The R10 relay was developed at least 60 or 70 years ago. Maybe by Potter and Brumfield, can't be sure. But the generic industry term for it is a "cradle" relay. The magnet pulls on a lever that's at a right angle to the direction of contact-point movement. Makes the relay smaller. Also makes it better for RF. The signal path into and back out is short and doesn't need a pesky flexible-wire "pigtail" in the structure. They didn't invent this right-angle design. Telephone central offices had big steampunk-style cradle relays. The R10 package was considered a "miniature" component in the 1950/1960s.
But the price of this kind of item just keeps rising. Old parts like this are still made, but product lines change hands from one manufacturer to another. Every time this happens, the price goes up another notch. The Potter and Brumfield name and product lines now belong to "TE" corporation, a new name for Tyco Electronics.
I wouldn't care, but the circuit boards we build and sell for the Pride DX300 linear use this type relay. This means we're stuck using parts that line up with the holes in the pc board. All along we have built it without the receiver preamp. Kept telling people that it doesn't perform well enough to justify the added price of including it.
If finally sunk in that you don't succeed by telling people they can't have what they want. Rather than suck it up and spend 350 or more bucks for a batch of ten preamp relays I came up with a substitute that's much more economical for me. Eventually we'll offer a version of the Pride relay board that has a receiver preamp. This way I won't have to shell out 40 bucks or so for that relay and the socket.
I can solder it directly to the linear's relay pc board, no need for the R10-style socket. And if the DIP relay goes bad, it's in a socket. No soldering required. And the DIP relay is usually around five bucks or sometimes less.
This is what it's supposed to look like, with the screen-print legend on the 'top' side with the DIP socket.
But the first one I built was upside-down. Had a brain fart when building it.
When I checked it, the left-right sense of the circuit layout was mirror-image. Each center pin of the two rows of three is the common pole. The lever part of the see-saw schematic symbol. The common-pole pin closest the board's edge should connect to the two outer pins on the left. But it was connected to the two pins on the opposite side. My idiot light came on before too long, and building one right-side up tested just like the R10 relay it replaces. Problem solved.
But then my idiot light came on a second time. This style relay is (or was) also built in Japan. Not sure why, but they assigned the opposite left-right connection to the american-made cradle relay. This causes great consternation when someone wants to repair a Yaesu FT-101 radio. It uses a six-pole version of this part. The center column of six pins has to be rewired on the socket if you want to use an american-made replacement relay. Japan stopped making them decades ago. If you want a "plug and play" replacement relay you're stuck with pullouts from radio cadavers. Risky business, that.
Can't immediately think of a radio that uses a japanese 2-pole R10-style relay, but this would do the job without rewiring the relay socket.
Now if I can just figure out how to cram three of these DIP relays onto a module that fits a FT-101 relay socket. Hmmm..
73
But the price of this kind of item just keeps rising. Old parts like this are still made, but product lines change hands from one manufacturer to another. Every time this happens, the price goes up another notch. The Potter and Brumfield name and product lines now belong to "TE" corporation, a new name for Tyco Electronics.
I wouldn't care, but the circuit boards we build and sell for the Pride DX300 linear use this type relay. This means we're stuck using parts that line up with the holes in the pc board. All along we have built it without the receiver preamp. Kept telling people that it doesn't perform well enough to justify the added price of including it.
If finally sunk in that you don't succeed by telling people they can't have what they want. Rather than suck it up and spend 350 or more bucks for a batch of ten preamp relays I came up with a substitute that's much more economical for me. Eventually we'll offer a version of the Pride relay board that has a receiver preamp. This way I won't have to shell out 40 bucks or so for that relay and the socket.
I can solder it directly to the linear's relay pc board, no need for the R10-style socket. And if the DIP relay goes bad, it's in a socket. No soldering required. And the DIP relay is usually around five bucks or sometimes less.
This is what it's supposed to look like, with the screen-print legend on the 'top' side with the DIP socket.
But the first one I built was upside-down. Had a brain fart when building it.
When I checked it, the left-right sense of the circuit layout was mirror-image. Each center pin of the two rows of three is the common pole. The lever part of the see-saw schematic symbol. The common-pole pin closest the board's edge should connect to the two outer pins on the left. But it was connected to the two pins on the opposite side. My idiot light came on before too long, and building one right-side up tested just like the R10 relay it replaces. Problem solved.
But then my idiot light came on a second time. This style relay is (or was) also built in Japan. Not sure why, but they assigned the opposite left-right connection to the american-made cradle relay. This causes great consternation when someone wants to repair a Yaesu FT-101 radio. It uses a six-pole version of this part. The center column of six pins has to be rewired on the socket if you want to use an american-made replacement relay. Japan stopped making them decades ago. If you want a "plug and play" replacement relay you're stuck with pullouts from radio cadavers. Risky business, that.
Can't immediately think of a radio that uses a japanese 2-pole R10-style relay, but this would do the job without rewiring the relay socket.
Now if I can just figure out how to cram three of these DIP relays onto a module that fits a FT-101 relay socket. Hmmm..
73
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