Ancient Industrial Test Gear! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: Phaedrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2014, 11:51:12 pm
content: So at work we dug this old piece of kit out of the back of the warehouse which no one has touched in like five years. Apparently it's a DC fan tester; given a 3-pin DC fan it will run it at the specified voltage and read back current and RPMs. We knew it was old; but no one knew quite how old until I opened it up...Imgur gallery:http://imgur.com/a/GuuJR#0Ten turn pots, rotary numeric inputs, 7-segment displays, thru-hole construction, steel case transistors, and chips so big you could land a moon rover on 'em! Beautiful!I'm guessing this thing is *at least* twenty years old, probably between 1979 and 1985. There's no way it could be newer than that!We don't have any practical use for this thing anymore (any $15 fan controller can replicate its functionality) so I'm thinking about scavenging those 10-turn pots and anything else useful.What do y'all think?

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 12:00:45 am
content: Neat, I wish I had a job somewhere with old electronics stuff like this. I'd probably keep it intact for the heck of it.

author: Phaedrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 12:03:37 am
content: Quote from: XOIIO on May 02, 2014, 12:00:45 amI kind of want to as well, except for those 10-turn pots. I'm thinking about building a PSU, and they'd be damn useful, and new ones are pricey!EDIT: Also I checked, no date codes. All IC markings have been rubbed off and a sticker placed over. I can guess that certain things are op-amps, etc. But part numbers and date codes will probably elude us.

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 12:11:21 am
content: Quote from: Phaedrus on May 02, 2014, 12:03:37 amThat's true, personally if I was going to take them I'd leave the rest intact to replace them when I could/wanted to.That said I did have an older Tektronix analog scope that died since I was left in the garage over winter, I took it to pieces (and a bit of another that was totally dead anyways) and have one of those pots out, and a few more I could grab, they are neat little things.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 01:08:46 am
content: judging from the matte chip bodies ; mid 90's. my guess is 1996-ish

author: Phaedrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 01:19:07 am
content: Quote from: free_electron on May 02, 2014, 01:08:46 amThat would be disappointing. It looks far older to me.

author: Hypernova
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 01:37:26 am
content: If it doesn't use bubble's for the 7-seg's it ain't that old.

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 02:32:53 am
content: If that is ancient, a hate to hear what you would say about the tube factory!

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 12:27:18 pm
content: Check the large black 4700uF elco, sometimes those have a date on top.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 12:42:20 pm
content: They sanded off every IC part number, including on the 555 timer there.I would guess the 40 pin DIP packages are 8051 microprocessors, and the 28 pin DIP is a DVM chip. Counter board looks like they reused the processor, but have a set of 7 segment drivers to do the frequency readout, probably ran out of IO pins on the 8051 so put in the extra logic. I would bet that they probably did not set the programming protection on the micro though.

author: liquibyte
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 12:47:31 pm
content: The look of the caps makes me agree that it's probably mid 90's. I don't think they made caps that looked like that in the 80's but then again, I never got my hands on anything other than consumer grade stuff to take apart back then.I just bought two caps that look rather similar to this big one. Did any caps have that plastic top back in the 80's?

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 12:57:58 pm
content: Yes they did, I even saw them in 1970's capacitors, though those were mostly light blue shrink sleeves. Look on the side and you probably will see a date code, and there might still be date codes on the 5V regulators on every board.

author: xwarp
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 04:33:51 pm
content: I'm going to venture a guess that it's not even as old as the '90's as the manufacturer of those is still making them.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 04:48:43 pm
content: I would guess 80s to early 90s. The minimal silkscreen style is there, although the chips are DIP, not PLCC or the like, and the routing is probably hand made, not the common orthogonal autorouting typical of period computer boards. Bizarre that they went to the trouble of finding/making chips without numbers (or obliterated numbers), especially if this is low quantity test gear.Might be interesting to extract the EPROMs and see if the code reads like 8051/Z80/etc.Though oddly, none of those look like EPROMs. No windows, maybe OTP or mask ROM? The latter would be consistent with the unmarked chips, if they're all custom (un-)marked variants that is. They're usually placed closer to the processor, too.If the MCU(s) are actually Flash, that would put it much newer, like, mid-late 90s as others have suggested. Hmm, Flash was introduced 1984, but I don't know offhand when MCUs started integrating it.Tim

author: Khashoggi
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 05:38:30 pm
content: 80's to early 90's.

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 05:43:37 pm
content: Quote from: T3sl4co1l on May 02, 2014, 04:48:43 pmCould even be an MCS-48 serie micro, they had versions with OTP ROM from late 70's to 80'shttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_MCS-48

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 06:11:00 pm
content: I think Vincents estimate of mid 90's is dead on... That snap in cap is a dead giveaway for 90's on. Also the red writing on those 5 watt bathtubs looks to be Xicon.

author: PedroDaGr8
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 06:34:25 pm
content: Quote from: xwarp on May 02, 2014, 04:33:51 pmGive this man a cigarThe date code on the Relay is:0002BI which means Second Week of 2000. So this device is AT LEAST that new.

author: Phaedrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 06:43:08 pm
content: I dunno, those 7805s have "NLB8048" on them, which to me says week 48, 1980. Even if that were Minguo calendar or something, that'd still be 1991. I doubt they'd be putting decade-old regulators on these boards.

author: PedroDaGr8
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 06:45:30 pm
content: Quote from: Phaedrus on May 02, 2014, 06:43:08 pmSo maybe the relay was replaced at a later date. Not improbable, since relays are electromechanical though they seldom fail if not abused.

author: Phaedrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 07:00:53 pm
content: The serial no. of the unit itself is F0108212That could be week 12, 1982 (or 1993 if it's Minguo calendar)Or it could be unit 8212 of that batch, though I don't think they'd make them in that quantity.

author: PaulAm
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 07:42:36 pm
content: The 3 terminal fan that this thing is supposed to test did not exist as a commodity product until CPU motherboards with onboard monitoring hardware became common. You're looking 90's at least for that. The 386 didn't show up until 86 and they didn't use fans. I don't think they became common until at least the Pentium cpus showed up.So, old yes, but hardly ancient.

author: sparknmike
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 10:16:06 pm
content: Something to keep in mind that the engineer that designed this thing may have been caught in the past. One company I joined was wrapping up a project with a contract engineer that had worked with the company's owner years before. I found out what he was working on when he brought in a sample for me to evaluate. It was absolutely wonderful evaluating a brand new design in the '00s that would have easily fit in the early 1980's. I think minus one voltage regulator (which we argued over the need to vent its heat, and he would have been right if it had been a linear regulator) everything there was mainstream technology by 1980.The design went into production despite the costs and headaches associated with such a high component count, through-hole design. I am sure today someone would pick up the box and swear it had been there since the '80s even though it could easily be only five years old.In his defense, other than using a digital input as an analog comparator the design worked and was reliable, all the way until it was far too expensive to manufacture for the target market and was EOL'd.

author: David_AVD
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 10:26:03 pm
content: Any markings left on the regulators or transistors?

author: Phaedrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2014, 10:40:19 pm
content: Quote from: David_AVD on May 02, 2014, 10:26:03 pmFound two 7805s marked, I believe, wk 42, 1980Also a 7905, but no date code.The power transistors at the back are unmarked, and the capacitors don't have any date codes.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2014, 04:56:25 am
content: Monitored fans are common in copiers as they really do need to monitor if the fans work and protect themselves from cooking up in case of fan failure. Even copiers from the 1970's had 24VDC fans ( mostly Nidek) with a monitoring output, where they had other than mains fans, and there they used thermal switches as backup as well. Sharp copiers all had monitored fans, typically around 5 per machine, and many only operated with the fuser cycling up to operate temperature, and ran for around 2 minutes after the unit went into power save to cool the optical area and the toner and paper path.I use a few of them in my PC running off 12V as long lasting quiet fans, though the airflow is nowhere close to the rated flow at 24V. Even though they are all at least 10 years old they all still work perfectly, only needing dusting and cleaning every so often.

author: retrolefty
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2014, 02:26:16 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on May 03, 2014, 04:56:25 amReminds me of equipment I serviced as a field engineer in the 70s, stock quotation equipment, that had what I would call 'flapper switches' mounted in the exhaust stream of the mini-fans cooling the power supply that would sense true airflow and were all wired in series to create a trip circuit if even a single fan failed. We leased the equipment so we had a vested interest in long term reliability.

author: IanJ
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 07, 2014, 11:04:45 am
content: Hi all,I am in dialog (in Chinese) with the company that makes this Fan Tester in order to get some info out of them.......they have replied, but as yet no juicy details. It appears that they still produce this unit and as such are unwilling to release anything. I asked for original manufacturing date, and also technologies involved (which MPU etc).If I get any further I will reply here.Ian.[curious Scotsman]