I love how Ken breaks out the whitecoat even just assembling a table

Y'all are so lucky to have Ken. His skills are just so top-notch. Reverse-engineering stuff like that is no joke. I'm continually impressed by his abilites.

Ken Shiriff saved the day again!

An updated version of this, built using SMT parts, would fit in quite a bijoux package. I wonder if such a thing would be as popular as I think it would? I'd buy one.

As someone who is 6'4" and accustomed to scooching over short benches, I've always wanted a motorized work table. Something that I could crank up real high to actually get close to what I'm working on. I don't have the money for one now, but it's on my dream list. Especially if it were of substantial construction and size; that'd be ideal.

Oh thank goodness ! I was screaming what about the sine wave I'm sure he said it had a sine output and as the vid came close to the end I'm thinking maybe not then and then you twigged ! part 2 here we come...cheers.

Hi Marc, perfect time in France for this post !

I just wanted to say thank you, I was always interested in breadboards, my first was a radio shack 50 in one electronics learning lab. My biggest challenge was in reading schematics, I have learning difficulties...but I enjoy watching you work, and I envy you. Thank you for all that you do.

I am really enjoying all of your repair, test, and reverse engineering content sir! Please keep up the great work!

I love this so much! Its so excessive yet functional at the same time

Marc I remember when you started this channel, how it slowly evolved and how awesome projects have passed through your home lab with your growing bunch of equally skilled friends who have joined you on your quest of restoring everything vintage electronics and mechanics! I'm almost 50 and although I come from the software industry, electronics begun more like a hobby because I wanted to understand better assembly programming - which I was doing professionally for many years. I've worked mostly on telecoms equipment most of my life, initially Ericsson AXE (both fixed and mobile) and later mobile phone development (as a vendor). I love vintage computers and I kick myself often for getting rid of so many old computers and servers whilst moving around in Europe... It just wasn't realistic dragging around all that hardware, but I regret it today. I still have some vintage stuff at home but everything is already repaired and working so I haven't got anything to tinker with at the moment. I would love to get hold of a PDP-11 or an IMSAI 8080 to restore, but they're almost unobtanium nowadays, at least here in Sweden, so the only real solution is to build one from scratch! I was one of the first who got a PiPD-8 kit but it took 5 hours to build and I've done some projects with it, but a PDP-11 would be way more practical running UNIX, but such is life. I've never touched any space hardware but I've worked plenty with military AXE switches and they're pretty similar with regards to build quality and robustness. Great fun admiring what quality looks like when money isn't a limiting factor. Sadly owning old AXE equipment is also neigh impossible since no operators are selling their old decommissioned hardware. It would've been great fun to play around with since I have such vast knowledge about both hardware and software - and how to build, configure and operate them! Perhaps one day I might score an old APZ or IOG (preferably both!) but I doubt it. Meanwhile I continue to rescue old Amigas, for free, so that next generation can enjoy them like my generation did when we were kids! Thank you making one of the best channels on KZfaq! It's exciting, inspiring, teaching and pure enjoyment! I wish there was a team like yours where I live so I could use my knowledge for something important to save, but until that happens I can at least follow your work and projects, and you all explain so well that even we who aren't really skilled in analogue electronics or RF understands perfectly well what you are doing! That takes a lot of skill and dedication, so once again thank you for making the effort of documenting your work and making them fun as well! Cheers from Sweden!!! p.s. What an awesome breadbord kit you've found here! Crazy how expensive it was back in the days, but really handy for both teaching electronics or for building small but perhaps a bit more advanced circuits, or for quickly testing just about any IC you might suspect is broken. It'll be a nice addition to your lab when finished for sure! :)

Part 1 inspired me yesterday to finish reverse-engineering the schematic from a much simpler breadboard thing that I found years ago. It was called "Analog Exerciser", and has no info on Google. It was from '84 or so, and probably used for those "learn by mail" courses (NRI, etc.) that were popular then. It had one breadboard, a +12/-12 power supply, and a simple signal generator. I had two, one of which was badly soldered (being built by the "student" would be one of the first lessons) and missing some parts (including the 24VCT transformer!) But it used an ICL8038 instead of so much circuitry that even Moog would feel inadequate. Now I have to put a power cord back into the good one and see if I can make it work.

Your diagnostic skills with analog "voodoo" circuits never fail to amaze me! Outstanding presentation. You make it look so easy that I get the feeling that even I could do that stuff. (I know better, though.) Can't wait for part 3. Thank you.

totally ok with sponsored gear and stuff you provide so much content here I don't mind watching few minutes of that compared how much time and skills you guys put into those videos

Fantastic repair of a completely analog circuitry! Very very intriguing! I love the "highlights" you anticipate @ the end: "... Not even close to have it repaired"... Thanks for sharing!

Wait so you're telling me ken reverse engineered that entire board from just pictures?? He really is a wizard then :D

I don't know anything about electronics besides some very basic stuff. But sure enjoy watching you debug stuff.

Always good to see a new post on this channel 🙂

A marvelous channel with its own characters. Even a master Ken! I really enjoy this stuff, and I am not even an electronics guy. never a dull video! Thanks CuriousMarc!

I would love to see a modern version of this with built in oscilloscope and PC connection to set GPIO pins and SMD clamps.

I think this is a KZfaq first for me: a sponsored-swag plug that (1) I enjoyed watching and (2) is for something I might actually consider buying!

And I apologize (together with a couple of thousand other viewers) for yelling "Yes!" when you noticed it's far from being fixed yet - since this means we'll get a sequel (maybe even several, if we're lucky)... 😊🤣

You got yourselves a lovely bench, even if a tad small. I like it a lot, especially after the caster retrofit. Nice repair. Putting the freshly restored Packards to a good use! :)

Always a joy to watch a curiousmarc video!

This is great, I had been looking to buy or build a new workbench and that desk looks nice. My current bench is starting to look a bit U shaped. Thank you!

Thanks to your sponsor! Great looking bench and it has motor lift!

New Marc video! I clicks like!

I absolutely love this layout of vintage electronics; on may pcb's that I made I followed this layout and, even if it involved some jumpers, it looked fantastic. And the old THD components really helped. Nice, clean, easy to attach probes, a real beauty. Actually I found some old (60s, 70s?) industrial boards with that layout and reverse engineered them; I then found to be very easy to read the schematic from the pcb, a lot easier that from more modern ones (like TVs, radios or other consumer electronics).

"look! Triangle waaaave", I thought Fran stepped in there 😂

Loving the videos Marc

Marc thx for sharing. Excluding the transistor that you broke that's an incredible number of transistors that has failed so far. Either one would have disabled the breadboard unit so the unit must have been used long after the on board PSs & generators failed. Obviously users didn't care about those things and brought their own to the party. Good sleuthing between you and Ken for following the crkts and gotten the repairs as far as you have already. I look fwd to epi 3. Again, thx for sharing.

Now this is a perfect way to relax....

Nice to see the analogy goodness of the HP milliamp meter, have two in my lab. Waiting to see the sine output fixed.

Ken is amazing. I mean you are all amazing, but Ken is really something.

I have no idea what these guys are talking about, but I love watching the videos of them repairing electronic stuff.

8:52 Master Ken never fails to impress :)

Pretty sweet video!

Marc, the shot of building the desk helps me piece together your lab layout a bit better. It would be really cool if you would grace us with a full shop tour at some point between projects! It's so well equipped!

nice video marc

So exciting. I noticed another one of these on Ebay a few days ago, but I already have too many projects.

Another very enjoyable debug.

❤️ What you guys are doing is pure witchcraft to me. I absolutely love it! ❤️

After seeing part 1, I was browsing the local university surplus auctions, and saw an old Elenco GFG-8016 function generator, which made me curious (I didn't realize they had been around that long). But it's genuine old stuff: the manual has a proper "theory of operation" section even, in addition to the schematics, and it appears to be fairly similar to both you've shown, though a bit newer as it uses more ICs and fewer discrete transistors. Made for interesting reading.

I'm so glad Eric is a permanent fixture now 😊

I suspect the "flexidesk" running out of stock in a few hours... that's exactly what i need!

Monsieur Marc: Your potato-vision is forgiven.

I cheated and read Ken's blogpost about the repair yesterday... sorry Marc :) Interesting how they "borrowed" the sine shaper circuit... Cheers,

17:43 relatable 🤣 I heard my lab supply go click (oc protection); looked at my scope, supply and soldering iron and thought 🤔 could've been worse.

Hi Marc, I'm in the process of getting-together a circuit breadboarding system so I can start work on building a modular synthesizer similar to the old Moog system 55, so far I've managed to build a variable +/-V power for the breadboard using a couple of 3-terminal adjustable regulators, an LM317T and an LM337, they work great in that application, I've also built a function generator using an XR2206 Function Generator IC, ever heard of them?, it puts out Sine, Triangle, Square, and TTL Square waveforms at up to about 1MHz, I bought a breadboard from my local Jaycar Electronics store, I agree, no self-respecting electronics lab/workshop should be without some kind of a circuit breadboard.

If it were up to me (and I know it's not) I would include a lot more Master Ken explaining his work!

30 minutes of total amazement making me wonder the real time @CuriousMarc spent figuring thus far in this episode.

Those epoxy blob transistors are notorious for failing in old equipment.

25:11 To the left of the wire cut VR there is a joint that has splatter all around it. It's like someone used acid based flux and that corroded pinholes in the surrounding traces.

"Something cheesey here..." Well, if Marc says it, is it Swiss cheese? 🧀

that mess of wires on the back of the power supply controls makes me suspect someone at one point took it apart, gave up fixing it, and put it back together in random order. On the rest of the device the wiring is far neater, so I for one would check that all the wires are connected to the right thing

Master Ken made an error ? he's fired!

Great job. Greetings from Karachi, Pakistan.

That electronic adjustable things are the things i always wondered if they are not available yet and i see one. Simple but not available traditionally. And it'll be better with remotely controlled wheels so it can be repositioned on somewhere else on room remotely :)

Your repair videos are causing me to squint very hard at an old Heathkit power supply that's been sitting on my garage workbench for quite some time.

I hope there is a hand-wheel to raise that bench as and when the electronics fail. ...Oh, now I get it!

I am glad it's not repaired yet, so another great repair video is coming. 😜

I would replace all off these transistors with the ceramic base and epoxy blob on top. They are very unreliable. I think it's probably a sealing issue, because I found the most dead ones in electronics which was exposed to high humidity or even water (outside in the rain for years). TO-92 and any plastic packages are not hermetically sealed and can suffer from water ingress but it seems this old package style is much worse, they can get damaged in the long term just from normal levels of air humidity. I guess so, because often they die in weird ways, eg. when the two junctions are fine if you test them with a diode checker, but the device has no gain, it acts like two diodes. So it's not a simple short or open circuit, but the characteristics of the semiconductor are shifting over time.

Check out the “knight minilab ML2010“ Basically the higher quality and more deluxe version of this. It’s the ultimate lab in a box. I customized mine a bit after picking it up on eBay brand new for under $100. I think they were well over $500 new..... when you open it up you’ll see why. I customize mine to include my battery powered oscilloscope and a few other things I always need when doing work in the field… Or anytime I’m away from my lab working with clients equipment. Including several standalone rechargeable power banks that I can use to power my TS 80 soldering iron.

Just think.... Almost all of that function generator circuitry could be replaced with an Intersil 8038 IC which became available within a year or two. I recall buying one in the early 1970s to build up a bench function generator. Good luck with the fix!

Was that an AvE drop at 6:14? That was skookum as frig!

Marc, would you consider another video to discuss matched pair transistors further and the machine you used to compare them?

what about using BC212L transistors to replace the burnout PNP transistors.

How many extremely over skilled engineers does it require to assemble a Flexipot ??

You guys are nuts man, absolute chads!!!

Hi Mark, thank you for your video ! Could you please help and answer one question? what are the internal voltages should be set to ? There are two voltage regulator circuits, one with 7824 and the other with 2n4901, there are two potentiometers for voltage adjustment.. Thanks in advance!

It sounds as the brother of Mike Stewart was there in the beginning. 😀

hey marc i took apart the same model for parts a couple years ago! darn but i still have alot of the parts if you need some!

I want to build something like it

@ 9:40 What is that seemingly non connected solder pad two thirds up and nearly half way in from the left - there is another up and left as well?

Cool work bench, maybe risk of instruments flying if you bump into it 😅

I used to wonder why Master Ken wears a Google overall, now I know... He IS Google. So when you ask Google for anything, it's just Master Ken answering

I wish I could just come to your lab and hang out. Surely, there is so much brain power circulating the romm that some knowledge would be gained just by osmosis. I wish.

I love a good copy paste

I'm guessing dry joint, top left, at 9:37.

"One of my colleagues took apart the keypad and fit a radio receiver to control our desks remotely". Brilliant!

I'm experiencing scope envy.

munching this episode again

I have ruined things by soldering them while they were powered.

Ok so do you know the Spongebob voice actor or what because I've never seen an episode with the cut "Brief Construction Montage" lolol nor the "we hope you enjoyed the brief construction montage"... I NEED ANSWERS

😀

Hi, Has master Ken got a KZfaq channel, I would like to see his technique or reverse engineer stuff .

Oh nooo! Haha.

"only $1300." Wow, apparently you can put that word before any price tag.

Some truly appalling solder joints visible at 9:31!!! (including two really obvious grey joints that definitley need remaking).

I'd love to work with you guys but I would very quickly be relegated to tea boy which I would still love to do for you just to be in your presence. 👍☕🙇‍♂️

Remote control over a coworker's desk is pretty good. You might also want to get a spare wireless mouse and connect the rogue device to the back of their computer. This allows you to randomly move their mouse icon making them think the mouse is broken.

Can you make me one?

Oh no, it's not repaired so more videos... what a "disappointment"... 😀

looks like your oscilloscope got a bandwidth upgrade

Shouldn't that be $50,000 in today's money? Money printer go brrrrr .... :(

Sorry Marc ONLY $1300.00

In an endless bombardment of heavy political propaganda, constant fear m0n9ering and trashy cancerous videos, your videos are a breeze of fresh air in these stuffy times.