Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Robert763]

Somebody here really ought to buy it. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324916057293

They won't ship abroad. Phew.

Ditto. 

mnem
*wibble...*

I'll drop ship one to you too 

[Cerebus]

I claim the prize! Oh, no prize 
The Land Rover may no be perfect but look how long it was produced, the uses it is put to and the markets it spanned. No niche for it.

It does have a niche, but it's quite wide, and rather muddy. 

It's also notable how many are still on the road. In the UK of 12,600 109's registered in 1995 1,700 are still on the road. A good proportion of those not on the raod may have been exported. Of 23,000 90's in 1995 8,000 are on the road and 7,000 SORN.

Where did you get those figures from? Was the source Land Rover specific or was it any and all makes and models? The latter could be quite interesting.

[Robert763]

I claim the prize! Oh, no prize 
The Land Rover may no be perfect but look how long it was produced, the uses it is put to and the markets it spanned. No niche for it.

It does have a niche, but it's quite wide, and rather muddy. 

It's also notable how many are still on the road. In the UK of 12,600 109's registered in 1995 1,700 are still on the road. A good proportion of those not on the raod may have been exported. Of 23,000 90's in 1995 8,000 are on the road and 7,000 SORN.

Where did you get those figures from? Was the source Land Rover specific or was it any and all makes and models? The latter could be quite interesting.

It was a website, LR specific but thinking about it I not sure it's accurate. I can't find it now though. Rover once claimed that 70% of LRs were still in use but I've never seen any evidence of that. The LR must be one of the few vehicles where there are lots of 60's (and even 50's) examples still working hard for a living. 

[AVGresponding]

If you want a specific model breakdown I suggest howmanyleft.com:  https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/land_rover_109_v8_cnty_sw

[Cubdriver]

...just two knobs to control the 'approximate' frequency and amplitude.

What we Germans call a Schaetzeisen (literally an "estimating iron").

THAT'S an understatement!!  I decided to pull it out and fire it up; to my pleasant surprise it is at least working, and spews forth something resembling a square wave.  It needs to be gone through, but is basically functional.




That frequency knob is a very rough estimating iron - two frequency counters agree that though the marked range is 400 kHz to 1 MHz, the actual output ranges from roughly 240 kHz up to 1.8 MHz.





There are a few more pics at https://pmanning.smugmug.com/Electronics/Tektronix-107-Square-Wave-Genera

(the HP 8655A is a recent acquisition; got it a few weeks ago - it too needs a teardown and photo session.)

-Pat

[mnementh]

.... and some swimming.

... for anyone in the Americas or Oceania.

Sssssshhh... If we can talk him into the road trip, maybe we can mug him to to lump those loads to the freight carrier for us... 

mnem

To borrow a phrase of yours.... Sweet cheese and crackers!

My wallet was grimacing at the sight of some of those lots.  (Please ignore the drool.)  Distance was the safety barrier.  Now you open a potential channel of distribution that has some sphincter puckering working in concert with tachycardia.   

You....  You....  TEA enabler!!!

Thanks for noticing. 

mnem
What goes around, comes around...

[Specmaster]

If you want a specific model breakdown I suggest howmanyleft.com:  https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/land_rover_109_v8_cnty_sw

Thanks for posting that link, I just checked on my car, launched in 2013, only ever had 16 registered, today there are 15 left and one is SORN, I knew that it was a rare model but never realised just how rare it actually is.

[tggzzz]

THAT'S an understatement!!  I decided to pull it out and fire it up; to my pleasant surprise it is at least working, and spews forth something resembling a square wave.  It needs to be gone through, but is basically functional.

A 3s risetime seems pretty pisspoor (i.e. 3Mµsec).

When playing around with my Agilent 53310A, it measures the standard deviation of a 10MHz OCXO as 216.4mHz.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hpagilent-53310a-modulation-domain-analyser-frequency-time-interval-analyser/msg3194292/#msg3194292

[mnementh]

Just ordered some RAL5018 PLA Filament for my 3D printer 

McBryce.

Gonna start early on those Tek Scope Christmas ornaments for friends & family, are we...? 

mnem

Close. Just a crazy side-project: I want to print a "working" mini TEK 2465 ornament. I have a tiny CRT (viewfinder of an old VHS Camcorder) so that it can display real waves.

McBryce.

Sounds like it could be fun; I toyed with a similar project long, long ago when I found a extrusion project box with correctly shaped ends and big enough to house a CRT sourced similarly. Prolly will be a bit out of proportion (longer than it should be) like mine was. I never did get around to the detail work; painting it and the front panel... but got it working enough (TIP120s and a 555 timer for the sweep) to display a sine wave off a generator as long as I fed it a volt or 2 p-p. Mine was about the size of a Marlboro box; maybe a little thicker.

Good luck!

mnem
 

[Ice-Tea]

Best thing I bought in a long time...

[Per Hansson]

Gave my Tektronix 1502B TDR some love this weekend.
I bought a new filter for it on my last Mouser order: Schaffner FN9222E-1-06
It replaces the current filter that was a Schaffner FN 328-1/01
It works a treat, the old filter has some "dubious" readings. (See pictures).
I sure am glad I did not plug it in one last time before replacing the filter!
The unit was imported from the US so it has lived at 120VAC up till 3 years ago when I got it...

[Cubdriver]

THAT'S an understatement!!  I decided to pull it out and fire it up; to my pleasant surprise it is at least working, and spews forth something resembling a square wave.  It needs to be gone through, but is basically functional.

A 3s risetime seems pretty pisspoor (i.e. 3Mµsec).

When playing around with my Agilent 53310A, it measures the standard deviation of a 10MHz OCXO as 216.4mHz.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hpagilent-53310a-modulation-domain-analyser-frequency-time-interval-analyser/msg3194292/#msg3194292

Yeah, that would be pretty pathetic.  In fairness to the instrument, it was introduced in 1958, before the adoption of the now common SI units.  M is definitely a prefix where capitalization is very important, given the orders of magnitude that a simple case change indicates!  It still throws me to see mHz in a spec for something capable of operating at very low frequency - my first instinct is always to think it's a typo.

-Pat

[Robert763]

I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255388211229
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP

[Cubdriver]

I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255388211229
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP

Here you go, Robert.

Fixed that for you.  

You're welcome.   

-Pat

[Ice-Tea]

I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255388211229
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP

Sure? 

[Specmaster]

Best thing I bought in a long time...

Far superior to using wick.

[Ice-Tea]

God yes. If I'd had known before I could have saved countless hours dicking around with solder pumps or cheap wick. 

[Neper]

Got mine a few years ago and still wondering how I ever survived without.

In a rare bit of luck, I've found myself a second holder for my old Ersa MS6000 and was able to assemble this neat solution...

[mansaxel]

Best thing I bought in a long time...

I concur. The project of recapping a mixing desk went from horrible to enjoyable in an instant.

[Robert763]

God yes. If I'd had known before I could have saved countless hours dicking around with solder pumps or cheap wick. 

  I was using the predecessors of these, Pace and Weller, over 30 years ago.
They were expensive but worth it. At one time I had a nice sideline selling my own design of vacuum pump / power unit for the Weller irons. The trick to keeping the price down was the vacuum pump. I used a compressor intended for car air horns. I modified them by putting a fitting on the air inlet. A second trick was running the 12V compressor off the same 24V transformer as the iron. The 24V was half wave rectified and connected via a series resistor. This gave a high starting voltage and current for high initial suction but reduced the current on running. This gave better performance than the smaller pump in the Weller unit.   

[mnementh]

Somebody here really ought to buy it. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324916057293

They won't ship abroad. Phew.

Ditto. 

mnem
*wibble...*

I'll drop ship one to you too 

You bastard.   

mnem
You killed Kenny!

[Neomys Sapiens]

DMMCheck checks DMMs continued:
I promised you 'strange beasts', and strange beasts you shall get.
The Tektronix THM 565 and it's lesser brethren, the THM560. Baaad results for ACV at 10kHz, otherwise ok.
A look into the manual told me that I can not hold that against it, as Tek gives an accuracy only for 50/60Hz and an added error based on crest factor, but no bandwith for the ACV mode nor a frequency-related error! 

...continued in next post..

[Neomys Sapiens]

The T201 (same as the T202, but sold without battery - or maybe an earlier version? Is the T201 the Signalcomputer 01 and the T202 the Signalcomputer 02?)
It is even less a multimeter that the TekMeter, as it can't do Ohms at all. But that multi-parametric display with error/precision does have it's merits - and it can do 10kHz without losing it! Sorry for the pics, but the camera was almost refusing to focus on this thing.

Then a beast that came out of hiding in a literal sense: The Nordmende Transistorvoltmeter, which I pledged to BU508 a long time ago and then it hid under other stuff not wanting to draw my attention. BU, you have some work cut out if you still want it! Those pots are jittery as hell and I'm not sure if that is all...but it works somehow, so the movement is fine.

Another little beastie whose appearance was planned for todays' Tierschau, the SOAR 3100 pen multimeter, had to excuse itself with a case of galvanic indisposition - it has digested at least one of its own battery contacts. It will be back after a quick restoration, so it claims. We will see whether this holds more credibility that the pig's saying that it will go only to a show in Parma and be back next week...

Stand by for next weeks episode : either Her Majesties' Schlumbergers or the electronic Multizets.

[Neomys Sapiens]

I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255388211229
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP
I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CURRENT CLAMP

If you are already on it, I would advise you to go for a AM503B, no less. It is said to be able to compensate clamps which would not work properly with the the AM503 and AM503A. And of course, get an A6302 too!
 

[Neomys Sapiens]

On all other fronts, today was a day as bleak as they come. Alien invasions and mass extinctions start on that sort of a day, I think.
My company of disputable wisdom sanity decided to pull the Skype for Business from our systems and transfer the telephony and messaging functions to Microsoft Teams..on a conscious patient, so to say. 
Telephony was no more. The special desk phones were completely out of function and no acoustic signalling of incoming calls was available. Besides that, MS Teams is colourful, impractical crap.
Being in the office and yet unreachable, I decided to look after a piece of my own TE which I had lent to my technician for company use and which he was not able to make work - the Hameg HZ65 component tester, for which I had recently aquired a circuit diagram. Together we opened the thing up, and were rather ghastly shocked. This is not the same Hz65 than the paper Hz65...capital WTF? My Tekkie did go home while I was left to trace the circuit. Did not finish. Crap.