Hey Mr. Carlson, re. removing controls from the front, I had an old pair of needlenose pliers which no longer closed correctly. I ground the ends off & wrapped the ends in two layers of package tape. I use these modified pliers to remove the nuts on faceplates. This helps protect the faceplate from scrapes. Thank you very much for yet another very instructional video.
Should be at sea now but a bad accident and a broken back keeps me at home. Why not learn electronics when I’m able to sail I will have increased my electronics knowledge! Always a plus!
Ive got one of these units on my bench right now. I finished the re- cap process. Next up I tested the R’s and replace anything off value. You answered my Q about the shaft coupler on the Freq. control. I forgot about that theory over the years. Thanks! My only problem occurs ar the top band. If I adjust and calibrate 100 Kilohz and tracking is good the square wave looses its integrity and looks more like a sine wave. The frequency begins to go ooff cal.around 200 Khz and the end of top range is 250Khz. The 6SN7 is the original EICO tube, it tests good in my EICO tube tester. All the components in the square wave shaper test good and Caps were replaced. I did not use a 1k ohm resister across the output when I tested it
27:00 - Good point. One common cleaner NEVER to use on aluminum is Simple Green. It will attack it over time, and you can never quite get it off. Paint won't stick. Beautiful restoration, BTW.
Unless you want frosted white aluminum that is. Not a bad look... if you want it. A lot of 'degreasers' will attack aluminum. In food service, there's this 'generic' purple degreaser that will turn aluminum white instantly. A single drop and there's a permanent white dot on an aluminum surface. Oh, and you are not getting it off. It is corroded aluminum deep into the surface. You would have to grind it off, completely resurface the aluminum. I don't know about paint sticking or not, I would have thought the inverse would be true, due to the pitting.
Your knowledge never ceases to amaze me. “A car battery sitting next to it…” WHO ELSE would instantly know that? 🙌 Hehe,I also liked ,”The only way to get this stuff off is to remove it” 😁
In the Army most of our radio equipment was battery operated by 2 x 12 volt batteries. In the shop we had a vented area under a bench. The batteries sat on a wooden pallet, not on concrete.venting was a must, now you can see why. My friend owns a plating company. I set him up with a computer in the office. So he decides it would make better sense to have it in the shop for time card record keeping . It lasted two months. He called me to fix it under warranty. When I got it in my shop Nd opened it up, the sulphuric acid had totally destroyed the circuit boards. We ended up in small claims court and the judge laughed at him, awarding me the judgement. Common sense says fumes are fumes!
I cracked laughing when you said: "Well, that's a good sign......wave". This is by far the cleanest and the most "attention to detail" channel on TH-cam. Congrats, Paul!
You have out done yourself on this video. Knowledge, experience and humor. On many of your tube related restorations you caution viewers about the presence of high voltages and a nasty surprise they will receive if they make contact. And just how many times have you experienced getting zapped? And yes, it can hurt.
*"Another GREAT Paul Carlson video!!!"* Agree 100% P.C. is a great host. He's never posted a video that I've haven't learned just a little bit more about the mysteries of electronics. Thanks, Paul! ... and btw, I've got to get me one of those 'WALABOT' thingies. Don't want to go around accidentally drilling holes in my rats, you know!
I had to chuckle at your comment, "smoke generator"!. Throughout my 22 years in the Navy, I always referred to the initial power up of a repaired piece of equipment as the "smoke test".
😂30 years ago when I was young boy that spider compo net in hands will be like scrap but in these days that's something - vintage. You are a very clever man 👍
Ok, you got me. I’ll be be going over and signing on at your patreon channel. I have wanted to for quite a while but my limited available time has held me back. Your plan for the low voltage capacitor tester is irresistible however. Of course you realize those high prices on the old style capacitor testers is probably in large part because of your excellent teachings and now many of us interested in the old gear want to have one.
Excellent video! It's amazing that you're going to share that new circuit with us. That's true love for the community. I can't wait to spare some free time and build it and others like the Super Probe. Thanks!!
One reason not to be too fussy about the frequency trimmer setting is that there is about a 5% frequency variation between the ranges, as demonstrated around 1:32:15. This variation would be due to the tolerances of the resistors connected to the range switch. It would also have been interesting, after tuning the trimmer, so see how well the frequency matched at the high end of the dial, though nothing could be done about that. By the way, I own one of those Heathkit IT-11 capacitor checkers. I would not be surprised if it itself contained capacitors in need of some replacement!
These videos are always top notch! Love putting them on to learn more about electronics and as a nice background video for doing other tasks!I enjoy you safety perspective! I always try to do the best I can an avoid touching anything. So far I have yet to get shocked! But I do like the old tube equipment, I only fear it when first powering on after work or testing before working on it. That's when I think it will blow up! I hate that part but boy, do I love vacuum tubes!
The use of a light bulb as a PTC element to create a low-distortion audio oscillator is what put Hewlett-Packard in business in 1939. I imagine EICO jumped on it as soon as HP's patent expired.
@@MrCarlsonsLab Still quite widely used in aerospace, as far as I know. Just because it has been known to work for decades and even if it has issues, they know EXACTLY which issues and how to address them.
Nice restoration! Thanks Paul. "This capacitor could almost be used as an oscillator". lol!! That was funny. Can't wait to check out your new capacitor checker. I normally check capacitance, ESR, and insulation tester.
It looks like 8 people still reform capacitors lol Great video as always. I really liked your method of stripping the chassis. The Pi filter also looks like the Greek symbol Pi. EICO makes nice gear. I have an EICO Model 249 VTVM that lives on my bench and an EICO 369 Marker Generator waiting for some attention .
@Dave Micolichek 100% agree. I just rebuilt a linear power supply at work. All of the electrolytics tested bad. 5000uF 50V cap had high ESR and measured 30uF, the 100uF 50V cap tests at 4uF and high ESR, the smaller ones were all out of tolerance. The supply runs 24/7, cost about $350 to replace or $30.00 to repair (the big cap was $26). When it failed it destroyed a $800 DeviceNet card. I keep telling people that the future of electronics is going to be filled with failed PSU's and the fault will almost always be electrolytics.
Just looked at the valve gear I have built in the past 2 1/2 years. Ahhhh. Put valve/tube sockets in from the top. whoooops!!!! Some forward planning that I simply did not think of.
Until now I was checking leaking capacitors with an small (and very low current) inverter module from Ebay, but checking at 27 volt definitely spark my curiosity. I'm waiting for it!
Talk about nostalgia, I had one of those generators. Used it to make someone quit work by feeding ultrasonic in to a tweeter that was hidden in an air vent in his office.
Problem with low-voltage testers is: One cannot be sure, if the cap will stand the nominal voltage: General leakage can be detected, but you have no chance to make sure, that the cap will hold up under higher voltage, which - for applications where the voltage rating is of importance - might not be sufficient.
Hi Paul, if you have the Eico 235 VTVM, could you do a restore video on it. I have the 235 and it's manual. I was given it when I worked on TV's years ago.
"Un cours magistralement orchestré" as we say in France. Great video as usual. I have solid state 1977 Heathkit IG-5282F BF generator using also a Wien bridge with a JFET's oscillator and the circuit is very close. Still using it ! The EICO model described here should have much better performances thought!
Excellent restoration Paul but it would have been difficult removing the wiring from the chassis if the tube sockets had been fitted to the other side of the chassis ( on the top side ) !!
How did you detemine that it was cad plated and not zinc (galvanized)? Did you see that yellowish tinge typical of cad plating? Anyway, I would have been tempted to zinc plate it after you sand blasted it, rather than use the cold galv spray paint. A lot of car restorers electroplate after blasting.
Greetings, I am a Patreon viewing some of your old videos; I have a quick question. About 40 years ago, I purchased an old VOM at an auction. It is extremely old, no brand name or badge on her. The case is wooden, the face a sort of red material. it has two rows of plugs one down each side, no labels on them, and a rheostat in the middle The meter is very heavy with a couple of scales. The plugs look like a probe end from a modern meter could be inserted. It had two Winchester D cells in the back that I sold at a gun show for twenty buck, they were quite dead but a Winchester collector wanted them. Ever seen anything like that?
Hello! I found a Philco 7070 I will go through soon. It's the fist time I've ever seen a paper and wax cap. I was afraid if I looked too close it would burst into flames! Shrodingers Cap? ;)
Dear Mr. Carlson, Great video, I have an Eico 377 audio generator. I to am going to restore this, mine was from the 1960 and has the silver panel. One question I have, I read where the rectifier tube can short in these units, can this be an issue when using this on the bench? Thank you kindly for your help....
Enjoyed very much but one of those times I kept dropping my phone as my eyes kept shutting, never work on this stuff if you’re over tired nor shop on Ebay because you will accidentally hit the buy it now! Fact I have!
OMG just finished the video. That thing looks brand new !!! In a sense it is brand new. Question... how much you want for it lol Hahahhahaha You did a great job on that Paul !!
I didn't know they used cadmium so casually in the '50s. Even though bioaccumulation might not have been known by then, its acute toxicity should have prevented them from using it on exposed surfaces. And it doesn't even seem to do a good job at corrosion protection. What was the reason?
That was one sweet unit and an interesting and rewarding restoration to follow. Time to see if Paypal will accept my credit card so I can join you on Patreon (sadly I doubt it, normally it should require a digital signature for each transaction to avid fraud - so stupid of PP to require a card for monthly fees).
If that is cadmium plate and it has gone black from battery acid fumes, you now have cadmium sulphide plating. So does it have any photo electric semi conductor effect.
Mr Carlson I know Its 6 years ago, I,m in my mid 60's Blind in 1 eye, cant see so good out the other, I have always wanted to fix old radio's, and I have been Pretty Lucky, I have fixed a lot though the Years, I grew up as a Carpenter, 48 years ,last 20 was in NY city. But Back to the 377, I found it in the dump, Its in nice shape, I thought I did a Nice clean job, Installing all new resistors and Bought the kit off of Ebay, for capacitors and new cord , But for some reason My voltages are still too High, at some of the tubes, The voltages at transformer, says it's 275 volts, Mine is 300v coming out. what could be wrong. Any help would be Appreciated.
Hi Brian, here are some suggestions from an electrical engineer: 1. Check the mains voltage. If you measured 300V without load, then this is normal 2. Check the rectified voltage before and after the choke; this will give you an idea of the condition of your rectifier tube. 3. Check the cathode and grid voltages of the oscillator and output tubes. If the tubes have lost their emission, the cathode voltages will be low and the anode voltages will be high. 4. Check for errors in the values of the resistors you replaced.
I would probably enjoy your electronics course, but I don't have enough money to pay attention lol. Old guy, fixed income. And it doesn't fix much. Good thing the house is paid for .
He has another video that has the heading "Signal generator troubleshooting repair and modification" that signal generator is an Precision E-200-C is that one and this EICO different? or are they the same thing/ do the same function? Does anyone know?Thank you
Hi Paul, I don't know how orthodox you are on restorations, but adding a neatly placed BNC jack may not be a bad idea (as long it as it doesn't clash with the "look" of the panel). I would add two.. the 2nd would be a 50-ohm square wave output driven from a single 74HC14 fed from a 7805 running off the heater supply, likely. The tiny dead-bug circuit shown by W2AEW (see: TDR using an oscilloscope ) is soldered to the back of the BNC so it's close to the jack and offers 2ns edge rise time, making this good-looking old-timer able to keep up to specs and signal purity of any modern equipment.. OK, that's my 2-cents for the day.
Simply amazing Paul. I think you topped this one. The detail of the restoration was great. Sine.......wave, loved it!. Thanks for sharing your brilliance.
The oscillator circuit in this piece really is still in use! We literally just talked about this type of oscillator in my college op-amp course over the past week! Great restoration as always.
Thanks for taking the time to warn folks about the dangers of cadmium. An excellent restoration. I wish you did a comparison of the frequency output on the different scales, checked by the frequency counter. Also, your discussions about electronic design using the schematic are always excellent. Learn something new on every video.
@ 40:55 , we can see you added a new power cord (to assembly instruction original connections) , and @ 54:20 you state that an old electrolytic cap, if shorting out, can burn up your B+ and filament transformer, but, how about installing a properly rated fuse in this older equipment to protect it better from future component failures that may damage hard to obtain or irreplaceable components? Some of this old Eico, and Heathkit gear (and other manufacturer / models as well) , have no fusing on the primary line/mains side, but if you check similar newer models of the same types of equipment it was added over the years. If no fuse is added, that unfused line/mains circuit will feed your transformer, or in some AA5 configurations (with a solid state rectifier, the shorted filter capacitor/s,) all the current they can ask for until the smoke show is over. Granted, like you said, this is your device to do what you want with, but IMO checking for proper fusing, and adding it if it is not there, is a good practice to follow.
Hi Paul, great video again! My goodness that was a labor of love. You are fortunate to have access to the bead blaster, it is one of my favorite restoration tools. Very Sherlock Holmes of you to deduce the black corrosion on the Cad plating to attack from Sulphide from Lead Acid batteries. I have seen a yellow corrosion on Cad plated chassis before, but not black fortunately. I simply devour and delight at each and every new video here and on Patreon. I'm just finishing building my take on the Cap discharge device. I really enjoy your videos, brilliant engineering, and dry sense of humor. You truly are a treasure and I admire and appreciate EVERYTHING, you do. Sincerely, Gary Bevis
The amount of technical detail that I learn from your videos absolutely blows away anything that I have learned in any of the university level electronics courses that I have ever taken. Awesome work!
You're correct about the price of "old" test gear selling for ridiculous prices today. Just the other day an unassembled IT-11 sold for $480 on eBay. Also, I noticed comments on the Antique Radios forum re your Capacitor Tester. The envy and jealousy is almost palpable.
Thanks again for your video on restoring the very early Eico 377 Signal generator. What a beautiful job you did on that sig gen…. I really appreciate the fact that you emphasize safety when working around high voltage and expressing that some early test equipment can be dangerous to use… The most enjoyable part of the video is when you totally went over the schematic and explained the circuit design and how it works… It brings back memories from when I was 13 and built many of the Eico kits which I still use now at the age of 76… Thanks again I'm a new fan …. Walter
Here's an idea for a separate video; how about an edit of your past work, showing how each type of component typically fails. OTOH, perhaps more useful, would be a video series of very short (perhaps 5 minute) videos all in the theme of "How xxxxx typically fails" along with your preferred remedy.
Hi Paul, Eico did a verry good job to the faceplate design. They choose the collors that perfect matched to my eyes :-) I like that.... Thanks to you for bringing back gear like this to life. This was again a verry impressive video.
Hello Paul, I just wanted to add that muriatic acid also works very nicely for removing galvanizing and cadmium from metal. I really enjoy your videos, you do an excellent job of it. Please don't ever stop. Joe n0usg
After watching this video last friday, i bought the cleanest (and cheapest!) Eico 324 on ebay, and went through it and replaced all out of spec parts, rebuilt the power section, checked alignment, and am now cleaning up the enclosure. I think ill be doing the same witha model 377 next! Thanks, Mr. Carlson!
Once a month I would splurge with my spare cash and buy an EICO test equipment kit . EICO's business took a dive when it entered the home electronics field with radios, tuners and amplifiers. Their meat and potatoes potatoes was test equipment . These days i spend time restoring vintage EICO test gear. The 460 is on my bench right now.
I've never been a fan of people who think old stuff should be just put in some glass case and observed. Why not keep using it? We have too much waste in our modern society. So many old things are thrown away for no good reason.
Mr Carlson, I have watched many of your videos concerning tube radios and tube test equipment. Your analysis of the problems is spot on because I grew up with tube technology and I attended Valparaiso technical institute in Indiana in the 70’s. At 16 I was a certified repair technician in the state of Indiana. For a younger man I am surprised at the extent of your knowledge. Keep up the good work. Ronald Wisniewski
To learn about electronics in a different and "very effective" way, check out my Patreon electronics course here: www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab
Mr Carlson's Lab I'm curious where you start it at... do you assume prior knowledge (or prior failure) at all?
Hi Paul, recently joined your patreon page, how do I PM you? I am new to this sort of stuff
What is your name there Chris? I will PM you to make this easy, then you can just PM back to that original PM..This will get you started.
Hi, my screen name is chris johnstone. Look forward to hearing from you.
PM sent on Patreon.
Thanks Mr. “C” , your theory description was spot on. Even I learned something and Ive been in the Biz since 1960.
High voltage is very exciting to work with! Keeps you on your toes!
Or knocks you on your ass! 😂
Hey Mr. Carlson, re. removing controls from the front, I had an old pair of needlenose pliers which no longer closed correctly. I ground the ends off & wrapped the ends in two layers of package tape. I use these modified pliers to remove the nuts on faceplates. This helps protect the faceplate from scrapes. Thank you very much for yet another very instructional video.
Should be at sea now but a bad accident and a broken back keeps me at home. Why not learn electronics when I’m able to sail I will have increased my electronics knowledge! Always a plus!
Ive got one of these units on my bench right now. I finished the re- cap process. Next up I tested the R’s and replace anything off value. You answered my Q about the shaft coupler on the Freq. control. I forgot about that theory over the years. Thanks! My only problem occurs ar the top band. If I adjust and calibrate 100 Kilohz and tracking is good the square wave looses its integrity and looks more like a sine wave. The frequency begins to go ooff cal.around 200 Khz and the end of top range is 250Khz. The 6SN7 is the original EICO tube, it tests good in my EICO tube tester. All the components in the square wave shaper test good and Caps were replaced. I did not use a 1k ohm resister across the output when I tested it
27:00 - Good point. One common cleaner NEVER to use on aluminum is Simple Green. It will attack it over time, and you can never quite get it off. Paint won't stick. Beautiful restoration, BTW.
Unless you want frosted white aluminum that is. Not a bad look... if you want it.
A lot of 'degreasers' will attack aluminum. In food service, there's this 'generic' purple degreaser that will turn aluminum white instantly. A single drop and there's a permanent white dot on an aluminum surface.
Oh, and you are not getting it off. It is corroded aluminum deep into the surface. You would have to grind it off, completely resurface the aluminum. I don't know about paint sticking or not, I would have thought the inverse would be true, due to the pitting.
if you like to paint aluminum you need to have a primer for aluminum.
Cute cat!
Your knowledge never ceases to amaze me. “A car battery sitting next to it…” WHO ELSE would instantly know that? 🙌 Hehe,I also liked ,”The only way to get this stuff off is to remove it” 😁
In the Army most of our radio equipment was battery operated by 2 x 12 volt batteries. In the shop we had a vented area under a bench. The batteries sat on a wooden pallet, not on concrete.venting was a must, now you can see why. My friend owns a plating company. I set him up with a computer in the office. So he decides it would make better sense to have it in the shop for time card record keeping . It lasted two months. He called me to fix it under warranty. When I got it in my shop Nd opened it up, the sulphuric acid had totally destroyed the circuit boards. We ended up in small claims court and the judge laughed at him, awarding me the judgement. Common sense says fumes are fumes!
I cracked laughing when you said: "Well, that's a good sign......wave". This is by far the cleanest and the most "attention to detail" channel on TH-cam. Congrats, Paul!
Thanks for your kind comment Daniel!
You have out done yourself on this video. Knowledge, experience and humor. On many of your tube related restorations you caution viewers about the presence of high voltages and a nasty surprise they will receive if they make contact. And just how many times have you experienced getting zapped? And yes, it can hurt.
Another GREAT Paul Carlson video!!!
*"Another GREAT Paul Carlson video!!!"*
Agree 100% P.C. is a great host. He's never posted a video that I've haven't learned just a little bit more about the mysteries of electronics. Thanks, Paul!
... and btw, I've got to get me one of those 'WALABOT' thingies. Don't want to go around accidentally drilling holes in my rats, you know!
Beautiful job.
I had to chuckle at your comment, "smoke generator"!. Throughout my 22 years in the Navy, I always referred to the initial power up of a repaired piece of equipment as the "smoke test".
😂30 years ago when I was young boy that spider compo net in hands will be like scrap but in these days that's something - vintage. You are a very clever man 👍
Ok, you got me. I’ll be be going over and signing on at your patreon channel. I have wanted to for quite a while but my limited available time has held me back. Your plan for the low voltage capacitor tester is irresistible however. Of course you realize those high prices on the old style capacitor testers is probably in large part because of your excellent teachings and now many of us interested in the old gear want to have one.
Thanks for your kind words! This new cap leakage tester should hopefully counteract that affect.
Beautiful work Mr Carlson just beautiful! big thumbs up!
Thanks Rob!
Excellent video! It's amazing that you're going to share that new circuit with us. That's true love for the community. I can't wait to spare some free time and build it and others like the Super Probe. Thanks!!
One reason not to be too fussy about the frequency trimmer setting is that there is about a 5% frequency variation between the ranges, as demonstrated around 1:32:15. This variation would be due to the tolerances of the resistors connected to the range switch.
It would also have been interesting, after tuning the trimmer, so see how well the frequency matched at the high end of the dial, though nothing could be done about that.
By the way, I own one of those Heathkit IT-11 capacitor checkers. I would not be surprised if it itself contained capacitors in need of some replacement!
These videos are always top notch! Love putting them on to learn more about electronics and as a nice background video for doing other tasks!I enjoy you safety perspective! I always try to do the best I can an avoid touching anything. So far I have yet to get shocked! But I do like the old tube equipment, I only fear it when first powering on after work or testing before working on it. That's when I think it will blow up! I hate that part but boy, do I love vacuum tubes!
Thanks for the vid. The blue EICO stuff is my favorite. I enjoy all of your restoration vids.
Great, intense work, good as new plus
The use of a light bulb as a PTC element to create a low-distortion audio oscillator is what put Hewlett-Packard in business in 1939. I imagine EICO jumped on it as soon as HP's patent expired.
I'm in to restoration of old equipment my self, But stil learning from You, Thanks
Excellent restore job. I admire your attention to detail.
i have this exact model. the light bulb in the oscillator was loose when i got it. tightening it fixed it. thanks for sharing!
Amazing video Paul,thanks for all the effort!
Alex.
You're welcome Alex!
Cadmium as surface finish. Wow. Never thought that it was ever used that way.
Very common in older chassis type radios, tv's, amplifiers and test equipment.
@@MrCarlsonsLab Still quite widely used in aerospace, as far as I know. Just because it has been known to work for decades and even if it has issues, they know EXACTLY which issues and how to address them.
Thanks for this video, we learned a great deal from you. Great job.
Nice restoration! Thanks Paul. "This capacitor could almost be used as an oscillator". lol!! That was funny. Can't wait to check out your new capacitor checker. I normally check capacitance, ESR, and insulation tester.
Thanks Robert!
"Well, that's a good sign... wave." Oh dear.
It looks like 8 people still reform capacitors lol Great video as always. I really liked your method of stripping the chassis. The Pi filter also looks like the Greek symbol Pi. EICO makes nice gear. I have an EICO Model 249 VTVM that lives on my bench and an EICO 369 Marker Generator waiting for some attention
.
@Dave Micolichek 100% agree. I just rebuilt a linear power supply at work. All of the electrolytics tested bad. 5000uF 50V cap had high ESR and measured 30uF, the 100uF 50V cap tests at 4uF and high ESR, the smaller ones were all out of tolerance. The supply runs 24/7, cost about $350 to replace or $30.00 to repair (the big cap was $26). When it failed it destroyed a $800 DeviceNet card. I keep telling people that the future of electronics is going to be filled with failed PSU's and the fault will almost always be electrolytics.
"triode connected pentode cathode follower circuit"
I just bought a EICO 377 last week I will make it sing again mine is the silver face one
Good luck! I'd be interested to have you add comments to this as you do the work.
Just looked at the valve gear I have built in the past 2 1/2 years. Ahhhh. Put valve/tube sockets in from the top. whoooops!!!! Some forward planning that I simply did not think of.
Until now I was checking leaking capacitors with an small (and very low current) inverter module from Ebay, but checking at 27 volt definitely spark my curiosity. I'm waiting for it!
Dammit Mr. C too late to watch (bedtime)...pumped to see you cap tester on Patreon!
Talk about nostalgia, I had one of those generators. Used it to make someone quit work by feeding ultrasonic in to a tweeter that was hidden in an air vent in his office.
Well that's sinister! LOL :^)
Very cool sir ! Very awesome effort ! Really greatful for these videos
The reason of the cathode follower output is it's low 1/gm output impedance.
Problem with low-voltage testers is: One cannot be sure, if the cap will stand the nominal voltage: General leakage can be detected, but you have no chance to make sure, that the cap will hold up under higher voltage, which - for applications where the voltage rating is of importance - might not be sufficient.
Hi Paul, if you have the Eico 235 VTVM, could you do a restore video on it. I have the 235 and it's manual. I was given it when I worked on TV's years ago.
"Un cours magistralement orchestré" as we say in France. Great video as usual. I have solid state 1977 Heathkit IG-5282F BF generator using also a Wien bridge with a JFET's oscillator and the circuit is very close. Still using it ! The EICO model described here should have much better performances thought!
A video covering some sort of mod to the capacitor tester (leakage/discharge switch) would be useful...maybe adding a spring to the switch lever?
They may have in the newer models, I seem to recall an update.
I learn sooo much stuff I will never use. Very entertaining. I did build a heathkit radio in the '70s it was the cheapest one they had
Excellent restoration Paul but it would have been difficult removing the wiring from the chassis if the tube sockets had been fitted to the other side of the chassis ( on the top side ) !!
How did you detemine that it was cad plated and not zinc (galvanized)? Did you see that yellowish tinge typical of cad plating? Anyway, I would have been tempted to zinc plate it after you sand blasted it, rather than use the cold galv spray paint. A lot of car restorers electroplate after blasting.
"pretty nasty surprise" great understatement. :)
Greetings, I am a Patreon viewing some of your old videos; I have a quick question. About 40 years ago, I purchased an old VOM at an auction. It is extremely old, no brand name or badge on her. The case is wooden, the face a sort of red material. it has two rows of plugs one down each side, no labels on them, and a rheostat in the middle The meter is very heavy with a couple of scales. The plugs look like a probe end from a modern meter could be inserted. It had two Winchester D cells in the back that I sold at a gun show for twenty buck, they were quite dead but a Winchester collector wanted them. Ever seen anything like that?
Hi Jerry. It sounds like an old "Supreme Instruments" piece. They were designed very much like you explain.
Hello! I found a Philco 7070 I will go through soon. It's the fist time I've ever seen a paper and wax cap. I was afraid if I looked too close it would burst into flames! Shrodingers Cap? ;)
My hearing drops out at 18,900 MHz. Old school TVs used to drive me crazy because some of them emitted such a high frequency sound I was like 😖
18.9 kHz :^) You can hear "almost" the pilot for FM.
What you are hearing is a sub harmonic
Dear Mr. Carlson, Great video, I have an Eico 377 audio generator. I to am going to restore this, mine was from the 1960 and has the silver panel. One question I have, I read where the rectifier tube can short in these units, can this be an issue when using this on the bench? Thank you kindly for your help....
Hey, I did not see you ground out the capacitors on this project. Are they such a low value that they don't pose much of a shock risk?🙂
Would it be possible for you to take apart one of the leaky wax paper caps sometime? I've been curious what they look like inside.
Will do!
And the scope shows a good sine wave. That's a good sign! (long pause).
R D R R!
Enjoyed very much but one of those times I kept dropping my phone as my eyes kept shutting, never work on this stuff if you’re over tired nor shop on Ebay because you will accidentally hit the buy it now! Fact I have!
OMG just finished the video. That thing looks brand new !!! In a sense it is brand new. Question... how much you want for it lol Hahahhahaha You did a great job on that Paul !!
Tested June 4, 1953 -- the day after I was born.
At Fry's™, we had a Signal Generator™, with up to 0.5MHZ, 10 years ago...
again amazing thanks
I didn't know they used cadmium so casually in the '50s. Even though bioaccumulation might not have been known by then, its acute toxicity should have prevented them from using it on exposed surfaces. And it doesn't even seem to do a good job at corrosion protection. What was the reason?
It did a decent job. Do you have any idea how that chassis would have looked like without any protection under that environmental conditions?
That was one sweet unit and an interesting and rewarding restoration to follow. Time to see if Paypal will accept my credit card so I can join you on Patreon (sadly I doubt it, normally it should require a digital signature for each transaction to avid fraud - so stupid of PP to require a card for monthly fees).
Would you use dielectric gel on your chassis ground connections after scrapping off your new chassis coating?
Was Eico making kits? I seem to remember kits in the catalog back many many years ago...
The incandescent lamp™ increases it's resistance, when it warms up. Why not use this feature with the Bluetooth ™, for the Volume Limiter ™?..
I light bulb in series is a quite common way to protect tweeters in speaker systems.
Paul, As a beginner oscilloscope would you recommend a Tektronix 465b/2246 or a new 100Mhz scope like the Hantek 5102D?
I have used the Hantek 5102D in the past not a bad scope,but if you are looking for decoding or a lot of features look elsewhere.
Alex.
If that is cadmium plate and it has gone black from battery acid fumes, you now have cadmium sulphide plating. So does it have any photo electric semi conductor effect.
This video is so prefect I have an EICO model 377 audio generator mine has a silver face.Channels C and D don't work
Ranges C And D could have dirty contacts
Hi, can I buy any vintage appliances and generators?
Mr Carlson I know Its 6 years ago, I,m in my mid 60's Blind in 1 eye, cant see so good out the other, I have always wanted to fix old radio's, and I have been Pretty Lucky, I have fixed a lot though the Years, I grew up as a Carpenter, 48 years ,last 20 was in NY city. But Back to the 377, I found it in the dump, Its in nice shape, I thought I did a Nice clean job, Installing all new resistors and Bought the kit off of Ebay, for capacitors and new cord , But for some reason My voltages are still too High, at some of the tubes, The voltages at transformer, says it's 275 volts, Mine is 300v coming out. what could be wrong. Any help would be Appreciated.
Hi Brian, here are some suggestions from an electrical engineer:
1. Check the mains voltage. If you measured 300V without load, then this is normal 2. Check the rectified voltage before and after the choke; this will give you an idea of the condition of your rectifier tube.
3. Check the cathode and grid voltages of the oscillator and output tubes. If the tubes have lost their emission, the cathode voltages will be low and the anode voltages will be high.
4. Check for errors in the values of the resistors you replaced.
I have an Eico model 460 oscilloscope gathering dust in the garage; would you be interested ? '73 Bob
What type of camera do you use ? It looks like you are in a tunnel...LOL Thanks for the Videos !!
Hi. It's a Canon C100MK11 (mark 2) Various different lenses as well.
I would probably enjoy your electronics course, but I don't have enough money to pay attention lol. Old guy, fixed income. And it doesn't fix much. Good thing the house is paid for
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why not clean it via electrolysis then recoat ?
He has another video that has the heading "Signal generator troubleshooting repair and modification" that signal generator is an Precision E-200-C is that one and this EICO different? or are they the same thing/ do the same function? Does anyone know?Thank you
The PACO E-200-C is not the same at all internally, nor is its schematic the same. Nice question.
“No big deal, if the thing doesn’t work, we’ll just make it work… It really doesn’t have a choice.” I like that attitude. :-)
I usually go with, “If it doesn’t work, we’ll turn it into a guitar amp.” 🤘
If only that worked on software!
Thats confidence based on experience.
It was made by human hands, we should be able to make it work.
This video is BETTER than being an apprentice electronics technician working at the elbow of a master. Thank you!
one hour & 38 of pure genius. I leave after watching your content feeling a wee bit smarter! Thank You Mr Carlson
Hi Paul, I don't know how orthodox you are on restorations, but adding a neatly placed BNC jack may not be a bad idea (as long it as it doesn't clash with the "look" of the panel). I would add two.. the 2nd would be a 50-ohm square wave output driven from a single 74HC14 fed from a 7805 running off the heater supply, likely. The tiny dead-bug circuit shown by W2AEW (see: TDR using an oscilloscope ) is soldered to the back of the BNC so it's close to the jack and offers 2ns edge rise time, making this good-looking old-timer able to keep up to specs and signal purity of any modern equipment.. OK, that's my 2-cents for the day.
Simply amazing Paul. I think you topped this one. The detail of the restoration was great. Sine.......wave, loved it!. Thanks for sharing your brilliance.
Thanks for stopping by Buddy!
The oscillator circuit in this piece really is still in use! We literally just talked about this type of oscillator in my college op-amp course over the past week!
Great restoration as always.
Thanks for taking the time to warn folks about the dangers of cadmium. An excellent restoration. I wish you did a comparison of the frequency output on the different scales, checked by the frequency counter. Also, your discussions about electronic design using the schematic are always excellent. Learn something new on every video.
SERIOUSLY cannot wait for the CCLT, the Carlson Capacitor Leakage Tester. Many thank you's in advance Paul.
@ 40:55 , we can see you added a new power cord (to assembly instruction original connections) , and @ 54:20 you state that an old electrolytic cap, if shorting out, can burn up your B+ and filament transformer, but, how about installing a properly rated fuse in this older equipment to protect it better from future component failures that may damage hard to obtain or irreplaceable components? Some of this old Eico, and Heathkit gear (and other manufacturer / models as well) , have no fusing on the primary line/mains side, but if you check similar newer models of the same types of equipment it was added over the years. If no fuse is added, that unfused line/mains circuit will feed your transformer, or in some AA5 configurations (with a solid state rectifier, the shorted filter capacitor/s,) all the current they can ask for until the smoke show is over. Granted, like you said, this is your device to do what you want with, but IMO checking for proper fusing, and adding it if it is not there, is a good practice to follow.
You always have the best sounding audio... I guess I should expect that. Loving and binging these videos. Cheers! NI7I
Hi Paul, great video again! My goodness that was a labor of love. You are fortunate to have access to the bead blaster, it is one of my favorite restoration tools. Very Sherlock Holmes of you to deduce the black corrosion on the Cad plating to attack from Sulphide from Lead Acid batteries. I have seen a yellow corrosion on Cad plated chassis before, but not black fortunately. I simply devour and delight at each and every new video here and on Patreon. I'm just finishing building my take on the Cap discharge device. I really enjoy your videos, brilliant engineering, and dry sense of humor. You truly are a treasure and I admire and appreciate EVERYTHING, you do.
Sincerely,
Gary Bevis
Thanks for taking the time to write Gary!
The amount of technical detail that I learn from your videos absolutely blows away anything that I have learned in any of the university level electronics courses that I have ever taken. Awesome work!
Thanks for your feedback Jake!
@@MrCarlsonsLab , It helps that your business IS electronics... and it shows.
You're correct about the price of "old" test gear selling for ridiculous prices today. Just the other day an unassembled IT-11 sold for $480 on eBay.
Also, I noticed comments on the Antique Radios forum re your Capacitor Tester. The envy and jealousy is almost palpable.
Yes, it's amusing. Old fellas that won't learn. If Alan would clean up his sandbox, his site would get favorable mention.
Thanks again for your video on restoring the very early Eico 377 Signal generator. What a beautiful job you did on that sig gen…. I really appreciate the fact that you emphasize safety when working around high voltage and expressing that some early test equipment can be dangerous to use… The most enjoyable part of the video is when you totally went over the schematic and explained the circuit design and how it works… It brings back memories from when I was 13 and built many of the Eico kits which I still use now at the age of 76… Thanks again I'm a new fan …. Walter
Here's an idea for a separate video; how about an edit of your past work, showing how each type of component typically fails. OTOH, perhaps more useful, would be a video series of very short (perhaps 5 minute) videos all in the theme of "How xxxxx typically fails" along with your preferred remedy.
In other words let all of the smoke out of em
Hi Paul,
Eico did a verry good job to the faceplate design. They choose the collors that perfect matched to my eyes :-)
I like that....
Thanks to you for bringing back gear like this to life.
This was again a verry impressive video.
Hello Paul,
I just wanted to add that muriatic acid also works very nicely for removing galvanizing and cadmium from metal.
I really enjoy your videos, you do an excellent job of it. Please don't ever stop.
Joe n0usg
Thanks for your kind words Joseph!
I keep waiting for this guy to peel his face back and reveal some sort of superior alien form.
After watching this video last friday, i bought the cleanest (and cheapest!) Eico 324 on ebay, and went through it and replaced all out of spec parts, rebuilt the power section, checked alignment, and am now cleaning up the enclosure.
I think ill be doing the same witha model 377 next!
Thanks, Mr. Carlson!
Mr Carlson's videos should be used as the standard for the education on this area.
Once a month I would splurge with my spare cash and buy an EICO test equipment kit . EICO's business took a dive when it entered the home electronics field with radios, tuners and amplifiers. Their meat and potatoes potatoes was test equipment . These days i spend time restoring vintage EICO test gear. The 460 is on my bench right now.
I've never been a fan of people who think old stuff should be just put in some glass case and observed. Why not keep using it? We have too much waste in our modern society. So many old things are thrown away for no good reason.
Wax caps are a good source of bees wax to put in your socket wrenches to keep the screws from falling out.
They are! Done this many times too.
Mr Carlson,
I have watched many of your videos concerning tube radios and tube test equipment. Your analysis of the problems is spot on because I grew up with tube technology and I attended Valparaiso technical institute in Indiana in the 70’s. At 16 I was a certified repair technician in the state of Indiana. For a younger man I am surprised at the extent of your knowledge. Keep up the good work. Ronald Wisniewski
Thanks for your kind feedback Ronald!
24:31 ...impressive transition. Sandblasting is awesome. Would have loved to see parts of that step too.
A restored old-time workbench? I couldn't resist...you got me with this one. I'm now a Patreon supporter.
Great, see you there!