Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

Interesting voltmeter from Yokogawa (TEW) in the German ebay ads (NAWTS):

Yokogawa Digital Voltmeter type 2805

[tggzzz]

Anyway it's not about me, it's about everybody watching this thread, being considerate for other people, technical common sense, and what used to be obvious, widely accepted netiquette.

I guess I am just obsolete so I will just go and hide, I have to adapt to the new ways of the internet. or die.

Yes and no - respectively

[ch_scr]

@Vince: No offence taken, really. I literally slept through all of it.
Today, seeing the drama that unfolded, only one right thing to do. Maybe not beeing sleepy helped 
After taking the pictures, I just forgot to resize them - and when I noticed, they were already uploading...
If anything, the good that came from this: I used to resize with MSPaint like a caveman,
now I have a bulk resize solution. 
Please stay Vince, and asking Orange again could not hurt at least?

[med6753]

Re-cap of the Fluke 8021B. All 2 of them (22uf/16V).



It was recently calibrated so all that was needed was a quick functional check. All OK. 

[factory]

Interesting voltmeter from Yokogawa (TEW) in the German ebay ads (NAWTS):

Yokogawa Digital Voltmeter type 2805

Have a look at that more closely, it's a watt meter set. Maybe there are other plug-in to use it as a voltmeter? But never seen any info on them.
I regret not buying the pair that were local to me a few years back, but they weren't complete and I had no where to keep them at the time.

David

[factory]

Definitely no free WiFi for shopfloor staff where I work and I still use PAYG as I don't want to spend much on my phone.

David

Heh, if there wasn't wifi, nigh-indistinguishable from wired connections in quality, everywhere at work, both an internal SSID for work issued devices and a guest net for private devices, there'd be revolution. We live in different realities, in some ways.

Things are very different for the office staff, they have no problems, except for sites blocked through the network.
No one is allowed music or radio while they work though, as it costs too much for the relevant licence, a few years ago things were different & we could.

But then again there are loads of jobs where web access wouldn't be allowed or practical during work, for various reasons.

David

[Robert763]

Managed to convince my TDS744A 500MHz scope to identify as a TDS784A 1GHz scope.
Just gotta calibrate it now, so I need to reassemble my SG503 levelled sine wave generator, which brings me to a question.

I need to bake a 1/8w carbon composite resistor, 80 degreesC for 8 hours. Any ideas on the easiest way to do so, that don't involve using the oven in the kitchen?
I wonder if my soldering iron can go that low......

You could buy what the americans call a "toaster-oven" a small work top unit popular with apartment dwelllers. Usefull for lots of things.
Othewise make a small insulated box and put a power resistor in it with your carbon compositions. Connect power resistor to a PSU and adjust voltage until temperature stabilises at 80 deg.

[factory]

Just like quoting 10 pages of comments to ad a one liner or sometimes not even that, just a smiley. This does not have to change just for me ! TEA is what it is.

Someone complained about excess quotes a few days ago.
I don't have a problem with them, as I can't click on the links to view previous posts while offline at work.

It is good to add/change the code to reduce the size of the images, especially if it gets quoted repeatly on the same page. Note this doesn't reduce the actual size in kb/Mb though, but this does allow you to zoom in on mobile devices, if you wanted to.

David

[Specmaster]

Interesting voltmeter from Yokogawa (TEW) in the German ebay ads (NAWTS):

Yokogawa Digital Voltmeter type 2805

Have a look at that more closely, it's a watt meter set. Maybe there are other plug-in to use it as a voltmeter? But never seen any info on them.
I regret not buying the pair that were local to me a few years back, but they weren't complete and I had no where to keep them at the time.

David

It looks to me to be 2 meters in the same shell, digital voltmeter on the left and analogue watt meter on the right.

[Specmaster]

@Vince
I hear you loud and clear Vince, and I'll try and keep my pics down in file size, but sometimes you do need the extra pixels to convey details, as has already been mentioned, but you could also try and help yourself a bit here as well, there are a few things that you could try to help and improve the situation, the first of which is try and ask people nicely if they could spare a thought for your situation with piss poor bandwidth internet connection instead of doing a mini rant at other members all the time when you don't like something.

Don't pin this on Vince, the "please don't post anti-socially large images" request has been made many times before by many people. For a while some people scale it back, and then before you know it somebody links in 35Mb of images into a post and we all have to wait for them to load every time until we roll over to the next page on the forum, meantime watching the pages squirm as the images load. It would help if people stuck to the official forum upload limits which are a reasonable compromise (10 files per post, max 5Mb total, largest single file 4Mb) but which are not enforced when people link to offsite resources.

Please people, don't be lazy - resize your images to something appropriate before posting. Picking on ch_scr simply becuase his images above are the prompt for Vince's discomfature - they're 3.5Mb each and over 5000 pixels wide but you can see all you need to see if they're resized to 1000 pixels wide at which point they are only 244kb each, fourteen times smaller.

Cue usual rant about "If you link offsite the resources can disappear without notice, either when the site in question changes its rules, or when you don't pay your subscription fees to them".

I really think you need to read correctly what I said, I wasn't pinning anything on Vince other than he doesn't really do anything to help himself by having these mini rants every time something happens, be it people offering advice or posting large files etc. Yes I can understand his situation and a nicely worded message to everyone to try and remember to resize their photos, with a short reason for the request would I'm sure would have gained a far better response.

The second paragraph of my reply, I was actually trying to help Vince find a workable solution.

I'm really shocked to learn of his problems, seeing as for years we have been told that the UK was lagging in respect of rolling superfast internet access to everyone, especially when compared to the rest of Europe.

@Vince, yes I agree cameras are best for taking photographs, but if said photograph is specifically for posting on this or any other forum then I and many others find that a mobile phone is ideal as you can actually set the maximum file size and the cameras on modern phones are ideal for close up images. I always take my TE photos using my phone, and the email the photo myself and post it. For more serious photos, such as my aviation photos, I use 2 cameras, a Canon 50D and a Canon 7D, giving a file size of 15.1Mp and 17.9Mp respectively, these large files do take longer in getting from the camera to the PC and then editing as I shoot in RAW mode for best quality. My phone shoots in JPEG and the file size is 8Mp and far easier to work with in terms of speed and resizing and is also much handier as the phone is normally with me whereas cameras tend not be an item carried daily by most people.

[mnementh]

A'aight... the tinkerDwagon is heading out on his road trip to meet up with cylin_al; I'll not likely make the Discord today. All you freaks play nice while I'm gone.

mnem
*digs in his claws and toddles off to the Iron Rooster*

[AVGresponding]

Anyone knows where to find a service manual for a Fluke 1651B? I have one in my repair queue now, I suspect one or more shorted -redacted- lurking with intent, and there's a SOT23 barrier diode that released the magic smoke when I decided to use the bench supply to power it because the AA's couldn't hold up... a 500mA+ consumption should have had me turning it off sooner!

Also rather strangely a resistor, bloody small one (0.82mm x 1.65mm), stuck to one of the boards, but not with solder, and not to any pads... can't find any vacant ones, so   
There is some evidence of previous intruders, so maybe it's related to that.

[Kosmic]

Number three is a low noise voltage regulator based on https://wenzel.com/documents/finesse.html

Now that looks more like it!

I also found this article some time ago and always wanted to try it out. Nice to see it's working well.

I selected a transistor that I could find a specific model for, and
made an LTSpice simulation (transient and noise). Then played with the values until it seemed to fit.
The explanations are a good starting point and LTSpice gives a nice way to play around and get a feel for it.

Also, after a good nights sleep, I resized all the pictures 

Maybe you'll find this article interesting:

https://people.phys.ethz.ch/~pmaerki/voltage_regulator_2013_0.02/20140120a_voltage_regulator_2013_0.02_description.pdf


attached for convenience reasons.

Interesting, thanks!

[Cerebus]

Way way back I played the bassoon.  I was not quick enough for smaller instruments.  The wood used for the double reed made a huge difference.  A wood even slightly too hard made it very difficult to modulate the embachure to anything other than fully open or clamped fully closed.  Fully open or fully closed gets you no sound at all; it needs to be modulated just so.  Also, the musculature would be fatigued very quickly in that case.

Once you know the Boehm system (the way holes, keys and pads are linked together to select the notes) you ought to be able to get a tune out of any woodwind instrument. It might not sound good, it might be in the wrong key, and you'll likely be stuck in the instrument's first register but it ought to be a recognisable tune. Flutes are notoriously difficult for the beginner to even get a note out of, you have to blow across the embouchure hole in just the right way to even make a sound. So there's quite a tradition of us fluters challenging other woodwind players "You get three blind mice out of my flute, I'll get three blind mice out of your clarinet. However fails is buying the drinks.". The upshot of this is almost invariably the flautist winning.

As a fluter I've usually succeeded in at least getting a recognisable tune out of most woodwind instruments first try. However, the first instrument to completely beat me was my (redheaded) girlfriend's oboe (also a double reed instrument like the bassoon). With much persistence I could get a single note, briefly, but the concentration required just to do that meant that a tune was right out of the question. Double reed instruments are hard. From a flautist's perspective harder to play than a flute, but coming at one or the other for the first time I think the flute might just have the edge in "hardest to get a note out of" but it's difficult to tell.

[factory]

Interesting voltmeter from Yokogawa (TEW) in the German ebay ads (NAWTS):

Yokogawa Digital Voltmeter type 2805

Have a look at that more closely, it's a watt meter set. Maybe there are other plug-in to use it as a voltmeter? But never seen any info on them.
I regret not buying the pair that were local to me a few years back, but they weren't complete and I had no where to keep them at the time.

David

It looks to me to be 2 meters in the same shell, digital voltmeter on the left and analogue watt meter on the right.

There are no connectors to use as stand-alone voltmeter (maybe only as a panel DVM) and no range switching on the voltmeter half. Some pictures of another.



As you can see this one didn't even have the correct cable, for linking the wattmeter to the large panel voltmeter.


And manuals, forget it....

David

[BU508A]

Finally, after one and a half years the three Solartrons 7075 arrived at my home.



Report about inspection etc. will follow.

[Specmaster]

Anyone knows where to find a service manual for a Fluke 1651B? I have one in my repair queue now, I suspect one or more shorted -redacted- lurking with intent, and there's a SOT23 barrier diode that released the magic smoke when I decided to use the bench supply to power it because the AA's couldn't hold up... a 500mA+ consumption should have had me turning it off sooner!

Also rather strangely a resistor, bloody small one (0.82mm x 1.65mm), stuck to one of the boards, but not with solder, and not to any pads... can't find any vacant ones, so   
There is some evidence of previous intruders, so maybe it's related to that.

There is a owners manual and a quick reference guide in PDF format that can be downloaded from Flukes website, but so far a complete blank on a service manual

[Specmaster]

Finally, after one and a half years the three Solartrons 7075 arrived at my home.



Report about inspection etc. will follow.

Where have they been then?

[BU508A]

Finally, after one and a half years the three Solartrons 7075 arrived at my home.



Report about inspection etc. will follow.

Where have they been then?

Some friends of mine picked them up for me in April 2020 and stored them in their basement.
Plan was, that we'll meet in October 2020 for a handover.
But this plan failed for well-known reasons.

So, next attempt was planned for meeting them this year in October.
This plan failed as well, because of this:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/post-a-picture-of-a-cat!/msg3749401/#msg3749401

Max died just before the day I wanted to go to this event where I'd meet my friends.
I've cancelled this event for myself.

Last weekend I was invited to a wedding of some other friends of mine
and then another friend of mine brought me the 7075s.
Finally.

[mansaxel]

Things are very different for the office staff, they have no problems, except for sites blocked through the network.
No one is allowed music or radio while they work though, as it costs too much for the relevant licence, a few years ago things were different & we could.

Things are different regarding that too, here. We (nationwide public service TV station, 3-4 channels) probably are the 2nd largest payer to the licensing agency, second only to our sister company who do 4+ channels of nationwide radio. If we play a bit music on the office, nobody is going to complain.

Also, we rarely if ever block sites. What if our journalists can't look at them to report about them? To us,  "No connectivity to Facebook" is a company executive level crisis, if it lasts.

[Specmaster]

Finally, after one and a half years the three Solartrons 7075 arrived at my home.



Report about inspection etc. will follow.

Where have they been then?

Some friends of mine picked them up for me in April 2020 and stored them in their basement.
Plan was, that we'll meet in October 2020 for a handover.
But this plan failed for well-known reasons.

So, next attempt was planned for meeting them this year in October.
This plan failed as well, because of this:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/post-a-picture-of-a-cat!/msg3749401/#msg3749401

Max died just before the day I wanted to go to this event where I'd meet my friends.
I've cancelled this event for myself.

Last weekend I was invited to a wedding of some other friends of mine
and then another friend of mine brought me the 7075s.
Finally.

Oh I see, so sorry for your loss. He had a good long life, I had 2 white cats (brothers) that lived for 18 years and both died within a few months of each other. Waited over a year before getting another pair (sisters tabbies) and we have had them now for 8 years.

[Cerebus]

I've just seen the name we all fear when we buy something from the US, via eBay, from outside the US:



It's something that even they hopefully can't FSCK up, some of these 10Meg precision decade voltage dividers:



New old stock. I've got a pack of four for US $49.99 plus the usual additions. The listing is here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/352295916220 if anyone else is interested. It's a good price, these were around £25 to £30 a throw when they were a current part (Caddock don't make the exact equivalent part any more, but do make similar).

[duckduck]

Managed to convince my TDS744A 500MHz scope to identify as a TDS784A 1GHz scope.
Just gotta calibrate it now, so I need to reassemble my SG503 levelled sine wave generator, which brings me to a question.

I need to bake a 1/8w carbon composite resistor, 80 degreesC for 8 hours. Any ideas on the easiest way to do so, that don't involve using the oven in the kitchen?
I wonder if my soldering iron can go that low......

I would put it in the sous vide. If you haven't got one yet, you now have the perfect excuse. Mmmm... pork chops with apples.

[AVGresponding]

Discord yo!

[mansaxel]

I've just seen the name we all fear when we buy something from the US, via eBay, from outside the US:

In my experience, the GSP is really improving the shipping experience from the US. That actually includes the times when stuff arrives broken. I have an essentially free (save a few spare parts) 6206 from this, because it came back together.