[time-nuts] Different or defective FE-5680A?

[Rex]

On 6/9/2012 12:35 AM, Chris Albertson wrote:
>
> Any idea WHY someone would design something like that?  A programable
> frequency standard where the frequency does not come out of the box.
>
> What next and audio amplifier that only drives an internal dummy load?
>   Light bulb with a metal envelope?
>
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
>
Fairly common, I think. Their business is responding to big-customer 
RFQs. The customer told them what the specifications were and they 
responded with a price for various quantities. What's cheaper, make a 
new design or cripple an existing design to meet a customer request?

I worked for a big main-frame computer company once. If you had the 
secret knowledge, a simple jumper on one of the boards would enable a 
many-$k feature. (Not easy to find or do, but true.)

FEI and particularly the 5680A seems to be a prime example of many 
flavors of one product. Only FEI knows how many variations they did and 
that is between them and the customers that requested them. It appears 
they did at least one major redesign but kept the same model number.

Time-nuts members have been pretty good at figuring out differences and 
adaptations.
Read the KO4BB wiki and update it if new variations or modifications are 
found:
http://www.ko4bb.com/dokuwiki/doku.php

-Rex