let ions be bygones

As seen in my previous post, the rack mounted electronics were some of the things that didn't fare so well during shipping of my vacuum chamber. The one that I really had any concern with was the Granville-Phillips GP 270 hot cathode ionization gauge controller. This type of gauge is used in the higher vacuum range of 10^-3 to 10^-10 Torr, for which most other vacuum gauge types are unsuitable. Of course, I wouldn't know the extent of the damage until I opened it up, so I did. Here's a peek:

As it turns out, the damage was limited to 5 of the 6 front panel toggle switches (top side of image), and bent LED legs, with a few of them breaking away from their solder joints. There are no cracks or lifted traces on either of the two PCBs. There's no apparent reason that would make this unit unsalvageable. The choice to be made is whether it is worth fixing. 5 switches really isn't a big deal, as well as a handful of red LEDs. The manual for this unit had a complete parts list, and it called out various C&K switches. These are relatively high quality parts, at least when the toggly ends don't go smashing into the ground with the force of a linebacker behind them. Therefore they aren't exactly the cheapest thing, and since most of them are different types from one another means I can't just easily buy a bag of cheap equivalents. Obviously I don't have a stash of switches, otherwise I wouldn't even be mentioning this. Ok, still, this is fairly specialized piece of hardware, so replacing several $5 switches must be the cheapest route, right? Right??? Sort of. Now, I could have potentially made the repair even cheaper since two of the switches are for toggling between manual and auto ranging. I could have just jumpered it to always be in auto mode and gone on my merry way, but as it turns out, it's necessary to go into manual mode for calibration purposes, so the switches would need to be there. Back to the point I was trying to make, yes, replacing the switches is likely the cheapest route if I wanted to replace this with the exact same model, but as it turns out, there are equivalents on eBay sitting in the $50 to $100 range. Some of these even support additional vacuum sensors such as the thermocouple types. These are useful for measuring a range of vacuum before the ionization types can function. If I repair the device that I have, I still need something that'll work with sensors for lower vacuum levels. As it turns out, for me, the total cost appears to be lower if I just replace this unit. If I buy a similar model with additional features, I can use what I have for spares should I need them. I haven't pulled the trigger yet, but I think this is the route I'll take.

And for your viewing pleasure: