Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Neomys Sapiens]

Ok this is just WTF pricing!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TEKTRONIX-067-0589-00-7000-Series-Plug-In-Extender-/274834224762?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

Edit: going to design my own open source extender kit you can order from JLCPCB as that does chamfers and gold plated fingers for low price. Plus blackjack and hookers.

Damn, I am considering doing the same... The cheapest plugin extender is currently at 380 EUR (excluding customs and shipping). It should be possible to rebuild it. I could sacrifice a plugin for the greater purpose. The front part can be modelled with aluminum parts and a file 

PS   If someone on this forum has one of those plugin extender puppies and wants to sell them, please PM me 

texaspyro sells extender kits for the TM500 system. Maybe he does 7000 system too?

[Vince]

But it sold, so at least two people wanted to pay about that much.
Like my £2 box of Sony bits from St Neots, the first one of which went on ebay on Friday and already has bids to over £200 

Wow, well done ! 

And you will soon get another 200 from BD for the 7000 scope. 

At this rate, in a couple months you will have gathered enough money to buy fuel to make your APU run for AT LEAST... 5 minutes ? Just enough to warm it up and gather some data from its 1001 sensors, to make sure it's healthy ! 

[Neomys Sapiens]

Ok this is just WTF pricing!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TEKTRONIX-067-0589-00-7000-Series-Plug-In-Extender-/274834224762?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

Edit: going to design my own open source extender kit you can order from JLCPCB as that does chamfers and gold plated fingers for low price. Plus blackjack and hookers.

Damn, I am considering doing the same... The cheapest plugin extender is currently at 380 EUR (excluding customs and shipping). It should be possible to rebuild it. I could sacrifice a plugin for the greater purpose. The front part can be modelled with aluminum parts and a file 

PS   If someone on this forum has one of those plugin extender puppies and wants to sell them, please PM me 

Yes it makes zero sense to spend any significant money for an extender ! ... it's just.... an extender !
Now anyone can make his own PCB to extend anything, and as you said just get any cheap crap  broken plugins to get the appropriate connector and a nice case to boot.

I will probably need to make something like that to fix my 5000 series scope as it has developed a ton of issues following its year spent in a storage unit that was not climate controlled...

See above. In this case directly applicable, as 5000 and TM500 differ only in a notch in the PCB.

[Vince]

See above. In this case directly applicable, as 5000 and TM500 differ only in a notch in the PCB.

Oh thanks, that's good to know ! 

[Neomys Sapiens]

Ok this is just WTF pricing!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TEKTRONIX-067-0589-00-7000-Series-Plug-In-Extender-/274834224762?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

Edit: going to design my own open source extender kit you can order from JLCPCB as that does chamfers and gold plated fingers for low price. Plus blackjack and hookers.

Damn, I am considering doing the same... The cheapest plugin extender is currently at 380 EUR (excluding customs and shipping). It should be possible to rebuild it. I could sacrifice a plugin for the greater purpose. The front part can be modelled with aluminum parts and a file 

PS   If someone on this forum has one of those plugin extender puppies and wants to sell them, please PM me 

Last time I checked (for the TM500) there was an US or UK company which had 100s of different edge connector jacks. I would not recommend bodging something together if that extender should have some lifetime. Also, I hate it when I have to check on test auxiliaries with dubious reliability.
I would also consider putting double (or 3/4) 2mm press-in jacks into the power lines (and get 2mm MC shorting plugs for them) and single 2mm jacks or other terminals (0.64square or 1mm) into the other lines which are not coaxial. Now that's a test aid, not only an extender.

[DH7DN]

The calibration of TM500/TM5000 modules is less critical, because one needs to remove the protective housing cover and just leave the backplane in order to power the plugin. So ideally a TM501 without housing/cover will do the job (although there are some electrical safety issues involved).

On the other hand, the 7000 series plugins (left side of the timebase for example) are not easy to access except the outermost plugins (left and right when you remove the cover). In order to do some potentiometer adjustments, one has to access the inward side of the module. So here comes the plugin extender into play.

I'd like to adjust/calibrate my modules one day so I still hope that maybe an auction pops up in the next months for a reasonable price

[tggzzz]

Ok this is just WTF pricing!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TEKTRONIX-067-0589-00-7000-Series-Plug-In-Extender-/274834224762?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

Edit: going to design my own open source extender kit you can order from JLCPCB as that does chamfers and gold plated fingers for low price. Plus blackjack and hookers.

I've sold scope extenders for pleasingly large amounts of money. They are always in demand, and the mechanics is as important as the electrics.

[med6753]

Ok this is just WTF pricing!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TEKTRONIX-067-0589-00-7000-Series-Plug-In-Extender-/274834224762?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

Edit: going to design my own open source extender kit you can order from JLCPCB as that does chamfers and gold plated fingers for low price. Plus blackjack and hookers.

Damn, I am considering doing the same... The cheapest plugin extender is currently at 380 EUR (excluding customs and shipping). It should be possible to rebuild it. I could sacrifice a plugin for the greater purpose. The front part can be modelled with aluminum parts and a file 

PS   If someone on this forum has one of those plugin extender puppies and wants to sell them, please PM me 

Yeah it's ridiculous.

Annoyingly the interface is a 2x38 way 0.1" pitch card edge connector. Can you get them? Not easily. 2x36 is about as far as it goes. I will make do with buying a bag of smaller chinese ones fom aliexpress and making a suitably long one out of two other ones  . Looks like you can get away with a typical IDC cable for the majority of connections and use 3x runs of RG174 terminated in SMA for the signal paths.

You could possibly salvage the interface from a junk plug-in.

For most of the vertical plug-in's you can get away without an extender. When facing the scope the component side of the plug-in's faces to the left. And the manuals give nice pictorials of part locations. Pull the cover off the scope and the plug-in and go to work. That's how I fixed the 7A24 last week. Yea, it's awkward but workable.

Now the horizontal plug-in's is a different story. Component side also on the left. So pulling the right side covers just reveals the pin side of the boards. But luckily it seems that the time base plug-in's rarely fail.   

Anyway, paying that price for an extender is just plain nuts. 

[bd139]

Yeah it's definitely one of those "just in time" projects i.e. make one up if you need to.

The existing 7000 series debugging I did was simply with a DMM on the edge connector. Start with the power rails and look for shorts. Everything else is fingers crossed  . That was by far the most complex plugin as well 

[BU508A]

The Noise Path: Teardown of an Agilent U2001A power sensor.

[factory]

That's cute. 10 to 520 MHz covers almost all the most used HAM bands. +10 to -120 dBm great power range. EXT. Modulation - check. Glowy line ON lamp - check. And the plastic levers aren't broken. Just missing the hp badge on the upper left. Be interested in any more testing you do on it. 

Ok, some TEAsing with photographic evidence.  Part of today's haul was a little HP 8654A 10~520 MHz Signal Generator. It needs some cleanup (getting the modulation working required some switch exercising), and the attenuator feels like it's missing the proper detents, but at first brush it appears to be functional.

And there is a rather slim counter/AFC unit for it which fits on top and gives you precise control over the frequency. I have seen that part occasionally offered without the generator.

The 8655A Synchronizer/Counter then, seen quite a few sold without the generator.
https://www.hpmemoryproject.org/wb_pages/wall_b_page_10b.htm


You might want a 11710B down convertor too, I have one of those, but the 11710A version would have been OK for the 8640B I have, they do seem harder to find.

Does the 8654A/B share any parts with the Boonton/HP 3200B? the later ones do have a similar layout for the scale and range/frequency controls, I don't have either.


David

[tautech]

Pat and others
Did a quick teardown here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hp-8654b-10-520-mhz-sig-gen-light-teardown/

[dl6lr]

Regarding the Rohde&Schwarz BOL: this seems to be a National/ Panasonic VP-5512A. No (service) manuals appear to be online. If anyone has these, drop me a note..

Bernd

[factory]

Had a TE delivery while I was out, here is a quick picture I took when I got back, as you can see it contains the latest in surface mount devices, on a double sided PCB.  Must have been done deliberately to include SMD in the brochure. 



David

A quick test of the latest arrival, a Pagel Electronics 6-UHF electronic counter, so far I've drawn a blank on any information on this one, was trying to at least find an advert, as I'd like to know the maximum frequency it will count. This is 110V only, but it might be possible to change the transformer for a 110V/230V one, depending on what the secondary requirements are.


It seems to be working fine and it agrees with the Racal 9837 I acquired a few weeks ago (nothing to fix on that either).  The hp 209A is a bit out though.


Could do with taking some more teardown pictures too.

David

Edit: not had this picture upload problem since I last mentioned it a few weeks ago. 

[factory]

Pat and others
Did a quick teardown here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hp-8654b-10-520-mhz-sig-gen-light-teardown/

Might just be the scale drum & controls layout that are similar then, the 3200B is quite a bit older in design and has hollow state bits.

David

[factory]

Guys, you're slacking

I was divided on whether I should post a 4018 or not.

McBryce.

Please don't double down on that joke!

Does no one actually have these parts? the last few all look snurched from other sites. I found a random PCB earlier and may/will post pictures on the appropriate page, or if I miss the page due to work, will post it anyway. 

David

[factory]

A quick test of the latest arrival, a Pagel Electronics 6-UHF electronic counter, so far I've drawn a blank on any information on this one, was trying to at least find an advert, as I'd like to know the maximum frequency it will count. This is 110V only, but it might be possible to change the transformer for a 110V/230V one, depending on what the secondary requirements are.

OK just tried again and have found an advert on worldradiohistory in ham-radio, it's apparently good for 500MHz. 

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-DX/Ham%20Radio/70s/Ham-Radio-197407.pdf

David

[Cubdriver]

That's cute. 10 to 520 MHz covers almost all the most used HAM bands. +10 to -120 dBm great power range. EXT. Modulation - check. Glowy line ON lamp - check. And the plastic levers aren't broken. Just missing the hp badge on the upper left. Be interested in any more testing you do on it. 

And there is a rather slim counter/AFC unit for it which fits on top and gives you precise control over the frequency. I have seen that part occasionally offered without the generator.

The 8655A Synchronizer/Counter then, seen quite a few sold without the generator.
https://www.hpmemoryproject.org/wb_pages/wall_b_page_10b.htm


You might want a 11710B down convertor too, I have one of those, but the 11710A version would have been OK for the 8640B I have, they do seem harder to find.

Does the 8654A/B share any parts with the Boonton/HP 3200B? the later ones do have a similar layout for the scale and range/frequency controls, I don't have either.


David

Duly added to evilbay search list.  There are currently two listed, both from Israel.  One as is typical for that neck of the woods looks like it spent time as a tank chock.  The other is not bad looking, but is also over $100 for shipping, so both are no-gos.  Perhaps something more local will turn up.  Thanks for the tip.

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

And now, some of the plug-ins from yesterday's haul.  More pics to follow as I go though things.





All appear to be in excellent physical condition, which seems a rarity for these things as the knobs are pretty delicate and based on what I see listed online people are inclined to toss them around rather carelessly.  My plug-in-less mainframes will be happy.

-Pat

[Neomys Sapiens]

Ok this is just WTF pricing!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TEKTRONIX-067-0589-00-7000-Series-Plug-In-Extender-/274834224762?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

Edit: going to design my own open source extender kit you can order from JLCPCB as that does chamfers and gold plated fingers for low price. Plus blackjack and hookers.

Damn, I am considering doing the same... The cheapest plugin extender is currently at 380 EUR (excluding customs and shipping). It should be possible to rebuild it. I could sacrifice a plugin for the greater purpose. The front part can be modelled with aluminum parts and a file 

PS   If someone on this forum has one of those plugin extender puppies and wants to sell them, please PM me 

Last time I checked (for the TM500) there was an US or UK company which had 100s of different edge connector jacks. I would not recommend bodging something together if that extender should have some lifetime. Also, I hate it when I have to check on test auxiliaries with dubious reliability.
I would also consider putting double (or 3/4) 2mm press-in jacks into the power lines (and get 2mm MC shorting plugs for them) and single 2mm jacks or other terminals (0.64square or 1mm) into the other lines which are not coaxial. Now that's a test aid, not only an extender.

Maybe try here for edge connectors:

https://www.tedss.com/Connectors/Browse/pc-board-card-edge

http://electrojumble.org/connects_012.htm#PCB_EDGE_and_Rack_Connectors.

http://www.aptecelectronics.com/connecto.htm

https://www.qservice.tv

[Cubdriver]

Pat and others
Did a quick teardown here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hp-8654b-10-520-mhz-sig-gen-light-teardown/

Cool - thanks!  Apparently the calibrated FM feature of the B model adds that circuit board above the aluminum casting holding most of the innards, as mine does not have it.

-Pat

[bd139]

And now, some of the plug-ins from yesterday's haul.  More pics to follow as I go though things.





All appear to be in excellent physical condition, which seems a rarity for these things as the knobs are pretty delicate and based on what I see listed online people are inclined to toss them around rather carelessly.  My plug-in-less mainframes will be happy.

-Pat

Those look pretty tidy. No sign of buggery!

[med6753]

And now, some of the plug-ins from yesterday's haul.  More pics to follow as I go though things.





All appear to be in excellent physical condition, which seems a rarity for these things as the knobs are pretty delicate and based on what I see listed online people are inclined to toss them around rather carelessly.  My plug-in-less mainframes will be happy.

-Pat

You definitely scored. 

[Cubdriver]

It's now five AM and I should have been asleep hours ago, so I'm hitting the sack.  Tek stuff later today.   

-Pat

You better or I'll come over and steal it all while you're sleeping. 

The lab guardians will not stand idly by should such an attempt be made!   









 

-Pat

[Vince]

I am not sure what's most expensive... buying all that TEA.. or feeding and paying the vet for all these cats !

Only cat in my life is that of a neighbour and he comes only to see me to ask for food ! Nothing else !    Little Bastard !