Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[AVGresponding]

Gah, just lost an attempt to snaffle a nice TTi TG2511A function generator on eBay today, had my finger hovering over the mouse ready to submit my bid for £150 but suddenly leapt at the dieing seconds from £140 to £195, so was that anyone from this thread? If so you grabbed what looked like a great bargain there but was way over my budget 

No comment   

[tggzzz]

There was one of those in my Students Union, powering the cinema projector.

It was at the bottom of the fire escape stairwell, under the open stairs, protected by a mesh guard.

Even 45 years ago, I wondered about the elf n safety!

[AVGresponding]

In my defence a decent awg was the last piece in the puzzle. Upcoming soon: for sale, Solartron 7150, TTi 1906, Thurlby 1905a, maybe a thandar TG2001 but I want to check it a bit more thoroughly first.

@bd139 I remain to be convinced re the likes of Rigol and Siglent. Now, tautech does a good job standing up for Siglent, as you'd expect given he's a distributer, but I just haven't yet seen enough evidence to push me over the top.
TTi on the other hand, I have, in the form of exceptional tech support both firsthand and via thirdhand reports.

[AVGresponding]

There was one of those in my Students Union, powering the cinema projector.

It was at the bottom of the fire escape stairwell, under the open stairs, protected by a mesh guard.

Even 45 years ago, I wondered about the elf n safety!

I have a 1kW projector lamp (NIB) courtesy of the local Odeon refit/refurb shambles, but haven't had the stones to give it any beans as yet...   

[Specmaster]

In my defence a decent awg was the last piece in the puzzle. Upcoming soon: for sale, Solartron 7150, TTi 1906, Thurlby 1905a, maybe a thandar TG2001 but I want to check it a bit more thoroughly first.

@bd139 I remain to be convinced re the likes of Rigol and Siglent. Now, tautech does a good job standing up for Siglent, as you'd expect given he's a distributer, but I just haven't yet seen enough evidence to push me over the top.
TTi on the other hand, I have, in the form of exceptional tech support both firsthand and via thirdhand reports.

Haha, great minds think alike, I was after that AWG because I was thinking about releasing at least one of my Solartron 7150 plus's, TTI TGP110 and TTi TG120 (the thinking behind those was that the TG2511A would do both of their functions and some more and be able to reclaim some of my bench space back 

[bd139]

In my defence a decent awg was the last piece in the puzzle. Upcoming soon: for sale, Solartron 7150, TTi 1906, Thurlby 1905a, maybe a thandar TG2001 but I want to check it a bit more thoroughly first.

@bd139 I remain to be convinced re the likes of Rigol and Siglent. Now, tautech does a good job standing up for Siglent, as you'd expect given he's a distributer, but I just haven't yet seen enough evidence to push me over the top.
TTi on the other hand, I have, in the form of exceptional tech support both firsthand and via thirdhand reports.

Yes and no on the later TTi devices. Generally if it’s got an ARM core in it then there’s no schematics and no service manuals available even if it is TTi. At that stage you’re at the mercy of time only because being second hand there is no usable warranty. At best you’re insured against simple risks which can be reverse engineered from the device back to schematics. But they are really complicated machines. Since the inception of the low cost arbitrary waveform generators like the very early 33120A, things got a lot more complicated from the possibilities for things to go wrong perspective. On top of that the ARM based TTi stuff uses typical FLASH programmable ARM embedded cores so if you lose the MCU you’re up shit creek.

Roll on the DG811 which can be cracked trivially to be a 100Mhz dual channel arb for £216 inc vat and delivery. also because of the B2C nature of the transaction and it’s new you’re covered for 6 years warranty under CRA 2015. That’s a total investment of £3 a month over that time. And it’ll sell for a fair wedge at the end. During that time all you have to consider is it working like it did when you got it, which it will.

Ergo at least for me we can only rely on the manufacturer for older devices. Which is incidentally while you’ll only ever see me buying older TTi kit.

I digress, it may last a long timed, but I’m terribly risk averse these days. Certainly not a high roller in this space.

Siglent’s product is equivalent. Less bang for buck but the UI doesn’t suck complete balls, which is admittedly a big problem with the DG811. Also nowhere to put your coffee.

[bd139]

I live down the road from there. Still haven't been to it! Not holding up any hopes for a visit in 2021 

Likewise, I both walked and driven past the doors to that building literally 1000's of times in the last 20 years as the HQ and factory of my old company I was working for at the time was just a mile further on along the A315 there at Commerce Road, close to the Holiday Inn (Brentford Lock), small world, isn't it? I always said to myself that One day I'd visit the museum but never did  On another occasion we had our Christmas lunch at the London Apprentice (where they loaded Concord onto the Barge for her sea trip to Edinburgh) and another year we had a Christmas party at the function rooms of Twickenham Rugby Stadium so have been circling your gaff for years 

Very close. Although I didn’t live here then most likely 

I went for a stroll (well slightly longer than expected walk) earlier and went past the steam museum at Brentford actually. As expected closed. Another place I need to go but haven’t yet.

Commerce road I know quite well. I was going to rent some office space down there a few years back when i was trying to size up my limited company. Decided on a place in Feltham in the end near the tip but the contract fell through I was going to get people in for 

[BU508A]

Anyone on discord tonight? I'm trying to join while in paralle I'm installing my new PC with Saskia hardware. 

[bd139]

Unfortunately not until possibly later here. My new desktop doesn’t have Discord installed (yet) so need to work that out. Haven’t tried it on arm64    Need to fulfil a promise first to play Cards Against Humanity with my eldest two 

[Specmaster]

Anyone on discord tonight? I'm trying to join while in paralle I'm installing my new PC with Saskia hardware. 

I doubt that I'd be there tonight.

[AVGresponding]

Anyone on discord tonight? I'm trying to join while in paralle I'm installing my new PC with Saskia hardware. 

I will be there, though currently listening to Epica - Design Your Universe and waiting for a takeaway delivery

[tautech]

Unfortunately not until possibly later here. My new desktop doesn’t have Discord installed (yet) so need to work that out.

Pretty easy, just click the invite link on P1 of this thread.

Busy selling DSO's so might not make it today.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Maybe this one is for you.
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Agilent-hp-8350A-Synthesized-Sweep-Signal-Generator-10MHz-Sich-20-GHZ/124496531649
 

Mhh.. Not bad. Any affiliation with the seller? I think I'll ask him if/how he knows the unit is OK (if he does) the plan is to eliminate some variables, not to add them.

No affiliation at all. I'm watching it but I have neither a SA, nor a counter, nor a power meter that goes up that far, so why should I need a generator. But you are right - play it safe.

[Robert763]

There was one of those in my Students Union, powering the cinema projector.

It was at the bottom of the fire escape stairwell, under the open stairs, protected by a mesh guard.

Even 45 years ago, I wondered about the elf n safety!

I have a 1kW projector lamp (NIB) courtesy of the local Odeon refit/refurb shambles, but haven't had the stones to give it any beans as yet...   

Take care with that, they are normally very high pressure lamps and explode if mis-handled. When changing them (did it many, many years ago) the recommended gear was a full face visor, leather apron with high collar and leather gloves 

[Saskia]

Anyone on discord tonight? I'm trying to join while in paralle I'm installing my new PC with Saskia hardware. 

yarp-

[srb1954]

Accidently, on a slightly more TEA related note: I've been looking for a working 15GHz+ RF generator. Doesn't have to be super accurate, but does have to work. I'm not looking for another project (God, no..).

So if one of you eBay addicts comes accross something: let me know!

Maybe this one is for you.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Agilent-hp-8350A-Synthesized-Sweep-Signal-Generator-10MHz-Sich-20-GHZ/124496531649
 

That auction heading is misleading - the 8350A is not a synthesized instrument despite the digital frequency displays.

The YIG oscillators in this instrument are swept with an open loop control voltage so the frequency error can be 10MHz or more - definitely not synthesizer accuracy.

[Cerebus]

Perhaps he was just a normal AT&T customer who had enough 

I have a suspicion that it was a movie plot heist. It took out comms for miles, including alarms and the police. When people get back to work I suspect we're going to hear news of a very valuable, very empty vault somewhere nearby.

[Mr. Scram]

FINALLY bagged myself a half decent awg, TTi TG2511A, price: don't ask.   

Also missed a NI GPIB-USB because stupid   

Nice! I missed out on a two channel TTi job a while back and still regret it.

[Mr. Scram]

Perhaps he was just a normal AT&T customer who had enough 

So, a regular AT&T customer?

[bd139]

Unfortunately not until possibly later here. My new desktop doesn’t have Discord installed (yet) so need to work that out.

Pretty easy, just click the invite link on P1 of this thread.

Busy selling DSO's so might not make it today.

Yeah can install it. Slightly more complicated. Wondering more if I should poison my new desktop with the discord Electron app which is emulated or just use it native in the browser. Haven’t decided yet 

This is the first non x86 desktop I’ve had for about 25 years 

[bd139]

Perhaps he was just a normal AT&T customer who had enough 

I have a suspicion that it was a movie plot heist. It took out comms for miles, including alarms and the police. When people get back to work I suspect we're going to hear news of a very valuable, very empty vault somewhere nearby.

Good point. Being an AT&T facility I bet it took out a crap load of alarm circuits as well and added a lot of noise to the ones that did go off. It was clear the attackers did not intend to injure anyone intentionally though which suggests there’s a secondary gain other than terror.

[factory]

Well I put a low offer on an untested HP 86260A & it got accepted.  My offer of $20 put it below the amount where import charges get added, not sure why the GSP postage goes up though. 



I have a scale for 12GHz-18GHz or one for 12GHz-18.6GHz, they will have to do for now.

David

[mnementh]

Unfortunately not until possibly later here. My new desktop doesn’t have Discord installed (yet) so need to work that out. Haven’t tried it on arm64    Need to fulfil a promise first to play Cards Against Humanity with my eldest two 

Welp, we won't see bd til 2AM... 

mnem
 

[bd139]

Game finished 23:30. That is one sick game. I’m loving it 

[mnementh]

My wife won't let me corrupt our son with the game.

mnem
Yet.