Techno Stuff
How They Work - Reflex unit

reflex wipers
big time
reflex wipers not connecting anything

Right, above we have the reflex unit disc. The two single wipers pointing off to the left are connected together on the hub, so as the wipers reset (rotate counterclockwise) the wipers connect rivets on the inner ring to rivets on the center ring - effectively connecting solder lugs a and b together.

On big time, nothing is connected to the a/b lugs, so we can promptly forget about them. That leaves us with the six finger span of wipers labelled c. The c wipers are connected to the wire marked c (yeah, it looks like the c wire connects to the solder lug at the edge, but it doesn't...it goes under the disc and connects to another finger that pokes up and touches the bottom of the c wipers. You'll see it in a later page).

reflex
big time
reflex schematic
Referring back to the schematic, we see that the schem shows four wires connecting into the left side of the reflex unit box, and one wire coming out the right side. The picture shows four wires connected to the solder lugs, and one wire going under the disc to the c wipers. Now we just need to figure out what the wires are doing.

About mixer #1

As mentioned, mixer #1 (diagram) has a rotor with a single wiper that can connect green wire #21-3 to one of 24 rivets around the wiper board. The rivets are connected to the blue and purple wires like this:

lug # wire # # rivets odds
3 #56-4 3 12.50%
4 #54-4 3 12.50%
5 #53-4 3 12.50%
6 and 7 #75-5 12 50%

What's that mean? Well, half the time, mixer #1 stops on a rivet that connects green wire #21-3 to purple wire #75-5 directly, so the position of the reflex unit doesn't matter.

The depending on the position of the reflex unit, mixer #1 will connect green to purple via the blue wires 12.5%, 25%, or 37.5% of the time.

If the reflex unit is reset far enough, it connects the green to purple by itself and it doesn't matter where mixer #1 stops.

Note that the blue wires add in more chances of passing the 50V from green to purple, so the final odds of getting the 50V on the purple wire, depending on the position of the reflex unit, is:

  • 50%
  • 62.5%
  • 75%
  • 87.5%
  • 100%

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