Unknown component identification - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Lonnie Mason
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 27, 2018, 12:20:04 am
content: I have a component with the markingTelex 55759I can't seem to find any data sheets on this part at all.Any help would be greatly appreciated

author: tpowell1830
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2018, 12:24:16 am
content: That is a magnetic tape head pickup. Don't know what it is off of.EDIT: Added magnetic.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2018, 03:52:14 am
content: tpowell may have the expertise to know that it is a pickup. At my level of knowledge it could also be an erase head. Same idea just a slightly different part.

author: sphinx
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2018, 04:49:52 am
content: it looks like a dual channel head that uses the whole width of a normal tape cassettea stereo head only in one direction, can not see a split in in the rectangular areai would say that this is not a regular cassette head.look at attached pic that is sort of a normal head.there are also dual direction heads where youhave two areas that look like the one on the picbeneath the upper one

author: paulca
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2018, 09:20:56 am
content: Quote from: sphinx on January 27, 2018, 04:49:52 amCould be a bidrectional head from one of those tape decks that doesn't need you to turn the tape over.

author: Nusa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2018, 10:09:14 am
content: It might be even older than that. Telex was a reel-to-reel manufacturer in the 60's and 70's. Reel machines typically had separate heads for recording, playing, and erasing. (There's a niche market in relapping and refurbishing old tape heads to keep stuff running.)They also made an 8-track deck when that was a thing.And they made high-speed cassette tape duplicators in the 80's. The model I remember made 3 simultaneous copies at 16x speed. Popular with churches that wanted to make taped sermons.

author: Lonnie Mason
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 27, 2018, 03:46:13 pm
content: I found it in a job lot of IC's I got off eBay. The box has parts dating from the 70's and 80's.

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2018, 05:08:58 pm
content: Quote from: Nusa on January 27, 2018, 10:09:14 amLooks like the cassette version, it has the guide horns.

author: sphinx
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2018, 07:00:26 pm
content: there are 4 connections that would make it 2 channel a head

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2018, 09:54:54 pm
content: 2 channel full width quarter inch tape head, most likely used in an older reel to reel tape deck, as they did make stereo decks that used the full width of the tape to record 2 mono channel width tracks on the tape. They were used before the development of the 2 channel per side stereo head, as the wider tape gave better audio quality with the tape formulations of the day.

author: mzacharias
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2018, 12:26:24 pm
content: Telex made tape duplicators. That is what it came from. Looks like dual mono.Churches used them a lot to makes tapes of their services for hearing their impaired, homebound, etc members.