Mastodawn

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

Looking back at the archive I downloaded from the #birdsite, I found some fun pictures. Those are from 2016, when I got a #Tektronix 576 curve tracer. It was designed to be #repaired! It even sported a roll of special soldering wire for the repairs. I love the notice "IT IS DESIRABLE THAT ONLY SILVER-BEARING SOLDER BE USED ON THE CERAMIC TERMINALS AND FOR THINNING THE IRON. ORDINARY TIN-LEAD SOLDER MAY BE USED BUT REPEATED USE WILL BREAK THE SOLDER TO CERAMIC BOND. SEE YOUR INSTRUCTION MANUAL"

I mean, look at this amazing beast 😍

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

If you like curve tracers, I also have a #Textronix 577, that is also amazing and has a very interesting phosphor memory tube. I liked to grab pictures of the screen and annotate them digitally.

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

Back in 2013, when the 577 was my main curve tracer, I used it to write an article in English for the #Electroyou website called "Curve tracing: a journey among electronic devices": https://www.electroyou.it/darwinne/wiki/curve-tracing-a-journey-among-devices-characteristics #electronics #CurveTracer

🇺🇦 haxadecimal 🚫👑Jan 11, 2025

@davbucci
Great article! Thanks!

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

@brouhaha thank you! I'm glad you appreciated it. It required a lot of work.

zarbet Jan 11, 2025

@davbucci wow, fantastic. Thank you for such breadth and attention to detail!

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

@zarbet my pleasure! I really enjoyed working on that article.

zarbet Jan 11, 2025

@davbucci What do you find is your current (ha ha) preference for a curve tracer? I waffle between building out a toolset from other bench instruments, or looking for an old HP, but I have too many weird use cases and no clear goal.

I have a few Tek 547s so of course a Tek 575 would be fun.

Paul Jan 11, 2025

@zarbet @davbucci while 575 hunting, keep an eye out for the MOD 122C, which increases the collector sweep to 400V, which means you can use it for tubes.

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

@forty2 @zarbet a 575 curve tracer is 😍. Having both the 576 and 577, I like both of them. I now tend to use the 576 much more frequently as I like the readout display when I take pictures of the screen. On the other hand, the phosphor memory of the 577 is amazing.

zarbet Jan 11, 2025

@davbucci @forty2 your added annotations on the 577 pictures must have taken forever, but look very nice.

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

@zarbet @forty2 yes, but it wasn't so unreasonable, after all. I just picked up the right colour and then wrote on the image. Unfortunately, the scales on the 577 screen are not very visible. But I spent a lot of time working on that article, indeed. I'm glad it still gets appreciated.

Graham Sutherland / Polynomial Jan 11, 2025

@davbucci I love curve tracers, I just wish the nice ones weren't so pricey :(

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

@gsuberland I was very lucky, I could pay a very reasonable price for the 576.

Ellyse Jan 11, 2025

@davbucci I’m not sure what this is but it sure looks cool !

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

@ellyxir thank you! I love the aesthetic of this kind of old stuff, too.

root42 Jan 11, 2025

@davbucci My Tester looks really cheap in comparison!

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

@root42 well, at least it does not break your back every time you try to move it. More seriously, I also love those cheap modern component testers, they are smart and very useful.

root42 Jan 11, 2025

@davbucci Sure, they are immensely useful! But of course they do not test transistors THAT well. It doesn't show the characteristic curves...

🇺🇦 haxadecimal 🚫👑Jan 11, 2025

@davbucci
I'm jealous! I've long wanted one of those.

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

@brouhaha it's a lovely device. I also have a Textronix 577 and albeit the 577 have phosphor memory, the 576 is a more capable tracer.

AntroTroll Jan 11, 2025

@davbucci i’m watching it like a cow would look a train but I like it 😅

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

@Antrotroll thank you! It is an amazing equipment.

Julien Goodwin Jan 11, 2025

@davbucci I have a 5031 which has the same readout display, so pretty

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

@LapTop006 great one! I also love vintage #Tektronix scopes, I have 5440 and 5113 mainframes with some modules.

Julien Goodwin Jan 11, 2025

@davbucci I have a 7844 which needs a power supply rebuild

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

@LapTop006 amazing equipment!

Greg Johnson Jan 11, 2025

@davbucci Back in the day I could program fancy tests in a HP 4145A (+ newer models) from scratch. But using some cooler analysis equipment required being able to get what I wanted out of one of these pictured here. Had key to the room, but no one to show me how to use this: limited my impact (& fun).

Davide Bucci Jan 11, 2025

@pteranodo very nice! The Tek 576 and 577 I have are wonderful machines, but almost fully analog. It is not very practical to record data. I have used HP4145's at work and were amazing! On my home lab I don't have them, but I have a HP4277A that I control with an old HP9816 via HPBASIC. I may do a thread on it.