Practically Classics Forum

There's going to be a bit of an equipment upgrade going on in my garage shortly.

A couple of years back I rescued this old Crypton Motorscope 335 from my local garage. They had it buried on its back half under an awning. They hadn't had the heart to bin it after many years of faithful service. Who says mechanics aren't sentimental?



Despite currently being buried in my garage, it's actually proven really handy on a few occasions...though practicality aside, I knew I had to rescue it the moment I spotted the huge rank of flipdot buttons. The Panaplax digital readout above the analogue meter was an unexpected bonus. I'm a bit of a display tech nerd and it was the first time I'd seen that technology in person.

Essentially it's a very specialised multimeter with a scope and timing strobe attached to help diagnose ignition and charging system issues. A CO% meter was an optional accessory...sadly not fitted to my unit.

She needs a little love as the button contacts are scratchy as hell and a little percussive maintenance is sometimes needed to wake it up...I suspect it needs a decent dose of contact cleaner and the various card edge connectors similarly cleaned. Given I spent about half an hour reviving it and it had been half exposed to the weather for God only knows how long it's doing very well.

However, I stumbled across something which has been on my wishlist ever since I saw one a long, long time ago...



Functionality aside...LOOK AT IT!

I'm a complete sucker for that flat smoked panel with chrome trim aesthetic...best exemplified by the Kolster Brandes KV-024 television (circa 1968) which was my gateway into proper vintage technology restoration - and the first valve based device I ever played around with.



Sadly that's currently in hibernation in the back of the loft as it needs a new CRT...and they're not something you exactly trip over these days.

I was expecting this to go for ridiculous money to someone with far deeper pockets than me, only to be gutted and have the faceplate wind up on the wall of some trendy office.

So what was the end result?



Well that was a surprise! Just the starting bid.

So a van has been booked for Monday to go and collect it. Roughly 80 miles each way, so not even far away.

Given the fact that these things weigh about as much as a small country I decided it was worth spending the extra £15 to go for a van with a tail lift...my spine will thank me for that.

Basically this has the same scope functionality on the left hand side as on the old Crypton unit - though what's different here is that instead of a glorified multimeter on the right, there's a CRT hooked up to a rather primitive microcomputer. This allows you to do quite a bit more detailed analysis of the data gathered. Including stuff like recording the current drawn by the starter motor during cranking to give a rough estimation of the relative compression ratio of each cylinder. In addition there's a CO% and HC exhaust gas analyser built into it. This is an optical type as well, so there's a good chance that with a proper service that it will work just fine.

Here's an example showing the display in action (from the user manual). This is the earlier version - identical as far as I can tell aside from the cosmetic differences.



Rather looking forward to getting that in the garage...been a while since I've had a decent tech project.

Folks want me to video the initial inspection when I get the heavy sucker of a thing home?


Done a little more work on the heater install in the van. One thing which was bothering me was that the exhaust was pointing out to the side...the gases expelled from it are HOT and I was worried that it was a hazard that someone was going to burn themselves on. It also had a serious habit of pointing exhaust directly at my mains hook up cable. The pipework didn't want to let me point it downwards...so I had to improvise.

Discovering that 22mm pipe was a perfect snug fit in the silencer outlet made things easier.



Though the question springing to mind was whether the solder will melt...no idea how hot the thing runs. Only one way to find out is to hook it back up and fire it up.



Yes... it's melted the solder. I'll just replace the elbow with a compression fitting tomorrow. Not too worried about the pipe into the silencer as that's a very snug fit, and a quick tap with a hammer and punch should make sure it's never going anywhere.

Still really impressed with how quickly it warms the van up...and glad to report that the comedy smoke cloud on startup has stopped being produced now the fuel pump has been properly primed.

Finally!





We have high tensile 3/8" bolts...they screw cleanly into the threads in the hub, which is good.

So once the remaining one has been drilled out we should be able to get things sorted out.

On the plus side, even without that I can now at least stick the wheel back on to roll the car out of the garage with the three bolts, which will make getting the engine analyser in/out of the garage. This is a good thing as it basically needs to be rolled through the middle of the space the car currently occupies.

Today I got to spend six and a half hours driving this piece of automotive excrement.



Never been a Transit fan anyway (always been a Merc man...not that that should be a surprise given what's on the driveway!)...but this thing, despite having less than 40K on the clock has quite the defect list. Clutch is shot. No synchromesh on 5th or 6th...not that 6th is worth having as it hasn't enough power to maintain 60mph in it on the level. Tracking is so far out it makes the Lada look stable. Heater doesn't work. Stereo doesn't work. The roller door opens a good foot and a half less than the height of the load bay...no proper tie down points in the back for once you eventually get stuff in. Rubbing salt in the wound, managed 18mpg over the 160ish miles. Plus it was filthy.

Next time I'll just be hiring from Enterprise. Thought I'd have Sixt a try as they've opened up a centre that's a 20 minute walk from our house...but I sure won't be doing that again. Enterprise have earned my loyalty over the last ten years.

I also keep making the mistake of expecting it to take me the same amount of time to get places down here as it did back up north...so I keep underestimating journey times by about 50%...and the general degree of stress involved by several orders of magnitude.

Anyway...what was I renting a van for?

Getting this home, that's what.





Only *nearly* killed me and my husband getting it through the door. Hiring a van with a tail lift was definitely a good call. The console itself is *just about* a two man lift so long as you don't need to go very far.

It looks to be in exceptionally good shape for industrial gear of its age...if rather filthy.



A quick wipe down has helped turn it back the right colour.



The flipdot indicators in the buttons are a lovely touch and the sort of detail you just don't see these days.









Anyone able to get a date out of the serial number?



I do have all of the leads, probes, timing strobe etc. Just removed them for transit as the boom is unwieldy enough without it swatting me in the face with cables every five seconds. Manuals and a load of data sheets as well.

This thing very much meshes my automotive and vintage technology restoration hobbies...so I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into it. Apparently it has been working recently, though I'm expecting it to need a bit of TLC. Shedload of vacuum tubing will want changing anyway at the very least.

Everything else aside though, isn't it just a gorgeous bit of industrial design? Know the modern version will have massively wider functionality and be a quarter of the weight... won't have half the style though!

I'm disturbed by the extent to which that thing excites me! I used a similar device throughout much of the 1980s and developed a healthy respect for it, not least because it was the best way to ameliorate disorder involving customers of IM's franchised premises and the more experienced staff members who, without access to something that could display information minus human subjectivity, would often become quite animated if their ability to set the ignition timing on some complex old engine with twin distributors, each of which had more scatter than a crematorium's lawn, were brought into question.
Hubby sounds like a most willing individual, is this [wild assumption]tireless resource[/wild assumption] available for hire to other forum members who want to move heavy stuff?
I would expect better from a Transit, the modern ones are far from my favourite things to drive, though the automatic option seems to be pretty good, if nowhere near the Aisin-Warner or Mercedes-Benz level of smoothness and rapidity of shifting. Still, bright side and all that, at least a Ford can be fixed anywhere by anyone who can hold a hammer in one hand and a roll of adhesive tape in the other, or is this no longer the case? I'd have been more worried about a dirty hire vehicle than a broken one, which is why I always turn up to view potential purchases wearing gloves, even in the middle of summer, and why the guts of a pint of IPA, no, not India Pale Ale - Isopropanol, followed by a gentle bleach solution and several warm water rinses were required around the interior, especially the rim of the steering wheel, before I summoned up the courage to drive the HiAce with bare hands, bearing in mind that it came from the premises of a specialist supplier & breaker of such things and had various species of filth growing in it. Phew, thank goodness I only thought that and didn't write it in a publicly visible web forum.


On the AC Model 70; I looked in at the well-loved and very useful, bangernomics-oriented motoring resource that is good old http://autoshite.com/ , last night. On catching up with the hallowed pages, it soon became apparent that nearly everyone who is anyone in the world of adequate older vehicle ownership now owns an example of the charismatic, light blue tricycle. I really need to find one before the camper's interior is replaced as a large, (just) wide (enough) empty van that can accommodate a Reliant Rialto must surely be large enough to contain a Model 70 and leave enough room for any broken tech that I spot in skips on my way home.
Which reminds me; have you asked at http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/index.php about the possibility of finding a fresh tube for the KB TV set? I've been helped out with many chunks of unobtanium by members on there and, if you're not already a member, please come along and join us.

Aside from the lack of working synchromesh on the top two gears and the dash insistently flashing at me to tell me it wanted to be two gears higher than was really necessary, the biggest annoyance gearbox wise was probably the sheer number of times I tried to pull away in second. Have got way too used to first being left and back...also lost count of how many times I was flailing around trying to find the gear lever about a foot back from where it was. Dash mounted ones and me just don't seem to mix. If you want to put it up there just do it properly and give us a decent column change... surely that's a better solution?

More than anything I think it was just disappointing. I've got used to renting from Enterprise, where the vehicles are always clean, decently looked after and usually have at least some equipment. Aside from the stereo (which didn't work) this thing was utterly devoid of creature comforts.

The tracking being so far out that the thing wouldn't go in a straight line combined with the lack of proper lashing eyes in the back made for a very stressful drive back too.

As I recall from a recent thread over on AS, I think another batch of four Model 70s has recently resurfaced. So they're definitely still turning up now and then, which is good to see.

I haven't really put much effort recently into finding a replacement CRT for the old KB, I did have an ask around over on the vintage radio forums a few years ago but nothing cropped up at the time. It's otherwise working though, so one day I'll make a bigger push to get that finished when it gets back to the top of the to do list.

Had hoped that I'd get a chance to look properly at the Sun 1215 today but instead was running around like a headless chicken all day. Managed ten minutes before I first went out and a half hour before shutting down things for the day though.

I would usually do quite a few checks on an old bit of kit which has been out of use for many years before applying power, but just went with a brief sanity check with the Megger for any leakage from the power supply to the case (mainly because I didn't want to have to reset my overly twitchy RCD again) before showing it some power. My logic here was that the seller told me they had it running to demonstrate to a prospective buyer a few weeks ago and that it was obviously in use in the not too distant past; the last PAT safety certificate dating from 2005.

Flicking the switch resulted in all the right noises, though nothing from the light over the display. After a few seconds though the displays themselves came to life.



Judging from the condition of the CRTs, it doesn't have a huge number of hours on.



The photo actually makes this look less sharp than it appears in person.

It's apparent that we do have some issues. The computer display keeps cutting in and out, so that will need to be investigated. Also don't appear to have any vacuum at the intake for the gas analyser despite being able to hear the pump running - not surprised there as I'm expecting those hoses to all need changing. Very promising start I'd say.

Then I had to disappear out all day...only having a spare half hour at the end of the day. Figured that should be enough to tackle one fault though. The dead light above the displays...was figuring this was probably just a dead tube.

The light looks easy enough to get into - Just three machine screws hold the trim strip under the light on. Removing that started to reveal quite why this thing weighs as much as a small country.

It's a bit of trim...just needs to be a bit of chromed pressed tin...instead we have this!



Must weigh a couple of kilos. If the rest of the machine is this over-engineered we shouldn't have many problems.

The plastic diffuser is quite a snug fit, so I didn't try to move it any further than I needed to get to the tube.

Given the US connection with this machine it wasn't a huge surprise to find an F30W T12 tube of US origin in there, despite them being a pretty rare sight over here.



The thought occurred that this could be the original tube, but a quick look at the date code shows it to be from 1995, so it's obviously been replaced at some point.

I only had one 3' tube on hand, a yellow Narva which I'd had in use at Halloween...not something I could leave in there but it should prove the ballast to be good or not at least.

It does seem to be just fine - and quite an aggressive instant start one at that given the tube was lit while only halfway through being inserted.



The only T12s I have in 3' form are coloured (nice Atlas Double Life green ones), but I knew I had half a dozen or so new old stock Cryselco 30W T8s in stock somewhere. Part of a batch of tubes found by the demolition crew taking down my old work building and sent my way as they knew I was into old lighting gear. Poor old building may be flattened, but it's still giving! Lighting in my garage is all from there too.

This should do nicely for the lighting in the Sun 1215 though.



Yep...seems to be working just fine.



Everything buttoned back up...looks the business now I think...nice to see the colours are still so vibrant and haven't faded.



With a bit of luck I might actually get a chance to get a better look at it tomorrow afternoon. Really want to get the back cover off, at the very least I should be able to get the production date pinned down properly then.

Tomorrow we'll be heading up to Livingston for an event, and the van has been designated as the pack mule for the weekend as we've not a small amount of stuff to take with us.

There's also a car enthusiasts meetup while we're there...so I really needed to tidy up a bit.

Between tools, parts for a variety of cars, bottles of LHM, building supplies and rubbish I must have dragged 200kg of stuff out the back. A quick run over with the vacuum cleaner had things looking vaguely presentable.





Really would have liked to give it a wash and to wipe down the interior plastics, but time was against me.

Nearly forgot that the windscreen and wipers needed a clean...which is slightly awkward as this is the furthest you can reach from ground level without standing on (or falling off) the bumper.



Will be amusing to see how many smears I've left doing that in the dark in the morning.

Other than that... I've checked the tyre pressures, coolant, oil, topped the screenwash up and checked all the lights. We're about ready to go.



Well...after we throw all the stuff in the back anyway.

Well let's just say that today wasn't the ideal day to be driving a tall vehicle with brick wall aerodynamic properties and less than 80bhp northwards. Torrential rain for the first few hours and strong, gusty head and sidewinds the whole way.

This resulted in horrendous fuel economy and slow progress.

Also one unscheduled pit stop to investigate a horrible clattering/rattling noise. Turned out that the roof lights were taking exception to dealing with 40-ish mph headwinds and were popping open.



Cable ties to the rescue. While I wouldn't say quiet progress resumed...but progress without any horrible noises suggesting that parts of the van were about to distribute themselves all over the M6.

Got there in the end, though we had to fuel up after 170 miles... usually expect 250 or thereabouts on a tank.

Having decided that I'd had utterly enough of the outside world by about midday and having a complete failure to summon enthusiasm regarding doing anything actually useful...I spent a couple more hours fiddling around with the Sun.

Task number one was dealing with the vacuum hoses in the machine. I knew these had taken on the consistency of dried pasta and would disintegrate the moment I touched them. I wanted them changed before I started poking around as they were mostly still where they were meant to be...and I'd rather not play guessing games as to where they go.



By the time I was done, this is what was left. Plus a bunch of bits buried in the bottom of the case I'll need to get out with the vacuum cleaner.



Much better...



I discovered the hard way that that solenoid valve on the water purge line has mains on the (unsleeved) terminals even when the machine is off when it gave me a good old belt. Absolutely stupid not having the plug pulled before I did that.

Fiddly bit under the gas analyser done too. I'd missed the line heading off to the pressure transducer (far right out of frame) when taking this photo, it was sorted later.



With that sorted out I felt I could turn my attention to sorting the stuff which wasn't working. Two nuts removed allowed the whole front bezel to be removed...this vastly improved access.



This solves the problem of not being able to get to the computer.



This let me take a closer look at things. Not least figuring out what CPU the thing was running. I was expecting something 8-bit, maybe Z80 (half hoping actually as I've messed with them before and might have some hope of making heads or tails of the software) or 6000 series...Finding this however was rather a surprise.



That's a National INS8900D. For those not familiar with it, that's a 2MHz 16-bit processor... really wasn't expecting this to be a 16-bit machine... especially given it has its roots back in 1979...overkill?

The memory board. Yes, getting these EPROMs read and backed up is high on the priority list.



Not totally sure how, but I managed to forget to get photos of the MUX and I/O boards. I'll fix that later.

The board I was most interested in today however was this one.



The edge connectors actually looked pretty clean, though I gave it a scrub up anyhow. Based on prior experience though I figured the most sensible thing to do was to remove (carefully, using the right tool) each of the socketed chips and reseat them. Somewhat surprised to see a humble 555 timer in a socket. Have to wonder if they've had reliability issues with that IC.

With that done, slotted the card back in, powered on, and...



Rock steady display... I'll take that as a win. Having a display which would stay running for more than five seconds at a time I could let it complete the warm up process and run through the self test (having taken the opportunity to clean the CRT faces while it was in warm up as they were filthy).





Still surprised how sharp this display is... especially now there's not 1/8" of grime on it.

The faceplate was similarly filthy.



I wasn't surprised by the "service required" messages at the calibration screen. If I'd been abandoned in a cold damp shed since 2005 I'd be in need of a bit of TLC just the same.

I did a quick check on the gas analyser first to see if it would respond to a clean. First check though was of course to make sure that the IR source was "lit" correctly. The source here takes the form of a carbon rod, heated to the point where it just about glowing a really dim red (camera makes it look a little brighter than it is).



This is then focused via two parabolic mirrors onto a pair of sensors at the far end.







The spinning shutter at the source end allows the reading to be sampled from free air and the gas under test alternately.

It was given a really good clean (carefully...the mirrors are surface silvered) as the whole lot were filthy.

Sadly it didn't just miraculously come back to life...so further digging will be needed. Despite the errors,it was quite happy to continue into running mode.

First page you get is to enter the vehicle details - Number of cylinders, 2/4 stroke, and the timing offset. Once that is entered it presents you with the following screen.



The *** entries show where readings are missing due to the calibration issues. It will blank things out rather than potentially show erroneous data. This allows you to check things like the starter motor current, battery voltage during cranking. It also allows you to compare the current draw during each cylinder compression stroke to give a rough relative compression test to show if one pot is far lower than the rest.

Once that is completed, the engine running test page is presented.



I like the "bar graphs" drawn using the text...sneaky ways to do stuff like this without the overheads of bitmap graphics is half the fun of old kit from this sort of age.

Looks really the part with the front panel back in place.





So issues we need to look into:

[] Gas analyser inoperative.

[] Volt/ohm meter inoperative.

[] Temperature probe reading nonsense (see 160C reading above).

[] Suspicious of the vacuum reading.

[] Possible cap issues in the power supply as it shows a low line voltage warning at the calibration screen despite our line voltage being anything but low.

First port of call is going to be going over the machine end to end and reseating every socketed chip as I did on the CRT board, then see where we are. Will also make a point of checking for any signs of damage to the wiring where it enters the boom as it could be prone to chafing there.

Oh...and sort the dent in the power supply fan grill so it stops rattling before it drives me mad.



Interesting to see that the fans are actually 115V units...have to assume they're running from a step down transformer buried in that brick of a power supply.

Definitely making progress though.

Last random photo for the old tech enthusiasts...old computer equipment like this often displays interesting or odd artefacts on screen when rebooted. This is what the display shows on this for about a second when powered up.



Thought it might just be random nonsense in the RAM, but it seems to show the same every time.

Zelandeth wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 1:51 am
Interesting to see that the fans are actually 115V units...have to assume they're running from a step down transformer buried in that brick of a power supply.

In the late 70s and early 80s I worked for Burroughs as a computer repair technician on stuff that looked very much like this, so a lot of what you're doing here resonates. Regarding the fans, the kit I worked on had 115v fans too, but they were usually wired in series to a 230v AC supply, so you might find that this is the case.

If I had a pound for every chip I'd re-seated and edge connector I cleaned, I'd be a rich man...... Best thing for edge connector cleaning was a rubber eraser intended for ink (i.e. typing old-style) but I doubt you can get them now. I used to use an ink eraser in the form of a pencil, made it very easy to use.

Cheers!