Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

.... I'd personally elect to go for a paid of 27s which are 25s in all but name and 2 extra functions, nothing complicated in that.

The only difference is the buttons on the front panel; I've tested that

Mechanically, possibly the lowest tech way of upgrading would be drill holes in the case for small n/o momentary push buttons switches, and have flying wires going to either side of the printed pattern on the PCB.

That amounts to a PLANNED BODGE, which is a crime against instruments.

I would prefer to think of it as an opportunistic and unauthorised upgrade.

But I have no intention of doing it because I don't think the functions are worth it (and I've got an Agilent 34410a if necessary)

[tggzzz]

.... I'd personally elect to go for a paid of 27s which are 25s in all but name and 2 extra functions, nothing complicated in that.

The only difference is the buttons on the front panel; I've tested that

Mechanically, possibly the lowest tech way of upgrading would be drill holes in the case for small n/o momentary push buttons switches, and have flying wires going to either side of the printed pattern on the PCB.

That amounts to a PLANNED BODGE, which is a crime against instruments.

Pfft, it's rat-look, and it's a crime against aesthetics.

Worse aesthetics have been perpetrated by design; look at the cases and colours of some of the  bench DMMs from the 70s

[mansaxel]

What is the use of polishing nails? When you hammer them in, they get marred again!

Larry Haun, the carpenter who could frame a house in a day, did that. He took a barrel of nails, dumped them in a vat, dissolved wax in gasoline, poured it over, stirred, and let it evaporate. The result was polished nails that sunk like a hot knife in butter.

[Wolfgang]

First real prototype for the curve tracer function generator works out of box



Look no breadboard



Right. That's probably that project shelved for 2 years now 

Bronx style at its best. Manhattan is for pussies.

[tggzzz]

First real prototype for the curve tracer function generator works out of box



Look no breadboard



Right. That's probably that project shelved for 2 years now 

I'm more interested in the 200V supply. Go on, build it on solderless breadboard 

[BU508A]

New video from The Signal Noise Path:

I just love him and his lab full of toys so much. Great YT channel, he deserves 1M sub.

Yes, +1 from here. But the topic is way too specialized and sophisticated to reach this. Even Dave doesn't have 1M subscribers.

Perhaps, if Shahriar would add such topics like polishing nails, what to wear on the next TEA meeting, new hairstyles etc ...

Edit:
He could also invite guests to his show, e.g. med6753 for the topic: "How to paint testequipement blue?" 

What is the use of polishing nails? When you hammer them in, they get marred again!

Observation
- the YT channels which are dealing with nails, hairstyles and fashion come easily over 1 million subscribers
- Shahriar has not 1 million subscribers

Postulation
- Shahriar should have at least 1 million subscribers

Conclusion
- TSP / TNP should integrate successful formats from other YT channels
- successful channels are fashion channels (see observation from above)
- hence: Shahriar should present TEA members with certain topics ("painting TEA blue"), while they polish nails,
  wearing fancy clothes and having extraordinary hairstyles

 

If you want to switch off the pictures in you head, please press the button below.



Edit: s/nails/fingernails            

[Wolfgang]

First real prototype for the curve tracer function generator works out of box



Look no breadboard



Right. That's probably that project shelved for 2 years now 

I'm more interested in the 200V supply. Go on, build it on solderless breadboard 

Its probably unhealthy, but solderless stuff normally works up to 200V, no problem. Some german guy even made a prototype for a line-powered SCR controller circuit on it 

[bd139]

They're fine for 200V 

But not for long 

Edit: the actual HV supply for this is really dead simple. I'll design it over next couple of days.

[Teti]

Stolen from reddit

[Robert763]

My £7 bipolar pulse generator turned up today. Very nice condition and basically working. Couple of noisy pots though. Unfortunatly some are 200R with 1/8" shafts so not much choice on replacements. More fortunatly they are early AB ModPots held together with 4 screws so cleaning is an option.
Internally very clean, 5 IC's all TTL quad NAND, 1x 7400, 2x 74S00 and 2x 74H00 
Date codes on chips are early 1976. The wiring is OCD neat with that new-fangled (for 1976) multicolour ribbon cable carefully dressed and stood on edge.It would be nice to find a manual. They have been on ebay but at three or four times what I paid for the generator 
The handle isn't broken you take a side rail off to open the case.

[Cubdriver]

What is the use of polishing nails? When you hammer them in, they get marred again!

Larry Haun, the carpenter who could frame a house in a day, did that. He took a barrel of nails, dumped them in a vat, dissolved wax in gasoline, poured it over, stirred, and let it evaporate. The result was polished nails that sunk like a hot knife in butter.

How well did they subsequently hold?  Perhaps my intuition is wrong, but it would seem in this case that easy in would result in easy out, too, and I'd prefer that the nails holding my framing stay in place...

-Pat

[bd139]

My £7 bipolar pulse generator turned up today. Very nice condition and basically working. Couple of noisy pots though. Unfortunatly some are 200R with 1/8" shafts so not much choice on replacements. More fortunatly they are early AB ModPots held together with 4 screws so cleaning is an option.
Internally very clean, 5 IC's all TTL quad NAND, 1x 7400, 2x 74S00 and 2x 74H00 
Date codes on chips are early 1976. The wiring is OCD neat with that new-fangled (for 1976) multicolour ribbon cable carefully dressed and stood on edge.It would be nice to find a manual. They have been on ebay but at three or four times what I paid for the generator 
The handle isn't broken you take a side rail off to open the case.

That’s pretty nice inside that. Thanks for the tear down.

[Cerebus]

First real prototype for the curve tracer function generator works out of box



Look no breadboard



Right. That's probably that project shelved for 2 years now 

I'm more interested in the 200V supply. Go on, build it on solderless breadboard 

Its probably unhealthy, but solderless stuff normally works up to 200V, no problem. Some german guy even made a prototype for a line-powered SCR controller circuit on it 

I've got a solderless breadboard with a mains zero crossing detector for a mains PWM heater control on it (live gubbins, isolated output) that never made it to a pcb. Smothered it in Kapton tape to prevent accidents from dropped components, flappy wires and the like and it gave me no problems at all. One of those projects that never went beyond prototype and really ought to get turned into a finished project at some time.

[Saskia]

picked up 2 Mainboards from Reichelt last Monday.
One being a B450 board in original packaging (any of you in need of such a critter ?)
plus a Fujitsu 3641-s which is missing the I/O shield. Fujitsu's / Kontron's answer to my query about a spare was: get lost.
Pity, a C246 Express chipset board certified for extended temperature range at 50€ would have been a steal if not for the missing IO Shield.
Will most likely build a NAS out of that one. Stuff in a Xeon, some mem, and 2 RAID controllers and go for it. Still need to find a case which has 22 hard drive slots ...


Doc sez: Hubby will not be able to continue to work in his profession, it would kill him. They mav initiate early retirement for medical reasons for him, but that's not yet final. We'll see.


Am eyeing a pair of Quadral Montan Mk II for slaughter as there is a seller in Frankfurt who wants to get rid of perfectly good casings. Would need to check that the speaker chassis are ok, but if so that would be a steal.
If I only had more space ...

Will also need to rework the built in crossover that is in the Quadral Montan Mk3. The Quadral technical service line told me to expect 6 Ohms resistance if measuring the ribbon tweeter directly and that the tweeter should work fine in that case. Test CD is on its way (Lincoln Mayorga: the missing linc, part 2, Sheffield Lab) is the best tweeter test cd I can think of. So next step (when I get back home) will be to throw in the test cd and check if the tweeters are working, then swap them around to crosscheck if the crossover is working. If not: rip out the crossover and replace the electrolytics. Replacement tweeter (Technics TH400) should be picked up tomorrow by a friend of mine. Will see how it goes, if push comes to shove Quadral has a refurbishing option with 8 days turnaround which is not too shabby.

Will see how it goes, at the moment I am in the Rostock area and looking at the Baltic sea.

[mansaxel]

How well did they subsequently hold?  Perhaps my intuition is wrong, but it would seem in this case that easy in would result in easy out, too, and I'd prefer that the nails holding my framing stay in place...

-Pat

There are a few of his instruction videos on Youtube, and he comes across as quality conscious yet ruthlessly effective. Any suboptimal behaviour had to go.  He seemed to care for things to stand the test of time  and as well be to code, so I'm suspecting he tried it out and found it good.

[Teti]

I've treated myself for new Toys, I guess this is as time nuts as it gets Now I need Caesium frequency standard
Pendulum CNT-90
and Siglent SDS-1104X-E 4ch scope

[nixiefreqq]

swmbo found THIS on the front yard early this afternoon.

so she grabbed him.  he is better than 100lbs.....about 105 would be my guess.

and she scared the crap out of him.  he behaved like a gentleman.

sat on the front porch with him for about 2 1/2 hours when a pickup came slowly up the road.

his name is max.   (bet they call him maxi moose).

[tautech]

swmbo found THIS on the front yard early this afternoon.

so she grabbed him.  he is better than 100lbs.....about 105 would be my guess.

and she scared the crap out of him.  he behaved like a gentleman.

sat on the front porch with him for about 2 1/2 hours when a pickup came slowly up the road.

his name is max.   (bet they call him maxi moose).

Hmmm, good thing he didn't come these ways as mutts up to no good around livestock generally get ventilated around here. Dispatched far to many resulting from their owners not keeping them under control. 

[0culus]

I stuck another 'scope on the +75Vdc line coming off the Type 81 plug-in adapter, and whattyaknow, more than 1 volt p-p ripple. I'd say that 4 element can is a goner. Pat, any re-stuffing hints? Given how tight quarters the adapter us, I'd rather try my hand at stuffing new caps in the can which will ensure everything fits.

[bd139]

You know it’s bed time when you think your metcal cartridge is duff but actually find out you’re just trying to use solid hookup wire as solder  . And bed! 

[Specmaster]

You know it’s bed time when you think your metcal cartridge is duff but actually find out you’re just trying to use solid hookup wire as solder  . And bed! 

Just turn the heat up a bit, sure it'll melt at some point 
Thanks for making me chuckle before going to bed myself, g'nite all.

[0culus]

If all else fails, get a bigger torch! 

[med6753]

I stuck another 'scope on the +75Vdc line coming off the Type 81 plug-in adapter, and whattyaknow, more than 1 volt p-p ripple. I'd say that 4 element can is a goner. Pat, any re-stuffing hints? Given how tight quarters the adapter us, I'd rather try my hand at stuffing new caps in the can which will ensure everything fits.

Bingo! 

[Cerebus]

You know it’s bed time when you think your metcal cartridge is duff but actually find out you’re just trying to use solid hookup wire as solder  . And bed! 

Hopefully you realised this before you got to the "smell of burning fingers" stage. If it's any consolation I've done exactly the same thing before now.

[Cerebus]

If all else fails, get a bigger torch! 

Some of the better makes of test leads actually use welded joints to connect the wire to the plugs. I'm curious as to how they achieve this. The immediate thought is resistance welding, until you think a bit more and realise that attempting to resistance weld relatively thick copper cable to solid brass connectors isn't going to be massively successful!

Exogenous welds with a teeny tiny tig torch?

Explosive welding? 

If anybody actually knows I'd be curious as to how it's done.