[time-nuts] Re: HP5360A

[alan bain]

Does anyone have a link to a service manual for a 5360?  I keep meaning to
look at how the interpolator worked. My very vague recollection is an
integrator between start gate and first count pulse which is then
discharged while discharge time is counted using an integrator with a much
smaller C - a bit like a dual slope ADC. Similar between stop and next
count pulse.  So very different from the 5370 vernier oscillator.

I don’t have one - haven’t seen a physical one in the UK. But actually I
probably really need a 5370!

Alan


On Mon, 21 Nov 2022 at 15:03, Tom Van Baak via time-nuts <
time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:

> Hi Jeremy,
>
> Thanks for that video link. I did not remember that the interpolator was
> in its own oven. The early 5360A used nixie tubes, later models used a
> plasma display (Panaplex). More info the 5360A here:
>
> "Introducing the Computing Counter", p 2
> "An Electronic Counter for the 1970's", p 9
> "Computation for Measurement Complexity", p 13
> https://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/pdfs/IssuePDFs/1969-05.pdf
> http://hparchive.com/Journals/HPJ-1969-05.pdf
>
> "Computing-Counter Measurement Systems", p 2
> "Programmer is Key to Computing-Counters", p 7
> https://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/pdfs/IssuePDFs/1970-12.pdf
> http://hparchive.com/Journals/HPJ-1970-12.pdf
>
> "First of the New Breed"
>
> http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/publications/measure/pdf/1969_06.pdf
>
> "hp Application Note 116: Precision Frequency Measurements"
> https://www.hpmemoryproject.org/an/pdf/an_116.pdf
>
> Some previous discussions:
>
> https://www.febo.com/pipermail/time-nuts/2016-April/097227.html (tvb)
> https://www.febo.com/pipermail/time-nuts/2016-April/097229.html (jra)
> https://www.febo.com/pipermail/time-nuts/2016-April/097232.html (paul)
> https://www.febo.com/pipermail/time-nuts/2016-April/097233.html (jeremy)
> ...
>
> A nice set of photos here:
>
> https://dopecc.net/calculators/hp/5360a/
> https://dopecc.net/calculators/hp/5360a/photo/
>
> ----
>
> The hp 5360A is special to a number of us. It was one of the first
> examples of a calculator or computer built by hp, complete with external
> keyboard, display, memory, and stack-based programming language. As a
> result it could compute clock statistics, including Allan deviation, and
> this was 50+ years ago! The documents listed above have rich history and
> are still good reading if you have an interest in frequency counters,
> computers, stability analysis.
>
> Notice that the title of the youtube video is "HP 5360A Computing
> Counter Repair or Making my Computing Pig Fly Again" and the cartoon
> used is a pig with wings. I'm not sure what the youtube author intended,
> but the 5360A actually did "fly". In spite of being large, noisy, and
> heavy, it was also "portable" and robust. Joe Hafele and Richard Keating
> famously used a 5360A computing counter during their 1971
> round-the-world flying clock relativity experiment with 4x 5061A cesium
> clocks. Spot the 5360 in the 1st and 3rd and last image at:
>
> http://leapsecond.com/museum/HK50/
>
> More info on the 1971/1972 Hafele-Keating experiment here:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafele%E2%80%93Keating_experiment
>
> That inspired my time dilation experiments. Here's one using 53132A
> counters and 6x 5071A cesium clocks:
>
> http://leapsecond.com/great2016a/2016a-DSCN8572v.jpg
> http://leapsecond.com/great2016a/photos.htm
> http://leapsecond.com/great2016a/
>
> /tvb
>
>
> On 11/20/2022 10:48 PM, Jeremy Nichols via time-nuts wrote:
> > Internally known as “the computing pig” because of its weight.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Nov 20, 2022 at 10:40 PM Adrian Godwin via time-nuts <
> > time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:
> >
> >> A deep dive into an HP5360A computing counter. I didn't realise HP were
> >> making interpolating counters this early.
> >>
> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0uL8wiJ-YI
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