Author Topic: Texas Electronics potentiometer  (Read 4964 times)

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Offline TheBushPilot

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Texas Electronics potentiometer
« on: June 30, 2017, 05:51:00 PM »
Hi all, I am new to the forums. Anyway, I had received an older vintage Texas Electronics heavy duty anemometer and wind vane, similar to that off of Texas Weather Instruments website. It was repainted a light and darker grey color. This also came with display for both wind speed and direction. The potentiometer in the wind vane went out and I have struggled to find similar makes or matches. I have yet to find when this equipment was made as there are no dates or records on anything I have. All I have to go on thus far is that the potentiometer is manufactured by Duncan Electronics. Hopefully the images will help figure something out.

Anything is appreciated. Thanks!
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Offline DanS

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2017, 06:10:41 PM »
Hi and welcome to the forum.
  Is there anyway to open the pot and get inside it? It just may need cleaning.

Offline TheBushPilot

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2017, 06:29:33 PM »
Hi and welcome to the forum.
  Is there anyway to open the pot and get inside it? It just may need cleaning.

Yes, the first thing I did was open the thing and make sure it was clean. It turned out the little contacts from the slider piece and the solder bullets were broken.
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Offline dupreezd

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #3 on: June 30, 2017, 06:57:54 PM »
Can we see pictures of the broken parts?
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Offline TheBushPilot

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2017, 07:29:41 PM »
The little leads in the pot were disconnected, they were not connected to the ring thus no connection. I'm not sure what to do about that.
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Offline TheBushPilot

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2017, 07:32:47 PM »
I already know the ohm of the potentiometer, I have all of that information already, I just need to know if anyone knows of a similar part that I can find.
"There is — always — more than one thing influencing anything we are trying to measure." ~ Sherman Fredrickson
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Offline DaleReid

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2017, 09:57:14 PM »
I have an older one, too.  Would like to put it up, just for museum type display, but the pot is shot in mine, also.  I did contact the folks at Texas Electronics Instruments, and found that the replacement pot alone was something like $115 !!!

There has been one as a rebuild on eBay for monhts, and the buy it now price is something like $300, again a ! for impact.

I, like you, would love to find an equivalent that I could mount in the case, just to get it working without selling a couple cars and my dog.

If you ever do find one, at a reasonable price, could you please let us know on this thread as a resource?  Good luck, I still try once in awhile, but haven't found enything yet.
Dale
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Offline DanS

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2017, 10:13:02 PM »
What is the Ohm value just in case I see something somewhere?

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2017, 11:24:44 PM »
Dan, I recall 10k but let me check tomorrow for sure.
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Offline DanS

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2017, 12:23:28 AM »
Thanks, I just checked on the Texas Weather Instruments website and that's the value they mention too (10K) for their wind vanes.

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2017, 02:29:27 PM »
this is a little weird, I went out to my shed where all the 'projects' live, and found the pot that I had taken out a year or so ago, and never found a replacement.

It says this is a Duncan electronics product, which is in agreement with what the previous requester had noted and Dan found had been incorporated into BEI.

The markings are:

2230-588-1   Of course a google search finds nothing, and while there is a range of potentiometers on the BEI site, this gets no hits.

The other thing which I find strange is that it says it is 500 ohms, NOT 10k which I must have imprinted from all the other potentiometer wind direction indicators that I've played with.  And plus or minus 10%, which seems a wee bit odd.

Also when I was at the site that DanS had posted for BEI, they indicate that the range of rotation is usually in the 350 degree area, which if it is indicating a dead zone, OK, but these are continuously rotating, so that there is no stop at the high or low end, obviously.  I don't know if ordinary pots can be had that way, or Texas Electronics had to operate on the ones they used to allow them to rotate without a stop.

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Offline DanS

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #11 on: July 01, 2017, 06:21:50 PM »
I've been finding "360 degree endless turn" pots on AliExpress. Most of them range in price between $80 to $250. not sure if this one is 360 degree then stop or not.
Alibaba shows 'em too but a different package. and here.
more possibilities. cheaper
« Last Edit: July 01, 2017, 08:12:31 PM by DanS »

Offline TheBushPilot

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2017, 06:04:12 PM »
In 2010 Duncan Electronics was folded into the BEI conglomerate, this is the closest (?) info I found:

http://ecatalog.beisensors.com/viewitems/rotary-potentiometers/single-turn-rotary-potentiometer-1200-1800-series?

If all else fails, try contacting BEI to see if they'll have a direct replacement item, albeit having a new/different BEI part number.

I had emailed them about a week ago and have yet to receive a response. Time will tell.
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Offline TheBushPilot

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #13 on: July 10, 2017, 06:06:27 PM »
I have an older one, too.  Would like to put it up, just for museum type display, but the pot is shot in mine, also.  I did contact the folks at Texas Electronics Instruments, and found that the replacement pot alone was something like $115 !!!

There has been one as a rebuild on eBay for monhts, and the buy it now price is something like $300, again a ! for impact.

I, like you, would love to find an equivalent that I could mount in the case, just to get it working without selling a couple cars and my dog.

If you ever do find one, at a reasonable price, could you please let us know on this thread as a resource?  Good luck, I still try once in awhile, but haven't found enything yet.
Dale

Yep, I think it's a pain that things are hard to come by sometimes. If I do get a response and they do hopefully give me a helpful answer, I will most definitely give all of you some feed back. It stinks that Texas Electronics didn't have an answer.
"There is — always — more than one thing influencing anything we are trying to measure." ~ Sherman Fredrickson
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Offline TheBushPilot

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #14 on: July 10, 2017, 06:08:42 PM »
this is a little weird, I went out to my shed where all the 'projects' live, and found the pot that I had taken out a year or so ago, and never found a replacement.

It says this is a Duncan electronics product, which is in agreement with what the previous requester had noted and Dan found had been incorporated into BEI.

The markings are:

2230-588-1   Of course a google search finds nothing, and while there is a range of potentiometers on the BEI site, this gets no hits.

The other thing which I find strange is that it says it is 500 ohms, NOT 10k which I must have imprinted from all the other potentiometer wind direction indicators that I've played with.  And plus or minus 10%, which seems a wee bit odd.

Also when I was at the site that DanS had posted for BEI, they indicate that the range of rotation is usually in the 350 degree area, which if it is indicating a dead zone, OK, but these are continuously rotating, so that there is no stop at the high or low end, obviously.  I don't know if ordinary pots can be had that way, or Texas Electronics had to operate on the ones they used to allow them to rotate without a stop.

I also did everything you listed and had no luck. I figured it was a 10K pot but looking closer, like you said, it was 500ohm and I couldn't find anything remotely close to that make/model.
"There is — always — more than one thing influencing anything we are trying to measure." ~ Sherman Fredrickson
"Do it right or don't do it at all."

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Offline TheBushPilot

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #15 on: July 10, 2017, 06:15:48 PM »
Also, I had gotten a "junction box" with displays that I could not find anywhere on the internet. It was not necessarily a junction box, just a custom made mount with the instrument panels that tuned the input for analog display.
"There is — always — more than one thing influencing anything we are trying to measure." ~ Sherman Fredrickson
"Do it right or don't do it at all."

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Offline dupreezd

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #16 on: July 10, 2017, 07:32:07 PM »
If you just want to repair it so it is usable again, then maybe this will be an option. There are others available but this had two on one page. Look at the 6120 and HSM22.
http://www.potentiometers.com/select_hall.cfm



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Offline DaleReid

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #18 on: July 10, 2017, 09:05:32 PM »
My heavens.  I have looked with google scans and not found the choices you have uncovered, and thankfully have shared here.

Yes, whether it is 500 or 10k ohms it really doesn't make a difference with the system I'd feed it to.  No standardized analog gauges and all, just a percentage of whatever voltage is fed to it. 

I'll see if one of these will fit the casing and the mount, with relatively standard measurements for the listed ones and the shaft diameter.  I know that one time I called TE and got some enormous amount quoted for just the part, not even return for service, something around or over $100, so the device remains apart and unfixed.

I think that these are the systems that almost every cable TV company used for the scan back and forth camera to show weather conditions before NWS and others served up the info for them to be plugged into their character generators.  There must be hundred if not a thousand out there, but most weren't salvaged when they pulled them down.  A friend who worked for a cable company that was taking over little mom and pop town businesses had three or four tipping bucket rain gauges because he thought they were cute and had trashed the rest of the setup.  Made me nauseous to think of all those usable pieces were just scrapped.
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Offline eyecue

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #19 on: July 10, 2017, 09:10:19 PM »
I love Mouser.  They are very reliable and a great resource.
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Offline DanS

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #20 on: July 11, 2017, 03:07:04 AM »
These guys say they have 500 ohm CT pots.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2017, 03:08:44 AM by DanS »

Offline TheBushPilot

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #21 on: July 11, 2017, 03:04:15 PM »
That might be a potential option, though I have access to a 3D printer to make the sleeve that fits into the shaft. Hopefully that is close enough to what I need. If not, I guess I'll keep looking. :P
"There is — always — more than one thing influencing anything we are trying to measure." ~ Sherman Fredrickson
"Do it right or don't do it at all."

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Offline TheBushPilot

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #22 on: July 11, 2017, 03:08:45 PM »
My heavens.  I have looked with google scans and not found the choices you have uncovered, and thankfully have shared here.

Yes, whether it is 500 or 10k ohms it really doesn't make a difference with the system I'd feed it to.  No standardized analog gauges and all, just a percentage of whatever voltage is fed to it. 

I'll see if one of these will fit the casing and the mount, with relatively standard measurements for the listed ones and the shaft diameter.  I know that one time I called TE and got some enormous amount quoted for just the part, not even return for service, something around or over $100, so the device remains apart and unfixed.

I think that these are the systems that almost every cable TV company used for the scan back and forth camera to show weather conditions before NWS and others served up the info for them to be plugged into their character generators.  There must be hundred if not a thousand out there, but most weren't salvaged when they pulled them down.  A friend who worked for a cable company that was taking over little mom and pop town businesses had three or four tipping bucket rain gauges because he thought they were cute and had trashed the rest of the setup.  Made me nauseous to think of all those usable pieces were just scrapped.


Right, that's what kills me about this stuff, is people don't know the significance of this equipment until it's too late. I got my hands on this stuff from an uncle who had it for a good while with no real use. He told me he went to a news station or where ever and just happened to run into whom ever was removing the usable equipment in mint condition.
"There is — always — more than one thing influencing anything we are trying to measure." ~ Sherman Fredrickson
"Do it right or don't do it at all."

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Offline TheBushPilot

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #23 on: July 11, 2017, 03:13:52 PM »
Lol, if we do sort this out, and find a worthy replacement, I'm going to order many replacements.
"There is — always — more than one thing influencing anything we are trying to measure." ~ Sherman Fredrickson
"Do it right or don't do it at all."

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Offline Old Tele man

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Re: Texas Electronics potentiometer
« Reply #24 on: August 05, 2017, 04:06:59 PM »
New quote: "He who dies with the most spares...bought too many" (wink,wink).
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