The Tek power supply thread reminded me of these interesting old books, some of which are still an excellent read. https://www.davmar.org/concepts.html My fave is Bob Orwiler's Vertical Amplifiers Concepts, <https://www.davmar.org/TE/TekConcepts/TekVertAmpCircuits.pdf>. (The Power Supply Circuits book is too old to be much use, though it does talk about switchers a bit.) Cheers Phil Hobbs -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com
Tek Concepts books
Started by ●May 2, 2023
Reply by ●May 2, 20232023-05-02
On Tue, 2 May 2023 10:39:28 -0400, Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:>The Tek power supply thread reminded me of these interesting old books, >some of which are still an excellent read. > >https://www.davmar.org/concepts.html > >My fave is Bob Orwiler's Vertical Amplifiers Concepts, ><https://www.davmar.org/TE/TekConcepts/TekVertAmpCircuits.pdf>. > >(The Power Supply Circuits book is too old to be much use, though it >does talk about switchers a bit.) > >Cheers > >Phil HobbsI have most of those in print. I liked their beautiful hand-drawn schematic styles, some with tekdoodles. The HP schematics were prim and boring. Neither had discovered netnames.
Reply by ●May 2, 20232023-05-02
On Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 10:39:46 AM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote:> The Tek power supply thread reminded me of these interesting old books, > some of which are still an excellent read. > > https://www.davmar.org/concepts.html > > My fave is Bob Orwiler's Vertical Amplifiers Concepts, > <https://www.davmar.org/TE/TekConcepts/TekVertAmpCircuits.pdf>. > > (The Power Supply Circuits book is too old to be much use, though it > does talk about switchers a bit.)Dunno about those particulars, I don't think, but the older Tek documentation gave excellent illustrations of higher complexity electronic subsystems are conceived in the first place. They were a mix of electronic components and function blocks, the only way to do it.> > Cheers > > Phil Hobbs > > -- > Dr Philip C D Hobbs > Principal Consultant > ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics > Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics > Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 > > http://electrooptical.net > http://hobbs-eo.com
Reply by ●May 2, 20232023-05-02
On 2023-05-02 11:15, Fred Bloggs wrote:> On Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 10:39:46 AM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: >> The Tek power supply thread reminded me of these interesting old >> books, some of which are still an excellent read. >> >> https://www.davmar.org/concepts.html >> >> My fave is Bob Orwiler's Vertical Amplifiers Concepts, >> <https://www.davmar.org/TE/TekConcepts/TekVertAmpCircuits.pdf>. >> >> (The Power Supply Circuits book is too old to be much use, though >> it does talk about switchers a bit.) > > Dunno about those particulars, I don't think, but the older Tek > documentation gave excellent illustrations of higher complexity > electronic subsystems are conceived in the first place. They were a > mix of electronic components and function blocks, the only way to do > it. >The Sampling Oscilloscope Circuits one is also a very good read even today--the notion of the sampling loop, where you feed back the previously sampled value to reduce the size of the settling step, is still very useful. Generally the cool thing about the old Tektronix was that they made fast, clean measurement tools using the same components everybody else had. Stuff like the f_T doubler, constant-resistance T-coil, cascomp amplifier, maximum-power point biasing(*), distributed deflection tubes, and on and on. Magic. Cheers Phil Hobbs (*) As opposed to the modern approach, i.e. maximum PowerPoint. ;) -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com
Reply by ●May 2, 20232023-05-02
On Tue, 2 May 2023 11:36:58 -0400, Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:>On 2023-05-02 11:15, Fred Bloggs wrote: >> On Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 10:39:46?AM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: >>> The Tek power supply thread reminded me of these interesting old >>> books, some of which are still an excellent read. >>> >>> https://www.davmar.org/concepts.html >>> >>> My fave is Bob Orwiler's Vertical Amplifiers Concepts, >>> <https://www.davmar.org/TE/TekConcepts/TekVertAmpCircuits.pdf>. >>> >>> (The Power Supply Circuits book is too old to be much use, though >>> it does talk about switchers a bit.) >> >> Dunno about those particulars, I don't think, but the older Tek >> documentation gave excellent illustrations of higher complexity >> electronic subsystems are conceived in the first place. They were a >> mix of electronic components and function blocks, the only way to do >> it. >> > >The Sampling Oscilloscope Circuits one is also a very good read even >today--the notion of the sampling loop, where you feed back the >previously sampled value to reduce the size of the settling step, is >still very useful. > >Generally the cool thing about the old Tektronix was that they made >fast, clean measurement tools using the same components everybody else >had. Stuff like the f_T doubler, constant-resistance T-coil, cascomp >amplifier, maximum-power point biasing(*), distributed deflection tubes, >and on and on. > >Magic. > >Cheers > >Phil Hobbs > >(*) As opposed to the modern approach, i.e. maximum PowerPoint. ;)Their differential comparator plugins (Z, W, 1Asomething) were astounding. You could zoom the top of a 100 volt pulse to mV/div. Here's the CRT from a 547: https://www.dropbox.com/s/evoq6p2nvzyl6wo/547_crt.JPG?raw=1 It's a beautiful piece of glass. This isn't as pretty. It's from the 519, the monster 1 GHz scope that had no vertical amp. https://www.dropbox.com/s/r6c3zkwlqrayt53/519_CRT.JPG?raw=1 I dug that out of an old scope, out in the rain, in a parking lot in Los Alamos. The horizontal deflection amp was a transmitting tube, a 2CX250 or something.
Reply by ●May 2, 20232023-05-02
On 2023-05-02 19:27, John Larkin wrote:> On Tue, 2 May 2023 11:36:58 -0400, Phil Hobbs > <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote: > >> On 2023-05-02 11:15, Fred Bloggs wrote: >>> On Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 10:39:46?AM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: >>>> The Tek power supply thread reminded me of these interesting old >>>> books, some of which are still an excellent read. >>>> >>>> https://www.davmar.org/concepts.html >>>> >>>> My fave is Bob Orwiler's Vertical Amplifiers Concepts, >>>> <https://www.davmar.org/TE/TekConcepts/TekVertAmpCircuits.pdf>. >>>> >>>> (The Power Supply Circuits book is too old to be much use, though >>>> it does talk about switchers a bit.) >>> >>> Dunno about those particulars, I don't think, but the older Tek >>> documentation gave excellent illustrations of higher complexity >>> electronic subsystems are conceived in the first place. They were a >>> mix of electronic components and function blocks, the only way to do >>> it. >>> >> >> The Sampling Oscilloscope Circuits one is also a very good read even >> today--the notion of the sampling loop, where you feed back the >> previously sampled value to reduce the size of the settling step, is >> still very useful. >> >> Generally the cool thing about the old Tektronix was that they made >> fast, clean measurement tools using the same components everybody else >> had. Stuff like the f_T doubler, constant-resistance T-coil, cascomp >> amplifier, maximum-power point biasing(*), distributed deflection tubes, >> and on and on. >> >> Magic. >> >> Cheers >> >> Phil Hobbs >> >> (*) As opposed to the modern approach, i.e. maximum PowerPoint. ;) > > Their differential comparator plugins (Z, W, 1Asomething) were > astounding. You could zoom the top of a 100 volt pulse to mV/div. > > Here's the CRT from a 547: > > https://www.dropbox.com/s/evoq6p2nvzyl6wo/547_crt.JPG?raw=1 > > It's a beautiful piece of glass. > > This isn't as pretty. It's from the 519, the monster 1 GHz scope that > had no vertical amp. > > https://www.dropbox.com/s/r6c3zkwlqrayt53/519_CRT.JPG?raw=1 > > I dug that out of an old scope, out in the rain, in a parking lot in > Los Alamos. > > The horizontal deflection amp was a transmitting tube, a 2CX250 or > something.I wouldn't have wanted the guy who had to stand in the vacuum chamber adjusting those things before they put the envelopes on. ;) Cheers Phil Hobbs -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com
Reply by ●May 2, 20232023-05-02
On Tue, 2 May 2023 20:11:09 -0400, Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:>On 2023-05-02 19:27, John Larkin wrote: >> On Tue, 2 May 2023 11:36:58 -0400, Phil Hobbs >> <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote: >> >>> On 2023-05-02 11:15, Fred Bloggs wrote: >>>> On Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 10:39:46?AM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: >>>>> The Tek power supply thread reminded me of these interesting old >>>>> books, some of which are still an excellent read. >>>>> >>>>> https://www.davmar.org/concepts.html >>>>> >>>>> My fave is Bob Orwiler's Vertical Amplifiers Concepts, >>>>> <https://www.davmar.org/TE/TekConcepts/TekVertAmpCircuits.pdf>. >>>>> >>>>> (The Power Supply Circuits book is too old to be much use, though >>>>> it does talk about switchers a bit.) >>>> >>>> Dunno about those particulars, I don't think, but the older Tek >>>> documentation gave excellent illustrations of higher complexity >>>> electronic subsystems are conceived in the first place. They were a >>>> mix of electronic components and function blocks, the only way to do >>>> it. >>>> >>> >>> The Sampling Oscilloscope Circuits one is also a very good read even >>> today--the notion of the sampling loop, where you feed back the >>> previously sampled value to reduce the size of the settling step, is >>> still very useful. >>> >>> Generally the cool thing about the old Tektronix was that they made >>> fast, clean measurement tools using the same components everybody else >>> had. Stuff like the f_T doubler, constant-resistance T-coil, cascomp >>> amplifier, maximum-power point biasing(*), distributed deflection tubes, >>> and on and on. >>> >>> Magic. >>> >>> Cheers >>> >>> Phil Hobbs >>> >>> (*) As opposed to the modern approach, i.e. maximum PowerPoint. ;) >> >> Their differential comparator plugins (Z, W, 1Asomething) were >> astounding. You could zoom the top of a 100 volt pulse to mV/div. >> >> Here's the CRT from a 547: >> >> https://www.dropbox.com/s/evoq6p2nvzyl6wo/547_crt.JPG?raw=1 >> >> It's a beautiful piece of glass. >> >> This isn't as pretty. It's from the 519, the monster 1 GHz scope that >> had no vertical amp. >> >> https://www.dropbox.com/s/r6c3zkwlqrayt53/519_CRT.JPG?raw=1 >> >> I dug that out of an old scope, out in the rain, in a parking lot in >> Los Alamos. >> >> The horizontal deflection amp was a transmitting tube, a 2CX250 or >> something. > > >I wouldn't have wanted the guy who had to stand in the vacuum chamber >adjusting those things before they put the envelopes on. ;)I wonder how they tuned that delay line too. Maybe TDR in open air?> >Cheers > >Phil HobbsLos Alamos had racks full of their own custom 8-beam scope which they took Polaroids of to record many channels of a one-shot event. Before digitizers got good enough. They also had an x-ray pulser, an L shape, two linear induction electron accelerators a quarter mile long each.
Reply by ●May 3, 20232023-05-03
On 3.5.2023 2.27, John Larkin wrote:> On Tue, 2 May 2023 11:36:58 -0400, Phil Hobbs > <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote: > >> On 2023-05-02 11:15, Fred Bloggs wrote: >>> On Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 10:39:46?AM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: >>>> The Tek power supply thread reminded me of these interesting old >>>> books, some of which are still an excellent read. >>>> >>>> https://www.davmar.org/concepts.html >>>> >>>> My fave is Bob Orwiler's Vertical Amplifiers Concepts, >>>> <https://www.davmar.org/TE/TekConcepts/TekVertAmpCircuits.pdf>. >>>> >>>> (The Power Supply Circuits book is too old to be much use, though >>>> it does talk about switchers a bit.) >>> >>> Dunno about those particulars, I don't think, but the older Tek >>> documentation gave excellent illustrations of higher complexity >>> electronic subsystems are conceived in the first place. They were a >>> mix of electronic components and function blocks, the only way to do >>> it. >>> >> >> The Sampling Oscilloscope Circuits one is also a very good read even >> today--the notion of the sampling loop, where you feed back the >> previously sampled value to reduce the size of the settling step, is >> still very useful. >> >> Generally the cool thing about the old Tektronix was that they made >> fast, clean measurement tools using the same components everybody else >> had. Stuff like the f_T doubler, constant-resistance T-coil, cascomp >> amplifier, maximum-power point biasing(*), distributed deflection tubes, >> and on and on. >> >> Magic. >> >> Cheers >> >> Phil Hobbs >> >> (*) As opposed to the modern approach, i.e. maximum PowerPoint. ;) > > Their differential comparator plugins (Z, W, 1Asomething) were > astounding. You could zoom the top of a 100 volt pulse to mV/div. > > Here's the CRT from a 547: > > https://www.dropbox.com/s/evoq6p2nvzyl6wo/547_crt.JPG?raw=1 > > It's a beautiful piece of glass. > > This isn't as pretty. It's from the 519, the monster 1 GHz scope that > had no vertical amp. > > https://www.dropbox.com/s/r6c3zkwlqrayt53/519_CRT.JPG?raw=1 > > I dug that out of an old scope, out in the rain, in a parking lot in > Los Alamos. > > The horizontal deflection amp was a transmitting tube, a 2CX250 or > something. >2CX250 would be a diode, AFAIK there is no such. I'd guess 4CX250A. The Eimac transmitting tubes had plenty coded into the type marking: - 4: tetrode, - C: ceramic sleeve, instead of glass, - X: external anode - 250: max anode dissipation 250 W - A: first re-design version -- -TV
Reply by ●May 3, 20232023-05-03
On Wed, 3 May 2023 10:58:31 +0300, Tauno Voipio <tauno.voipio@notused.fi.invalid> wrote:>On 3.5.2023 2.27, John Larkin wrote: >> On Tue, 2 May 2023 11:36:58 -0400, Phil Hobbs >> <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote: >> >>> On 2023-05-02 11:15, Fred Bloggs wrote: >>>> On Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 10:39:46?AM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: >>>>> The Tek power supply thread reminded me of these interesting old >>>>> books, some of which are still an excellent read. >>>>> >>>>> https://www.davmar.org/concepts.html >>>>> >>>>> My fave is Bob Orwiler's Vertical Amplifiers Concepts, >>>>> <https://www.davmar.org/TE/TekConcepts/TekVertAmpCircuits.pdf>. >>>>> >>>>> (The Power Supply Circuits book is too old to be much use, though >>>>> it does talk about switchers a bit.) >>>> >>>> Dunno about those particulars, I don't think, but the older Tek >>>> documentation gave excellent illustrations of higher complexity >>>> electronic subsystems are conceived in the first place. They were a >>>> mix of electronic components and function blocks, the only way to do >>>> it. >>>> >>> >>> The Sampling Oscilloscope Circuits one is also a very good read even >>> today--the notion of the sampling loop, where you feed back the >>> previously sampled value to reduce the size of the settling step, is >>> still very useful. >>> >>> Generally the cool thing about the old Tektronix was that they made >>> fast, clean measurement tools using the same components everybody else >>> had. Stuff like the f_T doubler, constant-resistance T-coil, cascomp >>> amplifier, maximum-power point biasing(*), distributed deflection tubes, >>> and on and on. >>> >>> Magic. >>> >>> Cheers >>> >>> Phil Hobbs >>> >>> (*) As opposed to the modern approach, i.e. maximum PowerPoint. ;) >> >> Their differential comparator plugins (Z, W, 1Asomething) were >> astounding. You could zoom the top of a 100 volt pulse to mV/div. >> >> Here's the CRT from a 547: >> >> https://www.dropbox.com/s/evoq6p2nvzyl6wo/547_crt.JPG?raw=1 >> >> It's a beautiful piece of glass. >> >> This isn't as pretty. It's from the 519, the monster 1 GHz scope that >> had no vertical amp. >> >> https://www.dropbox.com/s/r6c3zkwlqrayt53/519_CRT.JPG?raw=1 >> >> I dug that out of an old scope, out in the rain, in a parking lot in >> Los Alamos. >> >> The horizontal deflection amp was a transmitting tube, a 2CX250 or >> something. >> > >2CX250 would be a diode, AFAIK there is no such. I'd guess 4CX250A. > >The Eimac transmitting tubes had plenty coded into the type marking: > - 4: tetrode, > - C: ceramic sleeve, instead of glass, > - X: external anode > - 250: max anode dissipation 250 W > - A: first re-design versionThat's probably it. The giant jug actually generates the sweep ramp. https://www.dropbox.com/s/a3dh9ig3qnvgrka/Tek_519_sweep.jpg?raw=1 A very weird oscilloscope. https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/519 I considered adding one to my collection, but it's huge and very heavy and very ugly. Look at those specs! I see one on sale for $4300.
Reply by ●May 3, 20232023-05-03
On 3.5.2023 15.08, John Larkin wrote:> On Wed, 3 May 2023 10:58:31 +0300, Tauno Voipio > <tauno.voipio@notused.fi.invalid> wrote: > >> On 3.5.2023 2.27, John Larkin wrote: >>> On Tue, 2 May 2023 11:36:58 -0400, Phil Hobbs >>> <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote: >>> >>>> On 2023-05-02 11:15, Fred Bloggs wrote: >>>>> On Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 10:39:46?AM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: >>>>>> The Tek power supply thread reminded me of these interesting old >>>>>> books, some of which are still an excellent read. >>>>>> >>>>>> https://www.davmar.org/concepts.html >>>>>> >>>>>> My fave is Bob Orwiler's Vertical Amplifiers Concepts, >>>>>> <https://www.davmar.org/TE/TekConcepts/TekVertAmpCircuits.pdf>. >>>>>> >>>>>> (The Power Supply Circuits book is too old to be much use, though >>>>>> it does talk about switchers a bit.) >>>>> >>>>> Dunno about those particulars, I don't think, but the older Tek >>>>> documentation gave excellent illustrations of higher complexity >>>>> electronic subsystems are conceived in the first place. They were a >>>>> mix of electronic components and function blocks, the only way to do >>>>> it. >>>>> >>>> >>>> The Sampling Oscilloscope Circuits one is also a very good read even >>>> today--the notion of the sampling loop, where you feed back the >>>> previously sampled value to reduce the size of the settling step, is >>>> still very useful. >>>> >>>> Generally the cool thing about the old Tektronix was that they made >>>> fast, clean measurement tools using the same components everybody else >>>> had. Stuff like the f_T doubler, constant-resistance T-coil, cascomp >>>> amplifier, maximum-power point biasing(*), distributed deflection tubes, >>>> and on and on. >>>> >>>> Magic. >>>> >>>> Cheers >>>> >>>> Phil Hobbs >>>> >>>> (*) As opposed to the modern approach, i.e. maximum PowerPoint. ;) >>> >>> Their differential comparator plugins (Z, W, 1Asomething) were >>> astounding. You could zoom the top of a 100 volt pulse to mV/div. >>> >>> Here's the CRT from a 547: >>> >>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/evoq6p2nvzyl6wo/547_crt.JPG?raw=1 >>> >>> It's a beautiful piece of glass. >>> >>> This isn't as pretty. It's from the 519, the monster 1 GHz scope that >>> had no vertical amp. >>> >>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/r6c3zkwlqrayt53/519_CRT.JPG?raw=1 >>> >>> I dug that out of an old scope, out in the rain, in a parking lot in >>> Los Alamos. >>> >>> The horizontal deflection amp was a transmitting tube, a 2CX250 or >>> something. >>> >> >> 2CX250 would be a diode, AFAIK there is no such. I'd guess 4CX250A. >> >> The Eimac transmitting tubes had plenty coded into the type marking: >> - 4: tetrode, >> - C: ceramic sleeve, instead of glass, >> - X: external anode >> - 250: max anode dissipation 250 W >> - A: first re-design version > > That's probably it. The giant jug actually generates the sweep ramp.The F version has different heater voltage, 26.5 V. The tube is a smalish transmitting tube, 42 mmm dia by 47 mm high. For the giant jugs, start at 4CX35000, or glass tubes from 1 kW up. -- -TV
