El Dorado Frequency Counter Restoration

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martin martin

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Jan 30, 2022, 6:50:07 PM1/30/22
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Hello All!
We helping a friend clean is 35 year old garage (you've heard this story before) and I found a 1974 vintage El Dorado 15 MHz Nixie frequency counter.  Pics are inside, outside  and yes... the original service manual!.

Should be a cool project ...
manual.jpg
Front panel.jpg
Inside.jpg

Mac Doktor

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Jan 30, 2022, 8:10:42 PM1/30/22
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On Jan 30, 2022, at 6:50 PM, martin martin <mcve...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello All!
We helping a friend clean is 35 year old garage (you've heard this story before) and I found a 1974 vintage El Dorado 15 MHz Nixie frequency counter.  Pics are inside, outside  and yes... the original service manual!.

Please scan that manual. Mine is working great but you never know.



Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

https://www.astarcloseup.com

"Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for science intact."—Carl Sagan, Psychology Today, 1996

Richard Nicewonger

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Jan 31, 2022, 2:40:23 PM1/31/22
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Hi Everybody,

El Dorado made some pretty nice counters back in the day, a few of which I have owned at one time or another.
This example seems to be in better condition than most you see now. I don’t know if there ever was an El Dorado counter
that didn’t use Nixies. Perhaps some members could recall more info.

Rich

On Jan 30, 2022, at 6:50 PM, martin martin <mcve...@gmail.com> wrote:

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<manual.jpg><Front panel.jpg><Inside.jpg>

Bill van Dijk

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Jan 31, 2022, 3:49:27 PM1/31/22
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I have an Eldorado model 1615 in my collection. It has 6 Nixies in the display. It is cooled with a fan which sounds like a fully loaded 747 taking off! J

 

Bill v

Mac Doktor

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Jan 31, 2022, 6:52:27 PM1/31/22
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On Jan 31, 2022, at 3:49 PM, Bill van Dijk <theold...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have an Eldorado model 1615 in my collection. It has 6 Nixies in the display. It is cooled with a fan which sounds like a fully loaded 747 taking off! J

I have the manual for the 1615 if anyone needs it.

Bill van Dijk

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Jan 31, 2022, 7:19:49 PM1/31/22
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Thanks Terry, I have already found a very good scan on-line. Amazing manual, it goes through a complete discussion on how the unit works and includes a schematic with parts list. It includes instructions on calibration also. Compare that with what you get today, if anything at all.

 

Bill v

 

From: neoni...@googlegroups.com [mailto:neoni...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mac Doktor
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2022 6:52 PM
To: neonixie-l <neoni...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] El Dorado Frequency Counter Restoration

 

 

On Jan 31, 2022, at 3:49 PM, Bill van Dijk <theold...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Bill Notfaded

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Feb 4, 2022, 6:19:36 AM2/4/22
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Love it Terry!  I love eldorado counters super cool stuff!  I'm a counter freak to begin with so anything with nixie I can hook up to a 10MHz reference is really awesome!

Bill
Message has been deleted

Bill Notfaded

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Feb 4, 2022, 6:28:48 AM2/4/22
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Amazing it looks like it's working fine Martin.  Does anymore know how many counters they made?  I have a few but it's my guess they were one of the companies that made the most counters with nixie up there with HP and Systron Donner.  One SYSTRON DONNER 7018 I have two of has the inverted tubes in them that hang down instead of standing up.  I bought a second one missing one tube.  Supposed to have 8 tube but someone must have needed one and removed it.

Richard Nicewonger

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Feb 5, 2022, 1:20:04 PM2/5/22
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Hi All,

Does anyone know whatever happened to Eldorado Electronics? I wonder if they ever made a counter or DVM that didn’t use Nixies.
Don’t recall ever seeing any but maybe the group has some info.

Rich

Bill Notfaded

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Feb 5, 2022, 2:34:32 PM2/5/22
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They made a few with LED.  Here's a time interval counter on eBay.  I'd love one in good condition but this needs too much work!

Bill

Richard Nicewonger

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Feb 5, 2022, 4:50:00 PM2/5/22
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Thanks for that link Bill. It definitely needs TLC - a lot of it! I’ve never seen that model before, but if you look closely you’ll see that it doesn’t use
LED’s but rather Panaplex displays (my favorite). Wish it wasn’t rack mount, cheaper and in better shape or I might have went for it just for those 
displays. Another interesting thing I noticed: rear label shows Eldorado as a subsidiary of E-H International. Never heard of ‘em but I guess they had
acquired Eldo at some point. My only Eldo is model 1607 counter/timer. This really helps toward my curiosity about that company and I am grateful.

Rich

martin martin

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Feb 6, 2022, 2:45:27 PM2/6/22
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Restoration completed. Old glue and tape cleaned on the face.  As you can see the numbers look good for a 46 year old counter!
Restored.jpg

Nicholas Stock

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Feb 6, 2022, 3:03:01 PM2/6/22
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Nice job Martin!

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 6, 2022, at 11:45, martin martin <mcve...@gmail.com> wrote:

Restoration completed. Old glue and tape cleaned on the face.  As you can see the numbers look good for a 46 year old counter!

Richard Nicewonger

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Feb 7, 2022, 1:27:05 PM2/7/22
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It sure looks nice sitting there with the “others”.
At my age, you can guess which readout I prefer!
And it seems accurate, too. Very good work.

Rich

Mac Doktor

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May 6, 2022, 6:38:41 PM5/6/22
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Reviving this topic...


On Feb 7, 2022, at 1:28 PM, Richard Nicewonger <nice...@optonline.net> wrote:

It sure looks nice sitting there with the “others”.
At my age, you can guess which readout I prefer!
And it seems accurate, too. Very good work.

I just acquired a 224 from eBay so my Eldorado Nixie gear collection may be complete. I already have a 325A and a 1615. I should take some pictures.

I still need the service manual for the 224 and the 325A if anyone has them...


Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"


“...the book said something astonishing, a very big thought. The stars, it said, were suns but very far away. The Sun was a star but close up.”—Carl Sagan, "The Backbone Of Night", Cosmos, 1980


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