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  • vintage Rico Vario

    From =?UTF-8?Q?Andr=C3=A9_R_Pepin?=@21:1/5 to All on Mon Dec 19 07:59:14 2022
    Good day all, a friend of mine gave me his serviceable Rico vario that I plan to install in my SF-25 mg.
    The connector is a 24 pins type and the former owner did not indicate what are the positive and negative wires. the wires being the same on both leads
    The plus and minus are on connector pins 12 and 24.
    Anyone knows the pins lay out .
    Many thanks in advance and fly safe
    André R. Pepin '' DB '' Lak 17B fes 21m

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  • From Stuart Venters@21:1/5 to All on Mon Dec 19 11:23:04 2022
    On 12/19/22 09:59, André R Pepin wrote:
    Good day all, a friend of mine gave me his serviceable Rico vario that I plan to install in my SF-25 mg.
    The connector is a 24 pins type and the former owner did not indicate what are the positive and negative wires. the wires being the same on both leads
    The plus and minus are on connector pins 12 and 24.
    Anyone knows the pins lay out .
    Many thanks in advance and fly safe
    André R. Pepin '' DB '' Lak 17B fes 21m

    Found some manuals, but no connector schematic.

    http://www.utahsoaring.org/Documents/N228BG/Equipment%20Manuals/RICO%20Model%203000%20VACs%20Variometer.pdf

    http://utahsoaring.org/Documents/N228BG/Equipment%20Manuals/Ricco%20variometer%20manual.pdf


    Given you have identified the two power wired, you might try an ohm
    meter on the diode scale.

    If one of the two wires is shorted to case, it is likely ground.

    You might be able to see a substrate diode in the electronics. With the
    power switch on, and ohming accross the power wires, electronics will
    often show a diode drop (0.6ish) with red to neg and open with red to pos.

    If that doesn't work, the you could disassemble and ohm the power inlet
    to something recognizable like a bypass cap or chip power pins.


    If one of these provides a clue, you could power it up with a small 12v
    light bulb in series with the +12 to limit the current just in case
    something was wrong.

    I wonder what is the history on this gadget? It has an interesting
    plumbing arrangement for TE compensation.

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Moshe Braner@21:1/5 to All on Mon Dec 19 17:06:08 2022
    I used to have a RICO VACS vario in the HP14 (built by Kai Gertsen). The
    visual display was not great, but I loved the audio. It was very
    different from the typical beeping. It made "ticks" (actually very
    short bursts of tone) that increased in how often they happened, and in
    the underlying pitch, as the lift increased. It was much easier to hear
    them at low volume, relative to beeps, and did not induce ear fatigue.
    And I learned to pay attention to the occasional couple of ticks, as it
    might indicate wave entry.

    The penumatic sensors leaked eventually, and after going through two of
    them, including a repair or two by the original maker, I had to give up
    on them. Still have 2 or 3 of them sitting around waiting to be
    resurrected if possible.

    I wish that current vario makers would allow more freedom for the users
    to design the sounds they want. They're all computerized now, so
    similar "ticks" could be arranged through the software.

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  • From John Sinclair@21:1/5 to Stuart Venters on Mon Dec 19 13:29:07 2022
    On Monday, December 19, 2022 at 9:23:10 AM UTC-8, Stuart Venters wrote:
    On 12/19/22 09:59, André R Pepin wrote:
    Good day all, a friend of mine gave me his serviceable Rico vario that I plan to install in my SF-25 mg.
    The connector is a 24 pins type and the former owner did not indicate what are the positive and negative wires. the wires being the same on both leads
    The plus and minus are on connector pins 12 and 24.
    Anyone knows the pins lay out .
    Many thanks in advance and fly safe
    André R. Pepin '' DB '' Lak 17B fes 21m
    Found some manuals, but no connector schematic.

    http://www.utahsoaring.org/Documents/N228BG/Equipment%20Manuals/RICO%20Model%203000%20VACs%20Variometer.pdf

    http://utahsoaring.org/Documents/N228BG/Equipment%20Manuals/Ricco%20variometer%20manual.pdf


    Given you have identified the two power wired, you might try an ohm
    meter on the diode scale.

    If one of the two wires is shorted to case, it is likely ground.

    You might be able to see a substrate diode in the electronics. With the power switch on, and ohming accross the power wires, electronics will
    often show a diode drop (0.6ish) with red to neg and open with red to pos.

    If that doesn't work, the you could disassemble and ohm the power inlet
    to something recognizable like a bypass cap or chip power pins.


    If one of these provides a clue, you could power it up with a small 12v light bulb in series with the +12 to limit the current just in case something was wrong.











    I wonder what is the history on this gadget? It has an interesting
    plumbing arrangement for TE compensation.






    Hmmm,
    I doug out my original RICO manual and it shows the following for all models: Pin A ………….+
    Pin B…………..-
    Pin D………….climb/cruise Switch
    Pin E………… Speaker (external)
    Pin F…………..Slave meter +
    Pin C. …………Slave meter -

    Maybe someone has rewired your unit, but I’d open it up and see where the wires go? I’d bet the first wire in your plug is + and the next one is -.
    Hope this helps,
    JJ
    PS, the RICO was the hot item to have back in the early 1970’s.

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot)@21:1/5 to All on Mon Dec 19 14:53:41 2022
    On Monday, December 19, 2022 at 10:59:16 AM UTC-5, André R Pepin wrote:
    Good day all, a friend of mine gave me his serviceable Rico vario that I plan to install in my SF-25 mg.
    The connector is a 24 pins type and the former owner did not indicate what are the positive and negative wires. the wires being the same on both leads
    The plus and minus are on connector pins 12 and 24.
    Anyone knows the pins lay out .
    Many thanks in advance and fly safe
    André R. Pepin '' DB '' Lak 17B fes 21m
    Have you typed in "rico variometer" in an Internet search? I had a number of Soaring related hits,doing that just now.
    Maybe adding in the model will narrow it down.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)