00H15 here. Worked today for a change, on the garage construction. so am tired.
I think I have only a few minutes left of consciousness, minutes that I will spend here with you because I love you all so very much.
Last week I received this bad boy, a new addition to my collection of old glowing Tek instruments...
It's a type 180A, a " Time Mark Generator ". At least that's what it says on the face plate !
It's got a million and one buttons and output jacks, makes it look REALLY expensive !
.. and it has... an OCXO !!! I told you it was expensive !!
I wanted one of those to calibrate my glowing Tek scopes when I will, eventually.. get round to restoring them.
It's more charming and cool to use, than an Arduino. Well, to me at least
I saw it for sale a few weeks ago at 100 Euros here on Leboncoin.fr as always (yeah I know, I ought to check Ebay as well
)
Only one small pic of the front, super crappy, low res, can't enlarge it/zoom on it... so god knows what the inside looked like. Corrosion bucket, missing tubes, who knows...
Obviously sold "as is", what did you expect, a cal certificate or what ?!
So... 100 Euros + shipping for that... no. Still, I added the ad to my "Like" list.
Last week what do you know, ad got relisted, with mucho reduction, straight from 100 down to 40 Euros !
At that price I was willing to take the gamble and bought it. Add 20 Euros shipping, and for 60 Euros shipped I get this beast of a TE.
Overall I am happy, it's in great nick inside out, I mean rust wise, and all the tubes are still in it, a true miracle these days.
However the exterior has suffered from shipping damage, plus 2 strange never seen before mutilations from a previous owner.
Shipping damage, inevitable given the guy shoe horned the Tek into a box with zero padding....
It happened in the lower left corner of the front panel. There lies the grounding post. It took a big hit and moved inward. The post is now bent, pointing upward badly, but the real problem is the impact made a deep dent into the panel. It's concave all around the post, something like a 1/4" deep, I measured. It's BAD.....
I would need to dismantle the chassis to pull the front panel assembly out completely, so I can work on it at the bench. Hopefully I can "massage" it back to soften the damage, but I don't dream of making it flat and flush ever again, seeing as the thin/delicate aluminium of the face plate has been stretched obviously
So thank you fucktard for your packaging !!!
Other 2 cosmetic problems, are two mutilations I can't quite fathom. See pics below obviously.
1) Bottom right corner of the face plate. There are 3 tiny nails stuck in there !?
I removed them, having 3 tiny holes is better to me the having 3 FOD.
2) At the top of the instrument, front of the carry handle bar. There is some FOD again stuck there ! A kind of metallic cylinder...
again !
Again I removed it, now I am left with a threaded hole in the handle bar.. still less shocking to my eyes than this FOD. Maybe I can fill the hole and repaint the handle, since I am inclined to repaint the cabinet anyway as it's quite dark. A fresh coat of Tek blue would make it sparkle and shave decades off of it.
To finish with the cosmetic side of things, some attention is required at the top of the instrument. I have a large sticker residue to clean up, not too worried. Also, a black patch of gooey stuff toward the back... not too worried about that one either, should clean up fine I suspect. The leather handle, real leather this one, is actually not too bad. It's got lots of worn out spots as you can see, but otherwise it's in good nick. I mean it's not completely dried out. 90% of the leather is still there and in decent nick. No loss of material, it's not falling apart/ disintegrating like they often do. ... So I think I could just just clean the leather, then use some leather "repair" product, dyed black, to improve on the worn spots. Should look decent enough. If not well I will have a go at making a new leather handle..
The two chromed pads aren't pitted. They will buff out just fine with chrome polish.
The bare metal / non-chromed 'U' shaped piece that connects the leather with the chromed pads, has surface rust, but that's easy to fix.
So overall I think this handle can be made nice again.
INSIDE
------------
Looks dusty but otherwise excellent. Design is "vertical" for a change. Main deck supports the PSU and the OCXO. Secondary deck holds a shit load of tubes !
That deck opens up like a book, type 310A style, for those in the know. Or like the secondary time base on a 500 scope...
What I don't like is that for some reason, the hinge mechanism for the deck, does not allow to open it fully, 90° wide... even though the wiring harness is not in the way at all. It's purely the hinge that's artificially limiting the opening angle. Sucks, access is therefore not as good as it could be.
OCXO is self contained, in a blue anodized can, that's conveniently socketed, on a "tube like" big octal socket.
Electrical and testing...
--------------------------------------
I noticed about 10 caps that will need to go real soon, no question asked : the black/red Sprague ones. There is even one cap that looks ancient, with a paper body !
It's branded " Cornell Dubilier "...whatever... That one does not inspire a lot of confidence either...
On the secondary deck as you can see I am sure... right off the bat there is at least one bad tube : it's white inside....
Testing : don't have a Variac just yet, but as always I am just too impatient and curious to power it up to see what it might do, if anything.
But I did not want to blow this precious piece of TE either, so I did what I could : I dug out my dim bulb tester. See, I am making an effort here...
First with the power switch on the Tek in the OFF position, I turn the DBT on. The status light for the OCXO heater lights up, as expected.. a lovely bright green that I just love. Too bad the camera is incapable of capturing the actual green, and instead makes it look almost white
OCXO and whatever circuitry might be supporting it on the deck, clearly work : light comes on from cold, for a few minutes... then light turns off and you can hear a relay click (can't see a relay in the cabinet so I guess it must be hiding in the OCXO can itself), then 30 seconds later it comes on again, etc etc... so the heart of the beast, this crucial OCXO, looks like it's working, GREAT !
Then I flip the power switch to the ON position. DBT lights up bright and solid, and the OCXO light turns off.... NOT good. A short somewhere. I am glad I used the DBT then
So I need to find the short so I can test it further.
Stay tuned !
1AM, 45 minutes to type all this, and still the pics to attach !
Freaking going to BED... NOW !!
Too tired for proof-reading, will do tomorrow. for now, you get what you get sorry....
EDIT : proof-reading inside now, free of charge. We hope to see you soon in our store.
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