The HP female connectors were actually very common connectors used across military and commercial products in the 60’s and 70’s made by multiple companies, including a company called “Cinch Jones” which HP also used. Most of the HP ones used .158 inch pitch, which was also common back in the day of analog signals and high currents. While Cinch has been acquired and many of their lines discontinued, a look through digikey and mouser will turn up multiple sources for matching double side connectors with .158 inch pitch. There are also surplus used connectors available. Cheers!
The extender board ebay seller/builder was a great tip. Didn't even know people did that on ebay. I need one for an audio mixer I'm repairing and this is going to save me some serious time and effort. Thanks!
Curious question. Why resort to the paper towel? Also was the towel wet or dry? After dabbing some solder on all the tips, I usually use solder wick and flux instead to remove the excess. If those 2 aren't available then I'd use the sponge more often than I would. Ensuring barely any solder is left on the tip. Then flux and use the clean tip to wick up the excess solder towards the tip. In any case glad it worked out for ya. Great advice to conformal coat and tin all exposed ends to avoid oxidation problems.
That was a suggestion from the guy who milled the boards. The fingers need to be coated to prevent oxidation and he suggested that I apply solder and then wipe it off with a paper towel to leave a thin flat covering. I think is the manual version of HASL. I ended up just using my hot air station to level it.
I had the very same problem last year. I ended up using a few scrap boards from a scrap HP vector generator for the pcb edge connection and the female connectors off the motherboard. Not beautiful but functionable.
Sometimes you just need functional... actually you always need functional but don't always need beautiful. I'm slowly building out a collection of extender boards because they seem to work across many pieces of gear.
Hi mate, I like all your HP and test equipment vids. In the U.K. that stuff is like an arm and leg these days. Not much chance of owning any, but enjoy seeing what is available in the US of A !
Thanks Alan, appreciate it. You might want to check out www.go-dove.com/en/ - they're a bit of a pain to bid on as the auctions depend on the original owner approving. Unfortunately some owners have unrealistic expectations and don't understand how to set reserves so I've had winning bids declined. That said, I've bought a bunch of items from them and I've seen them have good auctions for gear in the UK and Europe. However, I get most of my gear from DOD auctions here in the US because they just have a ton of gear.
tgsoapbox Thanks for the info, didn't know about that site. Some very interesting stuff on there. But unfortunately I live in a wilderness area for electronic test gear, so the chances for a local auction will be pretty rare ! But I will keep a regular eye on it. Cheers.
In the past I had the same problem but what works for me is the use of a Spade tip on the soldering iron and plenty of no clean flux. Just wipe the excess solder off the tip and clean the board with it. If there is too many solder on the board use solder braid with more flux and you wont believe how smooth the finish is. Try it and you may like the results. Just my way.
The HP female connectors were actually very common connectors used across military and commercial products in the 60’s and 70’s made by multiple companies, including a company called “Cinch Jones” which HP also used. Most of the HP ones used .158 inch pitch, which was also common back in the day of analog signals and high currents. While Cinch has been acquired and many of their lines discontinued, a look through digikey and mouser will turn up multiple sources for matching double side connectors with .158 inch pitch. There are also surplus used connectors available. Cheers!
Thanks - I've been buying them from Newark recently - www.newark.com/b/cinch-connectivity-solutions
The extender board ebay seller/builder was a great tip. Didn't even know people did that on ebay. I need one for an audio mixer I'm repairing and this is going to save me some serious time and effort. Thanks!
No Problem - Glad you found it valuable.
Really informative. Thank you. Will follow your procedure except will try MG’s liquid tin.
Glad you enjoyed it - I didn't know about the liquid tin when I did this so it was all just solder & wiping work :)
Thank you very much for your very informative videos and for the time you put in this.
Happy to help here - The guy on eBay does a great job making these and I wanted to show how easy it was to take his card and build it up.
Curious question. Why resort to the paper towel? Also was the towel wet or dry? After dabbing some solder on all the tips, I usually use solder wick and flux instead to remove the excess. If those 2 aren't available then I'd use the sponge more often than I would. Ensuring barely any solder is left on the tip. Then flux and use the clean tip to wick up the excess solder towards the tip. In any case glad it worked out for ya. Great advice to conformal coat and tin all exposed ends to avoid oxidation problems.
That was a suggestion from the guy who milled the boards. The fingers need to be coated to prevent oxidation and he suggested that I apply solder and then wipe it off with a paper towel to leave a thin flat covering. I think is the manual version of HASL. I ended up just using my hot air station to level it.
I had the very same problem last year. I ended up using a few scrap boards from a scrap HP vector generator for the pcb edge connection and the female connectors off the motherboard. Not beautiful but functionable.
Sometimes you just need functional... actually you always need functional but don't always need beautiful.
I'm slowly building out a collection of extender boards because they seem to work across many pieces of gear.
Hi mate, I like all your HP and test equipment vids. In the U.K. that stuff is like an arm and leg these days. Not much chance of owning any, but enjoy seeing what is available in the US of A !
Thanks Alan, appreciate it.
You might want to check out www.go-dove.com/en/ - they're a bit of a pain to bid on as the auctions depend on the original owner approving. Unfortunately some owners have unrealistic expectations and don't understand how to set reserves so I've had winning bids declined.
That said, I've bought a bunch of items from them and I've seen them have good auctions for gear in the UK and Europe.
However, I get most of my gear from DOD auctions here in the US because they just have a ton of gear.
tgsoapbox Thanks for the info, didn't know about that site. Some very interesting stuff on there. But unfortunately I live in a wilderness area for electronic test gear, so the chances for a local auction will be pretty rare ! But I will keep a regular eye on it. Cheers.
In the past I had the same problem but what works for me is the use of a Spade tip on the soldering iron and plenty of no clean flux. Just wipe the excess solder off the tip and clean the board with it. If there is too many solder on the board use solder braid with more flux and you wont believe how smooth the finish is. Try it and you may like the results. Just my way.
I haven't done the 5200A one yet so I'll give that a try - Need to dig up my biggest tip now.