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Vintage HP Telco Board

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Slive

Active member
Joined
Jul 11, 2018
Messages
31
Hello,

I'm a new to this forum and just wanted to say hello.

Also, what board is this? :mrgreen:

Thanks
Slive
 

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Look at the obvious. You can see that it has a Hewlett-Packard logo on it, multiple relays, and several BNC type input and output connectors. My first thought was some sort of a audio/video switcher perhaps? If you google that part number on the left edge of the board, it’s apparently a multiplexer for use with an HP 3488A data acquisition device. It allows sampling multiple test signals at the same time. It appears a few of these boards have been listed on eBay (one for as low as USD $65) and not been sold. So it’s questionable whether you could sell it whole for more than the scrap value, but you may list it with a low start price and see what happens?

HP 44478B 1.3Ghz 75 Ohm MUX Card P/N 44478-66502 for HP 3488A

The gold plated traces are not as rich as they might appear. The relays probably have gold-plated silver contact pads inside. The connectors should all have gold plated pins inside, and the outside of the connectors next to the relays look gold plated. Based on the gold color though, none of it appears to be thick plating.

Macfixer01
 
macfixer01 said:
Look at the obvious. You can see that it has a Hewlett-Packard logo on it, multiple relays, and several BNC type input and output connectors. My first thought was some sort of a audio/video switcher perhaps? If you google that part number on the left edge of the board, it’s apparently a multiplexer for use with an HP 3488A data acquisition device. It allows sampling multiple test signals at the same time. It appears a few of these boards have been listed on eBay (one for as low as USD $65) and not been sold. So it’s questionable whether you could sell it whole for more than the scrap value, but you may list it with a low start price and see what happens?

HP 44478B 1.3Ghz 75 Ohm MUX Card P/N 44478-66502 for HP 3488A

The gold plated traces are not as rich as they might appear. The relays probably have gold-plated silver contact pads inside. The connectors should all have gold plated pins inside, and the outside of the connectors next to the relays look gold plated. Based on the gold color though, none of it appears to be thick plating.

Macfixer01

Hey Macfixer01, thanks for your reply. I guess I can put all boards for ~40€-50€ /each on ebay for scrapping.
 
A lot of bling-bling, but gold-wise not so much. plating is probably between 25 and 50 cents per square inch. HP used to have quite good plating on their boards, not just flash plated.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=2592

The most value on that board is probably in the multiplexers, find a radio amateur that are looking for the high frequency multiplexers. I'm not sure it is relays when getting to 1.35 GHz, at least it isn't something looking like a standard power relay. At those frequencies a solid metal bar of the right form and length is a perfect insulator while an air gap can be a short circuit. Microwave circuits are borderline magic.

Göran
 
g_axelsson said:
A lot of bling-bling, but gold-wise not so much. plating is probably between 25 and 50 cents per square inch. HP used to have quite good plating on their boards, not just flash plated.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=2592

The most value on that board is probably in the multiplexers, find a radio amateur that are looking for the high frequency multiplexers. I'm not sure it is relays when getting to 1.35 GHz, at least it isn't something looking like a standard power relay. At those frequencies a solid metal bar of the right form and length is a perfect insulator while an air gap can be a short circuit. Microwave circuits are borderline magic.

Göran
So not worth the afford. I may open one relay for science. :mrgreen:
Thank!
 
g_axelsson said:
A lot of bling-bling, but gold-wise not so much. plating is probably between 25 and 50 cents per square inch. HP used to have quite good plating on their boards, not just flash plated.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=2592

The most value on that board is probably in the multiplexers, find a radio amateur that are looking for the high frequency multiplexers. I'm not sure it is relays when getting to 1.35 GHz, at least it isn't something looking like a standard power relay. At those frequencies a solid metal bar of the right form and length is a perfect insulator while an air gap can be a short circuit. Microwave circuits are borderline magic.

Göran


As I said, they’re just relays. 3 Volts DC coil, contacts good for 1 Amp at 24 Volts DC. Made by Aromat (Panasonic)

I couldn’t find an actual data sheet for the RG1E series since they’re obsolete now, but the Agilent 34970A data acquisition/switch unit service manual lists replaceable parts for itself and it’s accessories:

FB73C4F1-ED29-4B86-A950-48E4B4BAC785.png
 
Found a cached copy of a site, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:D8RRtL-04WIJ:www.relayspec.com/product_details.php%3Fpro_id%3D162184+&cd=2&hl=sv&ct=clnk&gl=se&client=firefox-b

RG1E-L-3V
Series: RG Series
Description: High Frequency Relay • Coil Voltage: 3 VDC • Contact Configuration: 1C SPDT • Frequency: 900 MHz • Mounting: PC Board • Operating Function: 1 Coil Latching • Current: 1 Amp

So yes, a relay but designed for 900 MHz frequency.

Oh, and I found the datasheet too : https://www.relayspec.com/specs/002200/rg.pdf

There we can read that the contact material is gold-clad silver

If you open one up, take a picture to show how it's made.

Göran
 
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