Hi I was just about to shoot a tear down Tuesday when I got a tip-off that there's a dumpster full of gear right to the brim overflowing with gear that's about to be tossed out. So I thought I'd check it out. Heard that a lot of the good stuff is gone, so maybe it's just the dregs. But you know I can't turn down a dumpster full of gear.

So let's go. Never know your luck in the big city. All right I found it. Check this out! I can't tell you where it is, but yeah, apparently.

um, there were vector Network analyzers and all sorts of stuff in there. They're gone. but let's have a look. let's have a look.

What do we got left? What do we got? left? Really old stuff. stabilized transistor power supply. Look at that. That's fantastic.

Sorry. I don't have my proper camera with me. Should have got a little level oscillator. Never heard of that pig.

Oh Simmons There you go, sweet. So HP HP What 15 volt 6 amp? That'd be one of the old HP power supplies Radiolab Our switch mode power supply Wow 70 volts. That's kind of oddball and we've got a photo copiers gone. What do we got? There are hang-up Jesus Seems heavy.

What is? What on earth is this? let's have? Oh, it's no chart recorder. Look at that hybrid chart recorder. Me: that doesn't make him for an interesting teardown. What else have we got here? Lots of old stuff.

Oh no I slowed. Look at that meter. That's fantastic. 50 gear electronic millivolt meter 1.5 gig bandwidth millivolt meter.

made in the old diet. That'll make for an interesting teardown. Marconi that's sweet, so up it's probably got. but oh what a car.

but that's that's the probe for it of course, absent probably I don't know if any of this stuff works, but yeah, it's just all the old stuff. So I'll NAB that that'll make for an interest in teardown. What do we got that looks like a scope? You know what is that at a jitter generator? jitter and I thought it was a receiver, jitter generator and receiver so that could be interesting. Do not use until tested and calibrated so it could be interested.

That'd make it old-school teardown. And they've got the old-school 7-segment bubble displays in there so let's have a look. Yeah, this is not useful gear. well it might work I don't know, but but interesting.

Lots of interesting teardown stuff anyway. don't know what that is but I like it and I want it? I'm kind of after dig. you don't have to dig deeper, but yeah, there's lots of other stuff in here. but there you go.

a commercial dumpster I Can't tell you the company or the location that is tossing this out. but anyway, let me literally dive into the dumpster and get a good look. And as you dig deeper down into the pile, you just find like you know, random stuff like a couple of toroidal transformers and stuff like that. Yeah, Ching Singh I Think they should have thrown that out.

Definitely. there's a lot of garbage down the bottom. So, and particularly like the idea of digging much deeper into this. I think it's a base layer of garbage with a bunch of instruments thrown on top as an afterthought and these huge light fittings and stuff.

I've taken a few other live fittings out and to try and get access to the gears. Another that would be the HP kit down in there just buried away. See what that is? Oh Giant lamp for you lamp fanboys. Look at that.

Beautiful. Now something's burnt the crap out of this phone. Look at that. Wow Somebody had fun.

Well, the technical reference manuals here for this tech Johnny scope. but I don't see the scope. Maybe it's already gone or they didn't bother thrown it out or it's underneath all this crap somewhere. Hmm, it's like a dumpster onion this thing.

Okay for this, the is the user manual for that tech scope. Really want that tech scope? Now look at this bad boy. Oh wow. Oh, that's a that has got to be an RF that looks like an RF attenuator.

like a waveguide attenuator. Wow I Note that no electronics in it. It's all physical. Sweet.

There's there's nothing on it, there's no identifier at all. Someone's taking off the lid. Here we go. We've got a boot full of stuff it's not particularly like.

Yeah, worth much if anything, but gonna be lots of interesting turns. Of course we've got the Marconi millivolt meter here. I've got a some sort of battery Fido whatever that is some sort of you know commercial battery charger we've got. sorry I can't see the we've got to sweep Jen or something.

We'll take a look at that and we've got that Siemens level oscillator there 18.6 meg and we've got a good old tech 475 scope. Look at that. I think it's got the user and service manual in the top of it. We've got ourselves in the original padded bag, thank you very much.

A Wonderland Ultimen. Some sort of generator. So yeah. noise level flat.

Yep, some sort of industry-specific Jen We've got the HP 37 85 jitter generator and receiver. you know it's ancient and I think that you know they basically go for their scrap weight on eBay I've got a rectifier down here I'm not sure that is 48 volt DC rectifier. Weird. I've got have to show you in more detail but this is in a Schaffner made in Switzerland hot all my Swiss viewers interference simulator Mains Interference simulates so simulates you know, noise and pulses and stuff on the mains.

Fantastical wonder if that works cuz they actually go for quite a pretty penny if they do work. Got a HP 15 volt? What? How many amps? It's got to be more than 6s because the thing weighs a ton. It's a heaviest thing here in here. It's unbelievably heavy and I think the chart record.

I'm not sure if I take the chart recorder. not sure how interesting that is, but there you go look. Oh sorry. and yep, we've got this 500 Volt DC Power Supply custom job made many a similar sort of custom thing back in the day.

10 Turn pot. It's got one of the tricky dick knobs on there fantastic big beefy binding post. look at that. Fantastic.

but that's a 200 milliamps presumably 500 volt supply. I've got this interesting thing which I take a look at. it's a Power Point It's just a fair point. It's got nothing on the other side.

Nothing comes in, there's nothing on the top or I showed a label, but it's basically a power point with a is that a micro USB and a mini B things. so that's good. like the mystery tear down. what is it? It's called the platypus.

It could be some prototype or whatever. but anyway, there you go. That's what. I nabbed a whole bunch of interesting teardown.

Tuesday's right. I'm back in the bunker. This was supposed to be teardown Tuesday so may as well show you in side something. in a bit more detail.

As I said, this 500 Volt DC Power Supply is is not branded because it's I Can guarantee you it's absolutely custom. I've made lots of custom test instruments like this in these sort of rackmount cases. absolutely classic is that? No, that's not edge dive. Had them like milled out like the front panel is actually milled.

Anyway, it did give away. this switch is readily available from Tricky Dicks 2j car sell these these days. This probably dates from the 80s I'd be guessing. Anyway, big binding posts.

It's just got classic, you know, up on and hmm. not sure what that is anyway. um, obviously custom designed. They needed a 500 volt power supply at a couple hundred milliamps.

I Don't know why they rolled their own, but they probably you know they obviously had their requirements. Let's take a look. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with the lid. So so the to-220 on the back there.

that's a bit how you doing. Check that out. Sorry. I'm just shooting this I don't have my regular camera here I'm just that's pretty crap in it anyway.

I Assume that's some sort of high-voltage can't read it here. They've rolled their own. It's just a tin plate. PCB So they've either rolled their own or they've just had it made cheaply.

Like, you know, know this double-sided silkscreen solder mask. you know, plated through-hole rubbish. It looks like it is. It's yes I doubt it's even.

It's not even through all. we've got a ten tantalum there. budged on to that chip. Whatever.

that is. Probably some sort of little Op-amp and what. Got a big choke in there? Anyway, some sort of switch mode type thing. so, but it's got some big-ass caps.

Very very nice. and oh, Double Stacker? yeah. Wow Now let's just flapping around in the breeze right in front. Obviously it's not a power device and they've got that's what.

the oh yeah, double-sided There you go. Double-sided There you go is the ten turn trimmer down there. and classic how you doing do-it-yourself style. So, but they've done it neat and tidy.

Got the toroidal transformer. They've wrapped up their mains wiring nice and neat look at that. although a neutral is just flapping around in the breeze there. Now that don't particularly like that because if you get your your neutrals your my active and neutral swapped around like as we have the multiple earth neutral system.

Here your neutral is tied to your earth back at the back at your distribution board. So technically you can short out your neutral to your earth and it wouldn't be a problem. But if some doofus is wired your house or your array in factory or whatever wrong and swap the active in neutral, you can come a gutter and yep, you won't know it until you short out like that and scraped away all the but that come right. They've crimped that scraped it away.

Someone's really how to go. It's scraping away that. That's pretty remarkable. Wow, that's yeah.

that's da. That's bridge rectifier. that's the of course. of course that's the bridge rectifier.

obviously. gets a little bit hot ski and they've just like rolled their own custom heat fins on the back. There looks like they got a nice, just a long screwed, not sure if they're using that for no. It's just a easy to get on with a nut driver with a do-it-yourself power supply fins.

But anyway, it's You know it's all neatly laid out, cable, tired, all that sort of stuff. I Love the meters on it. Very very nice. Fantastic look at that.

Yeah, they're all their own custom power supply ever. They couldn't get exactly what they wanted from the market at the time because it would have taken them quite some time. You know, that would have been quite a bit of effort into this, so it's not like it was slapped together in an afternoon. So anyway.

Oh Trimmer flapping around in the breeze? There you go. It's obviously they didn't refine this circuit before production. I Don't know how many units would have been produced. 110 Oh no, no, that's asset number, property tag, but no serial number? no name? Who knows.

But there you go. There's a little Teddy out of a custom, you know, some sort. it's not automated. There's no automated interface to it or anything like that, but just a custom power supply that somebody needed.

anyway. There you go. This was supposed to be a teardown. Tuesday And you've got a tear there.

Awesome! Anyway, teardown Tuesday is going to be a thing because I have a bunch of stuff down here in the bunker. and now with all this done - I Already had stuff but now with this recent dumpster dive I've got a bunch more test instruments so tear down. Tuesday Will hopefully be a regular thing again. Catch you next time.