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A giant rubber band also works to hold the plugin in to the connector. Hobby stores sometimes sell them.
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There may be something wrong with your TM501 connector if the extender card falls out. I can't recall ever having a problem with this style of connector in over 40 years of using them. The original design is by Cinch. I think Tek used Edac brand connectors but the design is the same. All of the green Cinch connectors I ever used hold on to a PC Board of the right thickness very tenaciously. The nominal board thickness is 0.061 inch. Check that your extender card is that thick. If it still falls out take a careful look at the green connector. I stripped my TM501 down to the bare bones. Just removing the cover gave me access to some of the plugin but the side frames kept getting in the way to I cut the entire side frames off right back at the connector PC Board with a hacksaw. If I were to do this again I would have allowed about an extra inch forward of the connector because the two pass transistors are mounted down at the bottom by the connector and this way you won't have to move them. I use this completely open frame supply all the time when testing or building TM500 plugins. There are problems with my "hack job" which you should be aware of: 1) When the TM501 power supply section is upright the front of the plugin needs a small support of 1/4". PostIt notes work perfect because you can peel off a 1/4" stack from the rest of the pile for this purpose. 2) When the TM501 is on its side the front of the plugin has to be supported with a 1" spacer if the supply is on its left side or 1/4" spacer if the power supply is on its right side. 3) You may want to move the power switch since the pull switch is in an awkward position after you make these changes. I used a small C&K DPST switch mounted on a bracket on one of the screws holding the transformer in place. It was handy and it was up top. I also put a pilot on it so I know when power is applied to the TM500 and its plugin. 4) If I was really smart (apparently I'm not since I only realized this years after cutting up my TM501) I would also cut down the cover so that it completely covered the power supply section from wandering hands. I haven't yet been shocked from my open frame TM501 supply but it's only a matter of time before I am reminded that I am not nearly as smart as I think I am. Was I a bad person for desecrating a TM501? Dennis Tillman W7PF -----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of hpxref Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2018 7:57 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [TekScopes] TM500 Series Extender Cable Keeps falling out Using the TM500 PSU / back plane as a standalone card tester : I did the same as Edward some years ago before I made up my own (TM503 ) plug in metal frame extenders, (turned out to be a fiddly job) which fully supports the cable and card plug But one thing to watch out for when just using the PSU/card cage is that, without the TM500 case, the card alignment plastic slot(s) are not there to hold the card in, and it can easily fall out of the socket, especially when you re position the PSU to get at a test connection, so you might be back to square one. When I could, I used thin plastic tubing to tie/hold the cable plug in at that time Rgds John -- Dennis Tillman W7PF TekScopes Moderator |
