Gents,
Over the years I’ve purchased 15 or so pieces of HP 3XXX and HP 5XXX series of
test equipment.
All has worked well until a week ago my HP 3568B which had worked for years
smoked when I turned it on. I had moved and had not powered it for a couple of
years. Looking at the PS board I had failed to remove the long-dead NiCad
memory battery for some inexplicable reason since I had removed them on the
other six I have. Several burned 1/10 tiny resistors and board lands. This
will not be a fun fix.
I then stared to look at the various electrolytics in it and then in a few
other HP pieces. Most seem to use computer grade screw terminal caps as the
initial PS filter. But I noticed that on many of the daughter boards HP used
the familiar axial lead type of caps. All seemed original.
Most of my HP stuff is between 25 to 40 years old. These original
electrolytics are on borrowed time. That it works so well is a shining tribute
to the quality of the HP organization.
However I plan on replacing all the axial types in all of my HP equipment,
except for the tantalums, with new 105C, low ripple, high reliability types.
Fixing some HP boards is a PITA.
My logic is this. The large amount of reasonably priced HP equipment that is
for sale is the result of the American electronic industry becoming almost
non-existent.
After WWII (the big one), sorry I couldn’t resist that, all major American
cities had Surplus Row’s and there was a booming mail order business also. We
had seven major makers of Ham radio equipment. It’s all gone.
So now on epay the low priced older HP equipment are the final remnants. In a
few years they will be gone. None of us can afford the new stuff.
To invest between $25 to $50 in new caps plus perhaps more or better cooling
fans to extend the equipments operation for another 20 or 30 years is fine by
me even though I probably won’t be around or care by then.
Regards,
Perrier
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