| Electronics > Repair |
| Gigatronics 6100 Repair |
| (1/4) > >> |
| Nitrousoxide:
Hi all, I recently acquired a Gigatronics 6100 2Ghz to 8Ghz frequency synthesizer. It did turn on for the first few times, and then after a while proceeded to stop functioning (it turns on, but sits in some sort of locked up state with the VFD partially lit, LED display not lit). When it did work, it would fail the self test (throwing an error 0/PLL error). Im starting a thread as there seems to be little to no information online in terms of service manuals. Ill document the steps I take just in case someone else comes across this in need. Photo of the inside: So two questions to start off: By any chance does anyone have, or know where to get service manuals for the 6100? The inside consists of cards (see picture). Some of the cards are well and truly stuck inside the slots, and I'm not afraid to use a bit of force... but even when I did they didn't budge at all. Does anyone have any tips as how to free stuck cards? |
| dacman:
What I would use for the stuck cards is a little LPS-1 (a lubricant I use for electronics). Do the cards have holes that could be used with a card puller? One could be made out of an old clothes hanger with a thread spool for a handle. It should connect to the card at two places in order to distribute force evenly. |
| Nitrousoxide:
--- Quote from: dacman on February 17, 2019, 08:52:29 pm ---What I would use for the stuck cards is a little LPS-1 (a lubricant I use for electronics). Do the cards have holes that could be used with a card puller? One could be made out of an old clothes hanger with a thread spool for a handle. It should connect to the card at two places in order to distribute force evenly. --- End quote --- Yes they have holes. Ive attempted to shimmy cards out by one side at a time, but I will try your homebew suggestion. I cant seem to source LPS-1. However, as it seems like a generic spray on lubrican, I'm going too see if I can source one locally that isnt agressive and is non conductive. Another statement I should make is that the device did power on (boot) before I opened the lid. The only difference I could tell was pressure being placed on the cards. I tried putting the lid back on but to no avail it would not boot. At that time the only change I had made was taking the lid on an off, not even touching any cards. However, there does seem to be some form of degrading RF gasket that crumbles away on touch. Its non conductive at DC, however, I wouldnt trust it. Im going to suck away all the crumbs and the remaining, |
| Nitrousoxide:
I think I can declare this repair not worth the financial investment or time from this point on... I didn't connect the correlation at the time. But when I had taken the top of the case off, the unit ceased to work even once placing the case together again. Pulling the cards to visually inspect them I see a UV erasable EPROM (am27c64-150dc) which was not visible from the top view of all the cards |O |O There is another card that contains ROM chips that I assume holds the majority of the software, however, Its probably safe to assume that this ROM chip held some form of bootloader that has now vanished. I find it a bit odd since there was nothing covering the window... Wouldn't stray UV light slowly degrade the bits inside the memory? The card wasn't placed in any form of light trap. What excellent design :palm:. Id assume there's absolutely no way of recovery. EDIT: I wouldn't call it a total loss... The RF modules inside are significantly derated and would make a nice addition to my arsenal. EDIT2: It lives! (Kinda). The VFD and half the front panel do not work. I assume reseating cards will possibly resurrect this issue. |
| wulfman:
It takes a LOT of UV to erase an eprom, just missing a label wont kill them especially inside the case. Be sure to look for a battery. some times batteries leak and cause corrosion. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |