Gould 4074 Oscilliscope Plotter Pens

[trellis]

I have a Gould 4074 digital storage oscilloscope, which has a cute little miniature plotter on top of it. This seems to be working to the extent that it moves the paper and pens, switches pens etc. but predictably all the pens have dried up.

I found an old thread from 2015 which suggested that pens were still being manufactured at that time, but after some extensive web searching I haven't been able to find anything that looks like it will fit the Gould plotter. The pens are about 1 inch long silver cylinders, with a cross-sectional diameter of roughly 5mm.

Does anyone know of a source for the pens? It would be lovely to get this thing working and see what output it produces.

[factory]

These were used in lots of things, this site lists many of them, which might help find some elsewhere. http://plotterstifte-faserschreibfed...iber-4er-Paket

David

[woodchips]

Dunk them in IPA, usually brings them back to life.

[Pinörkel]

Here is another source: https://www.evident-shop.de/en/diagn...ue-green-black

[G0HZU_JMR]

Back in the early 1990s the company still had one of the full sized Gould plotters. When fitted with the correct pens and paper type the plotter was capable of really impressive plots with very fine detail and no smudging.

This large Gould plotter used larger pens that your plotter and there was an assortment of colours and brands and tip shapes. Only the original pens gave the best performance. All of the pens were prone to drying up, partly because the previous operator forgot to fit the cap and partly because they tend to dry up anyway.

If you do get some pens I'd advise you find an effective way to store them when not in use. Maybe experiment by wrapping them in clingfilm when not in use?

I think the Gould 407x scopes also had both RS232 and GPIB options for plotting and I think the KE5FX toolkit SW may support your scope using its 7470 plotter emulator program? The Gould 4072 is listed as a supported instrument and maybe it will work with your 4074.

http://www.ke5fx.com/gpib/7470.htm

However this KE5FX program probably only works with GPIB and not RS-232. There are lots of GPIB to USB cables available on ebay but the cheaper ones are going to have dodgy hardware and dodgy drivers.

[trellis]

Originally Posted by factory

These were used in lots of things, this site lists many of them, which might help find some elsewhere. http://plotterstifte-faserschreibfed...iber-4er-Paket

David

Thanks all for the replies. I have managed (using my pidgin German) to place an order with this company. Total cost just under 24 Euros of a pack of 4 coloured pens. Bit expensive really, but I will enjoy watching the little plotter in action.