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Speaking of prototypes, I am fascinated by them, whether Tek or someone
elses'. They represent someone's vision and generally also a lot of effort,
so it would be nice if something of it could be saved for history. Homage to
those that tried but failed I guess.

Unfortunately, I have a rather small house to be collecting this kind of
stuff. Hopefully at least the literature will end up with Stan for the
future Tek museum.

I vaguely remember seeing a few prototype products from my days at Tek (late
70's). One was the "nanoscope", which was shown at a yearly Tek Labs show
(where the corporate guys got to see what the lab coats were up to). It was
about a third the size of a 200 series handheld (the nanoscope that is, not
the show--the show took up the entire Bldg 50 auditorium). It didn't get
much further than a rough prototype I believe. And the CRT looked nice.

Another was some pretty densely packed rackwidth size instruments which I was
told were network analyzers. That was back when I thought a network was
something that broadcast TV shows. I would love to hear the story of that
effort (it was adjacent the Spectrum Analyzer group, part of Communications
Division).

Yet another was the 4054, which was a bit slice version of the 4051/4052
family desktop computers. Included a racy fast custom graphics processor,
also bit slice based. I understood it had super, super fast hardware with
real, real slow software. I was told the dozen prototypes were ultimately
bandsawed in the Model Shop. :<

Also something out of the young Digital Service Instruments (DSI) offshoot of
Portables called the PET, which I think stood for Programmable Electronic
Tester. A largish portable scope size enclosure with, I recollect, an 8085
based micro and a bunch of interface cards. As the name implies, you plug
this box into your big system of some sort and it exercises it for you and
tells you what's wrong. I think the problem was defining what it was going
to plug into, and how was the specialized test software to be written? When
the group moved, they left behind a bunch of neat prototype mechanical
enclosure bits which I used to make G jobs out of.

And there was an internal tool called the board bucket, a card cage
microprocessor based computer system. I think it started as an engineering
tool when the 6800 based 4051 was developed, but became an internal entity
all it's own with cards, power supply, firmware, and engineering support.

Another thing I came across in Tek Labs were 7K scope racks in the style of
TM500. That is, they were nicely built cages with power supplies which took
(6?) 7K type plug-ins. They had no CRT related hardware in them. Perhaps
these were only made for internal use, and perhaps before the real TM500
series came out. I never saw them with real 7K plugins installed. Only 7K
plugin mechanicals with custom hardware (like CRT test electronics)
installed. They were real nicely made, heavy and robust mainframes compared
to the TM500 equivalents, with regulated supplies in them like 7K scopes. I
recollect the plug-in mechanical bits and the blank PCB were available in
engineering stock for those which wanted to build something into them.

I heard about, but never saw, some higher speed 200 series handhelds. I
believe they attained 35MHz but had dismal battery life. The engineer who
told me about this (I think he worked on it as a matter of fact) said there
was concern in management that that kind of performance would just
cannibalize the sales of the 400 series so the program was never pursued
seriously. Throughout my time at Tek I would hear variations of this kind of
story as a reason promising ideas were stopped. That is, some new idea would
hurt sales of existing products, so was stopped.

Of course, now that I'm middle aged, I wish I would have paid better
attention to all this in the first place. Fortunately, there is this news
group now!

Ignore me if this was discussed previous to my joining. Hope I'm not being a
bore here...

Don

I "reverse engineered" the power connector and figured out the pin-out. So
far I have not
gotten anywhere on getting a manual. If all else fails, I'll probably just
put it up for sale
and move on to something else.
I got this with a lot of Tektronix scope cameras, got two C-50's left and
this orphan.

Regards,
Richard S.

A lot of those 600-series monitors, especially the bi-stable storage
versions, were sold as OEM components to companies that manufactured
medical imaging equipment.

Dean

Hi Paul,

The type "J" became the 1A1 in real life. (The 1A2 was called the type "F",
originally.) Neither the type J or F ever reached production. I save any of
that kind of historic stuff that happens to fall into my possession but proto
types (with a few exceptions) are not very interesting to me.

Stan
w7ni@...

pauledst wrote:

Hello Dick,

I own two of C1001 cameras and do not have any documentation. Perhaps we can share notes.

So far, I found out that camera part was made by NEC and puts out an NTSC signal. There are several adapters to mount camera to scope, probably the most useful are:

1.. 016-0248-01 for small screen 7000 series scopes (not 7600, though and 7600 is not recommended; probably image is too big)
2.. 016-0269-03 for 2400 and 'new' 400 (465)
3.. 016-0306-01 for 'old' 400 series (485, 454 etc.)
I am looking for #1 adapter while #2 came with one of cameras. I am also looking for documentation and selected accessories; I do not think that original board for PC would be very useful, that might be a pre-ISA slot and even if you have the slot in your PC, drivers might be missing or incompatible with available Wander from Redmond.

What I found so far is:

1.. The 9-pin connector takes in 12 V, around 300 mA at pins 1 (positive) and 3 (ground) and signal is on pins 4 (shield/ground) and 5 (video); there are two other pins used which bring in calibration voltages and go only to BNC and two test points.
2.. Someone on this forum suggested to use 'Snappy' for frame capture; that device is available on e-bay for around $10, but manufacturer seems to be out of business. I played a bit with this camera, with limited success. The Snappy has a 'monitor' mode, a quasi real time but that was not good enough to adjust focus, so I set focus to infinite and looked at the picture of nearby window; that way basic camera operation was verified. With great difficulties I managed to focus camera for oscilloscope image. Adjusting light intensity exhausted last shreds of my patience and now camera has to wait. However, the best results I got when TV receiver's video input was used, a real real-time image.
I would like to find out how this camera or frame capture board were triggered to capture desired frame. I presume that was done by trailing edge of scope gate signal.

Out of curiosity, how much did you pay for your camera? The first one I paid around $70 (with shipping) while second one was mine for $20 (with shipping) and I do not see the difference. The cheaper one came with scope adapter and a cable (9 pin male D connector on both ends) and is higher serial number; it is just as you would expect on e-bay, no rime.

I tried this forum for more information or parts, but no luck so far. Let's hope you have better luck.

Regards
Miroslav Pokorni

I will through in my 2 cents worth: does new scaner has 50 Ohm antenna input? A piece of wire is a high impedance ' antenna.
Regards
Miroslav Pokorni
james89es <james89es@...> wrote: I know this has nothing to do with Tek-scopes (I do own a RM547, so I
do belong "in the club") but I know many of you are also into HAM
radio.

Here's the story:

I bought my mother a new police scanner (from Rasio Shack) for x-
mas. She has had scanners for 25+ years. Her old Uniden was 15
years old. The outside antenna is about 20 years old.

Problem:

When we plug the outside antenna into the new scanner, it CAUSES
static and reduces signal strength!! I ruled out the plug on the
radio itself by connecting a short piece of cable, and touching the
bare wire with my finger. In this scenario the signal is stronger
and there's less static when I touch the wire, as I would expect.
Once I plug in the outside antenna, however, more static and less
strength ... even if I leave the little inside antenna on.

They replaced the coax just in case, they used the recommended 50ohm
cable - a run of about 30 feet.

What would explain this?? Keep in mind that the old Uniden still
works fine with the outside antenna.




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Paul,
the man you will want to send that literature (on Tek "J" plug in) is Stan
Griffiths, e-mail to:

w7ni@...

He worked with Tek for 28+ years.

Regards,

Chuck Miles
Junction City, OR 97448

I'm mostly a reader of this group as most posters are far more
knowledgable. However in going over my manuals to weed out duplicates
and ones that I'll never have hardware for I came across an
interesting preview sheet of a "letter series" plug-in. The title is
"TYPE J DUAL-TRACE PLUG-IN UNIT". It's printed on semi slick paper,
one sided and has a red stripe accross the top with "tentative" in
white.
There is a picture of a real item with all the right knobs, logo and
numbers but the S/N is blank. The specs given are 5 mv/cm, 35 Mc and
the usual two channel modes.
Near the bottom right is the date 8/63. Near the bottom left is a
document control number "A-2186". In looking through my catalogs from
1963 to 1966 and 1971 I find no "J" listed. Stan doesn't list one on
his web site.
The question: Was this plug-in ever produced?
Secondly, Is there a repository or a historian who is collecting these
odd bits of literature?

Paul

It was primaily used to produce test patterns for the 601 and 611 Storage
Monitors. Not really too useful since the 601 and 611 are not too useful . .
.

Stan
w7ni@...

Lynn Lewis wrote:

Last year, I went to a government surplus sale conducted by Levy-Latham in
central Calfornia and saw pallets with ten 7912s on each one. There must have
been at least 15 pallets of them. You had to bid on at least on pallet of
them. I put in a bid on one pallet . . . I only wanted one 7912 for my
collection. I lost on that pallet, but if I had put that bid on a different
pallet, I would have won it. I didn't DARE bid on more than ONE pallet . . . I
might have won 20 7912's! There were THOUSANDS of Tek instruments up for sealed
bid at this sale. I probably placed 50 different bids. I lost every one of
them. It was a fun and interesting trip but a real loser, from a financial
point of view . . . for me, anyway.

Stan
w7ni@...

Craig Sawyers wrote:

The best toys are always the ones you build yourself.

This reminds me of the country western song about the guy who works on a
Cadillac assembly line and builds his own Caddy by bringing home parts over
several years.

I assume the "D" is for Dickinson.



Jim Nunn

jimnunn0000@...

I have picked up a nice clean 7704A mainframe that has a power supply
problem. The first thing I did was check the +5v Lamp voltage and it
was very low (~0.8v). I looked at it with another scope and saw a
string of widely spaced low voltage pulses (??). It looks like the
Frequency Converter section is not oscillating. Any ideas what I can
look at ? Failing that, does anyone have a spare Power Supply ? The
scope is just too clean to scrap at this point.

Thanks, Dick, W1KSZ

Thanks. It looks interesting but I'm afraid I've already bought enough
interesting stuff to keep me busy for a while.
Thanks for the info? I'm going to let it pass.

It shows up as a raster generator.

16-24 line pairs.
300-400 dots.
1 volt output.

The military paid $5800 each for them.

It sounds like it may be used for adjusting Tek
displays of some sort.

Jim Reese

--- Lynn Lewis <mrzuzu@...> wrote:

I've been looking for over an hour now and can't
find anything.

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I've been looking for over an hour now and can't find anything.

I saw the note from Dean and it brought back memories. I worked for IBM in
1957 to 1959 as bench technician. I used a 541 then a 545. I really fell
in love with the 545 and wanted a scope for home use so, I managed to buy a
DuMont 304, it was not up to par with the 545. Being spoiled for a 545 but
not having the cash available to purchase one and, having access to all the
parts, I decided to make one. From 1957 to 1959 I constructed a 541. In
1966 I came across a delay board for the scope and added it, it then became
a 545, I call mine a 545D. It has all the features of the 545 with the
addition of a running time meter. I wound the original delay line on wood
dowels with costume beads for the taps. I later added a factory made delay
line. The home made CA and K plug in's are mounted in the upper right
rather than the lower left. The mercury pulser plug in got lost during a
move. Someday, when I drive up the coast, it is going to Stan Griffiths for
his museum.

If anyone wants a picture, drop me a line as it is in my garage and still
works great.

Reed Dickinson
S. CA.

reed-d@...

(In the R7912, one long finely focused
CRT wrote on the front side of a very small diode array while another
crt scanned the backside of the diode array...that is why the R7912 is
so long it won't fit in a regular rack cabinet.)

I remember this unit well. Back in the late '70s I used this beast to
capture sub-ns detail on laser pulses. The total pulse length was 30ns or
so, and the repetition rate was 30Hz - so even a 7103 couldn't give a bright
enough trace to see (a duty cycle of 10^-6!!). In addition the detail
changed from shot to shot. So I used a C53 camera to sync a single shot
from the CRT screen on the unit. In addition it had a video output that I
fed to a 15" monitor so I could easily see the effect of adjustments to the
laser.

It was an extremely useful piece of gear - as you said, there was absolutely
nothing on the market that did this sort of thing other than the 7912.

Craig

On Wed, Jan 02, 2002 at 11:45:58PM -0000, w1ksz wrote:

I picked up this TEK Video Camera (mounts on Scope face).
Does anyone have a manual I can buy or copy ? Or have any info on
this camera ?

I believe the whole system was called a DCS (Digitizing Camera System),
and included the black/white video camera, C-30 style camera adapter, a
long pc board that plugged into a luggable IBM pc, or even a 386, and
three ring binder of the software type, and some software on floppies.
I made some home videos using this camera tied to the IBM Luggable (dual
floppies only), with video going into my VCR. Used as intended, this
camera coupled with a microchannel CRT could capture details that eluded
ALL the digital scopes of the time. One system was especially good at
determining ESD (electrostatic discharge) properties of semiconductor
chips. Digitizers couldn't put enough points on a waveform to show any
detail, but this DCS could almost keep up with the Scan Conversion
techniques used in the R7912. (In the R7912, one long finely focused
CRT wrote on the front side of a very small diode array while another
crt scanned the backside of the diode array...that is why the R7912 is
so long it won't fit in a regular rack cabinet.)
I thought I had a box of accessories, including the crazy cables, SW,
and manuals...but I can't find it this morning. You might look in some
old TEK catalogs...all the stuff I just typed came from memory.

--
Ray Menke

Hi David:

I use a variac with an AC ammeter in the load side. Temporarily replace the 475 fuse with a 4 amp one and adjust the AC voltage until about 2-4 amps flow into the scope and wait about 15 minutes. Remove power and immediately feel all the bridge rectifiers, filter caps and the power transformer for excessive heat. The transformer should be warm but if any rectifiers or caps are warm that is the problem. If all the rectifiers and caps are cold and the transformer is warm you might have a bad transformer or a short on the main board. Above all, do nor try to remove the main board, it is a terrible job. An alternate method would be to use the variac but measure the current flowing in each secondary wire going to the main board using a clamp on ammeter. I do not use this method as there is little room for my clamp on ammeter. To remove a defective bridge rectifier bend it back and forth until the leads break. Then solder in a new one.

Good luck

Reed Dickinson

Reed,

I'd love to see the picture of your "545D".,... I have a "B" version.

Thanks

Chuck
Junction City, OR