[time-nuts] Oscilloquartz 3210 Cesium Standard

paul swed paulswedb at gmail.com
Thu Aug 28 14:07:19 EDT 2014


Magnus is right if there is any tube life at all and I do mean fumes. (odd
spacing all of the sudden) In HP 5060/5061 Frankenstein (A combo of the two
systems) I built a new heater controller to drive the few fumes off of the
5060 tube. Amazingly the darn thing works. The i meter barely barely moves.
But yet it locks.
Good luck.
Paul
WB8TSL


On Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 12:47 PM, Magnus Danielson <
magnus at rubidium.dyndns.org> wrote:

> If you have tube-life and not other issues, it's about the same.
> Also works for rubidiums, as the loop aspect here is essentially the same.
>
> There can be *other* issues. For the 5060A for instance, you might need to
> also adjust the crystal filter of the OCXO, as that too drifts out of
> range, so you get no signal out.
>
> What I write is not a fix-it-all but rather addresses that one issue.
>
> Cheers,
> Magnus
>
>
> On 08/28/2014 06:35 PM, Bob Bownes wrote:
>
>> Is there a similar 'bring it back to life' procedure for the 5061A?
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 12:32 PM, Magnus Danielson <
>> magnus at rubidium.dyndns.org> wrote:
>>
>>  Chris,
>>>
>>> Do you have a GPS clock?
>>>
>>> First turn the operational mode setting from off to second step (ocxo +
>>> ion pump) and let it stay there for a day or so.
>>>
>>> Then, as the oven have stabilized, switch it over to third step, the open
>>> loop mode, and tune the OCXO up against a GPS reference so that it is
>>> very
>>> near 5 MHz. You use the calibration whole on the front of the clock for
>>> that.
>>>
>>> Then, you turn the operation mode switch to the fourth and last step, the
>>> closed loop step, and see if it locks up. Let it just sit there and lock
>>> up, as it takes some time.
>>>
>>> It's quite common that OCXOs have drifted outside the capture range of
>>> the
>>> analogue loop, so loosing lock and not being able to attain it again is a
>>> typical response.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Magnus
>>>
>>>
>>> On 08/28/2014 04:33 PM, Chris wrote:
>>>
>>>  On 08/28/14 05:03, Javier Herrero wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  Hello,
>>>>>
>>>>> Here is the manual I've. I have also some other documentations, and
>>>>> some
>>>>> Oscilloquartz software for the OSA-5585, but I don't know if they are
>>>>> very useful.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>
>>>>> Javier
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  Hi Javier,
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for that and for the other replies. The 3210 looks like quite an
>>>> early design, with no sign of microprocessors at all. There's a 8 slot
>>>> card cage with a load of discrete analog circuitry, 741 op amps etc and
>>>> a couple of boards full of 14 / 16 pin ssi cmos / ttl devices, which I
>>>> guess would be the synthesiser logic and perhaps a state machine style
>>>> startup sequencer. Apart from that, the rest is power supply related and
>>>> what looks like an alarm board with optoisolator discete outputs to a 25
>>>> way D connector. The step recovery diode (?) multiplier into the
>>>> microwave cavity is a really neat gold plated assembly with what looks
>>>> like a 50r termination (setup tap for spectrum analyser ?) and an
>>>> adjustment trimmer, but am not touching that or the many trimpots on the
>>>> boards or any adjustments until I have more info. The tube is from FTS,
>>>> part number / model 7101.
>>>>
>>>> It seems strange that the 2nd harmonic, meter #9, is zero, since even
>>>> with a tube approaching eol, one would expect at least some indication,
>>>> which is why I think there may be an electronic fault. Perhaps the hv
>>>> power supply module feeding the electron multiplier. Will try to measure
>>>> that, but the area around the tube is really heavily rivetted and
>>>> screwed down in all directions. Looks like a lot of the left hand side
>>>> of the case will need to be disassembled just to get at the tube
>>>> connections. It also had the battery backup option, with 4 sets of 3 x
>>>> cyclon type cells, but with a date code of 1984, are seriously dead and
>>>> have been removed.
>>>>
>>>> This time nuts things seems to be a growing interest and wonder if there
>>>> is a cure ? :-). Recently bought a 1970's era Tracor 304D rubidium
>>>> standard. Again, no lock, but a very well engineered and screwed
>>>> together piece of kit and should be fixable. Collection now includes the
>>>> Z3816, from Ebay US around 7 years ago, a Z3815 currently being
>>>> repackaged, an HP103 with open circuit oven heater elements and the
>>>> 3210...
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Chris
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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