Hey Med, is that mess in the scope not just sawdust ?
Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Who the freak knows until I start cleaning. But it DOES stink so I suspect more than "just" sawdust.Some woods do stink as you know but the smell is normally lost after a while as sawdust. Maybe a rat pee'd on the scope and it soaked some in to retain the stink.
Anyways it's probably been stored in a small workshop to get such a coating of dust.....I'm sure it will be just fine Med.
If you think that's bad you should have seen the state of aircooled avionics equipment back in the days when they allowed smoking on aircraft....
If you think that's bad, you should try rummaging around for truck-cab components in an inch of green liquid charitably described as "decomposing animal proteins". I can still remember the smell, and that was more than 30 years ago...
Ugh, I've been behind a knackers truck on the road before. You can still smell them miles after you have passed.
Cool, I haven't seen a chess computer for years. I used to have one, but cannot remember what happened to it
Did you pawn it? You should rook in the attic, it knight be there. You really should check, mate.
mnem
"I... I... I just can't... There isn't enough stockpile to mount an appropriate response; I'd have to import boatloads of soggy ol' boots from England, just to lob them all back across the pond..."
I make no apologies.
In this pad, buns and bad puns are King and Queen, and you bishop remember it!
Mine is easy to work out, but "factory" on it's own was already taken.
Yeah, I think I may have cost you a fair bit and vice versa.
Oh, and the stupidly cheap GenRad LCR arrived. It's currently toasting off the seasonal delivery condensation by the fire. I'll give it a poke with the mains in a bit.
Weighed in a small quantity of offcuts today, sandwich money for all the team next week...
Snow is forecast in 10 minutes. Quattro says: "meh."
This has to be the oldest Solartron I've seen so far: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334232124623Hmmmmm... I do believe I see 3DP spacers made to refit that with modern output terminals and color coding. While I personally couldn't care less, it does set off the ol' anachronism detector something fierce...
Another thought... do we really know if that was even made by the same Solartron we know & love for their "special" connectors...?
mnem
no for me...
Yes. https://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_hersteller_detail.cfm?company_id=8231
Looks to be a newer version of the SRS153 here;
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=160377
The terminals might be replacements but I doubt the spacers are 3DP, but they are fairly old too, probably the sort RS components used to sell.
Note: these are unregulated PSU's.
David
I guess you bid on the 745A, which cost more than the Fluke equivalent (I didn't bid for any of those), as I see you bought must of the other calibrators?
I left most of my bids last night, didn't see ice-tea on any of them,
but lots of bids from lightstream & astonline
Not heard of this manufacturer before, no doubt Robert, Cerebus, or tggzzz can elucidate: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224708780108
Not me.
Someone's going to have fun with that mains cable.
7000 recorder
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vSLl92J68OgTXttoL2nugCa_MGHp0d3w/view
Seems Penny and Giles took them over from EMI.
Their recorders were used for early "digital" (recording was FM) audio work at Abby Road Studios
It says "portable". For Geff Capes maybe. Damm things are at least 43kg (95 lbs). They are a awkward shape / size too.
Thanks, OK so the 53132A is basically a better performing counter than the 53131A, no downsides ! So worth getting if can be found for a similar price as the 53131A.
If you find one without any of the OCXO options, just with the internal XO, you will want to upgrade the timebase. The basic XO is about as nasty as they get, I think basically they include it so it worked out of the box (but cost HP little in BOM terms) for people who were only ever going to feed it from an external reference clock. If you bought one without an option card and didn't have an external reference source you'd be back to buy an option card ten minutes after you'd first turned it on. There are several designs kicking about for DIY OCXO upgrades for the range, including GPSDO ones. With one of the OCXO options it's a fine counter, the top end option (Ultra Stable) is very, very stable, mine drifts considerably less than the specification when compared long term (a week or more) with GPS.
If I lived closer . . .
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161429/lot-181
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161449/lot-201
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161493/lot-245
Outbid but not by much. . .
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161463/lot-215
Missed this one...
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161568/lot-320 - I can't tell if it has option 04 but even if it didn't....
If I lived closer . . .
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161429/lot-181
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161449/lot-201
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161493/lot-245
Outbid but not by much. . .
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161463/lot-215
Missed this one...
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161568/lot-320 - I can't tell if it has option 04 but even if it didn't....
How are you getting this information? I registered but forgot to bid on the voltage divider and the Heathkits but I'm unable to get anything on screen when I log back in again, all the watched items have been erased.
If I lived closer . . .
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161429/lot-181
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161449/lot-201
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161493/lot-245
Outbid but not by much. . .
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161463/lot-215
Missed this one...
https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161568/lot-320 - I can't tell if it has option 04 but even if it didn't....
How are you getting this information? I registered but forgot to bid on the voltage divider and the Heathkits but I'm unable to get anything on screen when I log back in again, all the watched items have been erased.
Either keep bookmarks in your browser, or use arithmetic to derive the URL from an item you won. For example,lot 319 would be https://www2.ppauctions.com/lot/161567/lot-319
Thanks, OK so the 53132A is basically a better performing counter than the 53131A, no downsides ! So worth getting if can be found for a similar price as the 53131A.
If you find one without any of the OCXO options, just with the internal XO, you will want to upgrade the timebase. The basic XO is about as nasty as they get, I think basically they include it so it worked out of the box (but cost HP little in BOM terms) for people who were only ever going to feed it from an external reference clock. If you bought one without an option card and didn't have an external reference source you'd be back to buy an option card ten minutes after you'd first turned it on. There are several designs kicking about for DIY OCXO upgrades for the range, including GPSDO ones. With one of the OCXO options it's a fine counter, the top end option (Ultra Stable) is very, very stable, mine drifts considerably less than the specification when compared long term (a week or more) with GPS.
OK OK ! Wow, no less than 3 OCXO options to choose from, something for everyone !
As I said in a previous post the idea is to get an external 10MHz reference in the lab, so that I can feed it to all my counters present and to come, modern or vintage, and any other piece of gear that might benefit from it (SA ?), or even just use as test signal why not. This way I can select the best 10MHz ref for my budget, performance "requirements", power consumption (since it's gonna be on 24/7 obviously, need to pay attention to that...a 100 Watt ref is not gonna be acceptable). This way I don't have to spent ages to and waste lots of money finding and buying a counter with a rare ultra high stable OCXO, for starters. I can just get the cheap versions of the counter, that are readily available, and call it a day. Also, if I later upgrade the external ref to god knows what, better spec, then all my counters instantly benefit from it.
That's the plan anyhoo !
@Cerebus, did you ever manage to get your hands some wiper blades from Home Bargains in the end? If not they have some in Lidl's at the moment but best move fast as they won't be around for long.
No, and "that was ages ago". I did actually put some new blades on for the winter the other day, modern whooshy aerodynamic one-piece ones from Lucas.
Lucas? Don't use them in the dark.
Son, I say son, if your wiper blades help you to see in the dark then we're back to them ray-dee-O-active materials and them's not what you're wantin' to be makin' wiper blades, I say wiper blades, from.
Oh, and the stupidly cheap GenRad LCR arrived. It's currently toasting off the seasonal delivery condensation by the fire. I'll give it a poke with the mains in a bit.
Oh no.... this one just popped up here :
https://www.leboncoin.fr/bricolage/2077988887.htm
An interesting one I can't have !
...
Well I guess that's OK.... let's see the positive side : it evidenced my growing interest for old HP stuff.... so now I will be on the lookout and maybe search actively for cheap interesting pieces like this one, and start a little collection....just a handful of items, not more, promised... and no boat anchors (NO vintage two piece spectrum analyzer or such ! ).
So that was my " HP coming out " I guess ?! Great, like I was not in enough trouble with my glowing Tek scope addiction... now I am getting into HP stuff as well.... I am in great danger, I really am
Yep, HP/Agilent made lots of nice little things to collect. I got bitten by that bug before Tek.
Note that the 3310A and 3310B are 5 MHz generators (not just 1 MHz) -- not that you needed any more reason to get one.
Oh you are right, 5MHz not 1MHz ! Google told me 1MHz ! ... but looking at the pic more closely, highest range is 100kHz and main dial goes up to 50 ! Hmmm... I need to find a reason not to buy one... Oh I found something ! It does NOT have an attenuator !
MY old Philips has three 20dB attenuators, so up to 60dB, which I do find very practical.
Todays crazy eBay valuation https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/392307906399
I think the original price new was around £500 and has recently been discontinued, so this price is utterly stupid.
MY old Philips has three 20dB attenuators, so up to 60dB, which I do find very practical.So does mine although I wouldn't even dream of using the old POS these days.
They are not just yesterdays technology but mid last century.
Was very temped to pop it the inorganic recycling a couple of weeks back.
Vince,
I got the control panel out. All the minitrons work but one looks a bit dim. Don't know if it's a display or drive issue. They are socketed so easy to find out. You only need four for a clock It has a greenish night vision goggle (NVG) compatible display filter this needs a clean.
It does have a fault, it looks like the on/off/function switch is faulty. There is an internal 12V regulator and if I put voltage on that it works but there is no continiuity between the regulator positive input and any pin on the connector (pin U is 0V).
Additional good news is that I have manuals that include details of an internally identical control head, it just has a different pin out. The logic is all standard CMOS at 12V and would be easy to interface to.
I think it's worth £30
It's just under 1kg packed so postage would be £10
Send me a private messageif interested.
Sounds cool, deal !
Dim display I can relocated in the middle to be the separator between HH and MM. It being dim would then not look odd but might even be seen as a subtle feature. Defective mode switch well according to the diagram all switches including this one are just simple/ basic mechanical switches, not encoders.. so maybe it can be fixed without too much trouble...
Great that you have the diagram for the thing ! So there is no CPU at all in this thing, all discrete logic !
Quite a lot of chips then... and no SMD chips back then I guess... so all DIP packages ?? I am sure it's all very compact in there, but still... I guess this unit is not as tiny as I thought initially from looking at the pic. Maybe it's not the size of a match box after all... maybe it's the size of a match box... and a half !
So looks like the displays are multiplexed, cool.... not too many pins to interface with then, will make integrating my own H/W in such a cramped space... much easier than I thought. Still very tight I am sure, but feasible at least...well I think... hope.... we shall see how it goes once I have it on my bench !
Do yo have a high resolution picture of the diagram ? A bit hard to read as it is.
Can't wait to tear it apart to see how it's put together !
You can start packing the thing, this puppy is now mine....
Ahh you youngsters. Just becuse it has a digital display and a serial data bus output does not mean it has to have a microprocessor. It doese not even have lot of discrete logic. The rotary switches produce parallel data. This is decoded (multiplexed digit by digit for input as well as display) and decoded for 7 segment display. A PISO shift register takes the same data from the switches and puts it out on the serial bus.
It is all discrete logic. I'll put the infoI have on a CD for you. I've already soldered a red and black wire to the input of the 12V regulator internally and brought them out under the cover. So just connect those to anywhere between 15 and 28V DC and it will basically work.
Edit: It is all DIL ICs. 3 or 4 small PCBs so not too bad to work on.
ICs? Who needs ICs for digital logic?
The divide-by-10 circuits in the 1965 Tek 184 use only 3 transistors. How do they do that? Having debugged mine, that's a rhetorical question!
Even earlier was the 1962 Tektronix Type 6R1 plug-in for the 567 oscilloscope. In particular have a look at the "memory" board. Notice how wonderfully ergonomic the displays are.
Just like with the Japs...
I don't know if you realise, but that there's a racial slur...
Na, just further evidence that Antipodeans feel the need to come up with a two or less syllable shorthand for any word of three or more syllables - I mean, who else would shorten 'afternoon' (and make it easy to confuse with a pear, also shortened because of its terrifying four syllables).
Also very very interesting.....
I confess my sin, until today I was thinking VxI electric power flows inside the electric cables.
Just ignore the misleading part....