Author Topic: HP 5216A 12.5MHz Electronic Counter  (Read 2332 times)

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Offline SpwhiteTopic starter

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HP 5216A 12.5MHz Electronic Counter
« on: January 22, 2017, 01:32:54 am »
I picked up an HP 5216A 12.5MHz Electronic Counter from a hamfest recently in Loveland CO. I figured it needed a lot of love, based on it’s condition at time of purchase.  After checking it out, found it had a totally fried resistor in the attenuator section and some very, very dirty switch contacts which impacted the general function and the illumination of the Nixi tubes and the processor reset on power up. Both the wafer switches and the rocker switches on the back were nasty. It was a little grungy externally and had some stickers like most gear does. Cleaned it up and cleaned it out. Seems to work after a little repair and tune up. Setting the Crystal Oscillator was a time consuming chore as the the variable caps are not accessible without taking a cover on and off between adjustments.

Note- If you increase the gate time, it does sift the MSBs off the display and increases the digit resolution.

Now what to do with it? I cant find one on ebay to judge "value" so I dont know if it's going to be a keeper or a seller. Thoughts?
 

Online xrunner

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Re: HP 5216A 12.5MHz Electronic Counter
« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2017, 01:43:13 am »

Now what to do with it? I cant find one on ebay to judge "value" so I dont know if it's going to be a keeper or a seller. Thoughts?

Just out of curiosity - how high will it read accurately?  :-//

Do you keep it? Hard to say of course. It's cool because of the nixie tubes alright. Not very useful because of the low range.

If you like the retro nixie tube thing yea I'd keep it for a collector's item, but that's me.  :)
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Offline SpwhiteTopic starter

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Re: HP 5216A 12.5MHz Electronic Counter
« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2017, 01:59:59 am »
Looks like it caps out at 16.6 MHz, at 16.7 it was lost...

Second pic the first 2 MSBs are shifted off, so you are missing the 16MHz at the front of the display "shifted off to the left..."
« Last Edit: January 22, 2017, 02:01:49 am by Spwhite »
 


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