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E&L Instruments Monster Breadboard - Part 1: eBay Disaster
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- Опубликовано: 10 мар 2022
- We attempt to fix the mother of all breadboard prototyping systems, the E&L Instruments Elite 2. Worth over $9,000 in today's money!
Ken's blog post on his reverse engineering: www.righto.com...
E&L Breadboard Repair Playlist: • Elite 2 Monster Breadb...
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Ben Eater is a freaking legend and his series on bread board computer stuff is a must see for anyone who is even remotely interested in computer/electronics.
It's not a another e-bay disaster!
It's a "Lot of Fun Time With My Friends In The Lab" item.
Wouldn't call it a disaster, it's old and niche and still kinda does something. Love the repairs!
The disaster is the state it was in
"... and we'll see if Master Ken can reverse engineer the very complicated generator...". Well, that's what you call a rhetorical question... Ken was probably done before this video was even edited. 😀
He sure did! See the link to his blog in the video the description.
Oops, blind as a bat!
I'm sure he did it in his sleep. Before even looking at the circuit.
Really cranking them out Marc and crew. Appreciate bringing us along for the ride.
I had that exact breadboard system back in the early '90s when my high school gave it to me as surplus equipment. Unfortunately I lost it along with many other electronic and old computer systems back in 2013. Mine had various wiring and component failures too, but it still worked as a breadboard. I think one of the voltage rails worked rails, but didn't have the technical expertise at the time to fix the rest of it. It's great to see one of these systems featured and being put to good use!!
What an asset to have Master Ken hanging around in your lab!!!
Ken and Company reverse engineered literal Rocket Science including rope memory and new-fangled Integrated Circuits. I’m pretty sure he can handle a function generator with discrete logic. :). Looking forward to learning something more on my level. I do love how you explain even the tough stuff is a way I can understand!
those brown carbon resistors on the function generator board are capable of insane shifts in values. a 1K resistor can easily become a 3k resistor...
Yep. That Mallory 150 "ready roll" on the edge of the board also looked squashed. No bueno for those.
One of those age old carbon bastards once caused me to doubt my admittedly non-high end multimeter. According to the bands, it should have been 4.7k. Came out as 5-ish k and slowly drifted to 12k when warm.
Borrowed a friends meter and yep, that stupid thing was indeed drifting all over the place.
I had to look it up. A Honda 600 Coupe base price was $1395 in 1971. Not a big car (or good one), but still - a car! 😁
Great video, as always!
Yep. I sure got a lot for my eBay money!
I have another model in this range - the BB-IV, which is in the smaller box. It has fixed power supplies of +5, +-15V and no other features, but that does give room for a triple set of breadboards so it makes a useful size.
Hehe. I have that one too. It’s very useful indeed, and more reasonably sized.
What a flash from the past, I have the baby vision the Digi Designer, like the one Marc has but either newer or older as it has the same functions but very different front panel. Agree it comes in handy for testing out circuits.
Went to E&L many years ago and brought a new in the box unit to my lab. A great unit and we prototyped a lot of telephone digital products on this breadboard.
“Why design such a thing in the first place”….. because we CAN
Back in the day, it was not uncommon to have a number of new IC's that were defective out of the box. You could use something like this to test a device you expected to be bad. On a board with 20 or 30 dips, bad parts, open vias, data sheet erata and incorrect pcb routing were the norm. It was so bad for a while we sent all our IC orders out to be burned in and re-tested. Now it's very rare to see a bad part, now we are plagued with counterfeits.
@@craigs5212 I lived through the “Capacitor plague” at the turn of the century as a hobbyist - but even at that point ICs we’re incredibly reliable so I never experienced the days of burning EPROMs or checking logic on IC’s. Closest I got was instruction set incompatibility around the MMX days
Man. I’ll be on the lookout for one of these. I want a vintage breadboard kit. At least 35-40 yrs old. All in good timing. I’ll have it.
God Bless.
I really like your videos. I am not even going to pretend to understand all the apollo RF stuff, but the computer and normal electronics content is right up my alley
I feel like previous owner wanted to fix the switch, opened the thing and after cursory glance decided he doesn't need that voltage indication that much. These devices remind me of typical technical high school graduation projects, although the ones done by students tended to be much more shoddy.
Closer to the Apple I probably.
I have a PAD-234A Trainer which I thought was rather fancy, but this thingy is insane. I feel like I belong here... I got the reference to the 8-bit computer on a bread board jab, and almost fell out of my chair when Marc said, " Hold onto your breadboards, Ben Eater, here I come" .
I have a E&L breadboard myself. It has a blue base and three binding posts. Great quality breadboards.
Master Ken did a great job figuring out integrator circuit on that board! I would love to see Master Ken’s reverse schematics technique with GIMP and Eagle! Maybe one day he can make a video showing us how he does it. Thanks for schematic and the detailed explanation!
"I marked the position of everything before I took it apart..." Where's the fun in that? :-)
Your repair skills are unrivalled Marc! I already watched Master Ken's reverse engineered board with function generators. Awesome find, you really hit the breadboard jackpot! Looking forward to the next video.
Oh no; sticky shafts! I recently had three of them in an old tube radio (volume, treble and plate capacitor). I found out that heating up the shaft with a soldering iron makes the old, sticky lubricant at least fluid enough to move the axles. Removing and cleaning them is of course the easiest and best option. I had to alternately put lighter fluid and oil into the friction bearing because it was not removeable. Did work out fine.
Thanks for the ride again! :)
Ken's delivery of "That's wild" is perfect
The whole thing is just amazing. There is something special about technology of that time. A time way before I was born. Stuff was simpler and at the same time more complicated. But at least you could fix it yourself. Looking forward to see the next part.
And I looked it up and it seems most, if not all parts of it are still available.
it's made from off-the-shelf parts (rather than custom ICs), so even if you can't get the exact same ones there'll be a modern alternative that does the same job, in some cases even better. The connectors and the bulbs are really the only parts where you can get stuck, since they're not made anymore
Crocodile Dundee: that's not a breadboard.. THIS is a breadboard!
I have an Elite 2 as well. I'm guessing mine may be a later manufacturing date as the face plate is white with black text and the base is a pale blue colour.
I had to do quite a lot of work on mine as well when I got it 10 years ago. Since then it hasn't missed a beat and is an excellent prototyping platform.
Just to state the obvious again: Master Ken's blog is awesome!
Master Ken certainly deserves his name. Great work Marc.
Ben Eater will just make a video about building his own from scratch.
These kits really are useful, I have a Knight "mini-lab" which has pretty much the same features. I had no idea these would have been a thing way back in 1971!
wow, that's a bad ass breadboard kit and could be really a useful thing. I am sure you'll both have it fixed up pretty soon! Looking forward for the next instalment!
Nice find! If I didn’t already have a stack of HeathKit digital and analog trainers I’d seriously want to add one of these to the collection.
Looking forward to the final bad part count and a highly calibrated bit of kit. 73!
Three ''Many's''' Most i've ever heard so it will make for a good vlog. Looking forward to it. I think your vlog Marc is probably the best science/electronic based entertainment since the original Tomorrows World.
Ben Eater will indeed be so jealous.... Coolest breadboard ever!!!
I had to actually build a similar unit like this in technical college - New England Technical Institute - back in 1996. It had the exact same functions and built in instruments. I don't remember exactly but I think I gave it away about 4 years ago - don't remember to wh but I think it was one of my son's friends who was interested in electronics. The one I built - from scratch - was housed in a type of suitcase.
NICE bit of kit. Tons of space and features to buid serious projects. Waiting for the next episode.
Good start to a new series, I look forward to you getting this thing fixed, and having it there to help you debug other stuff down the line!
On one side I’m disappointed it doesn’t work perfectly, but on another I’m happy it doesn’t because that means trouble shooting content, and that’s some of your best content. :)
Nice and versatile breadboard system. Good find. I have to settle for my Heathkit ET-3100…
"hold onto your breadboards Ben Eater" LOL
Just got last one off the eBay. Nice setup for breadboarding ! Can’t wait to get my hand on it ) Hope to see another repair video soon 😁
MASTER KEN, HE'S OUR MAN.
Whoooooooa, despite its condition it's an absolute thing of beauty and a joy for ever! Being an analog electronics gal, I'd love one for designing and prototyping synth modules, haha :)
Definitely staying tuned.
It's beautiful, an "absolute unit" as they say these days. Good work on that switch restoration!
Mar 2022: Beats the appearance of my McGraw Hill Continuing Education - Contemporary Electronics breadboard system. One would add functionality on a monthly subscription basis in the 1980s. However, despite its lacking appearance, I still use it.
Fixing this is more up my street rather than the Apollo stuff which is super scary !...cheers.
Maybe it was the flipped collar but Master Ken looked a lot like a young Christopher Lee in this video.
Nice. "A clean flip and a clean flop" (4:01) - what more could anyone want?
Beautiful legacy find! Thanks for sharing, Marc.
Master Ken, Hell Yea!!!
Need to check out the Knights Electronics ML-200. I got mine for about $100 and they are fantastic. Literally the best platform for breadboarding I think. Comes in a nice case and can hold your tools etc inside until needed.
No kidding! These are the more modern equivalent!
@@CuriousMarc indeed! Very nicely made too, appears they made them for electrical engineering courses. They were very common with online classes, then you followed along with the teacher or lesson learning fundamentals.
always good to have the right person in the team !
Hello from France. I am a great admirer of all your work, I will dream of having such a well-equipped workshop, and such efficient friends.
Can't wait to see master Ken's progress on this!
Best part... you can just bolt in new breadboard strips! I've spent many hours hunched over this guy's little brother... good luck!
Wonderful rats nest you have there behind the front panel.You do manage to find the most amazing things to repair on EBay !
Cool to see this thing, I can’t wait to watch the next videos! I had to laugh when you mentioned Ben Eater, I watched his entire series of building that computer and it still confuses me.
I'd call this an "opportunity"! Always enjoy these repair videos.
Ha! I didn't know other people play that, too.
Greetings from Germany,
Marcus
Many old dome top transistors. I suspect there's more than one duff in there.
As a viewer of shango066, so did I when they came into view.
Spoiler: According to Ken's blog, you're not wrong...
@@PileOfEmptyTapes yeh, I watch shango066 as well. :) A least this breadboard system isn't "baked".
Love the tip of the hat to Ben Eater @1:10. Respect!
love the Ben Eater reference :P
"we are living the life !!" at 2:50 was so funny :D
A really impressive device. Very well put together, except the wire nest near the meters.
The Analog Discovery of the seventies.
For sure I would have bought one of those in a microsecond if I ran across it.
I will have to get my collection online. You inspire me Marc
I'll bet they used a molybdenum based lubricant on that stuck switch shaft. The molybdenum tends to come out of solution and harden in small, light duty applications like this. Moly is great for car axle bearings and heavy equipment, but definitely a bad choice for lightweight lubrication.
That thing is so cool, the ultimate breadboard!
Sush a cool device! A pedal designers dream!
I enjoy the repair videos thanks for filming them!
maybe I am dreaming but I remember using one of those in 2014 in my college lab while doing some Z80 programming and playing with logic gates
I actually was able to follow this one. I hope you can restore it, or more accurately finally achieve what the intent of this was -- should be exceedingly useful.
Another well created material! :) I like to watch your videos
I think it's a cool find. I understand calling it a eBay disaster if you paid a lot of money for it, but, if you got it for a fair price it's seems like it's a nice unit given the ability to fix it. It looks like a fun system to have. That said, I wouldn't want to pay a lot for something that requires that much fixing.
You are right it was a good buy. Turned out to be a much nicer unit than I imagined. And the many faults kept us entertained for three episodes ;-)
What a wonderful device! "There... are... twelve... lights!" :D
Wow, my mind is still stuck that in 1971 people were buying this for that much $$, it's pretty awesome for the timeframe.
Marc I've come across something you could be interested into: it's called The Analog Thing and it is a cheap but interesting analog modular computer, I'm quite curious about what's your opinion on it and if maybe you could test it
I have one on order and will share my experiences with Marc, Ken and others
It looks like a fantastic design. Analog computers deserved a modernized version. Kudos to Bernd Ulman.
cool piece of kit
I have an old logic trainer which has enough lighted switches and breadboard space for a simple 8-bit computer. I wish I knew who made it...
3 minutes in and it's not going well .... Looking forward to the repair. I have an old HP power supply that has wiring looms just like that. It is at the back of my repair queue for obvious reasons.
OMG I NEED ONE OF THESE
Many, many, many faults await. Indeed. This is starting to "feel" like the HP9820 resurrection. But the full regression of continuity, logic testing will hunt down and ferret out each failed component I am certain. Good hunting!
I think I want to build one.
Wow, Ben Eater led me to you and you mention him in the first 70 seconds!
I needed this today. Love your work. Now I kinda want to make one but with modern methods and a modular design for the provided functions. But I also want to use like Apollo style switches and readouts and things lol. OLED and a hermetic high reliability toggles, and master specialties push buttons ;-)
"Here's this obscure piece of old hardware, let's look at it! Oh dear, it works perfectly 😢" - Marc's nightmare.
6:31 Crocs? How fashionable :p
High zero on the output of the function gen: my guess (before I go look at the blog) is dead DC blocking cap. If it can try to kill my millennium era surround system, it can come for you too! (Edit: and, I was wrong. Not surprised. Looking forward to part 2 to see the gory details!)
Big ideas need a big breadboard ;-)
i used to repair a lot of old Hickok tube tester and ran into the issue of frozen switches also. I have tried soaking them in alcohol. boiling them in oil, heating them up with a torch , etc etc etc and some methods work better then others.
Something like that would have been bought new for a collage level computer lab or professional laboratory environment like bell labs. Surprised their wasn’t a property tag
what kind of squeeze bottle with the long tip called? and what kind of oil?
It's like a really early "300-in-1 electronics lab" that I got from Radioshack!
...the best electronics work is always done in Crocs.
Looking inside I thought it has to be later than 1972, look at the cable ties. I had no idea the cable tie dates back to the late 50's.
I dont think you use the power supply's output correctly... for positive, use the + and GRN output, for negative use - and GRN output... I dont think you will find any voltage between - and +... if it was meant that way, the GRN connection would be be there.
If the outputs are opposite polarity there would have to be a voltage between + and -. It would be double, but it would be there.
If you have a positive voltage between + and GRN and a negative between - and GRN then you will definitely have a voltage between + and -. The sum of the two voltages actually, you just don't know whether they are symmetrical w.r.t. GRN
1 is still available on ebay
Really love the inside of this thing!
Still looks good considering it's age.
Is his tool that makes an odd sound a soldering iron and solder sucker combined?
Yes it’s a desoldering iron. Hakko FR 301, highly recommended.
@@CuriousMarc Thanks, good to know!