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Heath IG-18 Distortion Improvement Kit

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2023 10:27 am
by MED6753
Ordered this Heath IG-18 THD Improvement Kit. Should arrive by Saturday. Complete write-up once received.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/154285948636

Re: Heath IG-18 Distortion Improvement Kit

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2023 12:59 pm
by Specmaster
Hmm interesting, that board mounts directly to the back of the meter I think IIRC?

Re: Heath IG-18 Distortion Improvement Kit

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2023 1:33 pm
by MED6753
Specmaster wrote: Thu Jan 05, 2023 12:59 pm Hmm interesting, that board mounts directly to the back of the meter I think IIRC?
Yes.

Re: Heath IG-18 Distortion Improvement Kit

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2023 1:45 pm
by Zenith
Here's the advertisement from the Heathkit site, with a picture showing it mounted to the meter, and details showing the improved performance.

https://shop.heathkit.com/shop/product/ ... ga-18-1-17.

Re: Heath IG-18 Distortion Improvement Kit

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2023 7:06 pm
by MED6753
The modification kit showed up today. The instructions are typical Heathkit very detailed and complete. Nice throw back to those old days. I'll start the assembly this coming week.

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Re: Heath IG-18 Distortion Improvement Kit

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2023 3:28 pm
by MED6753
Meter board fully populated. Those 3 diodes surprisingly turned out to be Germanium. 0.297V forward voltage drop. That's all I have time for today. Tomorrow the install, modification to the generator itself, and then test.

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Re: Heath IG-18 Distortion Improvement Kit

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2023 3:34 pm
by MED6753
Meter board installed. There were also some changes required on the main board and also the filter capacitors on the PSU board were upgraded.

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Final adjustments were made at 1kHz. Nice clean Sine at 993.5Hz actual. Not bad. I can't tell if the overall distortion has been improved since I don't have the equipment to accurately measure it. But it doesn't really matter. It was a fun little project.

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Re: Heath IG-18 Distortion Improvement Kit

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2023 5:55 pm
by Specmaster
Looks good, and it it is pretty accurate considering how old that design is really, well done.

Re: Heath IG-18 Distortion Improvement Kit

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2023 7:37 pm
by Zenith
MED6753 wrote: Wed Jan 11, 2023 3:34 pm I can't tell if the overall distortion has been improved since I don't have the equipment to accurately measure it. But it doesn't really matter. It was a fun little project.
You mean you are going to wimp out and not go down the rabbit hole of ludicrously low distortion oscillators and distortion analysers that can wrestle with them on the noise floor? Very sensible.