Going on a retro kit mission

Firstly - Hi this is my first post.

Posting this is more of a validation exercise to make sure I'm not insane.

I'm getting rather frustrated with the non-availability of certain integrated circuits. There seems to be a complete vacuum of formerly useful ones. Particularly OTAs and a lot of 74-series logic have almost died. Also, pretty much anything that was designed in the 80's and on is just a box with a glue blob ASIC in or requires a rework station to fix. I'm also fluffed off with seeing people throwing together stuff with an Arduino in the middle. This has lead to some focus on my part on good old fashioned design and collecting some 1970s equipment...

So rather extremely, I've sold all my old kit which TBH was bloody unreliable, poorly made and expensive (apart from my fluke 73 I will say) and grabbed discrete boat-anchor kit where possible. I've bagged a '77 HP power supply (6236b), a nice '76 50MHz dual trace scope (telequipment d83) and a fluke bench meter for less than 100GBP - ~$150. Each required some work but are all happy and working now

I'm going on a purely discrete mission for a bit and aiming for simplicity and designs which will last past the current integrated circuit fads. The most complicated device will be literally a simple BJT.

Am I insane?

pointyhat said:

Am I insane?

Click to expand...

Probably.

I have never gone for all this nostalgia about how good things were - they weren't. However, you are not alone. I know someone who has spent a stupid amount of money getting and old colour TV tube regunned because it was "a classic".

But hey, if you enjoy it, why not? If you want to buy an 18GHz HP141, let me know - I prefer my modern R&S. That said, I do still have my Fluke77 but then that is digital.

It partly depends on if electronics is a living or a hobby for you. If I wasn't willing to work with the latest technologies and work with QFNs on boards I would be out of a job.

Keith

It's a hobby for me now. It was a living for about 10 years but I got dragged into management (which I hated) and then inevitably software.

Things were good if you ask me. Only because they were simple. I'm only a fan of the old kit as if you throw $15k on a nice new LeCroy scope and it goes bang a day out of warranty, it's a useless piece of junk. I've had so much recent kit fail on me it's scary including a newish Tek DSO and an Agilent meter which both set me back some cash. The old stuff usually takes an hour of head scratching and few mins with a soldering iron and it's working again.

I completely understand from a job POV.

Not insane at all. The pendulum is likely to swing back to dedicated hardware any time now.

Hi!

I have this note for Member Pointy-hat!!!

And the sooner the better!!! I'm scratching my head over a Metrix OX8627 100 Mc/s scope with calibration & other faults on it, it's got one huge great micro Z601 that someone's had a go at, and it's totally beyond my drawing out!!! (not surprisingly the maker refused me assistance!!!).

What I'd like is for somebody to start an EMP-war that destroys all the LCDs, plasmas, ASICs, Arduinos and other indecipherable thingys but leaves the discrete, linear and SSI devices unharmed - at least in the 70s and early 80s you built and fixed things you could understand!!!

You have my heartfelt comisserations sir, I feel exactly the same way as you about it!!!

Chris Williams