[time-nuts] HP5065A revival

[Magnus Danielson]

Paul,

On 18/09/11 23:38, paul swed wrote:
> Magnus
> A couple of comments.
> Yes those lights are pesky. I use leds now. The solder on the back of the
> pin in the lamp seems to go flat. reheating with an iron seems to fix it.
> LEDs fix it better.

Will see what option I go for there.

> On the 5065 the green light does not come on until you reset the logic. It
> was designed that way so that you would know you lost lock or had a power
> failure.

I know that.

> My trusty 5065 just developed a problem so I get to troubleshoot it again
> after 7 years.
> Boy I have to say this 40 year old technology is very unreliable. ;-)

True. The switcher in the A15 PSU board has blown badly on the other 
HP5065A (two showed up with a friend, I get to keep one). The C8, C9 and 
C10 caps has one leg blown off (totally disintegrated) or possibly the 
acid got into it. Anyway, burnmarks under two of them and the 
gold-plated copper has been attacked by the acid. The main diodes all 
seems to have been running hot, but seems OK. One of the switcher 
transistors seems to have been running hot.

Anyway, the failure of the green light seems to have confused the tech 
before me, so he got as derailed as I got before I caught on.

For the other 5065A I will have to assess the damages. I suspect that I 
have a few caps to replace but hope it is not worse (i.e. more or less 
all boards damaged). I will keep you posted as I learn more.

Cheers,
Magnus