I was doing a little organizing today - an effort closer to archeology than audio - and came across a jig containing an ICL8038 Waveform Generator IC (see atch). I didn't build it - I think I got it in a box of stuff at a Hamfest or estate auction in the late 1990's
I'm curious if anybody would like to possess this classic antique. Maybe display it with your '67 Mustang. Or your lime-green leisure suit. There seem to be some new-old-stock parts floating around at places like Futurlec and the asking prices are . . . well, I won't even say. It doesn't surprise me that they haven't sold out. Also a few east Asian vendors on E-Bay who claim to have zillions of the things available for pennies. (As my father-in-law the farmer once said, "Know the price of oats. If somebody offers to sell at a much lower price, find out if they've already gone through the horse.".)
It seems to be functional. I applied 12 volts DC from a wall-wart and got the waveform attached to the photo.
It's probably worth at least $10 to keep it in my own collection, and I'll estimate $5 to mail the whole assembly to a U.S. address so that might be a guide to what it will take to make me part with it. To be honest, I'm spooked by the thought of dealing with customs, etc, for shipping beyond the border.
Ancient History Lesson: In the 1970's and 80's the Intersil ICL8038 Waveform Generator was the basis for dozens of hobby projects and hundreds of commercial instruments. It could generate adjustable duty-cycle triangle, sawtooth, square, and (almost) sine waveforms from fractions of a Hertz to 100's of KiloHertz. The frequency could be swept or frequency modulated by an applied voltage, making it especially useful for frequency response testing.
It needed only a handful of external components to make a full-featured "Function Generator" and was the mainstay of "Benchtop Electronics Labs" used by hobbyists, schools, and design organizations. At one time I think there were several second-source manufacturers, and at least one "improved" design (the XR2206). To the best of my knowledge, all of these have been discontinued.
Dale
I'm curious if anybody would like to possess this classic antique. Maybe display it with your '67 Mustang. Or your lime-green leisure suit. There seem to be some new-old-stock parts floating around at places like Futurlec and the asking prices are . . . well, I won't even say. It doesn't surprise me that they haven't sold out. Also a few east Asian vendors on E-Bay who claim to have zillions of the things available for pennies. (As my father-in-law the farmer once said, "Know the price of oats. If somebody offers to sell at a much lower price, find out if they've already gone through the horse.".)
It seems to be functional. I applied 12 volts DC from a wall-wart and got the waveform attached to the photo.
It's probably worth at least $10 to keep it in my own collection, and I'll estimate $5 to mail the whole assembly to a U.S. address so that might be a guide to what it will take to make me part with it. To be honest, I'm spooked by the thought of dealing with customs, etc, for shipping beyond the border.
Ancient History Lesson: In the 1970's and 80's the Intersil ICL8038 Waveform Generator was the basis for dozens of hobby projects and hundreds of commercial instruments. It could generate adjustable duty-cycle triangle, sawtooth, square, and (almost) sine waveforms from fractions of a Hertz to 100's of KiloHertz. The frequency could be swept or frequency modulated by an applied voltage, making it especially useful for frequency response testing.
It needed only a handful of external components to make a full-featured "Function Generator" and was the mainstay of "Benchtop Electronics Labs" used by hobbyists, schools, and design organizations. At one time I think there were several second-source manufacturers, and at least one "improved" design (the XR2206). To the best of my knowledge, all of these have been discontinued.
Dale
