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Old 22nd Mar 2021, 7:08 pm   #216
ortek_service
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Join Date: May 2018
Location: Northampton, Northamptonshire, UK.
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Default Re: I found it! A very sorry looking MK14.

The decoupling arrangements on the MK14 were rather bizarre.
- Very little / not on IC's and a rather large electrolytic that seems unnecessary unless the board was powered from an un-smoothed rectified-only AC-adaptor.

I recall a Computer lecturer once telling us that he'd found early computers sometimes with no decoupling only worked as not everything clocked synchronously at the same time so reducing peak current demands.

I wonder if they'd adopted the rumoured TV design cost-cutting approach, of removing capacitors until it stopped working than putting last one back in - Not good to have such a marginal design, for reliability.
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