22 Feb
2013
22 Feb
'13
11:31 a.m.
Before that it was Western Electric bipolar relays
(which are things of
beauty).
OIer here we had 'Carpenter relays' ehich are also thigns of beauty.
Settig nthem up is great 'fun', there are numerous adjustments (contact
position, whcih can set both the transit time and the bias distortion),
magentic bias, etc. there ae even service sheets for them.
I have a thing called a TDMS5 which is a test character generator. It can
gerneate arbitrary 5-bit characters with controllable distortion for
setting up receivers. This thing it valved. The serialiser circuit is a
ring coutner of triodes. The output is not surpisngly a carpenter relay.
And yes, it can be used to set up carpenter relays (dispaly transit time
,et by the spacing of dots on a CRT) One opther feature is that it can
produce a Quick Brown Fox message, again with controlable distortion. The
message is troed on a PCB disk with spring ocntacts onit. The disk is
moved on one character at time by a solenoid and ratchet mechanis,. And
the whoel thing is small enough to fit in a Carpenter relay case.
-tony