Wavetek 154 programmable waveform generator

[trobbins]

Just finished repairing and calibrating a Wavetek 154 from the mid 1980's.  With 1 millihertz to 10 MHz range, and basic +/-10Vpp square, triangle, sine and +/-10V DC offset functions, and sine distortion down to 0.1% THD for audio range it works well as a basic generator.  I haven't yet tried the VCA, VCG or remote control functions.

My unit showed heat stress associated with heavy loading (it is rated for 50 ohm loading to 7.5V max AC+DC) of output amplifier - stressed output stage resistors and failed +/- 23V power supply filter caps (the fault).  I couldn't fault the other power supply electrolytics for capacitance, leakage or ESR, so they stayed in.  The unit comes with its own extender board to assist repair of the plug-in modules.  Each of the two plug in power supply modules can be tested on their own with a variac input, to confirm regulation, but all boards need to be in when supplying full mains to avoid heavy loading on some rails.

It has analog setting of frequency bands, so no crystal locking like a HP3325.