Michael Dunn wrote:
At 12:27 PM -0800 2001/3/06, Stan or Patricia Griffiths wrote:
Remember, don't handle the sampling diodes with your fingers. Grease from
you fingers will contaminate them and attempts to clean them with alchohol
have been only marginally successful. Also, don't chip the black paint they
are painted with since this will allow light to reach the junction and that
ruins them also. I don't know the exact nature of the failure of sampling
diodes due to exposure to light but I understand it is permanent. Many
sampling diode problems are related to improper diode handling techniques.
When a technician first hears he can't handle them with his fingers, he uses
his needle nosed pliers and chips the paint . . . then he realizes what those
special plastic tweezers that Tek used to ship with new diode sets are for .
Wow. I had no idea they were so fragile. I guess LEDs evolved
out of this technology...???
Not only are they fragile when handling them, they won't take much applied voltage
either. 1 volt is about the maximum size signal you apply to a sampling scope
before you exceed the dynamic range of the diodes. At about 5 volts, you destroy
them! Almost every scope has a "sampling diode destroyer" built right into the
front panel. It is called the "calibrator".
The second (vertically oriented) connector is for feeding digital information
to the 6R1 or 6R1A Digital Readout unit when the 3S76 is used in a 567
Cool. NOT on-screen readout I assume?! Nixies?
Yep, nixies. Both in the 6R1 and the 230. I have these instruments in my
collection and someday I will get around to restoring them, I hope.
Thanks for all the info Stan.
md
You are most welcome. It's my favorite subject . . . old Tek stuff.
Stan
w7ni@...
