[time-nuts] Changing WECO connectors to BNC

[William H. Fite]

Perrier,

I really appreciate your level of detail as I am about to undertake the same
mods you discussed.  Your experience tells me what to expect as I have not
yet popped the case.  It also motivated me to go hunt out my unibits.

Let me know how it goes and I will do the same.

Bill




On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 6:06 PM, Perry Sandeen <sandeenpa at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>
> Gents,
>
> Wrote:< Yikes, WECO is hard to find. Anyone know a source for WECO
> 439A/440A connectors and adapters?  Optimist that I am, I thought they would
> be easy to find. Coping with an HP 3336B.
>
> Wrote: <WECO connectors aren't hard to find
>
> Well, neither are gold nuggets if you want to pay the price.  Milstock
> connectors are almost $14 each.
>
> WECO connectors are hard to find for the average person and HP used two
> different sizes of WECO connectors on the same input connectors on different
> batches of the HP 3586B. The problem still remains that you have to use two
> hands when connecting or disconnecting a BNC cable as the adapter rotates.
>  Yuck!  I have some WECO connectors and adapters and find them a PITA to
> use.
>
> I have a 3336B that I’m changing over also.  On the C model they used BNC
> connectors so there is probably a relatively simple way to do a change over.
>  Since the output of the attenuator is a BNC male going to a WECO I plan on
> trying a female-female bulkhead mount unit from Mouser for $3.
>
> The other possibility is to try using a female-female barrel connector ($2)
> attached to the attenuator.  I have a barrel connector but haven’t had the
> time to try it yet.  Both connectors are 1.3 inches in length.
>
> The big problem with WECO connectors is their length.
>
> Changing them out on my HP 3586B SLV became a bit of a challenge.  What I
> did after dis-assembly was to remove the original WECO connector.  (The
> module is six inches square and is easy to work on.)
>
> Using a Uni-bit I enlarged to original WECO hole to accommodate the back of
> the flat mounting plate BNC bulkhead adapter I had.  This is where it got a
> bit tricky.  The female bulkhead BNC connector I have are of slightly
> different lengths.  The longer one measured about 5/8 inches from the base
> to the end.  One has to mount it on the inside of the module do to the
> thinness of the plastic bezel.  So after mounting the BNC I had to use a
> Dremmel tool with a cutter head to remove plastic so the mounting screws
> would fit and allow the bezel to fit flush.
>
> Even after that was done I had to enlarge the bezel hole with the Uni-bit
> so that the BNC male outer shell could lock on properly.
>
> So far I have done two SLV’s and it has worked fine.  In the future though
> I’m going to try using female-female straight adapter as they give a quite a
> longer connection barrel than the bulkhead units.  I have three more SLV’s
> to convert.
>
> I’ve gone into a lot of detail about what I did.  Don’t let that discourage
> you. It isn’t hard at all.  It just takes some time and patience.
>
> One last thought.  If on the HP 3336B you change the 1K single turn
> frequency calibration pot to a 10 to 20 turn pot, the oscillator is much
> easier to calibrate right on the money
>
> Regards,
>
> Perrier
>
>
>
>
>
>
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