Soyuz Clock Part 1: Looking Inside a Flown Soyuz Space Clock

We open up a clock from a Soyuz spacecraft, and admire the surprisingly complicated and beautiful Russian electronics.
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[@Damien.D]

This piece of hardware totally oozes the "if it works don't upgrade" spirit behind the whole Soyuz spacecraft. Which is why it is still flying with a near perfect safety record...

[@sergeycherepanov8303]

Damien Drouart upgrade can save significant weight.

[@dtnineninety9406]

Realibility can save significant life.

[@volo870]

@@sergeycherepanov8303 They do upgrade it - once per 10-15 years or so. This piece of equipment would be quite up to date in mid-80s.

[@dukenukem8381]

Russians justified lack of money and resources by this "if it works don't upgrade" legend. Its complete BS if the had money and time they would modernize of course.

[@volo870]

​@@dukenukem8381 Back in the 80s (i.e. when this clock was made) Soviet space program never lacked finance, I'd say it was leading the space race again. Look it up: Soviets managed average 95 (!) launches per annum, while Shuttle could only cope with mere 16. To put it into perspective: in 1989 Soviets single-handedly had as many space launches as GLOBAL TOTAL in 2019! Soviet technology was notably ahead of the world in metallurgy, construction and aerodynamics, but was 10 years behind the curve in electronics - hence perceived datedness of this device. They had money and time for improvement - they just spent it to improve more important things.

[@petergorelov418]

That sealed screw was usual in Soviet devices. It was like a modern sticker "warranty void if broken" ;) Sometimes, you could find a manufacturer's stamp over the sealing wax.

[@timtim8468]

Even my Straume coffee mill got a plastic plug in one screw hole.

[@I967]

Quite common also in former Czechoslovakia, my Tesla BM 289 Voltohmmeter had the exact same style of "warranty" seal. Simple and effective.

[@aserta]

It's actually a common thing in most if not all European countries at some point in time. Obviously stems from the age of letters and wax seals. It's present even today, but as plastic caps or rubber bungs.

[@Lazarus7000]

The sheer amount of paranoia baked into the Soviet culture never ceases to amaze me.

[@lwilton]

It stems from the sheer amount of paranoia in historical Russian culture. :-)

[@harb1911]

fun fact: each "primitive IC" contains more gold than any smartfone you can buy, each green/orange "ceramic" capacitor contains multiple layers of paladium oxide,each relay contains contact pads made of pure platinum.

[@MacIn173]

Fun fact is that someone thinks of details as of precious metals source :(

[@mjouwbuis]

@@MacIn173 First, he doesn't say anything about 'source', it can also be a statement about how they didn't spare on the cost. Second, if there's thousands or tenthousands made of some part, you can be sure that at least half of them will be scrapped at some point in time, probably more. At some point in time, collectors value (either sentimental or financial or both) will be more than scrap value, but that may take a while.

[@MacIn173]

@@mjouwbuis First of all, anyone who lived through 90s in ex- USSR, knows, what kind of people, why and when, talk about amount of precious metals in electronics. Tons of computers and other devices were sent to scrap metal, chased for and so on. You still can buy quite a lot of devices in Russia with KM capacitors cut off while leaving other stuff intact... No need for the second. It is not about electronic getting outdated and scrapped. It is about whole civilization rolled down the hill.

[@dieSpinnt]

​@@MacIn173 So he is curious and fascinated about precious metals in old tech and you and NEY Industries accuse him as as a bad scrap-hunter? So I am curios about my unborn child. What accusations do you have for me? You see? That is ridiculous. At all where is written that he's done that? It is a double-edged sword anyway: for some it is art, and for others it is returning materials back to the raw material cycle. And before you point your finger at these people, think first. With you it sounds like it would happen out of sheer destructiveness. Ridiculous. When you are poor and have to see that something to eat is put on the table. This is the case all over the world and especially in third world countries. Why brag about your double standards with the apathy of a maggot in bacon? This is precisely why people like Curious Marc are so important, because they restore and conserve things. No chatter or accusations but museum work! Before you find out ... In the mid-80s, I did terrible things to the people of the USSR. C64 - Raid over Moscow ... :P P.S.: THEM .... it is always them ... **facepalm**

[@teekay_1]

@@mjouwbuis Everybody loves to virtue signal on the internet. You've got to find these kinds of people very funny, and not because of what they say, but because they think you're taking them seriously.

[@meteor8076]

ЧАС - Hour МИН - Minute СЕК - Second РАБОТА - Work ЧТВ (Часы Текущего Времени) - Clock Of Current Time ОП (ОПовешение) - Announcement КОРРЕКЦИЯ - Correction/Adjustment ВВОД - Enter ПУСК - Start ОСТАНОВ - Pause СБРОС - Reset ВКЛ - Turn on СЕКУНДОМЕР - Stopwatch

[@edgeeffect]

Well, I got as far as "ЧАС", "МИН", "СЕК", and "РАБОТА"

[@meteor8076]

@@edgeeffect Probably you're from an English speaking country, my grandpa was born in Russia and he worked in the military, I know Russian like the back of my palm. Also I have military grade circuits like shown in the video in my attic.

[@drumncasemusic628]

Where is "blyat"

[@pmcgee003]

@@meteor8076 (not criticising) 'back of my hand' :)

[@fhunter1test]

Drum'n'case Music that part is strictly oral (also, happens when situation gets SNAFU)

[@JacGoudsmit]

The wire harness alone is a work of art!

[@TheRealJavahead]

Reminds me of that joke. Barry, a NASA engineer, proudly shows his Russian counterpart, Yuri, the defibrillator for installation on the ISS. Barry goes into great depth describing the technical challenges they had to overcome. When he is finally finished Yuri says, "Barry, we just send healthy astronauts."

[@xpavpushka]

COSMONAUTS!

[@TheRealJavahead]

@@xpavpushka да товарищ

[@allangibson8494]

Defibrillators are really useful if you stick your fingers in Russian electronics however....

[@mjouwbuis]

@@allangibson8494 Just stick them in again for defibrillation.

[@fgaviator]

What Ken said: "I don't think I'll be reverse engineering this one!" What Ken meant: "This looks like a real challenge. It'll take me a few days, but I'll dive in as always and solve this puzzle to the last tiny detail."

[@djmips]

Marc: you want me to close it back up? Ken: uh no you can leave it open, there's more studying to be done here.

[@carlclaunch793]

How true!

[@LordAlacorn]

Few bottles of Vodka and a little bit of Blin and Blyat and yes he will get it.

[@Petertronic]

I love Russian electronics! This took me back to when I was a kid and I opened up an old Vega Russian portable TV, the circuit boards looked amazing. I hope you can find out more about this and get it powered up.

[@svuvich]

Same thing I was born in Rostov region (southern Russia), my grandfather worked on machinary assembly line with onboard electronics, and my dad whole career is about repairing and developing electronics for coal mines. He frequently brings some pcb's to home to work with them, and when i was a kid i loved to examine how they was designed. They looked pretty much the same) I wish i will work in developing electronics too

[@orly7317]

Check "Orbita 002" music center - true beauty. I bought preamp accidentaly, pulled it apart and now... I'm in love with it! Some people say that even if it cost astronomical summs of money back in the days, it was still detrimental: retail price was lover than actual cost to manufacture. Everything there aesthetically brilliant: schematics, circuit boards and enclosure : )

[@Alex99756]

@@svuvich привет, я тоже из Ростова)

[@chetannagdeve7522]

Same here

[@user-fx4ei3sb5v]

My father worked at a military factory and I remember how he brought me such electronic parts every day. And after lessons I soldered amplifiers, radio and much more from them ... Nostalgia

[@okhamradio]

​@@weirdmonkey1866 это было нормально для того времени

[@deffreiart]

@@weirdmonkey1866 и потом свалил в штаты увезя с собой все знания, которые не пригодились в РФ

[@deffreiart]

@@weirdmonkey1866 да я думаю реальность еще страшнее.

[@raZZkataeV]

Тащи с завода каждый гвоздь, ведь ты хозяин, а не гость. Так вы всю страну и растащили

[@user-fx4ei3sb5v]

@@raZZkataeV не так: тащи, потому что плевать что будет с заводом, всё равно не твоё. Начальству тоже наплевать. А всё это порок коммунизма. Хотели построить общество без Бога. Принципы то взяли Божии, а Бога выкинули. Вот и рухнула система.

[@rjcroy]

Maybe you could lend this to Boeing! I hear they are in need of a working space clock for the Starliner 😅

[@RWBHere]

Heh! Absolutely!

[@twistedyogert]

HAHA! 😂

[@SeanBZA]

Probably flown a few times, as the internal of the capsule would be recycled as known working hardware. Bodge wires more likely from repairs on them, as rework did damage to the board, or you had a via fail, as those older PCB processes do not have great reliability, especially if you heat them up multiple times during rework. Conformal coat to protect, though it also serves as a very valuable extra layer of attachment of the PCB traces, those old boards are notorious for having trace lifting, and having the conformal coat holding the stuff down is a great help. Epoxy under screw heads, there to guarantee they will never shake loose, and the seals are there to say nobody but the last qualified service centre has been inside either. Look at the Mysylvanian channel, he also takes these style of old Soviet electronics apart, and they are all remarkably similar in construction. could also probably point you to getting the correct plugs for those sockets off eBay.

[@Flextro]

Military and space grade parts often mark with digit "2" instead letter. 2Т135 = КТ135 for transistor and 2C515 = КС515 for zener. Also "rombic" symbol means hi-quality parts for military operations

[@user-uv3gj4wk6s]

I have been in electronics all my life. Very familiar parts. It remains to find documentation for this device with pinout connector or reverse engineering. I have looked at your work with the Apollo computer, and I very much hope that in the future we will see the work of this watch. I believe in you. Good luck!

[@WistlePhone]

Just do it!

[@graemedavidson499]

I can’t imagine many of those were made but someone must have taken pride designing and building the clock!

[@Damien.D]

Hundreds were made. Soyuz is the spacecraft that has been in service for the longest time. It's old, reliable, with a near perfect safety record, and probably still made of this kind of low tech parts.

[@ToTheGAMES]

If they didn't you went sent off to the gulag. Ha.

[@OlegKostoglatov]

The Soviet radios that I have are very good performers actually, and they don't sound too bad either. It's sort of a myth that they purposely made poorly performing radio receivers to prevent their populations from listening to foreign broadcasts, anyone who has owned a Selena portable could tell you that. I don't think it was considered that much of an issue given the language barrier, and the fact that they used to jamb Radio Free Europe. Much of their consumer electronics were vacuum tube based right through the 70's, early 80s in TVs, aside from portable devices. The quality and reliability was not too bad since many of the components they used were the version of mil spec. What was sort of substandard were things like plastic parts on the cabinets, which was more of an issue after they moved away from older materials like Bakelite, wood, and steel.

[@andreika6681]

i had "казахстан" , it worked just fine, my antenna was a 30+ meters of copper wire hung between 2 buildings, it would grab just anything from europe, china, turkey etc, but it was a rare setup, usually home systems were weaker. sure, my dad and his friends who tinkered with electronics on pretty serious level (he would always repair our tv set by of his own hands), could build any decent stuff by themselves, schematics was available for all in "radio" magazine zen.yandex.ru/media/id/5c43064986e43c00ad249399/radiopriemniki-sssr-mechta-shestidesiatyh-kazahstan-on-tebe-ne-gorod-nursultan-5c9a2cee3bbd5d00b3569c4b

[@user-vg5bt7fu7b]

facepalm . stupid Pindos

[@javierjp2090]

What a beautiful piece you got there. I love the craftmanship on the thing.

[@SiemensSxg75Patch]

Привет! Hi! Made with love from USSR:)

[@WistlePhone]

Yep :)

[@eloyex]

very nice indeed !

[@paradimov]

Дмытро, а как же декоммунизация? какая может быть ностальгия по "тоталитарному" мордору? ай-ай-ай, Дмытро.

[@kirishima638]

First rule of space flight: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This stuff is ancient but it worked.

[@mightwilder]

btw dimond shaped sign on many components means military grade part -90...+120c 5g and so on

[@quertize]

That's nice spec.

[@orion217rus]

These electronic parts are beyond military grade. OC (Особо Стабильный, especially stable) marks mean that these parts were idividually tested in harsh conditions multiple times before being approved.

[@ArthurD]

Now if only consumer electronics these days were so robust.

[@allantamm2185]

@@orion217rus OC standard as superior :) качества обуславливает пригодность их применения в аппаратуре, отказ которой ведет к катастрофическим последствиям (а ремонт и замена которой труднодоступны или невозможны)

[@janosnagyj.9540]

@@ArthurD Do you think, you could afford even a simple alarm clock then? ;)

[@jane3ta]

Degree of difficulty: Cyrillic. Thanks for sharing your adventures. Egg timer - I love it!

[@ArthurD]

@rustybuttpate SURPRISE, Cyrillic alphabet came from Greece.

[@allangibson8494]

@@ArthurD Via Constantinople

[@gooseknack]

Thats incredible, so well made. I guess with that clock design, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.. don't reinvent it. Simply keep doing what works!

[@edgeeffect]

"If it aint broke...." is a philosophy that has led to the most reliable human rated space vehicle in the world (or, rather, off the world)

[@docnele]

Reminded me of a story about Soviet fighter aircraft radios--on certain type, after introduction, they had short life and hard to get a replacement. Upon investigation of a cause, the reason was found to be that the testing phase in production was misunderstood. The unit had to endure cold, hot, humid, salt moisture... but factory was testing each and every radio unit to those conditions! After it was "explained" to manufacturer that it has to be done on certain specimens, not entire goddamn production, radios became reliable :)

[@SMGJohn]

LOL, so Goddamn typical of Soviet bureaucracy in works there. Like when they needed a spy satellite they overengineered the camera module in it which used a copied CCD from America, they did not like it, so they reverse engineered it and made it one megapixel in freaking 1979 now in the west we did not get that until the bloody 90s!!! Needless to say, those were some VERY expensive spy satellites and it was all thanks to that CCD sensor in there.

[@user-um5yb2me8k]

Мой отец разрабатывал в 50е годы компьютеры для ракет с атомными зарядами. Он рассказывал что их испытывали на вибрации, на падение с 40 метров на бетонную плиту, на транспортировку по разбитой дороге, на воздействие радиации и электромагнитного импульса. И при этом эти компьютеры должны быть необслуживаемыми!

[@LM-fg7vi]

I worked at King Radio corp. in Olathe Kansas in 1978-1980. They made avionics equipment including DME, Radar, communications radios, etc. EVERY ONE of thousands of units underwent "burn in" in a hot/cold cycle room for 48hrs under power then came back for shake test, altitude chamber test, hot and cold test and was repaired if it failed any parameter during any of these tests then retested. I will however say that salt water spray would be something I never saw. My guess is that would be for marine systems. I do know of a moisture problem that the cold chamber turned up, a rubber like potting material on a set of transistor leads would absorb moisture when it came out of the chamber and warmed up. This would make it fail testing until it dried out. I myself did not find this problem, I am sure someone spent a lot of time spraying freon on boards until they figured that out. And yes, back then we could just spray R12 as much as we felt like!

[@user-wo2zp7su8c]

Привет,CuriousMarc! Добротная вещь вам досталась!))) Почти все детали маркированы "Военной приёмкой"(Military testing). Это очень тщательный отбор!!! Золота не жалели на детали.... Всё аккуратно и надёжно! Хорошо бы вам оживить" эти часы...)))) Великая история !!!! Удачи вам ! )))

[@Meloman_Vlad]

Да,еще и индекс ОС - Особо Стабильный...это самая высшая категория военприемки!

[@user-rx2tp1tq2z]

Статикой скорей всего убили... Проще ардуинуку туда уже воткнуть.

[@Ramulus2009]

@@user-rx2tp1tq2z Просто так ТТЛ логику статикой не убить ;) А если учесть, что это космическая техника, то наверняка там есть защита от статики.

[@user-rx2tp1tq2z]

@@Ramulus2009 По опыту скажу, что статикой убивается все. В особенности если тыкать в сами микросхемы.

[@floks700]

Ардуинка здесь это типичный бред современного программиста с Хабра. ардуинки имеют нестабильные программные циклы и в часах никогда не применяются. кроме того имеют склонность к зависанию. )) Типичный бред программиста вообщем.

[@kennethjanczak4900]

Amasing...... Thanks for taking the time to make the video and share it

[@72polara]

You guys come up with some really cool stuff to work on. The lessons taught about thinking before acting, reasoning through problems, and working out solutions are lessons no one teaches in school. Keep having fun with oddball stuff, we enjoy watching and learning.

[@adamsaint2890]

For anyone used to working on consumer electronics, this has to be mind-blowing. Not because of the components used but because of the sheer attention to detail and build quality. No expense or time has been spared in making this absolutely perfect.

[@ReneSchickbauer]

Well, a good clock, a window and some math can serve as a backup guidance system for an emergency landing. You just point the spacecraft in the right direction and fire the retro rockets at the right time and you are going home. But at an orbital speed of 6 km/s, if you mess up ignition time by more than a couple of seconds you land in the completely wrong part of the country. So this clock is probably over-engineered to the point of tripple-redundancy with a two out of three checking/voting system. And build with hardened tamper-proof screws so no one messes with it... ;-)

[@CuriousMarc]

Looking at it, although I can agree no effort had been spared, it sure felt like rubbles must have been hard to come by ;-)

[@frog58079]

My father worked at the factory in St.Petersburg where such devices were made (maybe this one too - some approaches seem very familiar to me). Since my childhood I was sure that all the electronics was made like this (planar gold coated chips, lot of epoxy to protect from vibration, pcbs fastened by columns, milled cases and even letters, etc). And then I later opened some consumer device (a table clock, afair) I was shocked about quality it was made :)

[@ReneSchickbauer]

@@CuriousMarc Better get used to the "spacecraft hardware for not much money" designs. When you buy flown SLS/Orion hardware in a decade or so, it'll probably be stuff they pulled out of museum space shuttles and botched to work with computers from the early 2000's. Saving money by recycling and botching seems to be a trend these days for space agencies, the soviets were just a few decades early to the party ;-)

[@SMGJohn]

@@ReneSchickbauer Sort of like North Korean electronics hardware they used in their rockets and satellites, looks like the damn shit came from the 90s but its overbuilt and they used what works, why change what works? This sort of diseased mentality in the west is the entire reason why we have new smartphones every week and our old ones failing after a year of use.

[@maxxsmaxx1901]

Superb layout . With the service technician in mind .Very impressive even by today's standards considering the technology of the years way back !

[@chriholt]

Oh boy, the start to another great series of videos!

[@irongarden8415]

Wow! I look forward to continuing!

[@roberthayes6329]

There's always that one screw... Great video as usual.

[@danoprea3066]

The recent incident with Boeing Starliner puts in perspective the importance of such clocks.

[@CT-zc6ne]

These clocks circulate everywhere in eureoe even in Finland. They were also used in military applications like ships and cannon control systems. Hundreds or even thousands made.

[@jcamp6228]

It's incredible! Amazing work

[@I967]

I have never been so early. Excellent content as usual.

[@SiggyPony]

Those are beautiful internals :)

[@vvdvlas8397]

Там и золота не слабое количество!

[@Sharklops]

Just randomly came across your channel in my recommended feed and can't tell you how excited I am. You have some really fun stuff going on. Had to subscribe immediately. Happy new year!

[@CuriousMarc]

Thanks!

[@chrisvielle6629]

Wow. Thank you for a truly awesome video.

[@Galova]

this device includes top quality components. I'm quite sure it still works and can keep working for decades without any signs of decay. also that crystal you noticed is high precision according to marking on it

[@alpagutsencer]

By the way, soviet ic date codes indicates the year and the month.

[@CuriousMarc]

Apparently the russian IC codes follow a whole set of logical rules that you can use to decipher what chip it is. Ken is hot on the decoding trail. See this nice article here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_integrated_circuit_designation

[@user-lf6wm5xb8d]

I see 79, 83, 84, so, the year of manufacturing was ~1985. It was a tough time...

[@fhunter1test]

к155/к133/к555/к1553 - were TTL chips (yours look like K133 series?) к176/к561 - CMOS cxem.net/sprav/sprav48.php - may be this will help?

[@keithglaysher737]

Most excellent stuff as usual Mark, I once repaired an aircraft VHF out of a YAK & had the same reaction, Whattt!, it took weeks but I got it sorted with some persistence, good luck!

[@paulloveless9180]

Dude I just found your channel and I freaking LOVE it

[@gwyllymsuter4551]

Soyuz was always the Toyota hilux of spacecraft. Not advanced and comfy with the latest gadgets but it worked every time

[@amperzand9162]

Except for twice in the early days, when it very much did not.

[@gwyllymsuter4551]

@@amperzand9162 that was 50 years ago. Toyota shit themselves in the early days too

[@amperzand9162]

Indeed. The Soyuz changed where it needed to.

[@gwyllymsuter4551]

@@amperzand9162 it may not be a Dragon capsule but when ya light itzoff it goes. I wish the trains were as reliable so I could get to work on time 🤣

[@dukenukem8381]

Soviets never disclosed even half of their failures so the statistics are heavily skewed

[@NIOC630]

Hi! If you need a connector fitting the circular one on the clock, they are sold in almost any russian electronics (parts) shop. If you are interested i may look up the part or get you one, they are not even expensive compared to western ones.

[@aserta]

Commenting for visibility.

[@NIOC630]

@@aserta hehe, thx ^^

[@cmjones01]

That looks like the same connector as on the Soviet Ya4S-95 (I think) sampling oscilloscope plugin, which in turn is the Soviet re-imagining of the Tektronix 7000 series. I've got the plugins but no connector and was figuring out a way to make one.

[@NIOC630]

@@cmjones01 Jup, those connectors are soviet standard for light weight military, aviation and space instruments. I didnt know they were used on test equipment but they are still really common. I think i paid 15$ for a 14 pin pair. Considering they are legit aerospace and the prices of amphenol and such this is a really good price. They even have rectangular ones with 150 or so pins and heavy coding pins against swapping connectors, they are used on the outside of rockets for the disconnectin umbillacle to the tower. A pair of them brand new cost 7$ and the quality is amazing (i work with western aviation equipment regularly, so i dont have low standards)

[@cmjones01]

@@NIOC630 I must get some. I want to interface a Western sampling head to the Soviet plugin because I can't find an original Soviet sampling head and have failed to export one from Russia. What are the connectors called? What should I search for?

[@bend1483]

As always, fascinating.

[@Cyba_IT]

Wow, amazing circuitry that could these days fit in a wristwatch or smaller. Just goes to show the difference between consumer electronics and military grade, highly engineered professional gear. Imagine taking apart a whole space craft! Very cool vid guys ;)

[@Strothy2]

Would love to see a 30 part series of this being reverse plotted :D

[@oriole8789]

Very interesting video, thank you for posting. However, this type of mentality towards older Russian hardware is irritating to hear. It's basic ignorance. Being someone who works with aerospace hardware daily, please allow me to inform you that military hardware in general is bodge-central, alright? You guys just don't deal with enough of it to know. And who does? How often do you take apart modern $500k+ gear and void those warranties and certifications? There are so many logical reasons for these bodges. First, military PCBs are very expensive. Re-spinning PCBs means recertification/re-doing massive groups of tests/introducing new problems/delays etc. Programs have budgets and money is the ultimate constraint. Second, military/aerospace bodges often serve a different purpose. Often, they're done to improve margins under extreme conditions as a direct result of testing, not just to make the thing "work". I've seen more than hundreds of pieces of US-made hardware from modern, major commercial and military aviation manufacturers, many of which "have been flown" with lives having been depended on them, and guess what? Bodge central. If a bodge is done well, it will never become a point of failure. I've never seen that in my career. If "you'd have second thoughts" about Soyuz reliability based on bodges, then you shouldn't fly on any commercial planes at all. Soyuz flights have been incredibly reliable - just google the stats. Second, a lot of smaller US aerospace hardware manufacturers are awful. But no one knows because no one takes apart their hardware. If you did, you'd find endless basic design faults, dumb decisions, hacks, afterthoughts, wrong part selection (example, a modern part I've seen from Raytheon used chips which literally said "do not use for aerospace" in the datasheets), etc. It still meets specifications because it has to. Engineering teams at smaller companies consist of maybe 1-3 people. Not enough eyes and experience to catch all problems. I've mentioned US-made hardware not to put it down, but the opposite. Every other country (pretty much) does it worse. US hardware is by far the best in terms of overall build quality. My point is that bodges come with the territory, and bad design decisions can creep up everywhere because people are people. "Why does this 80's Russian hardware look like 60's or 70's US hardware" Because history. Integrated circuits were a US invention. The animosity between US and Russia at that time means no export and no tech sharing. Russia either had to clone what they could (which they did) or come up with solutions based on what they had (which is what you see here). "Why do parts look so inconsistent?" Because history. Part supply was always short and budgets were minimal, especially for specialized space-grade stuff. To save costs and meet deadlines, parts were often pulled from unused/available devices because the supply of "fresh" parts could not be guaranteed. In the spirit of not giving up, they did what they could. Reverse-engineering this thing just to power it up would be trivial. What would be non-trivial is dealing with a fault. I'm somewhat annoyed but I still deeply respect you guys. Good luck. Please resist the urge to look at science and history with political lenses.

[@kaunomedis7926]

No. It looks like typical soviet military crap. Хорошо что там ламп не нашлось. Разбирал и советскую и западную военку 80-тых годов. Разница сташная не в пользу совкодрочеров.

[@cda32]

Calm down they were just pointing it out of interest. We all know there's even million dollar Agilent gear out there even today with bodge caps and wires.

[@oriole8789]

@@kaunomedis7926 Comments like these are typical. To me, when someone makes it to space on 1/100th of the budget and technology, I'm impressed from an engineering perspective. If it was easy, more countries would have done it. Whatever restrictions Russian scientists had, was due to abysmal governance, not their lack of talent or dedication. Just unfortunate history. You can sum it up as "politics ruins everything".

[@oriole8789]

@rustybuttpate Yes, but how haha!

[@oriole8789]

@@cda32 I think "we all know" is a bit of an assumption. What I said may be new to a lot of people, since this is an obscure industry. I was completely surprised myself when I started out. I should also say that I have a lot of basic respect for people in this industry, even if they make mistakes. Small companies struggle, so I would never throw them under the bus either unless they're doing something dangerous/illegal.

[@Bepnm]

Go! Ken! Go! I can hardly wait.

[@nileshpatel7809]

"Hoo those are nice switches" 😂😂 i love the way you said that.

[@bob2859]

God that's beautiful. I hope you replace the back case with acrylic so all those boards can be properly appreciated!

[@Pawelr98]

The thing with soviet equipment is that they would pass down some of those MIL/Aerospace standards down to consumer devices. Or the other way around. Thick lacquer layer on boards ? Very common. Same thing with the wiring. It doesn't matter if you open up a TV, oscilloscope or a space flight computer. The technology and build standards are similar. However the parts will be higher quality on the more demanding fields. My oscilloscope from 1992 (right after collapse) has a similar looking board full of those SMD TTL devices.

[@SMGJohn]

Soviet electronics tend to be overbuilt to stupid levels, however arguably not all of it was high quality but it tended to get much better with iterations I suppose like their VCR which shared a lot of issues with earlier VCR's, got better over time. Its funny when Elektronika copied the Panasonic VCR they overbuilt the damn thing so badly it had a weight of 20 kg.

[@Pawelr98]

@@SMGJohn I own a bit of soviet-made test equipment. All of them have cast iron/aluminium frames/elements and thick metal sheets all over the place. My RF generator has solid copper coax cables(outer layer is solid copper), not this "braid type" shielding common today. At the same time the build itself is "messy", point-to-point construction is still largely present. But the thick layer of lacquer usually preserves those things and even after several decades there's no corrosion present. They are pretty much brand new. The same lacquer makes diagnosis and repairs hard. You have to scrape it off to measure things and it can smell horribly when soldering.

[@andylake7202]

@@Pawelr98 Point-to-point wiring generates less crosstalk then nicely laced cables forms. Just sayin'... :) The tidy wiring in the clock obviously helps with making it accessible for repairs/maintenance/upgrades, etc.

[@milolouis]

Wow, it is beautiful inside!

[@MrZiGG]

Отдельный лайк за гимн! Это первые портативные электронные часы СССР - у нас такие на руке носили

[@2000oco]

There are datasheets available for these parts, e.g. 142ен2а you were lloking for. I can help to find and translate them if you need.

[@CuriousMarc]

Thanks. I think Ken found most of them now.

[@spbnick]

Seconding this. Contact me if you need any datasheets or writing translated, and e.g. @2000oco is not available.

[@user-tg6yo7io2y]

Купили и сразу разбирать, - наши люди! :)))

[@SentrionVigines]

Не, прикольный прибор. При чём видно, что блок питания то уже импульсный у него))

[@1944GPW]

Very interesting. Using a Lazy Susan for showing right around it is a really excellent idea!

[@alexjohnward]

Amazing complications!

[@tulaabc]

Классные часы! Жалко, что не подключили!

[@edgeeffect]

Watch the whole series.... it will run in the end.

[@tulaabc]

@@edgeeffect ok.

[@user-zp2hk3vs3u]

Thank you for the great video! I can help with the translation of datasheets for russian IC's

[@albertsandberg]

you guys have all the fun! :D

[@roberthayes6329]

Money Does buy happiness.

[@zawir_usaodpowiadausa3354]

Beautiful. As a Amateur Radio I have few russian military receivers and radiostations as well as I always dissambled russian old electronics as a child... it is very fine electronics and you can always see when Constructor loved his job.

[@dzikusdzikusdzikus]

"surprisingly complicated" - what did surprise you? This is the most important measuring instrument in the spaceship - time is used to navigation and to coordinate astronauts with crew on the earth.

[@ligius3]

I'm a bit too young to remember all the details behind the curtain but: wax seals were pretty common on commercial gear, mandatory on military gear. That wax hardens and feels like epoxy after 40 years. The military went with mixed tried-and-true technologies and latest-tech developments. e.g single-layer but ICs. For 83 tthe design of this thing was pretty daring. I didn't expect so much new tech in a single product. Contrast this with US who went all-out on cutting-edge. I'm pretty sure the russians had the knowledge to go bleeding-edge but chose to go stable, for reasons that are too long to post here. Disclaimer: I've never actually worked on this stuff, but, had plenty of chance to take it apart and hear stories. It's a bit of a shame that not much has surfaced, even though they are not secrets anymore.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

That's some very nice engineering and wiring on that module.

[@manishmandal-78]

That clock module has more components than my cellphone

[@PetreRodan]

can you please take some high-res photos of those boards? for my collection of wallpapers. pretty pleeease?

[@Lazarus7000]

I love old Soviet equipment, the blend of "Apocalyptic build quality" with splashes of "Utter Shite" thrown in. Overbuilt simple devices that are actively unpleasant to use but will last forever. Some of the stuff is real treasure, all historically significant.

[@ArthurD]

It's either "rough but will last forever" or "fancy crap that will stop working after warranty expired"

[@Nf6xNet]

This is really neat!

[@terrya450]

hopefully you guys will have it up and running soon

[@user-ku1fw7nj7e]

Платиновые кмки, микросхемы из золота.

[@BabaYaga_kz]

Может быть

[@teslakovalaborator]

The old RTL has about 3-4V. That thing looks nice !

[@Sixta16]

Heleho, Teslák! Nazdar!

[@big1maxx]

It is soviet version of TI SN54L TTL logic, 5V supply.

[@drunk_astronomy]

I love how most people would be happy having that on their shelf. Marc is like F that, lets open it up!!!

[@askhowiknow5527]

Soyuz is my second favorite space travel platform. TKS is my first

[@mdofxds]

РАБОТА / КОРРЕКЦИЯ more likely means REGULAR OPERATION / ADJUSTMENT (or CORRECTION) [mode]. But I am not quite sure because I have never seen or used this exact device.

[@Zerbey]

Way more complicated than I was expecting, looking forward to seeing what you can make out of it! May we ask what you spent for it?

[@aserta]

Likely because it has a lot of integration with other mission critical components in other parts of the craft. I'm figuring that at least one fourth of the components there have no connection with the basic functions of the clock itself.

[@mlmmt]

@@aserta That would make sense considering how many pins the connector had...

[@lander1591]

Such an interesting find, I hope you can give it live again(I have every confidence that you can). :)

[@paco_rider]

The complexity and the engenieering on this machine is just awesome, we are talking about a 60's electronic device!!! That is just incredible

[@RivieraByBuick]

1983 was not in the 60s

[@RustedCroaker]

@@RivieraByBuick 1983 is just the year of production, it was designed much earlier. Things are very conservative in human rated space flights and doesn't change too often. Each upgrade takes years to test and ensure realability and compatablity.

[@RivieraByBuick]

@@RustedCroaker conservative space flights? LOL space flights use and have always used latest techologies - because this is how you achieve progress. Or do you seriously think Nasa used 1940`s vacuum tubes to fly to the moon in 1969?

[@RustedCroaker]

@@RivieraByBuick Apollo was never upgraded through its 11 years of service. Space Shuttle was never upgraded through its 30 years. The Soyuz was upgraded only 4 times with 4 minor upgrades since 1986. Yes, things connected to human-rated space flights are very conservative. It may sound strange to you but it's like it is. Safety first, bells and whistles the last.

[@rcajavus8141]

i remember something about russian flight electronics being "primitive" to be resistant to radiation, looks like 1960s pcb

[@rustyrebar9647]

Reminds me of a clock I built in the late 70's using 7400 series TTL chips I bought from Poly Paks & James electronics (Jameco) !! I stacked 3 boards together , one with the display circuitry & controls, one with the counters and one with the time base & power supply..... Now I wish I hadn't scrapped it !!!

[@fillup40]

Work of art.

[@Lee_Adamson_OCF]

Best channel on the internet. :3

[@EvilResult]

All the IC tells me that clock is the primary trigger device for staging and action control

[@MegaMech]

This was likely manually soldered together by hand since the parts are so big.

[@sergeycherepanov8303]

MegaMech correct

[@richardbrobeck2384]

great find

[@arf20]

When you think that this channel cant get better after that agc but well, here we are with the coolest clock i've never seen, directly from the soviet union!

[@petergorelov418]

Ken surprises more and more. Wow, he can read and understand Russian! Is there something he doesn't know? ;)

[@user2C47]

The weather in Parsippany, NJ on 1954/08/12 13:00:00.000

[@carlclaunch793]

@@user2C47 Hot and humid, with sporadic rain showers

[@user2C47]

@@carlclaunch793 But would Ken know if asked?

[@ethanspaziani1070]

.... Damn I was really hoping you guys would get another AGC people who got it I'll probably just going to sit there and look at the thing all day :/

[@ethanspaziani1070]

@MrFattyfatfatboy it's sort of how America worksI'm not proud of it and I don't like it but the rich people do and have whatever the hell they want and us poor people can't do anything about it..... I don't like it but there's absolutely nothing that I can do we are doomed to obscurity forever

[@numizmat2883]

@@ethanspaziani1070 не работой на богатых и всё. И они станут бедными) Сами же готовы за бумагу торговать жопой)

[@ethanspaziani1070]

@@numizmat2883 ??

[@thedeviant]

Lucky score! You need to see inside the Soviet era synthesizers; they are built *exactly* like this - it's pretty funny actually. Those 7 segment displays are the exact same ones used in the Юность-21 (Junost-21) keytar. What a hoot!

[@badushashaik8429]

Superb sir,try another

[@Dima230397]

As is customary to say in Russia when you see some impressive Soviet thing - "traces of an highly advanced civilization" Most of such soviet devices have been disassembled for gold, palladium, platinum etc

[@user-nz7mu1pw4z]

@@weaselgunsru Единственное что мне понравилось - это добротная сборка, использованы качественные компоненты военной приемки, да действительно а больше то и похвалиться нечем... Увы!

[@weaselgunsru]

@@user-nz7mu1pw4z если бы в космос отправляли часы на новейшем тогда микроконтроллере 145-й серии - было бы круто, но неразумно, да и не было их в "военно-космическом" исполнении если верно помню(что-то из 145 серии было и в космос летало, но именно часовых микросхем таких не видел). В общем часы и часы, разве что великоваты и тяжеловаты для космического аппарата где каждый килограмм выводимой массы стоит столько, что "стрельба городами" получается.

[@technodromeVBlog]

@@weaselgunsru ну это устройство ещё в 70-х проектировалось, надёжность просто зашкаливает. Не хватало чтобы ещё какой волосок от кристалла от вибраций отвалился, все корпуса керамические, всё проклеено, укреплено. Это с точки обывателя возникают вопросы "почему ни как в моём компьютере", а тут требования другие.

[@encinobalboa]

They never had the budget or resources that we had but they managed to compete and build every class of rocket and space vehicle that we had.

[@juliap.5375]

It is almost impossible to compare old days, too different kinds of economics. But nowadays it is possibly to compare - US spend exactly in 20 times more. But have no anything in 20 times more/better, in some directions even lose.

[@soniclab-cnc]

you guys are just the worlds biggest nerds.... and I love it.

[@cyberyann]

Jeremy Hutchinson couldn’t agree more! We’re all nerds watching this channel after all 😝

[@user-mc5mu1xl4w]

Will be very interesting to find out why are they so complicated, and a closer look how they work

[@rkan2]

Работа - for what I know just means 'work', but is also one of the often used words in Russian that is used often like the word "do" in english for example. I would probably try to describe it simply as "working time" or the time that they would use while in orbit? Perhaps "total mission time"?

[@TimoNoko]

No. It is a switch for "normal working operation" and "kalibration". Very common switch in Soviet electronics. I was fixing RPK-1 missile controls while in the Finnish Army.

[@joseb.junior1455]

Well, and there we go again ...

[@rixille]

Spacecraft hardware is absolutely fascinating.

[@oldmanjenks9074]

Very interesting!

[@Abishek_Muthian]

May be some of those logic boards are just there for redundancy?

[@jamestheotherone742]

Probably.

[@watchmakerful]

What series of chips is it? 133 (a SN54 clone)? Or something else?

[@frog58079]

133, 134 and some other TTL (514), operational amplifiers (140), etc. 133 and 134 both like SN54 but have some minor difference in pins (which are hard to explain, as for me :) www.155la3.ru/k133.htm www.155la3.ru/k134.htm www.155la3.ru/k514.htm

[@Alex23092709]

125НТ1- транзисторные сборки n-p-n (типа 4хКТ315).

[@quantum_satellite]

@@Alex23092709 Ну да, собственно в корпусе 4105.14 монтировали широкий спектр компонентов - от транзисторных и резисторных сборок вплоть до элементов логики, арифметики (сумматоры и пр.) и т.д.

[@wolframgerber7118]

Es ist eine Freude die Leiterplatten zu sehen, mit Harz versiegelt und den Flatpack-IC's. Die typischen Tantalelkos waren nicht zu erkennen; waren häufig Fehlerursache bei der Technik. Wenn ich dieses Gerät sehe, habe ich sofort wieder den typischen Geruch dieser Platinen und der Verdrahtung in der Nase. Diese Technik war solide und robust aufgebaut. 😍😍😍

[@gerhvabra379]

там конденсаторы с паладием стоят "км"

[@antonkompaniets497]

Oh. i have "civil version" of that clock - my father in late 70s build 3-5 of them. they have very same looking design epoxy coated PCBs, МГТФ cable trunks, board stacks. but most of components used do not have "military approoved stamp" on them. my father all time after late 50s work on developement of various onboard and ground equipment..