Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Nice scope!  The Fluke/Phillips scopes are not all that common here and I have no experience with them.

[Specmaster]

Neither do I, this was the only Fluke scope in the auction, the rest were Philips, 4Channels and went loads of money, which was what I really wanted but I bailed out when they got to £200 or else I might have been sucked into a bidding war when the red lust takes over. So I settled for 2 channel one and I'm happy, now to learn all about it.

[mnementh]

mnem
Yes, you may touch it.

[xrunner]

Wow that scope looks really clean, like new. It must not be drawing a lot of cooling air through the boards.

[bitseeker]

I love that PCB, so obsessively neat. If you had to fault find anything on that it would be a pleasure.

It's even got a locator grid silkscreened on it. Amazing.

[Berni]

That is pretty neat looking inside. Is this bigger than you average analog scope? It looks like it from the front panel.

I do find it quite amusing how every electrolytic in the PSU is a different height.

[bd139]

If you look carefully you will see that all the electrolytics have the same orientation as well.

Nice bit of kit 

[Specmaster]

If you look carefully you will see that all the electrolytics have the same orientation as well.

Nice bit of kit 

Yes, the more I look at this the more attention to detail it has been given jumps out at me. Two things however concern me, besides the need for expansion connections to be able to work on the boards live, 1st is it does get really warm and 2nd, because of the orientation of the caps I can't see what make they are.

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[bd139]

Getting warm is not really a problem. Anything from this era kicks off the heat well.

Small silver ones are Vishay/BC components electrolytics. Big ones look like Nippon Chemi-con or Nichicons or Panasonics. Hard to tell.

The small ones are complete bastards. They have no vents and tend to explode violently. Fortunately I've never seen one actually explode other than when I did it on purpose. Nor have I seen one leak.

[Cerebus]

... because of the orientation of the caps I can't see what make they are.

Nippon Chemi-con. The oval negative markers and the little horizontal rectangles (actually supposed to be the Nippon Chemi-con shield I believe) are diagnostic. Once upon a time those would have been Philips (Mullard) branded.

[Specmaster]

Getting warm is not really a problem. Anything from this era kicks off the heat well.

Small silver ones are Vishay/BC components electrolytics. Big ones look like Nippon Chemi-con or Nichicons or Panasonics. Hard to tell.

The small ones are complete bastards. They have no vents and tend to explode violently. Fortunately I've never seen one actually explode other than when I did it on purpose. Nor have I seen one leak.

Oh, so they are good makes, in that case and given the low usage of this, I don't think I will recap it, at least not for moment. I'm really pleased with it, going to replace the backup batteries today as its not retaining settings. In this case it's 2 x AAs and are used saving front panel settings, like focus etc etc as well as saved digital scans.

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[Specmaster]

... because of the orientation of the caps I can't see what make they are.

Nippon Chemi-con. The oval negative markers and the little horizontal rectangles (actually supposed to be the Nippon Chemi-con shield I believe) are diagnostic. Once upon a time those would have been Philips (Mullard) branded.

Yes, I was expecting to see lots of own brand parts being used but that's not the case I think.

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[bd139]

You can still get the Mullard/Philips ones now. Philips bought Mullard and then spun the components division off as BC Components. Then Vishay bought that and still sell them today. Much improved since the short-o-matic axial mullard/philips wankers. They're pretty good now. Got a few lying around. Different shade of blue now



Your scope was late Philips era; they branched out a bit then as they had sold off most of their component divisions.

[tggzzz]

You can still get the Mullard/Philips ones now. Philips bought Mullard and then spun the components division off as BC Components. Then Vishay bought that and still sell them today. Much improved since the short-o-matic axial mullard/philips wankers. They're pretty good now. Got a few lying around. Different shade of blue now

Time was when the Vishay brand was automatically assumed to mean high quality components.

If they've borged so many lower quality brands/plants/people, it does make it more difficult to unthinkingly recommend Vishay. I think the term is "brand dilution".

[bd139]

Yes agree there. I tend to read through them now. Vishay-Dale = yes. Vishay-Sprague = yes. Vishay-BC = yes. Vishay-wun-hung-lo = no.

[Specmaster]

And how the hell can we tell them apart,is there a colour code or what to tell which brand of Vishay we are dealing with?

[med6753]

Vishay good - smokeless

Vishay bad -  (and smoke)

 

[Specmaster]

Vishay good - smokeless

Vishay bad -  (and smoke)

 

Be really nice to ensure a smokeless zone by identifying Vishay bad before the  and smoke stage though 

[bd139]

Look at capacitor, find datasheet, see what it says.

Says at the top right what the old brand was: https://www.vishay.com/docs/42037/53d.pdf

[Specmaster]

I guess I'll have to pull a board and look on the other side of the cap for anything that might give me a clue then because of the immense attention to detail they omitted user friendliness from that list by aligning all the caps with the negative side being visible only with everything intact, bastards 

[PA0PBZ]

[Specmaster]

Yeah, I got one of them [emoji50]

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[BillB]

TEA Remission!?

After an exhaustive search for the word remission on this site, I only found a few occurrences of some beating some real and serious stuff (awesome, guys!) but nothing talking about TEA remission.

I was looking at buying some used test gear that I really didn't need for more money than I should be spending, but the deal fell through.  Telling my wife about the defeat (coincidentally the same day she gets a big bonus at work  ) she actually suggested I just buy a new one.  (yeah, I know!  But that's not the strangest part of this story)

I actually told her, "Nah, I really don't even need it and probably wouldn't even use it too much right now."  There was a moment of silence as both of us were taken back by my utterance. She didn't even respond, and I think I saw some worry in her eyes as she walked away.

Is TEA Remission real?  Or do I now have some other affliction that is merely masking my TEA symptoms?           

[tautech]

TEA Remission!?

After an exhaustive search for the word remission on this site, I only found a few occurrences of some beating some real and serious stuff (awesome, guys!) but nothing talking about TEA remission.

I was looking at buying some used test gear that I really didn't need for more money than I should be spending, but the deal fell through.  Telling my wife about the defeat (coincidentally the same day she gets a big bonus at work  ) she actually suggested I just buy a new one.  (yeah, I know!  But that's not the strangest part of this story)

I actually told her, "Nah, I really don't even need it and probably wouldn't even use it too much right now."  There was a moment of silence as both of us were taken back by my utterance. She didn't even respond, and I think I saw some worry in her eyes as she walked away.

Is TEA Remission real?  Or do I now have some other affliction that is merely masking my TEA symptoms?           

Excellent start Bill. 

Now you just need to play with her mind some more to make her think there's really something wrong.....a few shot replies, grunts, nods and that sort of thing in an effort to ensure she thinks a bit of a spend up will be good for your soul. 
Then some small purchase/s that obviously cheer you up.....but only for a short while.....this you need manage with care while your setting the stage for what you really want and then go in for the kill !

Rinse and repeat. 

[bd139]

It’s a trap!

I was having a discussion this evening. After the discussion about the thurlby power supplies the other day I decided I needed a new power supply. Not because these ones are inadequate but I’ve got a rather hefty contract pay off burning a hole in my pocket and itchy TEA fingers. So she says to me, why don’t you just buy a new one?

Hmmmmmm what will it really cost me? 

Edit: I chickened out on buying the TTi 1908P DMM. I can’t find a single review or anyone who has one to play with. That’s a deal breaker for me.