Oh quick impromptu tear down !
As I was under the bench cutting that notch, all the stuff that I hid under the bench suddenly was smiling at me and reminded me of its existence.
So I noticed this piece of TE that I thought would entertain my TE friends for a few minutes... so you have to guess what it is !!
Bottom line is, you can say whatever you want because your guess is as good as mine, or probably better even
!
It's some random old junk a guy gave me as a free bonus for buying whatever he was selling on leboncoin.fr . Was 4 or 5 years ago. I guess I must have bought an old scope from him, and he threw this weird piece of TE as a gift. didn't have the heart to say " No please keep your junk ". I just don't know how to say no to people... the thought of making them sad if I said no, breaks my heart... so I just say yes and then dispose of the things later as I see fit... I figured well, I can always salvage some parts from it... it's free so nothing to lose after all !
So here are some pics.
It looks like some custom piece of TE made by French company " MATRA " for their own / internal purposes. The plaque at the rear says it was made in 1982 but the design inside screams early '70's...
Plaque says it was property of the state. Says it's from the Matra " ENGINS " division. No nothing to do with engines. In French " Engins " refers more to heavy duty industrial special purpose / utility vehicles. Like excavators, bulldozers, big cranes, things like that.... industrial, big, and that moves... no consumer stuff...
Plaque says the device is a " PILOTE MARTEL ". I don't know what a "Martel " is....
It's rack mount, half width but fulllllll length !
At the back, no standard IEC power socket, instead a couple round heavy duty connectors, aircraft industrially looking. Looks the business is what I am saying...
There is a 3 pin one for power input, and the other one has more pins, it's labeled " Output, 400Hz source ". Next to it, some pencil markings that give the pinout for this connector I think. There are 3 "Phases", two pins for each one, then ground. So 3 phase 400Hz. Isn't 400Hz for aircraft systems ? Maybe it was used also in the industry at large, not just aerospace ?!
I think Matra did have an Aerospace division but the plaque says Heavy machinery division, not Aerospace...
Then at the front it reads at the top : " 400Hz 30VA Source ". OK... so this thing takes mains power maybe, and generates a 400Hz 3 phase power supply, rated at 30VA. Now we are getting somewhere I guess...
There is a meter movement with a voltage scale that goes up to 250V. Also a pot that looks like it's used to fine tune the voltage at 200V within +/- 10%.
Then a rotary switch, 3 positions, unmarked. It just displays '1', '2' or '3'. I guess something to do with the 3 phases...
Then at the bottom a couple banana jacks that say " External Measurements".
So... I guess this thing is a 400Hz 3 phase 30VA power supply, that takes god knows what power as an input, is rack mounted with the output at the rear, and at the front you have jacks to monitor the voltage of each phase, which should be about 200V, and you can fine tune the amplitude within 10%
How cool is that ?
I am not sure....
I think that's the kind of stuff Robert would know about... more than me at least !
Should I try to power it from 240V mains see if it explodes ?....
I wish I had a Variac, I could bring it up slowly / safely and see how it reacts...
As far as internal construction and parts to salvage... here goes.
Back half of the instrument looks like the power supply stuff, with filter caps and 3 transformers. A big one and two smaller identical ones.
Front half hosts a back plane that can carry up to 7 boards. 5 are fitted. On the chassis next to each female socket, there is a short description of what each board does, as you can see.
It goes like this, starting with the board nearest the rear of the instrument, progressing forward :
1) 40V 40W
2) +/- 15V
3) Amplifier ' B '
4) Amplifier ' A '
5) 0 to 90° gene(rator ? I guess)
I pulled all 5 boards for you to admire and satisfy your curiosity as well as mine.
The two amplifier boards look identical. They have one SMA looking coax connector. A coax in a power supply ?!
Other than that, on the sides of the instruments we have 3 large heat sinks, each carrying a couple 2N3055 power transistors. So at least I could salvage that.
This Tear Down was brought to you by ElectroFrog. You shall now resume your normal activities.