Man, You have a soul inside. I`m really full of joy that You didn`t take apart the RF section of this unit. It`s someting more than art of engineering and I really don`t know how to name it... Just look at it, it`s a naked ephemeral, esoteric, dainty lady of the bygone age, so full of natural beauty. I wonder if there is someone alive who created it at HP 30 years ago, who could tell something mysterious and exciting about heart and emotions put in this device.
The big chip on that power meter board is a rather interesting one; it's an AD7550 which is a 13-bit quad-slope integrating ADC with up to 500kHz sampling rate. Those Teledyne switches are actually 40GHz.
Nice teardown video. I have the spectrum analyzer that takes these plugins (HP 70001A / w HP 70206A), yes it's big, bulky and heavy, but it works. I have the HP 70310A installed, mine has the distribution amplifier option (an additional $1,500). It kind of pained me that these modules were cannibalized for their components, those modules still command fairly high prices on eBay. Keep these great videos coming!
I agree---I just watched the video for the second time today. Painful to watch such a nice piece of equipment being cannibalized. I'm a big fan of the HP 70000 series instruments. Although they are huge and heavy, they are quite versatile and the performance is good. I have the same modules in my system, sans the optical converter.
Sir,can you make more a back to basic electronics tutorial videos? Not just there's none out there to watch about my request,but I really like the way how you explain everything. You are presenting all of your videos professionally and easily understood. I've learned a lot from your video blog.
Shahriar the LO with the YIG was likely in the display unit. Usually the LO and 2 IF modules were installed in the 70004 display, with the RF, high stability time base, and other modules in the lower section.
Hi.Can you please do a separate video about YIG oscillator? You mention it in every second video, so it is interesting to see how it works in theory and practice:)
I was really excited about the mechanical attenuator teardown, please do one in a follow-up video. Amazing piece of kit, and just to say I really appreciate your videos.
Dear Shahriar, The 70908A has a unique dynamically tracked YIG preselector. There is an additional YIG sphere in the same magnetic field as the RF filter spheres. It is configured as a frequency discriminator with the LO as the input, and is in a servo loop that keeps the RF YIG filter exactly tuned to the LO +IF frequency as the LO sweeps. I don't know if HP ever used this system again. Older microwave analysers always had a manual YIG filter peaking procedure. The 70908A was an extremely expensive module when new. They still sell for up to $2000 on Ebay. I have this module as part of my 70000 series spectrum analyser. The 70000 series was very good value for money when I bought mine, (10 years ago). regards Cosmo Little
Oh god, please do a video on each component please. :D I would love to watch that. Maybe play around with the filters on a tracking spectrum analyzer, see if you can characterize them, stuff like that. That was a great score!
I'd also like to see some of the modules characterised; as long as you explain what they are, along with their usage. as I have no clue about microwave components. Thanks for the video, as always. Great work.
Very nice score. I did miss a bit about what microprocessors they used on the board and how much rom/ram there was and also a bit about the control they did. Not a long story, only a few minutes for each board. I am looking forward to a closer analysis of the modules you scored and what you can use them for.
The Signal Path Blog It would be interesting to hear you talk more about ASIC design and the workings of the microwave components. It's fascinating to hear about for those of us who made our careers below 100MHz :)
Definitely interested to see an in depth video on the salvaged components. But there's one component that you neglected to open up and analyze on video.. The Doppelbock! Haha great beer and a great video, thanks!
Hi Shahriar, I have a couple of similar attenuator modules that are giving me grief from my HP 8642B; could you do a quick video on disassembly + cleaning one of your modules? I believe mind are suffering from mechanical wear. Awesome video as always, and yes, agreed that I need to go dumpster diving in the same spots as you do! ;)
Yes, please do some experiments with those salvaged parts. Man, I can only imagine what something like that cost back in the 80's. I'm betting it was very very expensive. Maybe even up to $100,000. Those boards look pretty advanced for something manufactured in the 80's, at least to me.
Aaa, it hurts to see someone salvage parts from what together with the LO and IF section plugins could be a 22 GHz spectrum analyzer with tracking generator.
Do you have any other 70908A modules? It would be really cool to see an in-action video with them, how they work, how they measure. It is interesting, but there is no video on youtube about it, or about any hp 70k spectrum analyzer in-action.
I think you should do a 10 MHz reference for all your equipment like you wanted it a time ago, that would be a very instructional video. Also allow me to tell you that your capacity to explain it´s incredible and you are an example to follow, i really enjoy your videos and i loved the amp hour interview because that could tell me more about you and why you do what you do, and that you really love this type of electronics. You are an example to follow as a profesional and i can tell the same as a person even without knowing you. Sorry for the english, cheers from Argentina, continue with your incredible work Shahriar
29:28 Aluminum would not corrode look like that it would still be white due to its protective aluminium oxide layer. That has to be silver plated brass or (but much less likely) silver right through. Corroded silver would look exactly like that and a pure silver surface have a with very small yellow tint to it as it seem like it have.
I agree. The last module is really beautiful. I really wonder how many people and how much time these things took to design and build. Most elements are really hand assembled and hand built, with lots of custom machining parts, custom interconnects, custom rf components, and lots of system and mechanical engineering. How advanced CAD software and engineering techniques could it be around 85 to allow all that thing to fit and inter operate properly.
Thanks for another great video!! I enjoy them all. I have one question I've been thinking about buying one of those 10mhz reference oscillators off of ebay. How would I know if its still accurate?
Thanks for making these awesome videos! Small nitpick: Are you 100% sure your ESD-protection is adequate? I wouldn't go without at least an ESD-Mat and a wrist strap...
Hi, need the Retaining Bolt for insertion to mainframe. It is held in by a thin snap ring (need that too!) Let me know if you have it, and what you want for it! Thank you! Martin
Hey Shahriar, I would be interested in the rectangular board from the first module. I think it would make a great board to frame and hang in my shop. Do you have any idea how much it would cost to ship to the US? Thanks, Crab
What is 3-5 type technology? I did a quick search on Google, but found nothing related. You asked in the end of the video what I'd like to see you going into, and the answer is - everything.) Actually from the things you mentioned I think I'm most excited about ASIC design because I'm a complete noob in this field. :-)
Please put the unused boards and parts on ebay or list them on EEVblog. I've found that a fair amount of people were interested in boards from test gear that I considered trash. Likewise I was happy to find cheap parts for test gear which had missing parts or on which fried resistors/transistors ruined a board. BTW: I need an attenuator assembly for a 8656B for cheap :)
I know this is years and years old... But, I would love to find those boards in the trash.. A good amount of recoverable gold on the board (mainly in the purple ceramics,, makes me sad knowing it was just tossed in the trash
If you don t plan in using all that analog parts, give them to me! ahah I love reusing through hole analog components from old equipe, They are very useful still
"Not sure if it's gold": Let me tell you, if it's vintage, from HP, and the surface electrically conducted: it is gold (plated). Such a plating is usually very, very thin. Since it's gold, there is no silkscreen needed.
Unfortunately, I'm only mildly interested in seeing further tear-downs of the items you salvaged because I really don't understand any of this electronically speaking. But I have to say I stand significantly agape about the fact that you retrieved a piece of equipment that appears to have been worth in the order of at least a few tens of thousands of dollars when new out of the dumpster.
Man, You have a soul inside. I`m really full of joy that You didn`t take apart the RF section of this unit. It`s someting more than art of engineering and I really don`t know how to name it... Just look at it, it`s a naked ephemeral, esoteric, dainty lady of the bygone age, so full of natural beauty. I wonder if there is someone alive who created it at HP 30 years ago, who could tell something mysterious and exciting about heart and emotions put in this device.
The big chip on that power meter board is a rather interesting one; it's an AD7550 which is a 13-bit quad-slope integrating ADC with up to 500kHz sampling rate.
Those Teledyne switches are actually 40GHz.
Nice teardown video. I have the spectrum analyzer that takes these plugins (HP 70001A / w HP 70206A), yes it's big, bulky and heavy, but it works. I have the HP 70310A installed, mine has the distribution amplifier option (an additional $1,500). It kind of pained me that these modules were cannibalized for their components, those modules still command fairly high prices on eBay. Keep these great videos coming!
I agree---I just watched the video for the second time today. Painful to watch such a nice piece of equipment being cannibalized. I'm a big fan of the HP 70000 series instruments. Although they are huge and heavy, they are quite versatile and the performance is good. I have the same modules in my system, sans the optical converter.
What beautiful equipment. Very good of you to save the RF module for display. It is simply amazing!
Thanks Shahriar for all professional presenting of your vidios, always watching your clips....
Wonderful video, no idea what it all does but the way you explain things is a joy! more please
Good call not tearing down that last one. It was WAY too beautiful. Excellent vide as always!
Sir,can you make more a back to basic electronics tutorial videos? Not just there's none out there to watch about my request,but I really like the way how you explain everything. You are presenting all of your videos professionally and easily understood. I've learned a lot from your video blog.
Basic eletronic is boring. S lot better waych inside this machine and enderstood how it work!
Try w2aew a tektronics engineer that has a knack with basics' presentations - here on youtube of course. Also mike'selectric stuff
The motor on the optical converter, the connections is a follows: Red+Black: DC motor, the FFC cable is for the optical encoder.
***** exactly
Surely the connector on that filter is silver, not aluminium
Thanks Mike, I don't know why I said Aluminum! In my head I was thinking that unlike Aluminum, you can see the discoloration of the exposed areas.
The Signal Path Blog Silver will usually turn black after corrosion and time. Aluminium do not corrode this way.
mikeselectricstuff silver plated brass
Shahriar the LO with the YIG was likely in the display unit. Usually the LO and 2 IF modules were installed in the 70004 display, with the RF, high stability time base, and other modules in the lower section.
I would really love to see some of thos parts in an other video.
Thanks & Regards
Hi.Can you please do a separate video about YIG oscillator? You mention it in every second video, so it is interesting to see how it works in theory and practice:)
Yes,please what is a yig oscillator?
Also some tutorial about PLLs would be cool.
Toni T800 I wanna see a video on a 30 phase plasma rifle
Your videos just get better and better. Thank you!
I was really excited about the mechanical attenuator teardown, please do one in a follow-up video. Amazing piece of kit, and just to say I really appreciate your videos.
Thanks again for a wonderful video. Please do experiment with the components you salvaged in a future video!
Dear Shahriar,
The 70908A has a unique dynamically tracked YIG preselector. There is an additional YIG sphere in the same magnetic field as the RF filter spheres. It is configured as a frequency discriminator with the LO as the input, and is in a servo loop that keeps the RF YIG filter exactly tuned to the LO +IF frequency as the LO sweeps.
I don't know if HP ever used this system again. Older microwave analysers always had a manual YIG filter peaking procedure.
The 70908A was an extremely expensive module when new. They still sell for up to $2000 on Ebay. I have this module as part of my 70000 series spectrum analyser. The 70000 series was very good value for money when I bought mine, (10 years ago).
regards
Cosmo Little
Nice video. You just made every other electronics youtuber jealous with your score
will be waiting for the PLL tutorial
Oh god, please do a video on each component please. :D
I would love to watch that. Maybe play around with the filters on a tracking spectrum analyzer, see if you can characterize them, stuff like that. That was a great score!
Thanks for again great blog entry
I'd also like to see some of the modules characterised; as long as you explain what they are, along with their usage. as I have no clue about microwave components. Thanks for the video, as always. Great work.
HP Catalog 1990, Page 117
70300A RF Tracking Generator (20Hz - 2.9GHz) $11,950
70310A Precision Frequency Reference $4,980
70908A RF Section (100Hz - 22GHz, fundamentally mixed) $36,600
HP Catalog 1992, Page 387
70810B Lightwave Section (100kHz - 22GHz) $19,900
Very nice score.
I did miss a bit about what microprocessors they used on the board and how much rom/ram there was and also a bit about the control they did. Not a long story, only a few minutes for each board.
I am looking forward to a closer analysis of the modules you scored and what you can use them for.
The Signal Path Blog It would be interesting to hear you talk more about ASIC design and the workings of the microwave components. It's fascinating to hear about for those of us who made our careers below 100MHz :)
Those Tadiran lithium-thionyl chloride batteries have glass-to-metal seals in them; it is extremely rare for them to leak.
Please make some video how you could use them and i wanted see you interfacing them separately
Supper cool stuff. I bet those gold plated blocks have RF vodo magic stickers all over them.
Definitely interested to see an in depth video on the salvaged components. But there's one component that you neglected to open up and analyze on video.. The Doppelbock! Haha great beer and a great video, thanks!
I'd watch the video exploring these salvaged parts, but I really want to see the video on PLLs you keep talking about!
Wow, you've been cranking out lots of videos lately.
Thank you for this great video...
The last part was to neat to take apart, like you said.
Hi Shahriar, I have a couple of similar attenuator modules that are giving me grief from my HP 8642B; could you do a quick video on disassembly + cleaning one of your modules? I believe mind are suffering from mechanical wear. Awesome video as always, and yes, agreed that I need to go dumpster diving in the same spots as you do! ;)
Very interesting to see the construction inside those things. What are the gold and purple ICs found in each module? They remind me of MC68k…
Superb video thanks for your time and effort
Yes, please do some experiments with those salvaged parts.
Man, I can only imagine what something like that cost back in the 80's. I'm betting it was very very expensive. Maybe even up to $100,000. Those boards look pretty advanced for something manufactured in the 80's, at least to me.
What a great video (as always). Yes I would like to see how these components can be characterized.
Awesome. Just correct me if I'm wrong: IF = Immediate frequency, LO = Local oscillator. Am I right?
Yes!
Jaroslav Malec honestly thought it's "interstage frequency"
I have no idea what all this HF compnents are good for, but the nice oven I think is ideal for your old HP counter.
Why are there never things like these in any dumpsters near me?
Only dirty diapers in the dumpsters here !
When are you planning more tutorials. (I understand these things takes alot of preparing and I appreciate it)
Nice video.
Aaa, it hurts to see someone salvage parts from what together with the LO and IF section plugins could be a 22 GHz spectrum analyzer with tracking generator.
That odd component you saw and suggested it was a diode or reed relay or something, I was wondering if it was a delay line?
Do you have any other 70908A modules? It would be really cool to see an in-action video with them, how they work, how they measure. It is interesting, but there is no video on youtube about it, or about any hp 70k spectrum analyzer in-action.
I think you should do a 10 MHz reference for all your equipment like you wanted it a time ago, that would be a very instructional video. Also allow me to tell you that your capacity to explain it´s incredible and you are an example to follow, i really enjoy your videos and i loved the amp hour interview because that could tell me more about you and why you do what you do, and that you really love this type of electronics.
You are an example to follow as a profesional and i can tell the same as a person even without knowing you.
Sorry for the english, cheers from Argentina, continue with your incredible work Shahriar
All that Gold !
Great teardown! Thanks! Now, these dumpsters you speak of, do you sell tickets?
aaah i miss having access to dumpers full of awesome stuff! great finds!
I was wondering if you had any of the boards and cables left?
and yes i would love to see the insides and characteristics of each one!
Have you ever worked with an ASRU card from the HP 3070 series 3 ICT? I'm sure you would have a blast with it
OMG. I'm so absolutely jealous. I wish I had dumpsters like that to dig through!
When I will be Minister of Stuff, putting such things in a dumpsters will be a crime.
29:28 Aluminum would not corrode look like that it would still be white due to its protective aluminium oxide layer. That has to be silver plated brass or (but much less likely) silver right through. Corroded silver would look exactly like that and a pure silver surface have a with very small yellow tint to it as it seem like it have.
I agree. The last module is really beautiful.
I really wonder how many people and how much time these things took to design and build. Most elements are really hand assembled and hand built, with lots of custom machining parts, custom interconnects, custom rf components, and lots of system and mechanical engineering. How advanced CAD software and engineering techniques could it be around 85 to allow all that thing to fit and inter operate properly.
Just curious. Did kit like this exist 10 years prior to this model? In 1977?
Thanks for another great video!! I enjoy them all. I have one question I've been thinking about buying one of those 10mhz reference oscillators off of ebay. How would I know if its still accurate?
Thanks for making these awesome videos!
Small nitpick: Are you 100% sure your ESD-protection is adequate? I wouldn't go without at least an ESD-Mat and a wrist strap...
I agree, the engineering is gorgeous. I miss the old HP.
Hi, need the Retaining Bolt for insertion to mainframe. It is held in by a thin snap ring (need that too!) Let me know if you have it, and what you want for it!
Thank you!
Martin
Where can I go to dumpster dive I live in the uk and love messing around with electronics
Will do
Robert Kilbon yer same. try electonics companies trash.
Hey Shahriar,
I would be interested in the rectangular board from the first module. I think it would make a great board to frame and hang in my shop. Do you have any idea how much it would cost to ship to the US?
Thanks,
Crab
What is 3-5 type technology? I did a quick search on Google, but found nothing related.
You asked in the end of the video what I'd like to see you going into, and the answer is - everything.) Actually from the things you mentioned I think I'm most excited about ASIC design because I'm a complete noob in this field. :-)
***** Thank you!
Please put the unused boards and parts on ebay or list them on EEVblog. I've found that a fair amount of people were interested in boards from test gear that I considered trash. Likewise I was happy to find cheap parts for test gear which had missing parts or on which fried resistors/transistors ruined a board. BTW: I need an attenuator assembly for a 8656B for cheap :)
I really enjoy your videos, thanks for sharing!
Would love a video about PLLs
Damn - why are there no such dumpsters in my neighborhood? :(
I'd happily salvage all those digital boards if you still have them!
Hope they didn't get tossed
What kind of dumpster do you throw a multi-thousand dollar piece of equipment in?
Holy cow, the gold plated ground plane is beautiful. But isn't it very hard to solder components without a solder mask!?
I know this is years and years old... But, I would love to find those boards in the trash.. A good amount of recoverable gold on the board (mainly in the purple ceramics,, makes me sad knowing it was just tossed in the trash
Please direct me to material so that I can learn to understand your awesome videos
38:48 I thought I got a message on my phone but it was empty, 2 sec later I actually freaking got one!
man that's a good recoverers wet dream
Makes me wish solder mask was clear
👍👍
Amazing. Thanks for sharing this. I agree that the last one needs to be kept as is! :-)
If you don t plan in using all that analog parts, give them to me! ahah I love reusing through hole analog components from old equipe, They are very useful still
I want the first board for display just because it is so pretty. How much you want for it?
Jedi dumpster skills!
cool video i would be grateful if you send me some of your old boards
And im sitting here with a desoldering pump taking every last cap from an old tv ...
if you're going to toss the PCB from the oscillator, i'll take it for my "wall-o-pcb's"
"Not sure if it's gold": Let me tell you, if it's vintage, from HP, and the surface electrically conducted: it is gold (plated). Such a plating is usually very, very thin. Since it's gold, there is no silkscreen needed.
Max Koschuh btw I really enjoyed your video, thanks a lot
Unfortunately, I'm only mildly interested in seeing further tear-downs of the items you salvaged because I really don't understand any of this electronically speaking. But I have to say I stand significantly agape about the fact that you retrieved a piece of equipment that appears to have been worth in the order of at least a few tens of thousands of dollars when new out of the dumpster.
I'll raise my hand on any item you would send me-I'll give info when you contact me-thank you. I love chips-and well all of it.