about 20 Fluke 8050A's - and cursing over the cases.  All were very badly yellowed, put in the ultrasonic cleaner with light soap and a shot of H2O2 in prep for de-yellowing.  Ten minutes later, they came out with irregular white splotches on some of them - never had anything even close happen before.  Admittedly up to now any large parts have been metal not cheap plastic (HP vs Fluke  ) but still... Anyway, paint to the rescue - going to finish up a test batch and list them over the weekend and see how they do. I did one in a royal blue that looks wicked good. 

Hal

[bitseeker]

Regarding yellowed plastic, it seems the latest preferred method is pure sunlight bleaching, no peroxide or anything else. Just beware of the plastic's temp if the sun is really strong.

[Kjelt]

Regarding yellowed plastic, it seems the latest preferred method is pure sunlight bleaching, no peroxide or anything else. Just beware of the plastic's temp if the sun is really strong.

So uv lamp would also work or what is the nm range for this process?

[bitseeker]

I'm unsure about the effective wavelength for this. The experiments I saw were done outdoors with full-spectrum sunlight. It's not as fast as traditional retro-brite, but supposedly doesn't have the splotching risk.

[HalFoster]

Just a quick note on something brought up earlier.  On a whim (and evidently a desire for a hernia) I brought in the 5105A & one of the 5110B's.  Opened them up, cleaned out as many dust bunnies and dead spiders (a lot!) as i could, plugged them in, turned the switches on and....

They friggin' worked.  Over 50 years old, no evidence of even being opened before, and they worked.  Oh, the 5105 has a lot of sticking keys on front - and, of course, I had just ran out of DeoxIT - but they worked.  And the 5110 is spittin' out frequencies only about 12 ppm high after warm up.

Go HP!

Hal

[bitseeker]

Good stuff!

[0culus]

No one builds stuff like that anymore, that's for sure. 

[Sigurd]

What year were those Power Design 2020 supplies made? I've been searching all over and I can't find much information on the years PD models were produced, especially in the 70s and earlier.

[james_s]

That's a lot of cool stuff.

Gotta be careful with that big of a hoard though, make sure there's someone the family can have deal with it if something happens to you. All too often someone passes away and their treasure all goes into a dumpster because nobody in their family has any idea what any of it is or how to separate the good stuff from the crap. To them it all just looks like old junk.