It lives again.

[Instrument Resources of America]

It lives again.  Beckman Berkeley model 7360 Events Per Unit Time
(E.P.U.T.) meter and timer, that I recently restored to operational
condition. See the photo.   One of those fun projects that I enjoy
doing, every now and then, is to restore vintage test gear.  This time
it contained neon, and thought the group might like to see it.  100%
vacuum tube circuitry, plus neon displays. Hope all enjoy, comments
welcome. Now where is that vintage Tektronix 514D oscilloscope??????. 
Off in the distance I see an HP 522 frequency counter, with vacuum tubes
and similar neon displays.       Ira.

[martin martin]

Excellent!

~

mcve...@gmail.com

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[Dekatron42]

Nice!

I have one in my storage that needs some TLC - may I ask what you needed to do to get it up and running?

I do believe I have a HP 521 or 522 too that needs TLC!

/Martin

[J Forbes]

I'm glad someone is playing with one in original condition...I ended up cutting up one of mine to make a digital clock, all vacuum tube operated. I also recently got rid of the last one I had that still was mostly original, worked last time I tried it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM9TW6GcCQE

[gregebert]

Sins of the past are here to haunt me.....I personally junked at least 3 of those about 40 years ago, and have a few parts remaining. I am truly amazed you could get this thing to work. Well done !!!

If you could post an interior photo showing all of the vacuum tubes inside, I'm sure some of the younger folks who never saw one of these beastly space-heaters will cringe at the sight of it. All hand-wired, NO circuit boards.

On Sunday, July 18, 2021 at 12:22:41 PM UTC-7 Dekatron42 wrote:

[Audrey]

+1 for an internal pic 

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[Instrument Resources of America]

For those of you who asked. Pic No 1 of the 'hand wired underside of the
Beckman 7360 EPUT  meter'. For the younger folks here. Every single
thing you see in this pic and subsequent ones to follow was put there by
a human being. All of the parts and components, all of the wires, every
single solder connection done by human hands.  No automation what so
ever. No pick and place machines, no wave soldering of P.C. boards, no
automated wire wrapping etc.  ALL hand placed, hand wired, and hand
soldered.  By the way, all of our home entertainment electronics up to
about the late fifties, early sixties was done just like this, all
radios, televisions, stereos, phonographs, were all done by hand.  Any
questions just ask and I'll try to answer as best as I can.  Who here
can spot the small handful of solid state devices in this pic? Old
timers, need not reply to this question!!  More to follow.       Ira.

[Instrument Resources of America]

For those of you who asked. Pic No '2' of the 'hand wired underside of
the Beckman 7360 EPUT  meter'. Viewing toward the front of the unit,
previous pic No. 1 was looking toward the rear of the unit. For the

younger folks here. Every single thing you see in this pic and
subsequent ones to follow was put there by a human being. All of the
parts and components, all of the wires, every single solder connection
done by human hands.  No automation what so ever. No pick and place
machines, no wave soldering of P.C. boards, no automated wire wrapping
etc.  ALL hand placed, hand wired, and hand soldered.  By the way, all
of our home entertainment electronics up to about the late fifties,
early sixties was done just like this, all radios, televisions, stereos,
phonographs, were all done by hand.  Any questions just ask and I'll try
to answer as best as I can.  Who here can spot the small handful of
solid state devices in this pic? Old timers, need not reply to this
question!!  More to follow.       Ira.


On 7/18/2021 11:47 AM, Instrument Resources of America wrote:

[Instrument Resources of America]

For those of you who asked. Pic No 3 of the 'top side of the Beckman
7360 EPUT  meter', looking toward the front panel. This pic shows most
of the 'SIXTY' vacuum tubes which made this counter function. The seven
decimal counting units (DCU's), with their tube complement are all
visible. The physically larger, 'double width' DCU on the left was the
least significant digit and was required to count at up to the highest
frequency of this unit which was 1 M.C.  It took more circuitry to do
this and was quite a feat for the time. Subsequent DCU's were required
to count at 1/10 the rate of the preceding DCU. Each DCU was divide by
ten to the next in line DCU.       Ira.

On 7/18/2021 11:47 AM, Instrument Resources of America wrote:

[Instrument Resources of America]

Pic No 4 of the top side looking toward the rear. Shows more of the
SIXTY vacuum tubes. The regulated power supply occupies the entire top
of the pic from left to right. Power transformer to the left, and the
large 6080 dual triode tube, used as the series pass regulator, and is
the same idea as using a 2N3055 transistor as a series pass element
later on. The rectangular tall metal box near the top, right rear of the
pic is a temperature controlled, electrically heated oven to keep the
quartz crystal, for the time base, at or close to it's turning
point.     Ira.

On 7/18/2021 11:47 AM, Instrument Resources of America wrote:

[Instrument Resources of America]

And now Pic No 5.     The 'piece de resistance'.  Viewing the top side,
power on, with most lab lights off, and watching what vacuum tubes do
best,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,'GLOWING IN THE DARK'.   Hope you all
enjoyed this journey back in time. If you have questions please ask, I'm
not getting any younger. More to come in the future, so, 'Please Stand
By'.           Ira.

P.S. Something to think about.  If this was to be manufactured today,
can you venture a guess at what it might cost.  Perhaps something just
shy of the national debt!!!  The only two things that made it affordable
back in it's day, was inexpensive labor, and Henry Fords assembly line
techniques.      Ira.

On 7/18/2021 11:47 AM, Instrument Resources of America wrote:

[martin martin]

One question Ira;

How much power does it draw? 

"If you have to ask, maybe you shouldn't buy it"...

~

mcve...@gmail.com

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[gregebert]

Anyone notice the flexible shaft from one of the front panel controls ?? I never could figure out why they did this. Maybe they found a manufacturing issue and did not want to re-manufacture a new set of front panels ?? 

[J Forbes]

I expect it was to keep the wires short, on that selector switch...pulse stuff like this is kind of picky about wire lengths and crosstalk.

[Joe Croft]

How I love point to point wiring! PCBs can never replace the beauty of equipment like that!

-joe

[Adrian Godwin]

You don't like it laced with waxed cotton ?

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[Bartek Ogryz]

I wonder, what kind of display is that? I've never seen one like this.

[Dekatron42]

Those are Neon bulbs (NE2A) driven by vacuum tubes (5963).

/Martin

[Mac Doktor]

On Jul 19, 2021, at 2:57 PM, Dekatron42 <martin....@gmail.com> wrote:

Those are Neon bulbs (NE2A) driven by vacuum tubes (5963).

Boy would I love to have that beauty. I used to have an HP with incandescent bulbs in the counter modules. They were easy to read from across the room and simple to replace. It mysteriously disappeared from the basement at some point. 

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

https://www.astarcloseup.com

“...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

[gregebert]

I came across a different version that used a 7-segment electroluminescent display. It was sold for surplus because the display was too dim to read; those E-L panels were very cool looking, but they didn't last long.

Another oddity on a different model was the case. This device was intended for rackmount, and had the typical built-like-a-tank high-quality construction, yet the case, which I assume was an option, was a butt-ugly cheap steel shell. Kind of like taking your Ferrari to Earl Scheib for a paint job.

Notice it wasn't called a "Frequency Counter"; it's an EPUT (Events per unit time) meter.

When you plug it in, the crystal oven cycles on and off (bright red front panel light) with no way to turn it off except unplugging it; switch it on and it almost becomes a toaster. Plenty of warm air coming out the fan after it warms up. I recall the sealed transformer (that's another story in itself...quite a beauty) had 2 separate windings for the 6.3VAC filament supply. One was 12 amps, and the other 15 amps. I used one for the power supply of my home-built S-100 computer system.

There was yet another version that did not have each decimal-column in a vertical line; instead there were odd and even columns, and the numbers zig-zagged upwards as it counted. Such weirdness.

I hate to admit this, but the vacuum tubes in mine got tossed, literally, at a brick wall because we loved the 'pop' they made along with a small cloud of sparks that were visible at night. It was a lot of tubes....

And of course, that indescribable smell of the conformal coating. Your nose could always tell you mark of a fine piece of equipment.

I never bothered to test what frequency it could measure, because I already had a 6-digit nixie-tube counter that went up to 550Mhz, using transistors. That was quite a feat for the early 1960's. That was eventually scrapped and the display is in my first nixie clock.

[Mac Doktor]

On Jul 19, 2021, at 11:40 PM, gregebert <greg...@hotmail.com> wrote:

There was yet another version that did not have each decimal-column in a vertical line; instead there were odd and even columns, and the numbers zig-zagged upwards as it counted. Such weirdness.

My counter with incandescent bulbs was arranged this way. Here's a similar model (with more modes than mine) using the more common neon lamps:

https://youtu.be/2oj64aCgL48

Here's the full restoration story with lots of internal photos:

http://www.rfcafe.com/miscellany/factoids/hp-5212a-electronic-counter-kirts-cogitation-302.htm

It eventually sold for $130 with shipping on Ebay. I was holding out for $125.  8/

I have one of the modules. I'd love to hook it up to something like an Arduino for display purposes. I don't know what model it is because the sticker fell off.