A Raytheon-manufactured rope driver module, stamped 'Scrapped Module' and originally destined for the Apollo Guidance Computer, has been retested by Mike Stewart using its original acceptance documents, which survive on the Internet Archive. The module, designated B16-B17, is fully potted and inaccessible internally, so Stewart worked from scanned schematics, pin specifications, and mechanical drawings to replicate the certification tests without destroying a 60-year-old artifact.
The investigation found physical evidence that someone had previously opened the potting compound at multiple locations, mapping those intrusion points to the module's schematics to infer what components were accessed or repaired. Stewart also caught a documentation error in table 4-2 of the acceptance record: input pin 269 was listed against output pin 169, which is chassis ground, when it should have read pin 168. The module passed all stationary, room-temperature tests, suggesting it was repaired and downgraded to engineering use rather than rejected outright for an electrical fault.
The full video is worth watching for the methodical way Stewart navigates testing a historical artifact under conservative conditions, the document archaeology involved in cross-referencing potting marks against circuit schematics, and the unresolved question of whether the out-of-calibration channels reflect an original defect or simple component aging across five decades. The rejection reason remains officially unrecorded.
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