Reviving a Talyvel inclinometer (2023 Update)

have a Talyvel 3 and it uses a pair of custom packs that were full of Ni-Cd cells, with a snap identical to 9 V radio batteries. They worked for a while, then I had to rebuild the packs with new cells. I think my unit runs on roughly + and - 9 V and a pair of standard 9 V radio batteries will run it for an hour or two.

I found a few relevant items :

Jon

Possibly an old Allied catalog? They are available on ebay, but I couldn't find a scanned one on the web.

Yes, that's my photo of the actual unit:

The meter unit seems to be faulty as it makes an audible ticking sound at about 4 ticks/second and the analog meter needle wiggles a bit with each tick, although it does seem to otherwise respond to tilting the sensor unit. Looking at the circuit board inside it appears to date from the late 1960s based on the date codes on on a transistor, and I imagine the several electrolytic capacitors must be far beyond their expected life. If the sensor is the expensive part, then a new meter unit may be just the thing.

The company that made the Talvel still exists, so I would ask them.

Joe Gwinn

In that case -- give up on finding any (they are now made of unobtanium), and work on making a substitute. If you need to duplicate the voltage from the mercury cells, you will probably want to add some diodes in series to drop the voltage to the right range.

Good Luck, DoN.

Do you know the 'NEDA type'? Ask on news:rec.antiques.radio+phono where they collect & restore antique electronics. Some on the group buy out old radio & TV shops, and have extensive libraries of old catalogs & databooks. I have been trying to get them to scan old battery data so I can compile it into a web page, and for Wikipedia.

Thanks for all the comments.

As I explained elsewhere in this thread, the Mallory battery SKB-830 in a pair must have produced about 9 or 10 volts, so I am thinking they were each a stack of four mercury cells at 1.35 volts each, making 5.4 volts for an SKB-830 battery and 10.8 volts for the pair. Applying that voltage would deflect the battery-test meter into the proper range and operate the unit, as would a standard 9-volt battery.

As I also explained in another post, the meter unit seems to be faulty. I did inquire from the good folks at

Dang, so close

Amazing what google and the web can turn up (just some mallory info)

Dave

My favourite 1960's kit:

HP signal generator (or almost anything else they made)

That big 100 MHz Tektronix valve scope on the tilted trolley

The Talysurf 3

I am a bit suspicous of that battery number. I just looked in my 700 page Eveready battery manual dated 1968. The Mallory mercury batteries begin with a TR (at least the ones that cross to an Eveready number in this book), and there were no SKB batteries, nor anything wtih "830" in the number - I did find a RM630, which crosses to Eveready E630, that's a 1.4V battery. I have some surplus mercury cells here, they are Duracell RM12R (1.35 V).

I show listings for 6.75, 9.45, 10.8, 9.8, 8.4, 11.2 and some other voltages so I don't know that you can assume 10.8V

Replying to my own thread, some months later I have been sent a photo showing a Talyvel being powered by a pair of Mallory Duracell 400830 6.75V batteries in the holder. These were apparently each a stack of 1.35V mercury cells. So we have a nominal total voltage of 13.5V at a low drain, which might be replaced better today with 8 or 9 ordinary alkaline cells, or perhaps a pair of 6V camera batteries, using a battery holder with snaps. Polarity of the snaps is as on a standard 9V battery (male = positive), although the snaps are a larger size.

A pair of 123 batteries might work, assuming they weren't using the mercury cells as both voltage reference and power source. The snaps used to be standard hardware, I can remember getting some for a 6v battery holder that used 4 D batteries from the local electronics and surplus store. If you need exactly the original voltage, you're going to be stuck making a small inverter/switcher PS. Much easier these days, there's any number of surface-mount components to do exactly that in a small volume. I've even gotten small kits to put out 9-12v from a 1.5v source. A little rewinding/tweaking should get the voltage level you're looking for.

Stan

Keystone Electronics still makes some battery snaps. They are availible through Mouser.

If they used those expensive mercury batteries, constant voltage was probably required. The best modern alternative is silver oxide batteries. Or alkaline batteries and a small voltage regulator. Or a regulated wallwart.

Joe Gwinn

Here the battery from my device

replying to Bill Noble, greg wrote: Do you still have RM12R batteries? I sure need a couple.

replying to Bill Noble, greg wrote: Do you still have RM12R batteries? I sure need a couple.

replying to greg, Bruce Allen wrote: The Talyvel 1 manual (page 12 of 20) says, "Two batteries are used in series, each giving a nominal 6.7 volts when new. A voltage regulating circuit in the meter permits satisfactory operation down to 4.5 volts each." I would advocate replacing these two SKB-830 batteries with four Lithium Ion 18650 rechargeable batteries (nominally 3.7-.4.2 volts each) plus two low-dropout 6V regulators.