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Vibrograf M80

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charger105

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Vibrograf M80

Post26 May 2015, 10:29

I've been on the lookout for a reasonably priced, local, watch timing machine that does digitals (as well as analog quartz, tuning fork and regular mechanicals).
A Vibrograf M80 popped up on Ebay Australia the other day, so I grabbed it.
Very much looking forward to its arrival :mega:

Can anyone help with a manual for it ?
It hasn't arrived yet, but thought I'd get in early. Not sure if it's intuitive to use, or if a manual will be necessary ?

Rgds.
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dutchsiberia

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Re: Vibrograf M80

Post27 May 2015, 16:36

Nice! It should be relatively easy to figure out :). I used good running watches to test the settings for my Greiner tester.
You might want to read this?
http://mb.nawcc.org/showthread.php?3403 ... 00-Manuals

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Re: Vibrograf M80

Post28 May 2015, 11:34

Thanks dutchsiberia.
That Greiner looks like a nice bit of kit. Love the Nixie readout.

I did get the M80 manual, but thanks anyway for the link.
The M80 arrived today. It's not that intuitive to operate, so the manual was quite necessary.
I'm really happy with it. Of course I don't know how well it's calibrated, but it's giving very low readings for known good timekeepers, and high readings for watches known to run significantly high or low.
It's got a single pickup , with an inbuilt accoustic sensor, an inductive sensor and capacitive sensor. Basically, some watches will only read using a different sensor.
For example a plastic cased LED wouldn't detect using the acoustic sensor, but would using the capacitive. Same for a plastic cased Casio.

Interestingly, a SASM module gave quite a high discrepancy, but I know it keeps very good time. Maybe the PIC is adjusting the rate in S/W ?
My Braun LCD with Ventura module wouldn't give a reading at all ?

Rgds.
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charger105

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Re: Vibrograf M80

Post06 Jun 2015, 10:11

Here's a pic of the M80:
vibro.jpg


You might notice that one of the segments is out (it should read "+ .54").

I've done a bit of diagnosis on it, and the pluggable digit is faulty. Each digit is a modular 7-segment display package made by Litronix. It's a DL-747.

Here's a picture I pinched off the net:
dl747.png


Does anyone happen to have a spare one of these lying around ? I think they were fairly common in 1970s meters, audio tuners clocks(?) etc.
Rgds,
Andrew.
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dutchsiberia

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Re: Vibrograf M80

Post31 Dec 2015, 16:49

Very nice! It's not a "resolder job"?(or a dead driver IC :( )
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Re: Vibrograf M80

Post01 Jan 2016, 02:52

dutchsiberia wrote:Very nice! It's not a "resolder job"?(or a dead driver IC :( )


No all the solder joints were good. You're right about the driver IC though. I'd already replaced the failed IC which was failing to drive a single segment.
However there was a failed pluggable digit too. From what I discovered online, these DL747's are rather fragile.

Anyway I found some NOS digits, and got it all working in the end. It's now working very well. It's great to be able to finally regulate my watches :-D
I mentioned it here:
viewtopic.php?f=72&t=7946&p=50442#p50442
I should've updated this post earlier.
Rgds.
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Re: Vibrograf M80

Post01 Jan 2016, 13:38

Glad you got it working :) Is yours still in spec? Like, +1 seconds a day is in real life also +1 seconds a day?
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Re: Vibrograf M80

Post03 Jan 2016, 01:08

As far as I can tell it's in spec, or close to it.
Fast watches are detected as '+' an amount and slow watches are detected as '-' an amount. If I adjust a watch down very close to zero, it keeps close to perfect time over the period I've been monitoring.
I'm happy :-D
Rgds.

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