[time-nuts] Z3816 Oscillator Saga

[Tom Van Baak]

Hi Chris,

> Ideally, I would like to find another Z3816, as this would provide a 
> spare as well as visual id of damaged parts to allow repair, but haven't 
> seen any for sale recently.

Start with http://leapsecond.com/museum/z3816a/
Maybe also: http://leapsecond.com/museum/z3815a/
I have high-res versions of the photos if you need them.

Another thing you can try is bench-measure the EFC range of your MTI oscillators. Through a 10k resistor, slowly sweep the EFC from -10 to +10 volts and plot the output frequency every volt or so. The shape of the curve will tell you if the MTI is -10 to +10, -5 to +5, 0 to +5, etc.

A third thing to try is manually set the DAC over RS-232. There are undocumented SCPI/pForth commands to do this and I can walk you through the process by email. The advantage here is you don't have to unsolder anything.

> Any ideas ?. It's been a great lab standard and it would be good to keep 
> it running for a few more years...

Yes, both the AC and DC versions of the Z3816A are very nice. It is well-worth trying to get it working again.

/tvb