Very cool bit of kit, and nice choice of samples. I'd love to have one of those handheld XRF guns. This one is a bit big, but probably has better focus.
That X-ray of yours keeps coming in handy. I liked the fact, you could peek into that hybrid DAC. What a shame you're getting rid of the analyzer. You might think about giving it a local school science lab. They wouldn't need to be too accurate.
PCB mounted battery!! Killer of many fruit machine boards. Had to repair all the tracks on my Gould Tru-trace due to one leaking it guts. Big Thumb Up.
Very interesting and good find - thanks Mike. The fact that the detector board captures background radiation when the source is of was a surprise (but shouldn't have been). On the cross hair board complexity - it's possible that they're muxing out the video line to an analog processor to measure feature sizes of the material being inspected. If not, they could have with all of that hardware :-) One of my friends did that as a university project - just a bunch of standard ttl counters to select the line of video and a mux to reroute the video to an oscilloscopes which automatically created a black horizontal line for the crosshair. It was used to measure micron feature sizes. Maybe this doesn't need those smarts, but all that logic just reminded me of that pretty cool and easy way to process video. Thanks again!
I think we may suffer from the same affliction. Every month the local university (University of Arizona) has a surplus sale/auction (in person and online). I generally post a few $50 to $100 bids and it seems I enviably win some of the largest of the boat-anchors. My neighbors know the routine: every few months I back my truck to the shop doors and wheel some monstrosity in and 4 - 5 days later I load the truck with-this-that-and-the-other-thing destine to the recycler. However, I start to realize I’m having a problem when I need to turn sideways several times just to get from one end of my shop to the other. Keep the videos coming, they confirm that I am not the only one that is bat-shit-crazy. Cheers Mark ***********************
It seems sort of good at sort of agreeing with you if you already know what the material is :) When you use your xray imager, it would be cool if you had a tilting platform so you could do high res 3D tomography to really examine potted modules. If you were so inclined. Maybe offer it as a commercial service.
Hey Mike - if you don't end up selling it immediately, you'll probably want to desolder that crappy NiCd battery from the motherboard. My friend had an Amiga destroyed from the exact same type of battery leaking and corroding traces.
Artur Fischer is a german inventor (almost 100 years old). Go to Wikipedia and search for Fischerwerke. Very interesting. It might be that this unit was built by a division of Fischerwerke....
Hi Mike Maybe you’ll find something from GESPAC (used in the CERN to ctrl the beam and other fast machines from the 90s). Guess you‘d be intrigued by their stepper control cards, they where very advanced.
Wow! I have bought instrument components from Ebay before, but never something quite *this* large! Does anybody here have any information on the shipping cost and/or carrier used to ship such large instruments within the US..? 🤔
i'm curious on what you considered "relatively cheap" for this cmi? I can't imagine finding a working one for less than 10,000, even with DOS. I would love to have one.
I realy like his teardowns and messing around with diffrent machines. The only thing i do not like is the slow focus combined with mike wobbeling the cards up and down infront of the camera so if you want to read the numbers on a chip or something on the silkscreen you hafto go thru the video frame by fram for a possible in focus shot. Maby do some pictures of the pcb's in the future? Exept for that lil constructive critisism i cant wait to see what you will sink your teeth in next :)
helps keep the economy alive. by ensuring the consumer continues to spend money on replacement electrical items that would otherwise last too long. EG. TV's. XBOX360 and countless laptops whose ended up in landfil because of lead free BS (tin whiskers, cracked solder joints) BUT under the guise that having lead in landfil is bad --- these days if a flat panel tv lasts you 10 years, its a miracle.
Landrew0 It can leach out to some degree if not disposed of correctly. Heavy metal concentrations are noticeably higher in a few areas due to large amounts of electronics being burnt. The risks are probably overstated, but the difficulties of using lead free are also (in my experience) greatly exaggerated. I don't intend to defend either option, but I personally use lead free.
Very cool bit of kit, and nice choice of samples. I'd love to have one of those handheld XRF guns. This one is a bit big, but probably has better focus.
Applied Science oh shit it's ben!
Those element samples that came with the machine I think are the coolest part.
"Lead-free bullshit" should be a required label on all RoHS compliant electronics.
The cool stuff you find never ceases to amaze me!
"someone farted near a gold bar and got some on a pcb near it..." OH that made me laugh so hard after I had to replay to check that was what was said!
That X-ray of yours keeps coming in handy. I liked the fact, you could peek into that hybrid DAC. What a shame you're getting rid of the analyzer. You might think about giving it a local school science lab. They wouldn't need to be too accurate.
PCB mounted battery!! Killer of many fruit machine boards. Had to repair all the tracks on my Gould Tru-trace due to one leaking it guts.
Big Thumb Up.
Very interesting and good find - thanks Mike. The fact that the detector board captures background radiation when the source is of was a surprise (but shouldn't have been). On the cross hair board complexity - it's possible that they're muxing out the video line to an analog processor to measure feature sizes of the material being inspected. If not, they could have with all of that hardware :-) One of my friends did that as a university project - just a bunch of standard ttl counters to select the line of video and a mux to reroute the video to an oscilloscopes which automatically created a black horizontal line for the crosshair. It was used to measure micron feature sizes. Maybe this doesn't need those smarts, but all that logic just reminded me of that pretty cool and easy way to process video. Thanks again!
"lead-free bullshit" Indeed.
'so little gold, someone farted near a gold bar and waved the pcb across it' haha
I think we may suffer from the same affliction. Every month the local university (University of Arizona) has a surplus sale/auction (in person and online). I generally post a few $50 to $100 bids and it seems I enviably win some of the largest of the boat-anchors. My neighbors know the routine: every few months I back my truck to the shop doors and wheel some monstrosity in and 4 - 5 days later I load the truck with-this-that-and-the-other-thing destine to the recycler. However, I start to realize I’m having a problem when I need to turn sideways several times just to get from one end of my shop to the other. Keep the videos coming, they confirm that I am not the only one that is bat-shit-crazy.
Cheers
Mark
***********************
Thanks Mike. That's some interesting stuff.
It seems sort of good at sort of agreeing with you if you already know what the material is :)
When you use your xray imager, it would be cool if you had a tilting platform so you could do high res 3D tomography to really examine potted modules. If you were so inclined. Maybe offer it as a commercial service.
Hey Mike - if you don't end up selling it immediately, you'll probably want to desolder that crappy NiCd battery from the motherboard. My friend had an Amiga destroyed from the exact same type of battery leaking and corroding traces.
Artur Fischer is a german inventor (almost 100 years old). Go to Wikipedia and search for Fischerwerke. Very interesting. It might be that this unit was built by a division of Fischerwerke....
German engineering rocks.
Steven King Why did you delete my comment???
Again, excellent review(?) of some very clever equipment.
Hi Mike
Maybe you’ll find something from GESPAC (used in the CERN to ctrl the beam and other fast machines from the 90s).
Guess you‘d be intrigued by their stepper control cards, they where very advanced.
Heh, nice catch. Pity this wasn't the other one, what with this being complete.
Still these two videos complete each other really nice.
Mike you do like your x-ray stuff lol
Are those birds @ 18:40. Teardowns with birds in the background? I love Mike.
The SEEK lens might be Zinc Selenide? Not sure if someone mentioned that already but there was a Zinc peak and a Selenium peak.
DOS I remember DOS. Very interesting. Thanks
Wow! I have bought instrument components from Ebay before, but never something quite *this* large! Does anybody here have any information on the shipping cost and/or carrier used to ship such large instruments within the US..? 🤔
Mike: strom = current and spannung = voltage (apologies if you already knew that)
i'm curious on what you considered "relatively cheap" for this cmi? I can't imagine finding a working one for less than 10,000, even with DOS. I would love to have one.
I honestly thought the title said "Fischerprice". I hate what childhood television has done to my mind!
Hmm... now i wonder what the machine would think a fishstick would be :P
Sounds Fischy to me...
could you use the detector to detect radioactive material and identify it's element by the energy? (Not using the built in xray tube)
Farted near a gold bar and waved the PCB across it..! LMAO!
Hey, Mike, I would really love to buy the high voltage supply for the tube and the proportional counter. I'm doing my uni thesis
Fischer Price scope?
It's quite obvious that the Seek Thermal lens is ZnSe :P
Who or what is PEGGY I wonder ?
I realy like his teardowns and messing around with diffrent machines.
The only thing i do not like is the slow focus combined with mike wobbeling the cards up and down infront of the camera so if you want to read the numbers on a chip or something on the silkscreen you hafto go thru the video frame by fram for a possible in focus shot.
Maby do some pictures of the pcb's in the future?
Exept for that lil constructive critisism i cant wait to see what you will sink your teeth in next :)
I'm sure he will get right on that.
"and some lead free bullshit here"
hahah thats how I feel about it as well
A suggestion, donate this machine to the geek group, they are a non-profit hackerspace and would love it.
Electronoob: Geeking Out he gets everything on ebay, was shipped to him in the first place right?
It would get looked at once, called 'cool', and then sit in a corner unused for the rest of eternity.
I'll pay for shipping if someone sends me 1,000,000 in USD.
What's the reason behind lead-free solder?
Is it pure hysteria?
helps keep the economy alive.
by ensuring the consumer continues to spend money on replacement electrical items that would otherwise last too long.
EG. TV's. XBOX360 and countless laptops whose ended up in landfil because of lead free BS (tin whiskers, cracked solder joints) BUT under the guise that having lead in landfil is bad ---
these days if a flat panel tv lasts you 10 years, its a miracle.
Landrew0 I think it is mostly for when they are disposed of.
Samuel Doye
And how is that bad exactly? Does the lead from landfills somehow get back into the water or food supply?
Landrew0 It can leach out to some degree if not disposed of correctly. Heavy metal concentrations are noticeably higher in a few areas due to large amounts of electronics being burnt. The risks are probably overstated, but the difficulties of using lead free are also (in my experience) greatly exaggerated. I don't intend to defend either option, but I personally use lead free.
Samuel Doye
That's bollocks.
What's that you say Mike; you've got a couple of gals over here? :P