Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[factory]

Here's what happens to our stuff when we pass. The vultures circle and pick it clean.

Although in this case it appears the stuff is way over priced.

The TE stuff is about 10 minutes in.

That's was a couple of years ago, seem to remember Shango sent the CBS test pattern tube to the early television museum, if I remember correctly it was the sale the deep frozen Billy Bass came from (it was).



David.

[mansaxel]

I am already spending more time reading TEA, than I am fixing stuff on my workbench....maybe I can install a monitor on the bench, that would display TEA and refresh the messages automatically. Would look like a chat room with messages popping up all the time.. would look at it from time to time between two solder joints or something...

<zappa>You'll love it, it's a way of life</zappa>

And then you join the Discord Saturdays at 21:00 UTC.

[URI]

My contribution to page number 3488:

One of my hp 3488A:


It's a typical device causing ESD. That's true for me but I managed to fill all sots with some ESI.   
In fact I now have more modules than I can fit into my two hp 3488A. So I bought it's successor, an Agilent 3499A to solve that problem.
ESI is not cured yet, because the Agilent 3499A can be fitted with the older type modules for the hp 3488A as well as newer type modules exclusively for the 3499A.   

[xrunner]

After over two weeks in transit (in country) the replacement digital meter arrived. The line voltage I measured with a known good meter is 123 V.

The adapter I designed is basically going to work, except the dimensions they gave aren't accurate.  Shocking (no pun intended).

[Saskia]

I need to wait for page 16702B ...

[GreyWoolfe]

Gratuitous cross TEA Dinner posting https://www.eevblog.com/forum/cooking/salt-and-pepper-calamari-(squid-tubes)/new/#new

Burp.....

looks yummy but I prefer the head and tentacles.

[Robert763]

I posted the connections for the Cisco switch redundant power supplies C3K-PWR-750WAC, C3K-PWR-1150WAC and PWR RPS2300 here:
www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/cisco-c3k-pwr-1150wac-psu-connection-out-of-rps2300-rack-c3k-pwr-750wac/new/#new

It turned out really simple, a 1k resistor between pins 6 and 15 turns it on. Other good news is the 12V and 52V supplies are isolated so you can choose the polarity 

[25 CPS]

And "Read the Haynes manual"?

Never heard of either.

Good decision. Keep it that way if you value your sanity.

*shudder* The Volvo V70 one is full of stupid mistakes. And as I tried to tell them, they replied "noone else has complained". 

Now I mostly use it for torque reference.

The Dodge one in the picture had what I needed in it; it was car thieves that ended that minivan for me.  I couldn't find the one I got for my Honda Accord.

I have yet to need to go into the Tektronix manual so I can't speak to that one.

[med6753]

I have yet to need to go into the Tektronix manual so I can't speak to that one.

Unless you have the original manual that shipped with the equipment chances are you will find some minor details don't match up. Tek was always changing/revising equipment.

Even getting a manual that states it's within the serial number range is no guarantee. Trust me. 

BTW...having the thieves steal your Dodge they did you a big favor. 

[Saskia]

@bd

one for you ..
https://youtu.be/XpcRhflUbcg

[25 CPS]

I have yet to need to go into the Tektronix manual so I can't speak to that one.

Unless you have the original manual that shipped with the equipment chances are you will find some minor details don't match up. Tek was always changing/revising equipment.

Even getting a manual that states it's within the serial number range is no guarantee. Trust me. 

BTW...having the thieves steal your Dodge they did you a big favor. 

Normally I'd agree about anything made by Chrysler but it turned out that 21 year old minivan was a runner.  It's the only vehicle I've ever had that's never conked and left me at the side of the road; everything else I've ever had has given me a nasty surprise and left me calling CAA at least once so that minivan being stolen and trashed by the thieves was a real loss.

I think there's a good chance that manual was shipped with the 7633 it came with.  The Tektronix 7633 came with the scope cart that it's on and the drawer in the bottom had all the books for the 7633 itself plus the plugins that were installed in it, and all this came from the maintenance shop in the Kellogg's factory in London, Ont. and it looks like they kept everything together.  The whole lot was $60 from someone who was clearing the factory out long after they shut it down and moved everything to Mexico.  My workshop's benefitted from the severe de-industrialization of Ontario over the last 10-20 years.  It's been good for me personally in that respect, but it's a symptom of a much larger set of problems that have been going on and going on unaddressed for a very long time now which is bad overall.

[bd139]

@bd

one for you ..
https://youtu.be/XpcRhflUbcg

Thank you for that. I'm going to sit here and eat my supper and watch that 

[bd139]

Quick test gear project.

I blew up my RF power meter a few months ago. Not sure exactly how it happened but I suspect as it was a bare PCB it was static or mishandling that caused it. So industrial grade replacement time. Objective here was to spend £0 as I have crates of crap around. Two parts were from that old HP 1707B I bought for parts so some recycling took place  . 9V battery inside the unit tied to cable tie bases for power as this is quite sensitive so needs to be away from bench supplies etc.

Completed item. Usual AD8307 circuit with a buffer amplifier on it basically. Running short on AD8307's now so probably need to get some more.



Was calibrated across the range with the DG811 attenuator at 10MHz for now. Relative calibration is 16.31 multiplier stored in the C register of the HP35s.

And finally we're testing a 10dB "homebrew" attenuator. Any signal source within the dynamic range of it is attached and the value noted. Then the DUT is inserted and the value noted again. The difference of the two values is taken and multiplied by the C register contents. Output = 10.02dB which is pretty good 



Absolute calibration in dBm is similar and it's flat between +20dBm and -60dBm. I will do a chart in GNUplot with the calibration curve so it can be looked up off the device front panel as well. But that is for tomorrow.

Really need a step attenuator now...

[mnementh]

Currently trying to figure out this gawddamn Cinema Display. Very annoyed. Think I'll go watch apes outwit humans with my son for a while.

mnem
*couch tuber time*

[med6753]

We must be paying you Brits a huge chunk of change for use of RAF Lakenheath. It looks like it's all USAF. In fact, the commenter refers to it as "USAF Lakenheath". Are any RAF stationed there or it it indeed all USAF?

[bd139]

Yeah it's USAF only there. Until we decide otherwise 

Edit: only reason we let you guys have it is because it's mostly a wasteland of human degenerates 

[med6753]

@bd

one for you ..
https://youtu.be/XpcRhflUbcg

Thank you for that. I'm going to sit here and eat my supper and watch that 

Yep, a good video and right up your alley. 

[med6753]

Yeah it's USAF only there. Until we decide otherwise 

Well, you did do Brexit so I suppose you could say "Fuckit" and leave NATO too. 

[tggzzz]

A couple of miles away from Lakenheath was "RAF" Mildenhall. Upper Heyford and Greenham Common were elsewhere, Fairford still is. And, notoriously, Menwith Hill.

Not for nothing was the UK called an unsinkable aircraft carrier.

[Saskia]

Isn't the Trident mk 2 just a US loaner ? Or did the UK indeed develop their own ?

[tggzzz]

Isn't the Trident mk 2 just a US loaner ? Or did the UK indeed develop their own ?

We paid for them and they are nominally an independent deterrent. Whether we could launch without US approval is unclear to me.

[bd139]

We don't need US approval for launch from what I know. Although it's possible US have ECM that can take them out. I get the feeling it'd be full source and hardware designs handed to us and verification here as well so any barriers to independent operation would be known and worked around if need be. They are pretty heavy on that shit here. I would hate to be on the end of a Trident strike. For such a small and shitty little island we can punch hard.

What's more worrying is the ALIS system on the F35's which turns them into a shitty IoT appliance with a jet engine on it.

[mnementh]

Just plug a MacOS hard drive into it. I guarantee that'll stop it dead in its tracks.

mnem
https://datasheet.octopart.com/MC908LD64IFUE-Freescale-Semiconductor-datasheet-141312.pdf   

[srb1954]

If you ever come to Sydney - watch out for this blighter....


Those fangs are at least a quarter inch long - and will swing out forward to give an excellent angle of attack..... and, yes, they will stand up to you like that if you piss them off.  I know - I caught a pair of them many years ago.  They were not afraid of me.

I think the funnel web is the the spider world's equivalent of Darth Vader.

[Specmaster]

We must be paying you Brits a huge chunk of change for use of RAF Lakenheath. It looks like it's all USAF. In fact, the commenter refers to it as "USAF Lakenheath". Are any RAF stationed there or it it indeed all USAF?

Lakenheath is officially RAF Lakenheath and yes there are a few RAF personnel still stationed there, but they don't have any operational RAF planes there, the staff just there to look after the site. The planes that are based there are all F15's and the F35 that you see on the video with the lightening flash on the tail are in fact RAF planes from nearby RAF Marham that couldn't land back at their base due to it being cloaked in fog, so they diverted to the nearest "friendly" airfield, until the fog lifted, and they could fly the 16 miles back to their own base. Just 6 miles from Lakenheath is another airfield, RAF Mildenhall which is home to the air-to-air refuelling wing for the European operational USAF bases and is also a transport centre for them as well.

When my son and I go to Lakenheath to do some photography, if Lakenheath is having a quiet day or for some technical reason, non-operational that day, we often go up to Marham and shoot some F35's or go to Mildenhall (known to USAF service men as MoldyHall because the buildings are delapitated and in need of refurbishment) where we capture shots of various Tankers, Hercules, Ospreys, 747's charter flights, B1's and B52 etc also sometimes drop in there from RAF Fairford if they have the odd emergency and need to land quickly. It is also often used by RAF large planes, Globemasters, Hercules etc to do touch and go and ILS training  so we never really just what we are going to see there.