This is an excellent example of applied ingenuity, so appreciated by those of us who enjoy collecting and using old test equipment. I have an HP 3439A DVM with the 3443A plugin. I was rooting for you as you were attempting to fix the original relay, but I was just as happy to see the actual solution you came up with. Thanks so much for this post, Gary. You earned a new subscriber to your channel.
A clever (upside down) and elegant (in its simplicity) repair trumps a little bit of your age showing in the solder joints. I have that same age challenge, so I commiserate with you. I do think your solder iron tip may have been a little cold, for the job... Or, maybe the tip you used was small and did not have enough mass to carry the reflow all the way through. This is not fault finding, but is intended to help you find a work-around. When I have marginal heat, I also cheat, by applying copious amounts of flux. It encourages the flow out that little extra bit. You did an amazingly great repair! Kudos!
@@t1d100 not a problem with my age, or with my soldering iron either. The problem really was with that cheap piece of imported plastic perfboard. Really not appropriate for a fine vintage instrument, but it’s what I had. A custom fabricated FR4 PCB with plated through holes would be better suited to the job, and actually I may go ahead and have some made.
@@garyramsey4275 Ahh, yes, you are right! The brown type is nearly useless. Once I found and tried the double-sided, plated through hole type, I never went back. I still have some of the brown stuff, awaiting use for some non-electrical purpose. Not only is the brown type not DSPTH, the copper pads lift off way to easily. Yes, a dedicated manufactured board would be a nice upgrade. Manufactured boards have become so cheap and easy to draw up and order that I have begun using them to do all my prototyping... Definitely skipping perfing and, sometimes, even skipping breadboarding.
This is an excellent example of applied ingenuity, so appreciated by those of us who enjoy collecting and using old test equipment. I have an HP 3439A DVM with the 3443A plugin. I was rooting for you as you were attempting to fix the original relay, but I was just as happy to see the actual solution you came up with. Thanks so much for this post, Gary. You earned a new subscriber to your channel.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Well done!
Thank you for posting , great repair!
A clever (upside down) and elegant (in its simplicity) repair trumps a little bit of your age showing in the solder joints. I have that same age challenge, so I commiserate with you. I do think your solder iron tip may have been a little cold, for the job... Or, maybe the tip you used was small and did not have enough mass to carry the reflow all the way through. This is not fault finding, but is intended to help you find a work-around. When I have marginal heat, I also cheat, by applying copious amounts of flux. It encourages the flow out that little extra bit. You did an amazingly great repair! Kudos!
@@t1d100 not a problem with my age, or with my soldering iron either. The problem really was with that cheap piece of imported plastic perfboard. Really not appropriate for a fine vintage instrument, but it’s what I had. A custom fabricated FR4 PCB with plated through holes would be better suited to the job, and actually I may go ahead and have some made.
@@garyramsey4275 Ahh, yes, you are right! The brown type is nearly useless. Once I found and tried the double-sided, plated through hole type, I never went back. I still have some of the brown stuff, awaiting use for some non-electrical purpose. Not only is the brown type not DSPTH, the copper pads lift off way to easily. Yes, a dedicated manufactured board would be a nice upgrade. Manufactured boards have become so cheap and easy to draw up and order that I have begun using them to do all my prototyping... Definitely skipping perfing and, sometimes, even skipping breadboarding.
Nice try on the relay repair attempt, hair is about 0.05 - 0.15 mm diameter (2-6 thou). I got some 0.05 mm manganin wire and its barely visible