Wavetek 23 croaks, anyone know of "notorious" falure areas?
in [Design]
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From: Joerg on 5 May 2010 21:53 krw(a)att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz wrote: > On Wed, 5 May 2010 17:17:22 -0700, "Joel Koltner" > <zapwireDASHgroups(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > >> "Joerg" <invalid(a)invalid.invalid> wrote in message >> news:84efjbFemaU1(a)mid.individual.net... >>> Detroit's nightmare: An elegant elderly lady in front of Costco, loading >>> upscale food items into an Austin Healey. Her first car, she bought it used >>> in 1961, still looked almost like new. "I guess it'll survive me ..." she >>> said. >> Would that be because it has no seat belts nor air bags to protect her in case >> some teen driving a Humvee crashes into her, sending her body flying around >> the passenger compartment while the car itself remains relatively unschatched? >> ;-) >> >> I expect you've watched, "The Man in the White Suit," right? Admit it -- you >> want to be Sidney Stratton! :-) > > Nah, I much prefer black. White suit? In fact, suit? Yeah, I do have a > go-to-interview only suit hanging up in the closet. Yep, black. ;-) I guess > it has been off the hanger once since I interviewed for my present job; my > mother's funeral. Didn't you work at IBM? At least it used to be that everyone had to wear a dark-blue suit. With tie, and that alone would drive me nuts if doing engineering work. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
From: krw on 5 May 2010 23:57 On Wed, 05 May 2010 18:53:35 -0700, Joerg <invalid(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: >krw(a)att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz wrote: >> On Wed, 5 May 2010 17:17:22 -0700, "Joel Koltner" >> <zapwireDASHgroups(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >> >>> "Joerg" <invalid(a)invalid.invalid> wrote in message >>> news:84efjbFemaU1(a)mid.individual.net... >>>> Detroit's nightmare: An elegant elderly lady in front of Costco, loading >>>> upscale food items into an Austin Healey. Her first car, she bought it used >>>> in 1961, still looked almost like new. "I guess it'll survive me ..." she >>>> said. >>> Would that be because it has no seat belts nor air bags to protect her in case >>> some teen driving a Humvee crashes into her, sending her body flying around >>> the passenger compartment while the car itself remains relatively unschatched? >>> ;-) >>> >>> I expect you've watched, "The Man in the White Suit," right? Admit it -- you >>> want to be Sidney Stratton! :-) >> >> Nah, I much prefer black. White suit? In fact, suit? Yeah, I do have a >> go-to-interview only suit hanging up in the closet. Yep, black. ;-) I guess >> it has been off the hanger once since I interviewed for my present job; my >> mother's funeral. > > >Didn't you work at IBM? They were paying me to, anyway, for 32 1/2 years. Now they're just paying me. ;-) >At least it used to be that everyone had to wear a dark-blue suit. With tie, >and that alone would drive me nuts if doing engineering work. When I started I wore a sports jacket to and from but never at work and even that didn't last long. Within a year the jacket and tie were gone forever. I don't believe I ever wore a suit to work at IBM. Suits were reserved for weddings and funerals only. ...and that was limited to one a year. ;-)
From: Phil Hobbs on 6 May 2010 00:39 On 5/5/2010 12:09 PM, Joerg wrote: > miso(a)sushi.com wrote: >> On May 4, 2:22 pm, Joerg <inva...(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: >>> So here I am, doing variable line frequency test and ... phssss ... PHUT >>> ... *BAM* ... followed by a stench wafting about. I looked at what was >>> supposed to be 265V/50Hz sine and found a totally distorted 1Hz, plus >>> lots of heat in my amp which luckily survived. >>> >>> Turns out the Wavetek 23 function generator became totally "loose" in >>> frequency. Have to wrap up some stuff today so I tried and was able to >>> goose it to 50Hz by cranking it to 995Hz (above 1kHz it completely loses >>> it). But that's a white-knuckle ride because the test runs mostly >>> unattended. >>> >>> Does anyone know whether these things have a typical pathology that can >>> be fixed? Like this or that cable always comes loose, etc.? I have >>> re-seated the EPROM, battery is fine, re-seated connectors, nada. I do >>> have the manual but diagnosing it from synthesizer to the end will take >>> hours because it's a uC driven instrument. >>> >>> -- >>> Regards, Joerg >>> >>> http://www.analogconsultants.com/ >>> >>> "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. >>> Use another domain or send PM. >> >> Hey, it's Livermore Swap meet this Sunday. >> >> To say I'm not a fan of Wavetek puts it mildly. Their stuff breaks >> often. > > > Well, mechanically the units do not make a very good impression. > Electrically they are usually ok. Ok, was, for this one :-( > My first Wavetek function generator, circa 1981, had a 50 ohm output that blew up when I put 50 ohms on it. Had to replace the output transistors with something much beefier, which slowed down the edges--but at least the power supply could drive the 50 ohms! Cheers Phil Hobbs -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal ElectroOptical Innovations 55 Orchard Rd Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 845-480-2058 hobbs at electrooptical dot net http://electrooptical.net
From: miso on 6 May 2010 00:59 On May 5, 9:09 am, Joerg <inva...(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: > m...(a)sushi.com wrote: > > On May 4, 2:22 pm, Joerg <inva...(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: > >> So here I am, doing variable line frequency test and ... phssss ... PHUT > >> ... *BAM* ... followed by a stench wafting about. I looked at what was > >> supposed to be 265V/50Hz sine and found a totally distorted 1Hz, plus > >> lots of heat in my amp which luckily survived. > > >> Turns out the Wavetek 23 function generator became totally "loose" in > >> frequency. Have to wrap up some stuff today so I tried and was able to > >> goose it to 50Hz by cranking it to 995Hz (above 1kHz it completely loses > >> it). But that's a white-knuckle ride because the test runs mostly > >> unattended. > > >> Does anyone know whether these things have a typical pathology that can > >> be fixed? Like this or that cable always comes loose, etc.? I have > >> re-seated the EPROM, battery is fine, re-seated connectors, nada. I do > >> have the manual but diagnosing it from synthesizer to the end will take > >> hours because it's a uC driven instrument. > > >> -- > >> Regards, Joerg > > >>http://www.analogconsultants.com/ > > >> "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. > >> Use another domain or send PM. > > > Hey, it's Livermore Swap meet this Sunday. > > > To say I'm not a fan of Wavetek puts it mildly. Their stuff breaks > > often. > > Well, mechanically the units do not make a very good impression. > Electrically they are usually ok. Ok, was, for this one :-( > > -- > Regards, Joerg > > http://www.analogconsultants.com/ > > "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. > Use another domain or send PM. I had worked at a place where they bought a lot of used Wavetek gear. Doing some investigation, it seems the bean counters preferred to keep the assets of the company low, favoring to repair the junk since repairs could be expensed. HP made a fair amount of junky function generators too. The problem is it is too easy to make a function generator, so there are too many players. I liked those old Stanford Research generators. They are rarely seen surplus, but cheap enough to buy new. http://www.thinksrs.com/products/DS345.htm The fun starts when you have a few of these since they can all be phase locked.
From: JosephKK on 6 May 2010 08:18
On Tue, 04 May 2010 14:22:54 -0700, Joerg <invalid(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: >So here I am, doing variable line frequency test and ... phssss ... PHUT >... *BAM* ... followed by a stench wafting about. I looked at what was >supposed to be 265V/50Hz sine and found a totally distorted 1Hz, plus >lots of heat in my amp which luckily survived. > >Turns out the Wavetek 23 function generator became totally "loose" in >frequency. Have to wrap up some stuff today so I tried and was able to >goose it to 50Hz by cranking it to 995Hz (above 1kHz it completely loses >it). But that's a white-knuckle ride because the test runs mostly >unattended. > >Does anyone know whether these things have a typical pathology that can >be fixed? Like this or that cable always comes loose, etc.? I have >re-seated the EPROM, battery is fine, re-seated connectors, nada. I do >have the manual but diagnosing it from synthesizer to the end will take >hours because it's a uC driven instrument. For all equipment, first round from the shotgun, replace all large power semi's and all large electrolytics, and anything that looks burnt. It is still a matter of track record, the power parts go first. Next, diagnose the frequency problem; it won't be worth a damn until fixed. |