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Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

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bd139:
Talking of time nuttery my QRP Labs pseudo GPSDO is broken. Won’t find any satellites. Grr. 1pps is still working and it’s still talking. Looks like software problem (typical!). Considering recycling it and building a PLL for it. Have all the bits lying around. Got 4046 PLL and some 74hc390 dividers and some decent quality IQD crystals. Just need to develop a VCO front end for the crystal to pull it on the PLL output.

Can probably get reasonable stability (within 1Hz)  without a TCXO or OCXO if it is locked.

tautech:

--- Quote from: bd139 on July 06, 2018, 07:10:28 am ---Talking of time nuttery my QRP Labs pseudo GPSDO is broken. Won’t find any satellites. Grr. 1pps is still working and it’s still talking. Looks like software problem (typical!). Considering recycling it and building a PLL for it. Have all the bits lying around. Got 4046 PLL and some 74hc390 dividers and some decent quality IQD crystals. Just need to develop a VCO front end for the crystal to pull it on the PLL output.

Can probably get reasonable stability (within 1Hz)  without a TCXO or OCXO if it is locked.

--- End quote ---
Well you do have the PLL and VCO in a single package.  ;)
Build thread ?

Still marvelous some of those old 4k series chips.  :)

bd139:
VCO in the HC4046 is really unstable after a few tens of KHz. If you lock a crystal in the loop it's pretty good though. TBH probably don't need the HC4046 but it has both type 1 and 2 phase comparators so I can have a play on the bench first :)

I love the 4000 series. HC made them fast too  :-+

Cubdriver:

--- Quote from: med6753 on July 06, 2018, 05:54:42 am ---The big reveal....Fluke 1900A Multi-Function Counter.

--- End quote ---

Interesting - the semiconductors almost all appear to be 1979 vintage (think I saw a '78 in there too), but that 'Electrolitico' cap looks like it's early '82.  I wonder if they bought a cargo container of the ICs and used them for years, or if the cap was replaced...  '82 seems pretty early to be replacing a cap.  Hmmm...

The joys of puzzling out the history of old instruments...

Nice score!  Even more so given that it seems to work.  :-+

-Pat

Specmaster:

--- Quote from: Cubdriver on July 06, 2018, 04:40:08 am ---
--- Quote from: Specmaster on July 06, 2018, 02:16:11 am ---@nixiefreqq, I confess my sins looking absolution, if it's any consolation, I do have 3  other HP items that I have no intention of parting with, they are 2 x 3466A and 3478A. As for the Nixie, well I think its gone to a good home where it will be treated like a lord.

The 1740A was too large and heavy for my small bench area which is better suited to a smaller size of scope, which my other 3 are. I know it was not all that long ago that I nursed it back to health after it had been sorely neglected by its previous owner and I do know that it has gone a lover of vintage HP gear and will his jewel in the crown, so all's well that ends well. :popcorn:

--- End quote ---

I suppose it can be looked at as being similar to fostering kittens.  You get them healthy and strong, then let them move on to good homes.  I'm no good at that, which is why I don't foster kittens - I'd have more of them than I currently do test gear.  It's good that some among us can occasionally be dispassionate enough to have the strength to let things move on to new homes when it's appropriate.

-Pat

--- End quote ---
That's a nice way of looking at it, I like to think of it this way that I'm using my skills to source poorly looked after but salvageable items of TE and restore them back to a condition where they can become a usable and valuable piece of TE in someones collection. Helping to keep good items from becoming landfill in very similar vein to bd139 with his Tek scopes, clean them up, renovate what needs doing, recapping etc, using on the bench for a while and then after proving themselves moving them on again, usually for a reasonable profit or at least covering costs. This in turn releases money for even more TE in need of TLC and so the cycle repeats. Problem is though at the moment there is drought on in all the usual channels.

Just like your kittens, there are those items that have become stickies, 3478A, 3466A, TF930, 8840A, TGP110, XJW01, IG-4005, PM3390B, SS5710, V525 and V-7AU along with numerous others

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