Price was SEK 200, which is about EUR 17.
Condition looked OK on the picture, with the hp logo missing, but otherwise OK.
As I got there yesterday, the seller told me that it was ex-hp-property, him having worked at their repair facility back when hp not only peddled printer ink but was a real company. It had been retired and he'd got it to use at home, which had not happened (and he'd not been at hp for many years), so he was selling it. Had a nice short chat, and I went home with another Golden Age instrument in the back. Literally -- later inspection showed the gold plated PCB et cetera.
It of course, at its age, (introduced 1967), has the dreaded PH163 mains inlet, and there was no supplied cable, but instead a reasonably well done (shrink tubing included) bodge of a normal Schuko cable that snaked out of one unused BNC hole in the back. I have preciously few of the PH163 cables, like 2, and they're on the 5221A and the 200CDR, so decided to draw from stocks one of my Schurter 2561 IEC 60320 C6 inlets, bought to replace PH163 when needed.
I separated the back panel as much as possible and drilled out the rivets (3mm drill) from the inside. Spinning rivet syndrome was encountered, but dealt with using pliers. The 2561 mounts from the outside, whereas the PH163 normally was fitted from within. Hence, the flanges of the 2561 cover the edges of the cutout. Some filing (I'd guess about 50 pushes of a coarse half-round file) was needed to widen the hole and allow one of the original rivet holes to mate with the new 2561 flange. The other 2561 hole ends up matching the PH163 large hole, since the PH163 cutout is considerably longer than the 2561, but with some care the new connector flange covers the entire old hole except the remaining rivet hole. I dealt with this using a large washer on the inside and clamping the new inlet using that. Looks pukka from the outside, is sturdy, and the last remaining rivet hole can get a separate treatment, should this become desired or necessary.
As I was doing this, I'd gotten a wire from the power switch to the voltage selector severed, which was discovered when the milky orange power switch lit up but nothing was seen on the output. Power switch and light are ahead of that as can be seen below.
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I found my gorillaism and reattached it, and measured the resistance between L and N on input, found it to be higher in "230V" than "115V", and plugged it in. And, it works. It's basically within tolerances for frequency and amplitude, can do a whopping 30V on the "600Ω" output, (albeit only to 1MHz), and does 5V on the "50Ω" output. The trigger output makes a nice pulse train. Wiped off the dust with a humid cloth, and done!
Reflections:
- Do the C6 mod. PH163 is shite. The mod is simple. Mnem spoke, on Discord, of an alternative that involved mutilating a C13 cable to fit, but that felt horrible to me, and I had the new inlets.
- There are bargains in the business, but not in the usual places. Yay for the seller who cares not.
