I used to repair/build Valve radios and amps in the mid-late 80's. This 5 parter realy brought memories flooding back. A radio I had used one of those magic eyes, I turned it sideways and gave it a pulse to make it look like Pac-Man! Ha ha.
Hi, It's me again, at home. (It's an endearing compliment) It started with those spring wire connection kits. Then the magnetic squares with resistors, caps and transistors printed on the top. That all got me interested in electronics. Good thing, got my degree and plenty of good paying jobs. 1978 - 2010. I could mail order Heathkit. We also had a store front "Lafayette" that had off the shelf and kits just like Heathkit. We also had radio shack but thy weren't in the kit market so much. I did miss them to buy IC's, res, caps, etc.. Nice for 8 and 16 bit digital but I saw the writing on the wall. They could never stock the large and quickly changing electronic parts. I bought a strobe light kit from Lafayette. You could connect it to your speaker for the flashes to follow the beat or just set the flash rate. I put it all together and it didn't work. The guy at the store tried as well with no success. (My first soldering attempt). I was 15? I used a Weller soldering gun. A bit to much wattage (hey the solder melted quickly) and the etched copper traces also lifted off the pc board. 😄 Sent back to mfg. 3 months later I got a working unit back. A mistake in some of the values of components. This used an SCR to trigger the high voltage circuit to allow the Xeon bulb to flash. Replacement bulbs were 2/3 the cost of the kit. Here is a video of the tube with a SCR circuit. High Voltage and epilepsy warning. LOL
Heathkit was a great product I built many of their kids, color bar generator, oscilloscope, volt ohm meter and many other kits. Plus I learned so much in electronics because of he thank you very much
:D Awesome to see you even understand people ripping stuff out of sockets so you add the tie wrap. I love your insight and precision and how you anticipate what will happen in future with repairs and analysing what happened and why things broke, improving what you can. That is seriously cool to see, pushing yourself to perfection. Compliments!
There was a Heathkit store in Fairlawn, NJ I used to go to. I also built Realistic kits. Traded a 5 W. walkie talkie to a friend for a Lafayette HA230 SW receiver I still have. Just gotta replace the caps. Love kits!!
I bought one of these a couple of years ago from eBay. Had corrosion and lots of problems so before plugging it in, I decided to take it apart completely.... down to the last piece. Bought new resistors, installed new caps and started building it again from the ground up by following the original manual (purchased an original one also from eBay). Was a nice/wonderful experience. Took me longer because I had to use sand paper to clean the connectors, connection points, disassembled the switches to clean them from inside, etc. It is now working fine and is a useful equipment for any workshop. I even use it as a small guitar amplifier. Yes! don't use the noise feature on your signal tracer and touch the input of your signal generator. It puts almost 100VDC on the tip of the probe to test for cracked/noisy resistors/components. It will also give you a jolt.... but that is how we learn...anyway. Always read the whole manual before and try to learn how it works before putting it together. I am 53 years old. Live in San Salvador, El Salvador and never had access to Heathkits in my whole life till now, that I order used ones from eBay in order to enjoy them. Takes me looooong time to receive, then to disassemble them completely and put them back together with new resistors (to avoid out of tolerance resistors) and new caps. Enjoy them so much and I can repair them and adjust them. I think I belong to the wrong era. Should have been born at the end of the 40's. Thanks for the video series and looking forward to see number 6. Please do us a favor... do a complete RF Signal tracing on an old tube radio for us to enjoy seeing you using your signal tracer in all its glory. You will enjoy using it on each fase of a radio receiver. Trust me! That will be the graduation work for you with your Signal tracer. Enjoy! 73 de Roberto, YS1RS
Building something and have it work right the first time is rewarding. But troubleshooting something and repairing it can be even more rewarding. Thanks Fran for sharing your videos with us! They are entertaining but also educational.
I didn't get to this vid right away and I'm too lazy to wade through 300+ comments, so if this was mentioned before, well... it bears repeating. What Mr. Carlson's cap videos explain and demonstrate is that the "ground band" markings on modern wrapped film/foil caps is _meaningless_. If you want to properly orient these caps you have to test and mark them yourself. He demonstrates a very simple way to do this. Well worth watching. I really enjoyed this series. I got my start in electronics building a IO-05 Heathkit Oscilloscope.
Ali-i-ive... IT'S AL-i-i-ve!!! And if you'd cut to a grey cardboard box with a firecracker in it-- well, that would have been epic. Of course you would have stuck your head in to say everything was just fine! Fun to listen to and steal glances as I perfected a circuit I have been working on. And that eye tube is a joy to behold.
In my experience, what separates ‘the pride and felicity of Dædalean craftsmanship’ from ‘the toil and drudgery of Sisyphean labor’ is simply having the right tools for the job!
Great to watch the Heathkit build! You can actually open up that style of switch with relative ease and give them a good clean and inspect the contacts. Looking forward to part 6!
That`s the best part of a kit build is the troubleshooting. I`ve watched every minute of the build Every step of the way right from day one and i`ve loved every minute thank`s Fran looking forward to part 6
Hello Fran, First, I enjoyed all your vids to #5. I have built the IT-12 and it is a very useful piece of test equipment. Also I voice that same comment as "MikesRadioRepair" saying don't turn on the "noise" switch into your audio generator, it can do much damage to it. I used to be one of the Heathkit Service Techs at the Benton Harbor plant and have built probably 45 of their kits. Some for the company and many for myself. One thing I did was, install a BNC connector where the probe comes out and it will allow for probe changing. I have an AF probe and an RF one separate. Mine worked well from the very beginning though. I also switched the .01 ufd coupling cap in mine, as it was in "backwards". (according to my scope test). Funny thing though, I worked there from 1966-1970 and my little sister was hired after I left, for the computer programming department and her name is also 'Fran'. I still have many Heathkits on my Ham radio test bench and I retired from communications 12 years ago. A lot cheaper than the new stuff and it still works. Keep up the vids and I will keep watching. You will get to the bottom of your IT-12 problem. It will do a nice job for you. 73, Ski
Built one of these way back in 1970 as an 8th grader. Am still using it today when I restore old radios. It has worked perfectly since day one and has never been opened up. Guess I'm lucky the filter hasn't gone up in smoke!
It almost works! Not bad for a 45 year old kit! I’ve really enjoyed watching your progress on this; reminds me of the fun I had building Heathkits when I was a teenager. I built the Heathkit HW 16 ham radio transceiver, and a few other kits. They didn’t work perfectly the first time either, but I got them working. I know you’ll get all the little kinks worked out in part 6. Great job Fran!
Fran, thanks for this miniseries about the assembly of the Heathkit signal Tracer. Even though I am a totally blind electronic hacker the vicarious nostalgia has been immensely enjoyable
Nice to see a "new" old Heathkit kit come to life. I've owned several Heathkit items (HW-8, HW-9, Mohican, and a frequency counter) but I never got to build any of them. I acquired them pre-assembled.
Perfect timing. I just completed creating a load of floor plans for a University and completed just as this episode came to its conclusion. Thanks Fran for making my evening a lot less dull.
Thanks for a wonderful journey! I just did some restoration on a old reel to reel tape deck which has a magic eye tube for measuring the recording level. They sure are a thing of beauty.
I built a 21" round-tube Heathkit Color TV for my folks in the late sixties. It cost about $350 back then. It worked the first time but took a lot of alignment work.
I no it's early if you decide to sell it I am sure a lot of people would love to buy it including me ,I probably couldn't afford it ,but I love how you put it together ,a very nice,job .
I built the heathkit sold state color tv back in 1970 i think. I built a color bar generator and an stereo amplifier a volt ohm meter and a dwell meter. Also, the tenner 10 meter ham radio. They were fun things to do. They were always handy to talk to to help with problems,
32:55 - "So yeah, it's stiff and old-fashioned. But it's original..." Just like me, Fran! Loved the build series. Makes me want to find an NIB Heathkit to build! Thank you.
But what about part 6? I thoroughly enjoyed this build, I learned so much and Fran's soothing voice plus what is effectively a white noise machine helped me fall asleep on a few occasions...
You and Mr. Carlson agree about capacitors completely as to which are good and which must be replaced as they get old, used or not. The polarity thing is mainly for the innards of many-part radios where hum and other irritants can occur due the cross-talk. Up to you as to what you consider unacceptable.
I built a lot of construction kits between 1975 and 1980. I had the signal tracer for many years. The brightest became their light organ with many lamps. Greetings from Stibbe!
Thank you for the assembly thrill, Fran! As to deoxidation/desulfidation of old silvered switches, a concentrated ammonia always worked fine for me. But it REALLY stinks (so work with it outside or in a fume hood), and you have to wash it off well with isopropyl alcohol then relubricate the switch. It helps where all other cleaning solutions don’t work at all.
That noise switch actually is injecting 110v into the probe tip. On mine to the right is on, it helps find crackle in higher powered parts, but can destroy solidstate components.
Aside from the other comments on the switches there was one solder joint made directly onto the chassis that I thought might be worth double checking. Great series of videos, really enjoying them, thanks!
Hi Fran! Love the build so far. I found that those slide switches oxidize badly. The TC-2 Tube Checker (1955) switches were silver plated. I had to disassemble them, clean and re-assemble to get them to work right. Hope yours aren't that bad off but taking them apart isn't so bad. Just be careful the tabs aren't over-stressed and break off. Good luck on troubleshooting!
Great series (so far, I guess). I'll bet your favorite part of running this channel is all the 'helpful' comments you get on every little thing. I too once mispronounced Slum Burger. Unfortunately I was introducing myself and my company to a vice president of that firm at the time. It went about as well as one would have expected.
The Noise switch is used to test, for example, a suspected noisy (carbon) resistor. By introducing a high voltage, it can sometimes cause the part under test to make noise. Under normal operations, it is turned off.
What ever you do the metal barrel of the probe must be grounded, even for audio. You obviously have an instability problem. Make sure the front panel is properly grounded to the main chassis. It relies on the controls that go through the panel to connect the two together.
Hi Fran! Holy smokes a Heathkit signal tracer with that wacky cathode ray indicator (Magic Eye) tube. I knew this kit well, and I think I also saw a transistor tester which I built. I lost track of how many kits I built as a kid... my poor parents thought they were raising a normal kid. :) Anyway, I love your channel and the variety of gadgets you show case!
Thank you for the close up on the magic eye that was so cool to see it come to life and how it functions and in true electronics fashion ! Hope we can see how you trouble shoot the noise issues in part 6 can't wait !
Part 6: send it to Big Clive, who will take it to bits, draw the schematic, and blow it up. I just turned mine on after many years collecting dust. I warmed it up on a variac so as not to blow up the electrolytics.... but it worked. Switches and pot are a little bit scratchy. The diode in the probe seems to be shorted because the switch makes no difference. But the "noise" switch does put 100 volts on the probe tip.
Thanks so much Fran, it's been a fascinating build. I've been watching the parts while actually waiting for paint to dry ! It's been very nostalgic, I could almost smell the solder flux. Point-to -point wiring and tag strips, life was so simple then... I too like these long build videos, they're involving and relaxing. Wonderful close-ups on this last one too. The diagnostic/fix part 6 will be good - I'll learn a lot from that.
Such a shame you never revisited this with a part 6. While I'm not "young" I'm still young enough to have missed the heathkit craze. It was fun watching you assemble it, but such a drag to not see it come to completion! Please consider wrapping this one up!
Great job Fran! For myself, I would never have the nerve to apply power with the dust cover on for the initial test. Shows a great deal of skill and confidence in your work. Look forward to a troubleshooting video.🔍🤔
Schlumberger is a company from the Alsace region in france, created in 1926, but moved to texas in 1940 due to WW2. their market was electronic oil prospection devices (a drill goes through the ground, resistance gets lower with depth if it has water, once oil is reached, the resistance becomes steady). And i am born and currently live in Alsace. hi! :D
it seems like it, although they probably operated from america with a branch in europe when they expanded their market to test and measurement equipment (though, i doubt if they did any multi-media equipment.. if there was, i'm not aware of it). you can find some of those on ebay with "schlumberger" or "solartron" keywords. I expect the main target for those equipments was still other companies that dealt with petroleum (again, i could be wrong, perhaps it was for businesses in general). Schlumberger also expanded to other markets and technologies (they had a hand in the evolution of smart-cards, for example), and there's a Schlumberger metalwork and foundry closeby to where i am that still seems active. I'm almost convinced that they never directly produced anything in for the public market.
The next project from FranLab is a time machine so Fran can go back and visit the Heathkit store for minor tuning to the kit. Enjoyed the build. Keep smiling.
I really don't know what this is, Fran. But it's very relaxing to watch your videos and also interesting in a both nostalgic and enlightening way. Your voice and personality is just amazing. Keep up the good work. Greetings from Sweden.
Those hemostats look like a very handy tool for maneuvering around the chassis, I've always used needle nose pliers but the finger loops on the hemostats look a lot more practical.
Part 6 yessssireeee , cant wait , now for the fun part , great build fran , loved this one ...i have acheived nothing for the last hour and some totally chilaxed now 😁😊👍
Ha ha ha I have no idea what this kit is meant to do (must of missed that important bit in part one, hopefully I am not the only one) but I have watched every video and enjoyed them immensely. Looking forward to part 6.
It's a signal tracer. You inject a signal into the circuit under test (a multistage amp, or a radio etc), then you probe the circuit, stage by stage, listening for the signal. If the signal is distorted (or disappears altogether), you can safely assume that you've found the stage that's giving you trouble.
It’s basically a lhigh gain audio amplifier. Note I said high gain, not high fidelity. ;-) It’s mainly used to test radios, stereos, guitar amps, etc. They’re very handy and easy to use, once you get the hang of it.
It effectively substitutes various parts of a radio or amplifier so you can follow, or trace, where the signal goes in a circuit (its "path") and hopefully figure out where the signal stops travelling along its path when the unit you are testing stops working. I used to have one of these, and am very sorry I got rid of it.
I also like the teflon insulated wire. But like so often, there are a couple of details to recognize. The first thing is that besides high temperature tolerance (hot soldering iron...) it also tolerates arctic winter blasts. However, it has a tendency of COLD FLOW. That does not mean problems with low temperatures. That term has been coined for local pressure effects at any temperature. If you apply pressure against the insulation, eventually a short circuit is likely to develop. A case in point, we once did a wire wrapped system that had to tolerate wide temperature variations, so the ordinary Kynar insulated wire was out of question. But the sharp corners of the square wrapping pins would penetrate the teflon insulation. We needed custom made wire that had indeed teflon main insulation, but over that there was a wrapped Kapton film. Next problem was how to peel the insulation. The solution to that was an automatic peeling tool similar to what you use, but with an even more elaborate blade. that blade supported the wire over the insulation at both sides of the tiny cutting knife edges at the center. That way there could be absolutely no nicking..
Available off the shelf , made for what is now Vishay, and probably still available, intended for aerospace applications where a lot of stuff is still made using wire wrapping because of the low volume and the need for reliability.
I look forward to you fixing this, that coupling capacitor is kinda important, that old sprague although new could be a problem. Insulating the probe is a excellent idea too. For what it's worth i am of the opinion all the supplied Heathkit resistors and caps are suspect. Mildew got to those switches as well. Great build! You had fun and this series is great!!!
Love your videos keep doing what you do I really dig the heath kit build I have seen a heath kit pre amplifier at goodwill here in hastings Michigan when I went back to buy it it was gone my name is Steven Stout and I've been watching this build from day one
What fun! Considering you tried to use as many original parts as possible, I am not surprised that it has a few glitches. Really looking forward to Part 6. I am about to replace the volume pot on my PC speakers and make a DIN lead for my car CD player. Cheers!
I missed Heathkit the best thing I made was the radio controlled car transmitter receiver servos. Along with some of the other Kitts they had . I wish they had something like that now
for shlumberger, it's made by frenchs living in Alsace (which is a region that shares border with germany), so a lot of city names here got germanic sounding names, (like Shiltigheim, obershaeffolsheim, strasbourg....) and even people's first names are often germanic (Weber, Muller ... ), a reminiscence of WW2, they even speak their own language (which is a weird kind of german) So, both are right... but i personally thinks the "real way" is the germanic way, like the way we say VEBER and not WEBER Hello from ELSASS ;-) PS: i hope you will try to tune it, maybe change this switch ? i was so excited to see it working !
I think the videos are great and no matter how long they are. We have a great story here worth telling with the glitches and ingenious solutions and feedback! I'm thinking about attempting a Chinese Single Ended Triode kit based on EL34s and as far as I'm aware there are no instructions or, at best, scant information on how to put it together! I might even video it? Oh! Help! Flash, Bang & Wallop spring to mind.
I know this video is from a couple years ago, but thought I'd share my tips (rituals and superstitions) for working with old brittle plastic parts, I will often warm them up in hot (≈80°C~175°F) water with a small amount of fabric softener (≈10cc/250 ml ~ 2tsb/cup). Alternatively, If the piece is translucent, decorative, has a label or I'm just not sure about getting it wet, I might wrap it in foil and place it in a latex glove or low-density polyethylene bag to soak in just plain hot water (or blast it which a heat gun if I'm in a hurry.) Once the piece is up to temperature, I dry it off and try to work with it quickly but will might use a heat gun on a low setting to keep it warm. Lastly, I might add a touch of graphite, talc or another dry lubricant to any new self-tapping fastener.
OMG this is the first time I've seen deep-well nut drivers. I gotta get a set of those someday. Would you be able to find some sort of grommet to center the Magic Eye tube in the hole and provide an extra bit of stability (and protection to the glass)? And maybe Plasti-Dip the metal bracket around the tube? The whole idea of glass-on-metal contact bothers me a bit. Can confirm the "Noise" switch DOES generate a noise. ;-) Looking forward to the diagnosis video... Always a pleasure watching you work!
I would strongly suggest trying out livestreaming builds in the future! That way you won't have to edit it down and it's UA-cam that is going to worry about storage for it. You'll even get the lovely, real-time commentary from us viewers! Of course, the viability of that option depends on how much bandwidth you have available at your lab...
The live streams I've done last year were a disaster. Philly doesn't have the bandwidth for 1080p and the viewers do not like the loose unedited format.
Philly bandwidth, sounds like you are dealing with CrudCast. Their home service left us with a vast dislike for them and have been happy with the big V for close to 10 years now. OTOH, the business version we have at work is better, but we don't stream, only share AutoCAD files.
Fran, that"other braided cable" you refer to in the probe discussion at 7:00 is just the other braid of the coax cable, when the center conductor and foam are pulled through the braid.
Just look at those resistors brill. to day resistors along with other components are so small and thin, plus costing 10 times more. I miss the days of the monthly magazines, such as Everyday electronics. always a circuit to build just pop into town and get a bag full of all your components for about £1.50. Good luck Fran great to watch. Thank you.
I don't know Fran,,,, maybe from the movie, " Human Highway" ?,,,, anyway,, great build kiddo.
YOU WIN! Yes. Lionel will be on the road one day. You'll see.
Human highway with devo and Neil? The best! Ha never heard of anyone else that’s heard of that movie! Still watch my bootleg copy on vhs every year.
Miss Fran Blanche you ar kool like 12 vol tvids
I used to repair/build Valve radios and amps in the mid-late 80's. This 5 parter realy brought memories flooding back. A radio I had used one of those magic eyes, I turned it sideways and gave it a pulse to make it look like Pac-Man! Ha ha.
Hi, It's me again, at home. (It's an endearing compliment)
It started with those spring wire connection kits. Then the magnetic squares with resistors, caps and transistors printed on the top. That all got me interested in electronics. Good thing, got my degree and plenty of good paying jobs. 1978 - 2010.
I could mail order Heathkit. We also had a store front "Lafayette" that had off the shelf and kits just like Heathkit. We also had radio shack but thy weren't in the kit market so much. I did miss them to buy IC's, res, caps, etc.. Nice for 8 and 16 bit digital but I saw the writing on the wall. They could never stock the large and quickly changing electronic parts.
I bought a strobe light kit from Lafayette. You could connect it to your speaker for the flashes to follow the beat or just set the flash rate. I put it all together and it didn't work. The guy at the store tried as well with no success. (My first soldering attempt). I was 15? I used a Weller soldering gun. A bit to much wattage (hey the solder melted quickly) and the etched copper traces also lifted off the pc board. 😄
Sent back to mfg. 3 months later I got a working unit back. A mistake in some of the values of components.
This used an SCR to trigger the high voltage circuit to allow the Xeon bulb to flash. Replacement bulbs were 2/3 the cost of the kit.
Here is a video of the tube with a SCR circuit. High Voltage and epilepsy warning. LOL
Heathkit was a great product I built many of their kids, color bar generator, oscilloscope, volt ohm meter and many other kits. Plus I learned so much in electronics because of he thank you very much
:D Awesome to see you even understand people ripping stuff out of sockets so you add the tie wrap. I love your insight and precision and how you anticipate what will happen in future with repairs and analysing what happened and why things broke, improving what you can. That is seriously cool to see, pushing yourself to perfection. Compliments!
There was a Heathkit store in Fairlawn, NJ I used to go to. I also built Realistic kits. Traded a 5 W. walkie talkie to a friend for a Lafayette HA230 SW receiver I still have. Just gotta replace the caps. Love kits!!
I bought one of these a couple of years ago from eBay. Had corrosion and lots of problems so before plugging it in, I decided to take it apart completely.... down to the last piece. Bought new resistors, installed new caps and started building it again from the ground up by following the original manual (purchased an original one also from eBay).
Was a nice/wonderful experience. Took me longer because I had to use sand paper to clean the connectors, connection points, disassembled the switches to clean them from inside, etc. It is now working fine and is a useful equipment for any workshop. I even use it as a small guitar amplifier. Yes! don't use the noise feature on your signal tracer and touch the input of your signal generator. It puts almost 100VDC on the tip of the probe to test for cracked/noisy resistors/components. It will also give you a jolt.... but that is how we learn...anyway. Always read the whole manual before and try to learn how it works before putting it together.
I am 53 years old. Live in San Salvador, El Salvador and never had access to Heathkits in my whole life till now, that I order used ones from eBay in order to enjoy them. Takes me looooong time to receive, then to disassemble them completely and put them back together with new resistors (to avoid out of tolerance resistors) and new caps. Enjoy them so much and I can repair them and adjust them. I think I belong to the wrong era. Should have been born at the end of the 40's. Thanks for the video series and looking forward to see number 6. Please do us a favor... do a complete RF Signal tracing on an old tube radio for us to enjoy seeing you using your signal tracer in all its glory. You will enjoy using it on each fase of a radio receiver. Trust me! That will be the graduation work for you with your Signal tracer.
Enjoy!
73 de Roberto, YS1RS
Yes, Roberto! I to what born in the wrong era. Here's to two old souls! Cheers! 🍹
HAM RADIO operator from central america ,saludos de un colega en USA W5DDY
73's & 51's from Scotland 🏴
Building something and have it work right the first time is rewarding. But troubleshooting something and repairing it can be even more rewarding. Thanks Fran for sharing your videos with us! They are entertaining but also educational.
I didn't get to this vid right away and I'm too lazy to wade through 300+ comments, so if this was mentioned before, well... it bears repeating. What Mr. Carlson's cap videos explain and demonstrate is that the "ground band" markings on modern wrapped film/foil caps is _meaningless_. If you want to properly orient these caps you have to test and mark them yourself. He demonstrates a very simple way to do this. Well worth watching.
I really enjoyed this series. I got my start in electronics building a IO-05 Heathkit Oscilloscope.
Ali-i-ive... IT'S AL-i-i-ve!!!
And if you'd cut to a grey cardboard box with a firecracker in it-- well, that would have been epic. Of course you would have stuck your head in to say everything was just fine!
Fun to listen to and steal glances as I perfected a circuit I have been working on. And that eye tube is a joy to behold.
In my experience, what separates ‘the pride and felicity of Dædalean craftsmanship’ from ‘the toil and drudgery of Sisyphean labor’ is simply having the right tools for the job!
Great to watch the Heathkit build!
You can actually open up that style of switch with relative ease and give them a good clean and inspect the contacts.
Looking forward to part 6!
I’m so glad we get a part 6. What a cliffhanger!! Thanks Fran 😀
I built one of them back in 75 when I was in USAF electronics school. Great Video.
That`s the best part of a kit build is the troubleshooting. I`ve watched every minute of the build Every step of the way right from day one and i`ve loved every minute thank`s Fran looking forward to part 6
Hello Fran,
First, I enjoyed all your vids to #5. I have built the IT-12 and it is a very useful piece of test equipment. Also I voice that same comment as "MikesRadioRepair" saying don't turn on the "noise" switch into your audio generator, it can do much damage to it. I used to be one of the Heathkit Service Techs at the Benton Harbor plant and have built probably 45 of their kits. Some for the company and many for myself. One thing I did was, install a BNC connector where the probe comes out and it will allow for probe changing. I have an AF probe and an RF one separate. Mine worked well from the very beginning though. I also switched the .01 ufd coupling cap in mine, as it was in "backwards". (according to my scope test). Funny thing though, I worked there from 1966-1970 and my little sister was hired after I left, for the computer programming department and her name is also 'Fran'.
I still have many Heathkits on my Ham radio test bench and I retired from communications 12 years ago. A lot cheaper than the new stuff and it still works.
Keep up the vids and I will keep watching. You will get to the bottom of your IT-12 problem. It will do a nice job for you.
73,
Ski
Great story!!
Nice work. I think a random "Fran fan" from the comments section should win this! Heck, I'll pay shipping!
Built one of these way back in 1970 as an 8th grader. Am still using it today when I restore old radios. It has worked perfectly since day one and has never been opened up. Guess I'm lucky the filter hasn't gone up in smoke!
It almost works! Not bad for a 45 year old kit! I’ve really enjoyed watching your progress on this; reminds me of the fun I had building Heathkits when I was a teenager. I built the Heathkit HW 16 ham radio transceiver, and a few other kits. They didn’t work perfectly the first time either, but I got them working. I know you’ll get all the little kinks worked out in part 6. Great job Fran!
this is SO much better than the karmic debt incurred by an unopened Heathkit!!
Fran, thanks for this miniseries about the assembly of the Heathkit signal Tracer. Even though I am a totally blind electronic hacker the vicarious nostalgia has been immensely enjoyable
The problem could be easily sorted out by checking the circuitry with a signal tracer ... wait 😅
Nice to see a "new" old Heathkit kit come to life. I've owned several Heathkit items (HW-8, HW-9, Mohican, and a frequency counter) but I never got to build any of them. I acquired them pre-assembled.
Yay! Shoutout to Mr. Carlson's Lab! That's one of my other favorite channels!
I still have my IT-12 and IM-18 I built as a high school student. They were recently retubed and recapped, and I still sometimes use them.
I hate to say this but I am glad you will have a part 6. It been years for me to build anything. You are making me want to find build kits out their.
Horray, a part six, FANTASTIC!! Thanks Fran.
Perfect timing. I just completed creating a load of floor plans for a University and completed just as this episode came to its conclusion. Thanks Fran for making my evening a lot less dull.
Thanks for a wonderful journey! I just did some restoration on a old reel to reel tape deck which has a magic eye tube for measuring the recording level. They sure are a thing of beauty.
I built a 21" round-tube Heathkit Color TV for my folks in the late sixties. It cost about $350 back then. It worked the first time but took a lot of alignment work.
I no it's early if you decide to sell it I am sure a lot of people would love to buy it including me ,I probably couldn't afford it ,but I love how you put it together ,a very nice,job .
Love watching... even as you begin to wind down the series. Riveting!
I built the heathkit sold state color tv back in 1970 i think. I built a color bar generator and an stereo amplifier a volt ohm meter and a dwell meter. Also, the tenner 10 meter ham radio. They were fun things to do. They were always handy to talk to to help with problems,
Very relaxing and better than what is on tv
32:55 - "So yeah, it's stiff and old-fashioned. But it's original..." Just like me, Fran! Loved the build series. Makes me want to find an NIB Heathkit to build! Thank you.
But what about part 6? I thoroughly enjoyed this build, I learned so much and Fran's soothing voice plus what is effectively a white noise machine helped me fall asleep on a few occasions...
You and Mr. Carlson agree about capacitors completely as to which are good and which must be replaced as they get old, used or not. The polarity thing is mainly for the innards of many-part radios where hum and other irritants can occur due the cross-talk. Up to you as to what you consider unacceptable.
This series is like watching Gilligan’s Island. Maybe this episode they will finally get off the island.
Hahahahaha!
Hi Fran - you know that refrain from The Who's Magic Bus?... We want it - Part 6!!!! Keep up the great build videos!
I built a lot of construction kits between 1975 and 1980. I had the signal tracer for many years. The brightest became their light organ with many lamps. Greetings from Stibbe!
Thank you for the assembly thrill, Fran! As to deoxidation/desulfidation of old silvered switches, a concentrated ammonia always worked fine for me. But it REALLY stinks (so work with it outside or in a fume hood), and you have to wash it off well with isopropyl alcohol then relubricate the switch. It helps where all other cleaning solutions don’t work at all.
Awesome kit, old but gold. Vintage stuff are fun to watch :D
I so happy there is part 5. I was wondering if there was one. Thanks Fran! I just wanted to see it run.
That "Noise" switch is definitely doing what it's supposed to do: make some noise!
LOL! Heathkit was very direct.
That noise switch actually is injecting 110v into the probe tip. On mine to the right is on, it helps find crackle in higher powered parts, but can destroy solidstate components.
Aside from the other comments on the switches there was one solder joint made directly onto the chassis that I thought might be worth double checking. Great series of videos, really enjoying them, thanks!
Thoroughly enjoyed watching the build. If kits always worked perfectly first time it wouln't be as much fun putting them together.
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Hi Fran! Love the build so far. I found that those slide switches oxidize badly. The TC-2 Tube Checker (1955) switches were silver plated. I had to disassemble them, clean and re-assemble to get them to work right. Hope yours aren't that bad off but taking them apart isn't so bad. Just be careful the tabs aren't over-stressed and break off. Good luck on troubleshooting!
I remember using one of these when I was a kid. Thanks for the video.
Great series (so far, I guess). I'll bet your favorite part of running this channel is all the 'helpful' comments you get on every little thing.
I too once mispronounced Slum Burger. Unfortunately I was introducing myself and my company to a vice president of that firm at the time. It went about as well as one would have expected.
The Noise switch is used to test, for example, a suspected noisy (carbon) resistor. By introducing a high voltage, it can sometimes cause the part under test to make noise.
Under normal operations, it is turned off.
What ever you do the metal barrel of the probe must be grounded, even for audio. You obviously have an instability problem. Make sure the front panel is properly grounded to the main chassis. It relies on the controls that go through the panel to connect the two together.
Hi Fran! Holy smokes a Heathkit signal tracer with that wacky cathode ray indicator (Magic Eye) tube. I knew this kit well, and I think I also saw a transistor tester which I built. I lost track of how many kits I built as a kid... my poor parents thought they were raising a normal kid. :) Anyway, I love your channel and the variety of gadgets you show case!
Thank you for the close up on the magic eye that was so cool to see it come to life and how it functions and in true electronics fashion ! Hope we can see how you trouble shoot the noise issues in part 6 can't wait !
Congrats! Totally fun to watch. Brought back lots of fond memories along the way. ♥
Part 6: send it to Big Clive, who will take it to bits, draw the schematic, and blow it up.
I just turned mine on after many years collecting dust. I warmed it up on a variac so as not to blow up the electrolytics.... but it worked. Switches and pot are a little bit scratchy. The diode in the probe seems to be shorted because the switch makes no difference. But the "noise" switch does put 100 volts on the probe tip.
You took me back to the seventies when I was a teenager , my dad built a Heath kit ocillascope be it had valves in it
Thanks so much Fran, it's been a fascinating build. I've been watching the parts while actually waiting for paint to dry ! It's been very nostalgic, I could almost smell the solder flux. Point-to -point wiring and tag strips, life was so simple then... I too like these long build videos, they're involving and relaxing. Wonderful close-ups on this last one too. The diagnostic/fix part 6 will be good - I'll learn a lot from that.
Such a shame you never revisited this with a part 6. While I'm not "young" I'm still young enough to have missed the heathkit craze. It was fun watching you assemble it, but such a drag to not see it come to completion! Please consider wrapping this one up!
Great job Fran! For myself, I would never have the nerve to apply power with the dust cover on for the initial test. Shows a great deal of skill and confidence in your work. Look forward to a troubleshooting video.🔍🤔
21 Century Frantone 😃 - great set of vids 🎥 - can’t wait to see or hear what you come up with next 🙌
Dear Fran, Good luck on your move, so you can get back to the Heathkit repair. New subscriber, and I enjoy your videos, ranting or otherwise
Schlumberger is a company from the Alsace region in france, created in 1926, but moved to texas in 1940 due to WW2. their market was electronic oil prospection devices (a drill goes through the ground, resistance gets lower with depth if it has water, once oil is reached, the resistance becomes steady). And i am born and currently live in Alsace. hi! :D
Same company that was back in France later building mixing consoles and tape machines?
it seems like it, although they probably operated from america with a branch in europe when they expanded their market to test and measurement equipment (though, i doubt if they did any multi-media equipment.. if there was, i'm not aware of it). you can find some of those on ebay with "schlumberger" or "solartron" keywords. I expect the main target for those equipments was still other companies that dealt with petroleum (again, i could be wrong, perhaps it was for businesses in general). Schlumberger also expanded to other markets and technologies (they had a hand in the evolution of smart-cards, for example), and there's a Schlumberger metalwork and foundry closeby to where i am that still seems active. I'm almost convinced that they never directly produced anything in for the public market.
The next project from FranLab is a time machine so Fran can go back and visit the Heathkit store for minor tuning to the kit. Enjoyed the build. Keep smiling.
Oh well at least it didn't go boom! Looking forward to troubleshooting part 6. It's been a great set of videos!
I really don't know what this is, Fran. But it's very relaxing to watch your videos and also interesting in a both nostalgic and enlightening way. Your voice and personality is just amazing. Keep up the good work. Greetings from Sweden.
LOL Hamburger and fries joke.... that had me laughing, good one! The build looks sweet, awesome job.
Those hemostats look like a very handy tool for maneuvering around the chassis, I've always used needle nose pliers but the finger loops on the hemostats look a lot more practical.
Part 6 yessssireeee , cant wait , now for the fun part , great build fran , loved this one ...i have acheived nothing for the last hour and some totally chilaxed now 😁😊👍
Ha ha ha I have no idea what this kit is meant to do (must of missed that important bit in part one, hopefully I am not the only one) but I have watched every video and enjoyed them immensely. Looking forward to part 6.
It's a signal tracer. You inject a signal into the circuit under test (a multistage amp, or a radio etc), then you probe the circuit, stage by stage, listening for the signal. If the signal is distorted (or disappears altogether), you can safely assume that you've found the stage that's giving you trouble.
It’s basically a lhigh gain audio amplifier. Note I said high gain, not high fidelity. ;-)
It’s mainly used to test radios, stereos, guitar amps, etc. They’re very handy and easy to use, once you get the hang of it.
It effectively substitutes various parts of a radio or amplifier so you can follow, or trace, where the signal goes in a circuit (its "path") and hopefully figure out where the signal stops travelling along its path when the unit you are testing stops working. I used to have one of these, and am very sorry I got rid of it.
yeah me too. I have no idea. I'm just the cook that reads the instructions ;-)
Its just a large chunky multimeter and oscilliscope. I find these useless as i am an electronic tech 26+ yrs and heathkits are just unreliable.
Fran- you are honest and I like that. The best of life to you.
I also like the teflon insulated wire. But like so often, there are a couple of details to recognize. The first thing is that besides high temperature tolerance (hot soldering iron...) it also tolerates arctic winter blasts. However, it has a tendency of COLD FLOW. That does not mean problems with low temperatures. That term has been coined for local pressure effects at any temperature. If you apply pressure against the insulation, eventually a short circuit is likely to develop.
A case in point, we once did a wire wrapped system that had to tolerate wide temperature variations, so the ordinary Kynar insulated wire was out of question. But the sharp corners of the square wrapping pins would penetrate the teflon insulation. We needed custom made wire that had indeed teflon main insulation, but over that there was a wrapped Kapton film. Next problem was how to peel the insulation. The solution to that was an automatic peeling tool similar to what you use, but with an even more elaborate blade. that blade supported the wire over the insulation at both sides of the tiny cutting knife edges at the center. That way there could be absolutely no nicking..
Available off the shelf , made for what is now Vishay, and probably still available, intended for aerospace applications where a lot of stuff is still made using wire wrapping because of the low volume and the need for reliability.
I look forward to you fixing this, that coupling capacitor is kinda important, that old sprague although new could be a problem. Insulating the probe is a excellent idea too. For what it's worth i am of the opinion all the supplied Heathkit resistors and caps are suspect. Mildew got to those switches as well. Great build! You had fun and this series is great!!!
Looking forward to the troubleshooting episode! I'm glad my earlier concern with the internal connection of the eye tube heater wasn't an issue. Whew!
1:08 „We have ignition“, the funniest moment in this video. I also like the noisy noise switch one minute later...
No worries, Fran. Thanks for making me smile!
Fran,
Your videos make good background for me while I am doing my own electronics design work.
Will be waiting for the next chapter. Thank you. A real mystery.
Love your videos keep doing what you do I really dig the heath kit build I have seen a heath kit pre amplifier at goodwill here in hastings Michigan when I went back to buy it it was gone my name is Steven Stout and I've been watching this build from day one
What fun! Considering you tried to use as many original parts as possible, I am not surprised that it has a few glitches. Really looking forward to Part 6. I am about to replace the volume pot on my PC speakers and make a DIN lead for my car CD player. Cheers!
I missed Heathkit the best thing I made was the radio controlled car transmitter receiver servos. Along with some of the other Kitts they had . I wish they had something like that now
for shlumberger, it's made by frenchs living in Alsace (which is a region that shares border with germany), so a lot of city names here got germanic sounding names, (like Shiltigheim, obershaeffolsheim, strasbourg....) and even people's first names are often germanic (Weber, Muller ... ), a reminiscence of WW2, they even speak their own language (which is a weird kind of german)
So, both are right... but i personally thinks the "real way" is the germanic way, like the way we say VEBER and not WEBER
Hello from ELSASS ;-)
PS: i hope you will try to tune it, maybe change this switch ? i was so excited to see it working !
Schlumberger is an Austrian brand, owned by a swiss company. Its pronounced "burger" de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlumberger_(Sektkellerei)
Fran just take it back to the store and get one of those nice happy engineers to take a look at it, sure they will be glad to help.
I think the videos are great and no matter how long they are. We have a great story here worth telling with the glitches and ingenious solutions and feedback! I'm thinking about attempting a Chinese Single Ended Triode kit based on EL34s and as far as I'm aware there are no instructions or, at best, scant information on how to put it together! I might even video it? Oh! Help! Flash, Bang & Wallop spring to mind.
Called out by Carlson what an honor👍
Kit building is fun for me, as it can be more relaxing building a known-good design.
That's a pretty cool kit. Hopefully you can get it working properly in the near future...
its a great learning video, love it what you are doing, am really enjoying these Heathkit build video's
Great series! I've actually used this same signal tracer back in the day.
Just for future reference, vis-a-vis push fit rubber feet and grommets. Sit them in a cup very warm soapy water for about ten minutes before fitting.
I dig the old tube circuits.
I know this video is from a couple years ago, but thought I'd share my tips (rituals and superstitions) for working with old brittle plastic parts, I will often warm them up in hot (≈80°C~175°F) water with a small amount of fabric softener (≈10cc/250 ml ~ 2tsb/cup). Alternatively, If the piece is translucent, decorative, has a label or I'm just not sure about getting it wet, I might wrap it in foil and place it in a latex glove or low-density polyethylene bag to soak in just plain hot water (or blast it which a heat gun if I'm in a hurry.)
Once the piece is up to temperature, I dry it off and try to work with it quickly but will might use a heat gun on a low setting to keep it warm.
Lastly, I might add a touch of graphite, talc or another dry lubricant to any new self-tapping fastener.
Great stuff Fran. Love it when you build things.
OMG this is the first time I've seen deep-well nut drivers. I gotta get a set of those someday.
Would you be able to find some sort of grommet to center the Magic Eye tube in the hole and provide an extra bit of stability (and protection to the glass)? And maybe Plasti-Dip the metal bracket around the tube? The whole idea of glass-on-metal contact bothers me a bit.
Can confirm the "Noise" switch DOES generate a noise. ;-)
Looking forward to the diagnosis video... Always a pleasure watching you work!
I would strongly suggest trying out livestreaming builds in the future! That way you won't have to edit it down and it's UA-cam that is going to worry about storage for it. You'll even get the lovely, real-time commentary from us viewers!
Of course, the viability of that option depends on how much bandwidth you have available at your lab...
The live streams I've done last year were a disaster. Philly doesn't have the bandwidth for 1080p and the viewers do not like the loose unedited format.
Philly bandwidth, sounds like you are dealing with CrudCast. Their home service left us with a vast dislike for them and have been happy with the big V for close to 10 years now. OTOH, the business version we have at work is better, but we don't stream, only share AutoCAD files.
Cool video. Cant wait for part 6. Nice frames Fran.
Fran, that"other braided cable" you refer to in the probe discussion at 7:00 is just the other braid of the coax cable, when the center conductor and foam are pulled through the braid.
Gotta love intermittent faults, they're just the best!
Loved the build. The series was great. Thanks
Just look at those resistors brill. to day resistors along with other components are so small and thin, plus costing 10 times more. I miss the days of the monthly magazines, such as Everyday electronics. always a circuit to build just pop into town and get a bag full of all your components
for about £1.50. Good luck Fran great to watch. Thank you.
To fit those grommets and rubber parts, it often helps a lot to heat them up with a hair dryer.