MPTS

MPTS (Multi-Purpose Test Station)

• 067-1094-99 Pulse Generator
• 067-1095-99 GPIB-Programmable Attenuator
• Programmable Microwave Switch Matrix (PN?)

Later products:

• PG509 – AT5010 – SI5010

please expand

Bob Beville writes in his memoirs:

I left Walker Road and joined a group in Building 47. The 2465 oscilloscope plant was in Clark County, C1. It needed a test system to calibrate it.

Dick Westlake and his group operated the GenRad circuitboard testers in Bldg. 47. He recruited Lou Sowa, Warren Fink, Jim Baker, Ken Hampton, Frank Hovanic, Joe Gamble, George Fagg, Marlene Pfaff and me on what was named the Multi-Purpose Test Station, nicknamed ‘Muppets’, with concern about infringing on the children’s TV program on PBS.

Multiple GPIB products were assembled into a four bay desk level workstation: three-instrument rack cabinets and the operator position. The 2465, instrument-under-test (IUT), display monitor, and printer were on the station top. The GPIB controller was by Fluke; input sources were -hp- Signal Generator, Wavetek Multifunction Calibrator, Waveform Synth Function Generator, Winchester disks, barcode readers and some sources not found on the market: in-house designed 067-fixtures: Programmable X-Y Pattern Generator, Fast Rise Pulse Generator, and Programmable RF Attenuator.

These instrument signals were fed through a huge Programmable Microwave Switch Matrix, (another 067), then to the IUT. The IUT, a 2465, had inputs Channels 1, 2, 3, 4, External Trigger and Z-axis. Its outputs were A Gate, B Gate, Channel 2, and of course, it was coupled to the MPTS system through its GPIB port.

Some marketing people in the Measurement Systems Division learned about the instruments contained in the system and insisted that Tektronix products be used instead. Dick Westlake defended the choices saying the specs of the 2465 needed sources and measurement abilities five or more times more accurate than a 2465 spec. On a tour through the plants, Howard Vollum and Larry Mayhew visited the MPTS area. We explained these choices. Howard stated that was all right with him. He said, “Do not compromise if our products don’t meet your specification-goals.”

The MPTS stations were transported to Building C1, the plant in Clark County, for the 2465 production line. We Beaverton employees had to commute to Clark County. There were eleven systems built, two eventually were shipped to the Guernsey Island plant.