Vibrating reed frequency meter

Today let's take a look at a vintage 1962 soviet era vibrating reed frequency meter. It's an analog frequency meter based on multiple metal strips (reeds). Each of them has a slightly different mechanical resonant frequency. It also contains a coil connected to an AC current. The reed with a resonant frequency very close to the frequency of the current in the coil will vibrate. This will indicate the frequency on the scale. Those devices have a narrow range of measured frequencies. They are mostly used to measure the frequency of a 50Hz, 60Hz or 400Hz mains.
Rewinding the faulty coil of this frequency meter:
• Winding a coil (rewind...
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[@38911bytefree]

Brilliant !!!!, Its like a mechanical spectrum analizer !!!. In the old days people did marvels without big resources.

[@mrkitty777]

It's in music boxes from middle ages design too to play tiny melody.

[@risvegliato]

@@mrkitty777 exactly what I thought. the music boxes used a comb of different length metal reeds and a rotating drum with pins to pluck them driven by clockwork.

[@mrkitty777]

@@risvegliato exactly, every length metal can play a single tone like the first metal comb in this video. A tiny roll tum had the spikes that made the metal touching, so the song could be tiny, like the famous Lullaby's song that babies get and by a string it starts playing with a spring making the roll rolling. I had one as a baby. Although I quickly disassembled it. 🤣😂😣

[@adamsucksatyt]

Yup i just wanted to say that... How could you read my mind when I have a quadrillion locks between my head (my skull)

[@eljijo23XD]

The effect it makes when the rods are vibrating is just beatifull!

[@juhanasiren6824]

Older dining cars on the Finnish railways used to have diesel generators. Their output frequency was measured with similar devices. They were placed behind glass in a control panel in the corridor, and were fascinating to watch.

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

Also I'm in the railroad as well as antique electrical and all that stuff as well. I have heard about old railroad cars that would use a DC generator driven off the axle to charge batteries to keep the lights on in the cars I think it was either 36 or 48 volts DC can't remember. Once I had seen one of those hooked to a motor and a engine through clutches of some sort Truth by DC power for something. I don't remember the application it was not running at the time but it was well-maintained. It may not have been exactly one of those generators but is very somewhere I think it was an Old Farm. It's probably supplementing the old farm power system that was installed at one time. Which was 36 volts. The old glass Self Storage batteries are still there. Although obviously not working anymore. However there were more Barn lead acid batteries. This was not an Antiques installation but somebody I used to know. There was even a steam engine. And yes it could drive generators as well as well as a Steam Plant still provide a heating for the farm and operate machinery and kept pipes from freezing this was totally amazing. I actually did see the steam engine in operation a couple times. Also the DC system had been repurposed and redoing to be up tomorrow and standards was still used as a backup system. Even though they also had diesel generator. And even one that can be driven off the PTO the tractor. There was even radiators for steam in the barn. Probably some of the biggest radiators I've ever seen. There was also fan heaters in the shop there are circular with big coils in them. About the only radiator I've seen it about that size? The ones are saying about in the barn. Was at the old church where my father used to work. It was under the organ Loft in a little room off where the sound equipment was. At that time that radiator look like it would fill a small room. Also any organ Chambers there pipes with u-shaped fittings building up radiators. At the church. Also back to the farm there were also in the greenhouse areas they were pipes under the floor to provide radiant heat. The boiler have been modernized to run on gas or oil. I'm pretty sure is LP gas though don't know. But there's also a Wood-Fired boiler as well and a Coal Fired boiler as well. I didn't look into the stairs so those unfortunately. There was all kinds of weird interesting things there. That place have been around free Merle electrification in the area. There was even gas lights as well. There have been two different sources of gas before LP arrived. Actually make that up three I forgot about would gas. 1 was a acetylene gas plant which was still there in a building that was into the area by itself solid walls reinforced and all that. Huge metal door. And the only thing leading into it was some sort of vent line I have like a chimney. and the only other thing was a pipe leading out. And shelves on one wall. Oh and yeah there was also a water spigot. and acetylene gas plant was still in there even though it been disused of course. and the other system that was there Which parts of were still there but of course not used anymore just like the acetylene plant. it consisted of a system with a rotary blower. an airline which ran Underground a fill port in the outside. Area. A large baffled underground tank. Which was basically a carburetor. Yes it would run on gasoline converted to a vapor forced to the pipes by the air pump that pumps air into forced to the pipes by the air pump that pumps air into the carburetor in to vaporize gasoline.

[@pojcharapoltosukowong]

I actually like this kind of old analog equipment even though virtually every measuring devices is now digital based. Analog devices is rather simple to understand and it just works.

[@soundblaster2291]

I regularly watch your videos not only because they are well done and really interesting, but because I looooove your accent :)

[@TheDefpom]

What an interesting piece of equipment, thanks for sharing it.

[@johndoe-bq1xt]

I love this meter, what an ingenious way to measure frequency and your cat is beautiful.

[@sortofsmarter]

That was great, i was so happy to see you re wind the old core and try different voltages, i think most people would have given up. Even if the exact calibration is off its the principal thats cool...

[@zolatanaffa87]

@sortofsmarter: the resonance calibration is independent of the number of turns of the winding, for a given supply voltage, at most you get that the reels vibrate little (if you make too many turns) or vibrate too much or you burn the winding (if you do a few turns) . You can obtain the instrument calibration by working on the length or weight of the individual reeds at the corresponding frequency. The major problem of these instruments was their variation in accuracy over time: constantly oscillating the hips were becoming more and more changed over time their resonance frequency (usually increasing the declared frequency with respect to the real)

[@markrancatore9525]

Wow, that is an interesting device. I really enjoyed the video and seeing the 60's era electrical device and the tech behind it. Thank You!

[@SidneyCritic]

You and the FeedBackLoop are the the only ones I know who would tackle a repair like that. Good work.

[@nvmyutube]

what a cool piece of kit, thanks for sharing this

[@danthemancasey]

Wow what an amazing piece of technology! So incredibly simple and functional. Thank you

[@jingarjay8754]

Wow it looks so satisfying when it's moving!

[@justinpedalpusher]

You sir, are brilliant! We Enjoy your videos.

[@pdrg]

Best of your videos so far.

[@kubeek]

exactly, I have seen this meter in pumped storage hydro power plant in Sedlice, they said it was used to check the approximate frequency of the generator before phasing it in. The phasing in then was done with lightbulbs and voltmeters across the switch if I remember correctly. You definitely don´t want to connect a few tons of rotating generator and turbine when they are out of phase with the grid. BTW stavim si upgradovanou verzi po vzoru tvýho TIGu 100A, rad poskytnu schema layout atd pokud bys to treba mel zajem uverejnit, az to rozchodim, otestuju a tak :)

[@DiodeGoneWild]

No určitě se rád na to upravený schéma podívám ;). Jsem zvědavý

[@Mark1024MAK]

kubeek - I’ve seen someone accidentally connect a mains supply to an out of phase diesel generator set supply distribution panel. The lights flickered and the generator stopped dead with a loud clunk! There was silence for what seemed like ages, but it was probably less than 6 seconds. Then the generator auto started again ( this is an emergency back-up generator with a battery powered control system).

[@zolatanaffa87]

@kubeek: connecting an off-phase generator corresponds to making a short circuit on the line with big damages for the plants. For this reason, when connecting a new generator to the grid in addition to the frequency, the phases must be paralleled. In the production plants, a similar short circuit corresponds to throwing out the entire generator unit with very serious damages: from the fusion of a transformer to the distortion of the generator shaft!

[@5Dale65]

@zola tanaffa Sometimes the whole generator's rotating mass gets blown so hard, that it shoots out of the building through the ceiling and I really mean that.

[@zolatanaffa87]

@@5Dale65 it is not hard to believe in your words. If we think at the mass of a rotating generator of 630 or 1200 MW used in power production plants: standardized gauge here in Italy for old thermoelectric power production

[@yorgle]

It's like multiple Vibrasponders with indicators attached to them. Neat!

[@MrMesospheric]

A beautiful solution to a measurement problem.

[@kam_mil]

Your videos are awesome!

[@K-Riz314]

Fran just posted a video of this meter in action, not sure how I missed this when you first put it up. So simple yet so neat!

[@carltonbauer2779]

A great exercise in applying electronics knowledge and experience. Thanks.

[@twocvbloke]

These types of meters fascinate me, all they are is a wobbling strip of metal, but due to resonance frequencies and calibrated weights, they make accurate measurements of frequencies... :) Only have one example of such a meter myself and that's built into my Honda EX650 generator to measure between 50Hz and 60Hz depending which mode it's set to...

[@House0fwax]

Very interesting. I've never heard of such a unit. Thanks. :)

[@atulsain6170]

practical and your accent made this video very interesting. thanks for sharing.

[@kolcoful]

Danyku skvělé video ... jako vždy dávám LIKE.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Díky :)

[@msylvain59]

The hand written date on the dial is actually December of 1968. Such a frequency meter is something I have very rarely seen and I never owned one so far, despite of my crazy hoard of random stuff including even pacemakers and missiles seekers.

[@mikeoliver3254]

That is a really cool way to show frequency.

[@ja.935g67]

All Mechanical things are amazing!

[@MassimoTava]

Look forward to your next video

[@rahimkvayath]

excellent work, Thanking you for sharing such wonderful, usefull Videos. From India

[@octavmandru9219]

frequency meters are obligatory in offshore/marine installations that have the ability to synchronize generators. The synchronizing is done normally automatically but there must be a way to do it manually - therefore voltage meters and synchronizing panel meters are also required by Class Rules

[@joeblow8593]

Great video

[@joinedupjon]

cool old tech. winding for 12V also means you could sweep the frequency going into that thing with a fairly simple circuit. 10:44 & 11:19 some interesting transients for a second or 2 after connection.

[@Kaxlon]

Thank you sir! Really like your videos. =)

[@timmorton2191]

That’s really cool!

[@amkp40technology]

Amazing device 👍🏻👍🏻❤️❤️🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@TheCZminecraftSK]

Další supr video. Skvělá práce (y) :)

[@amicklich6729]

Accuracy aside, I think it is super interesting and ingenious in it's own way! Sometimes looking at these old devices and their cleverness gives me fresh, new ideas. Thanks :)

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

@@mernok2001 I've seen worse. Live for a time in a hundred-year-old plus house. Old transitional gas electric fixtures. Upstairs in the hallway there was a wooden door with glass in it. My father thought it was something for telephone. But one time I was a little more Curious and look further add it. And around the edges were holes that have been cut basically flush wire old cloth covered wire from tubing off head pastor of holes at one time and what it was was an old fuse panel probably has ceramic fuse holders maybe even to have been to use neutral. And yes I do DYI electrical work and I have lacrosse told fuse neutral panels. And crazier. Open wire link fuses in a u.s. electrical system. To make matters worse some links were replaced with heavy copper wire. And even worse. There was no longer a cover on it and it was in an insulated attic with no cover and insulation just laying in it. And this was almost buried between joist. And that was not even connect to the tube and knob wiring believe it or not. That's the only time I've ever seen open link fuse in the United States. A length of fine wire between terminal points. Screw terminals. And yes that box is made for that. Is a gray metal box. And yes I saw proper ul-listed label on it believe it or not. But that doesn't take the cake for what I've seen. Once I was in a much older place I believe. Year that was made?. But somewhere I knew call me over to see something they were scared of. For good reason. When I got there they took me to the downstairs bedroom or was it upstairs I can't remember. And on top of that it was going to be the kids room. Just off the parents bedroom and bathroom. And lo and behold on the one of the walls in the middle was this big big big knife switch probably about over a foot across or so. And to lead rods. Of course I know his logical and yet you wouldn't want to touch. But I suspected it was electrically Dad aka disconnected. But I got my meter out and lo and behold surprise. The 2:20 or so. Across those contacts at the bottom. That was the original service entrance switch for the house and Main fuses. However else we're where the panels that were fed by it. This place has been split up at one time in the multiple residences. and I saw remnants of some of the old a base meters did still in use for junction boxes. And some of them still had meters in them that were actually working. For example in the basement The freezer and a couple other things were still plugged into panel as fed by that. If that's doesn't signal a need to rewire what does. And also everything is old blast uses mostly 30 amp fuses. And asked if since I've been there had a blowing fuses they said no. And some fuses were only 10 answer less. But still not blown. Found out why two pennies in a few socket.

[@V0lk4n00]

Happy 100k subscribers :)

[@keithlincicum3691]

This old technology was simplistic and extremely accurate. Long ago I was given a basket-case 14KW military generator that was complete. It had a 4 cylinder Continental engine with a row of taps that could be connected from 110 to 440 volt single phase and 3 phase. I put new meters for Amps and Volts as an upgrade, but the frequency indicator was like this one with 60 HERTZ being red. There was a fine RPM knob on the dash where you could "dial in" the engine speed and the red would be the only one of the 9 vibrating. It was like new when I finished it and was vastly underrated. I sold it to a fellow who wouldn't be on the grid for a year and he ran his entire truck shop on it.

[@user-cm8rj6ug1u]

Thanks for the detailed review of the device. You have a device of 127 volts, I have the same analogue of 220 volts, sometimes I connect to the network to see what you said. Thanks again.

[@forthelulz9165]

I seen exactly the same one instaled in old soviet army power generator some time ago. After start, you have to adjust rpm of the gasoline engine and some resistors on main panel to match correct voltage and frequency. As I remember right, there were volt and ampere gauges also present.

[@srideepprasad]

This is a cool piece of old school soviet tech..Far more charming than modern LCD or LED displays!

[@marcelozazulak4356]

When i started to work with ups systems, the majority of frequency meters were of this type 😁

[@MDFRESCUER]

Good video.

[@huseyin.goktas]

It is an interesting equipment. I think it deserves to be fixed for proper 220v.

[@SianaGearz]

I think 12V is just as useful because you can then run it off a Halogen transformer.

[@DiodeGoneWild]

I will do it for 12V. Rewinding it for 230V would require 20 000 turns of a wire with a very small diameter (like 0.04 - 0.05mm) that breaks just from looking at it :). Its insulation could also easily fail at 230V. On top of it, 12V coil allows me to simply connect it to an oscillator with a variable frequency. I can connect it to mains using a small transformer.

[@slaskskrot2868]

Rewind to 127! Love a good restoration 🤙

[@antonpernisch4349]

love your videos and YOUR CAT! i just became a patron with 5$, i glad it helps for you and also for cat, as you say in patreon tiers, "Cat treats" :D

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Thanks :). Me and my cat will do our best to keep making good videos ;). I have recently bought a new box full of cat food and treats ;).

[@antonpernisch4349]

"that's niiiiice." (as you always said :D)

[@Foga001]

@@antonpernisch4349 I read it with his voice in my head :)

[@llaci80]

facebook.com/298812594078573/videos/945145369018167/

[@majsterkowicz4003]

Nice video

[@annaoaulinovna]

very good device.

[@pratamayogaputra1862]

10:44 My mind is *blown* when it's *work* !!!

[@GauravGupta-pb8mk]

Thank you sir

[@MilanDupal]

Using a signal generator and audio amplifier you can now play across all measuring instrument range as I did in my youth age.

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

Yes that would work. More than likely. Also I've tested audio amplifiers with a light bulb standard 120 volt AC us incandescent bulb to test audio amplifiers you use the light bulb about the same wattage as amplifier if she lights full brightness in a full output damp first putting out power.

[@RODALCO2007]

Great you got the meter going again. even it was at relative high current but the meter works. Try to get some enamelled wire and rewire the meter for 12 Volts with a small TX to run it from the 230 V mains.

[@NNNILabs]

What a beauty. Ask an EE to do this today, and all you will get is a costly PCB with a zillion different chips on it and a power hungry display.

[@tamas_103]

Congrats! :) 100.001 subs at now! :)

[@lkahfi]

finally I know how it's work. Thanks

[@michaeltempsch5282]

Seen this style of meter in a phone switch station (old electromechanical 500 selector based station partially upgraded to AXE) where it was used to check customers phone's rotary dial pulse speed (10 Hz IIRC)

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

I had heard about that before and someone gave me one of those once I had forgotten about that thanks for letting me. Except mine had more than one scale because it was used for Selective ringing frequency. Or whatever they called it back then where they would send more than one frequency down the line to bring different types of belts on different wines that were frequency selective ringgit. Back when they had more than one phone on the line on a party-line but could bring it based on frequency or tip the ground hot ring to ground to differentiate between different peoples rings. Back when they started doing that instead of just ring codes for the phones on party lines.

[@janno288]

You are close to 100.000 sups (99.990 subs now)

[@karelmensik2698]

Two of these coils would make a decent DIY P-bass pickup.

[@electroniquepassion]

Bonne video 👍

[@mysock351C]

I was wondering how those old electro-mechanical meters worked. Nice...

[@nikiamz6501]

100 000 subscribers!!!😀🤘 14.01.2019

[@mrkitty777]

480 left!

[@SianaGearz]

I think the 3-phase layout is just about right. But i don't think mains frequency was every wonky in the Soviet Union, good enough to run a clock off of and it would be reasonably good for a year or more. This is probably the kind of item that would be used on standalone generators and such.

[@zolatanaffa87]

@Siana Gearz: Surely at the level of nations, (Russia, USA, China, Italy etc. etc.) the system to keep the frequency stable on the network is much more sophisticated and extended to the whole territory, but thinks that (I speak for Italy even if the problem will certainly be present in other countries too) the large photovoltaic systems, when connected or disconnected, produce a variation of the load on the generators such that the frequency moves, only for a few cycles, quite sensitive to be countered as soon as possible , we speak of fractions of Hertz but this is enough to create perturbations in the stability of the network unwanted to the point that, here in Italy, from about 20 KW of power up (perhaps even less, I do not remember exactly) every photovoltaic production plant must mount a connection control interface that must be verified and checked periodically!

[@38911bytefree]

Electric meter test standars still have a dedicated test about freq variation -/+ 2Hz and its influence over the accuracy. Mains Freq is very stable but some times needs to be compensated to cancel the drift in the clocks that use mains as basetime, clock radios, microwaves, vcrs, dvds, traffic light systems etc ....

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Yes, my 1970's nixie clock is now over 1 minute late. I was wondering why. I looked it up on the internet and I found this: gridradar.net/netzzeit.html The EU "mains time" is now 75 seconds late. German language has a beautiful word for this: Netzzeitzeitabweichung - literally a "mains time deviation" :). 75 seconds is the highest deviation in the last year. Does it indicate the end of the wordl? :D.

[@DeepakDeepak-is9ro]

Congrats for 💯 k

[@sjoerd104]

Face reveal? Because you just hit 100k subscribers!!! Congratulations!!

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

Yes do it.

[@dictare]

We had those in the US as well and everything was flat head screws.

[@3D_Printing]

11:53 Cat add it's Whisker to make a Cat's Whisker Radio LOL

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

You need to make a joke about a cat's whisker radio sometime when you're working so the radio equipment in the cat walks by.

[@lalchandra4590]

Time to celebration . 100K subscriber.

[@zx8401ztv]

That is clever, using resonance like a tuning fork :-D What about using the primary of a small mains transformer.

[@MartinKubaS5]

Ou, blížíme se ke 100 000 odběratelům, bude speciál? Pěkné video

[@francoisdastardly4405]

These meters are very common here in Argentina in the xx century. The power grid are very unstable in tension an frequency in the past. The color of the coil cover probably is electric isolating varnish cured in oven.

[@MSM5500]

When SU was getting ready to win the nuclear WWIII, we used to use this kind of frequency gauges on our military mobile power generators run on petrol. They were so poorly built as there was no any engine governor implemented to a throttle body so this gauge was the last resort to maintain proper output of the generator when manually opening/closing a butterfly valve on a carburettor.

[@AmitabhAnkur]

100k coming✔✔👌👌

[@DolezalPetr]

Paráda!

[@ottoodell_dell]

This is usually part of a so-called " measuring group " , which is Standardised like ,> Whatever Nominal Volts to 100 V , and > X Amps to 1 , or 5 Amp current Trafo s ! ( Of course , they add some tolerance , to prevent the magnetic saturation in case of a " little" over voltage ) After that You have the Ratios , and feed the other "standardised " instruments ,like Watt , Amp , Volt , P.F. ( cos phi , sin phi), reactive/ apparent power meters .

[@hammerfix7241]

you have the funniest accent ever. subscribed

[@sandzejs6537]

Physics in use!

[@thisfeatureisbad]

Pekné Písmo. :)

[@turtleb01]

99k subs!

[@onemytech196]

Super

[@antoniog.g256]

Please make a video explain how did you do your watt meter (srry if something is write wrong im not very well with english, but i like your videos)

[@lukezaa10]

Yep. In 80''s in Poland frequrency was official 50Hz but usaly it was lower than 50Hz ex 48Hz.

[@krzysztofbuczek1986]

you must revind it! :)

[@josemiguelarteaga6901]

I like that the cat also looks ...

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

Also I've seen a similar meter except that only has two reeds 1 for 60 hertz and one for 400 Hertz for military applications because is there equipment runs at 400 Hertz for lightweight and efficiency just like aircraft installations. And very possible to pay all you plug into you could have either one. And some equipment could be switched to convert that to 400 Hertz from 60 hertz. Static frequency changer.

[@cit_63]

Jen tak se dívám na zprávy a objeví se tam můj nejoblíbenější elektrikář :)

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Cože ? :)

[@cit_63]

@@DiodeGoneWild Chtěl bych ti poslat univerzální zdroj na rozebrání ale jestli nechceš tak nevadí

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Klidně pošli :) rád se do něj podívám. Ozvi se mi na [e-mail] a já bych ti dal adresu...

[@cit_63]

@@DiodeGoneWild tak já se ozvu zítra

[@JayH7745]

Visually VERY KEWL

[@facurojas4477]

4:04 Hey Doc, is that your draw of the flux capacitor?

[@joewoodchuck3824]

I once worked in a U.S. company that made these. Each reed was hand calibrated with solder. I wonder if they're still made.

[@rofo88]

Your cat make my day 🙂

[@mohinderkaur6671]

mur dered by diode ! put it back together again!

[@felixcat4346]

My guess is that the frequency in the mains is set by the rotation of big generators in the power plant. They would have a lot of internal inertia so for them to vary much would be unusual.

[@Mark1024MAK]

Joseph Nicholas - The actual mains frequency depends on the power output from the generators compared to the load demand. If the load increases, the supply frequency will fall. If the load is reduced / or more generators are brought on line, the frequency will increase. So the electrical grid operator is always trying to match the generated power to the load demand...

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

@@Mark1024MAK speaking of which I do know that the old zillweger relays and other remote controlled frequency related relays would drop out the load if the frequency would drop below a certain reading. To reduce load automatically. If you're should be a drop-in means frequency due to overloaded the system or a threat of a blackout due to excessive load or an adequate generation or problem with the grid. Automatic load management one might say. AKA loadshedding.

[@dragoscucu3128]

You can count the windings using a precision scale

[@fatnindja]

You don't need to rewind it as original. I run low turn coils like this with a capacitor in series (4,7uF) and it wooooorks ... amaziiing ;) The current is about 0.3A and the strength of the magnetic field is good enough, while consuming reactive power. It's probably even better than the original.

[@Sakamoto196]

127v is the voltage used in Mexico

[@brainndamage]

Maybe rewind it for 12V, it would be much easier than trying to wind thousands of turns of fine wire so neatly. Then you can use an external transformer which are very common for old halogen lights at 12V.

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

That will probably work or any trouble Transformer that would provide a rated current of your coil. Would definitely work more than likely.

[@JUANKERR2000]

I had a portable generator with a similar meter.

[@muhsen61]

we are waiting for the video about the small oscilloscope